COVID Archives - The Automatic Earth

HILARIOUS: President Trump: “When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished… That’s why tonight, to show how much I care about the press and I want to save your ratings, I am pleased to announce my intention to—and this is somewhat of a… pic.twitter.com/mJBTvSybGT
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) July 25, 2026

This is the Single Greatest Chart of the Trump Presidency

10 million illegals crossed in just 4 years under Biden

Trump closed the border within 48 hours of taking office

Now crossings are at virtually zero

The invasion was deliberate — Trump ended it

Put him on Mt. Rushmore… pic.twitter.com/vQDAusKxJF
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 24, 2026

https://twitter.com/ElephantSignal/status/2080655638154129432?s=20 https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2080702577944182802?s=20

Let Oman try. For two days.

• Trump Pursues Diplomatic Off-Ramp As Omani Delegation Arrives In Tehran (ZH)

JPMorgan’s head of Global Commodities Research and Strategy, Natasha Kaneva, told clients: “In the previous round of escalations, negotiations were initiated once US gasoline prices reached $4.20 and became materially more urgent as prices neared $4.50. Oil may be a global commodity, but political tolerance for high energy prices remains overwhelmingly domestic.”

US Pauses Iran Bombing Campaign As Saudi-Houthi Red Sea Front Erupts
Brent crude surged 27% over two weeks to settle at $96.78 a barrel on Friday, briefly breaching $100 this past week as traders priced in a higher war-risk premium into energy markets amid simultaneous chokepoint threats to the Strait of Hormuz and the southern Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the US appeared to pause its 13-day campaign of daily overnight strikes against Iran. While there was no indication that the operational halt would extend into next week, the pause certainly reinforces the diplomatic signals highlighted in our US-Iran wrap on Friday. However, there was an escalation overnight with Saudi-led strikes on Iran-backed Houthi targets in Hodeida. This comes after the terror group attacked multiple Saudi-linked tankers in the southern Red Sea area.Houthis escalate with attacks against Saudi Arabia:
https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/2080989216813773261?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080989216813773261%7Ctwgr%5E37f69ef43ad2076a649b21c5afc8a070ada7e3b1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fus-pauses-iran-bombing-campaign-saudi-houthi-red-sea-front-erupts
The confrontation threatens to open a second major front in the Gulf conflict. With traffic through Hormuz largely paralyzed, sustained Houthi attacks on Yanbu or ships entering Bab al-Mandab Strait could disrupt millions of barrels of Saudi exports, raise shipping costs, and further tighten physical markets.

“No amount of Western weapons can overcome Moscow’s “massive advantage in air power,” the international relations expert has said..”

• Russia Guaranteed To Win Ukraine Conflict – John Mearsheimer (RT)

Russia is guaranteed to win the Ukraine conflict, and no amount of Western weaponry – including Patriot air defense systems sought by Kiev – can change that, international relations scholar John Mearsheimer has said. Ukraine is “highly vulnerable” to Russian strikes that can cripple its economy and leave it a “dysfunctional” state, the University of Chicago professor told the Daniel Davis Deep Dive podcast on Thursday.

Kiev has relied heavily on Western military aid throughout the conflict, now in its fifth year. Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly pressed allies for more weapons, particularly Patriot systems, while blaming delays in deliveries for Ukraine’s battlefield setbacks. According to Mearsheimer, the belief that more Patriots or other Western arms can reverse the course of the conflict is an illusion. “The Russians are pretty much free to attack any target in Ukraine and they don’t have to worry at all about a Patriot missile or any other kind of missile knocking down the incoming missiles or the incoming drones,” he said.
With Russia enjoying a “massive advantage in air power” and Ukraine struggling with manpower shortages, “the Russians are going to win this war” and “Ukraine is going to emerge as a dysfunctional rump state,” he argued. Mearsheimer pointed to recent Russian strikes on the Ukrainian port of Odessa as evidence of Moscow’s strategy. “It looks to me like the Russians have basically cut off Odessa as a port of exit for Ukraine,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had struck fuel depots and port infrastructure in Odessa, Nikolaev, Izmail and Chernomorsk used to receive and store military cargo, claiming nearly 30 vessels serving the Ukrainian military were hit. On Thursday, Ukrainian outlet Strana reported that maritime traffic had effectively stopped, with no ships entering the country’s Black Sea ports the previous day. It said the Russian strikes were retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian Black Sea ports.
The attacks have made shipping to Ukraine increasingly risky, Strana added, noting that shipping giant Maersk recently suspended operations at the port of Chernomorsk. Mearsheimer also argued that the US conflict with Iran would further reduce European military and financial support for Kiev. “I think events in Iran and just the course of the war between Ukraine and Russia is creating a situation where Ukraine’s future looks highly bleak,” he said.

The smear is labeling someone as far right. It’ll be a rebel name soon.

“That we should have secure borders? That we should have safe cities? That we should have sensible spending? Which of those three are far right fringe?”

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 32 books, including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, The History of Jihad, The Critical Qur’an, and Muhammad: A Critical Biography. His new books are Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani; Holy Hell: Islam’s Abuse of Women and the Infidels Who Enable It; and The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses.

• Elon Musk Just Exploded One of the Left’s Favorite Smear Tactics (Spencer)

Elon Musk has just dared to shine the light of truth and accuracy upon one of the left’s favorite weapons of propaganda and manipulation.Whenever mainstream media “journalists” want to make people dislike someone and reject whatever their victim may stand for, they start calling the person they want to destroy “far right.” The idea is to associate the victim with Hitler and fascism without saying anything that could end up being legally actionable, and the leftists have not hesitated to use the label for anyone and anything they don’t like, no matter how far from anything genuinely “far right” their target may be.

One notorious example is the media’s use of “far right” to try to defame everyone who dares to oppose its favorite religion, Islam, and to speak out against jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women. And so the late Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who was a gay activist with leftist positions on everything except his refusal to accept the Islamization of the Netherlands and Europe, was “far right.” So is his political heir in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, whose party’s program aligns with the left on almost everything except its opposition to mass Muslim migration into Europe, and so he, too, is “far right.”
I myself believe in free speech, free enterprise, and free society, and reject racism, fascism, and the like, but when I started writing books about how Islamic jihad is a historic and present-day threat, I, too, became “far right,” and was placed on the blacklists of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League, and defamed and deplatformed accordingly.
The whole thing has gotten so absurd that in a December 2024 article published in the aftermath of an Islamic jihad attack upon a Christmas market in Germany, the Daily Mail warned: “This Christmas market carnage will make a dangerous situation even uglier – and the Far Right will grow even stronger.” Yeah, that’s the biggest takeaway from a jihad attack that killed six people and injured over 300 others: the “far right” may take advantage.
The idea that anyone at all would have been worrying about the “far right” at that moment demonstrated how avid the establishment media is to divert attention away from Islamic jihad violence. If that required warning about a nonexistent threat and once again smearing people who were simply trying to stand against the prevailing madness, so be it.Now, however, Elon Musk has had enough. The Hill reported Friday that in a recent interview, The Economist’s Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes claimed that Musk “supports not just the populist right, but the far right — in fact, very fringe parties in some countries.”
Musk took issue with this characterization, saying: “No, I support the normal people. What you call the far right, falsely. Literally, you could go back 10 or 15 years and these policies were completely normal.” That was perfectly true, but Beddoes is a leftist, and so she took issue with it. She granted that “the center of gravity in this country has shifted, certainly the Democratic Party shifted to the left,” but then continued, “but that’s not what I’m talking about.” Then, says The Hill, “she said she was discussing figures such as Rupert Lowe, a member of the United Kingdom Parliament who leads the far right political party Restore Britain.”
Lowe wants to stop the mass migration into Britain that threatens to make the native people of the island into a minority in their own homeland before the end of this century. And so Musk responded: “It’s just normal people. Here are the principles, and tell me, which of these sound terrible. That we should have secure borders? That we should have safe cities? That we should have sensible spending? Which of those three are far right fringe?”
That’s what passes for “far right” today. If people in the various nations of the West want to preserve their own country’s culture and national character, that’s “far right.” If they don’t want to support millions of migrants who arrive and immediately go on welfare, that, too, is “far right.” If they don’t want to see their once-stable and prosperous countries become Third World hellholes, they’ve joined the “far right.” Musk told Beddoes that he wanted to “admonish” her, and the establishment media as a whole, for its “absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense.” Yes, that’s what it is, all right, and worse.

” The front page headline for this very Economist interview was: “Should You Be Afraid Of Elon Musk?”

When Musk bought X, they lost their strangle hold. Of course they hate that.

• The Real Reason Why The Media Hates Elon Musk (ZH)

Some would say that Elon Musk is an enigma; a billionaire entrepreneur with a focus on green tech and environmental impact who used to support Democrat fixtures like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, only to become one of the progressive establishment’s biggest opponents. What happened? As Musk readily admits, the progressive movement changed and he did not. One could argue that the progressive movement didn’t change, it just pulled the mask off and revealed the monstrous face underneath. Either way, anyone who saw that ugly face during the despotic insanity of the pandemic era and refused to adapt and embrace it was deemed an “enemy of democracy”.

Musk got a real good look and was clearly repulsed. After 2022 when Musk declared his total separation from the Democrats as the “party of division and hate”, the leftist media descended like so many flying monkey’s from a wicked witch’s castle. The attacks have been relentless. When Musk made a move to purchase Twitter and fundamentally disrupt the political left’s dominance of the social media landscape, they shrieked with rage and spit venom. It was glorious.
In a recent interview with The Economist the venom was on full display, but the tactics of media disinformation agents and provocateurs have become tired, repetitious, tedious. You could see Musk’s exasperation with the exercise. He’s heard all these leading questions and biased insinuations a thousand times before. Online and Swiss-owned far-left outlet Gizmodo published a hatchet job article covering the interview and described Musk as “melting down” over “normal questions”. This kind of gaslighting from the left is standard, and the projection is palpable. Gizmodo’s reaction is the true meltdown; they simply can’t handle the idea of the media being exposed for their dishonesty.
The most dishonest of people with the most nefarious of intentions often make accusations by disguising them as “questions”. The front page headline for this very Economist interview was: “Should You Be Afraid Of Elon Musk?” Musk has been directly and indirectly accused of promoting racism, fascism, sexism, and even genocide. Through DOGE and the much needed shutdown of the corrupt USAID institution, he is now accused of “killing millions” by withholding humanitarian funding.
https://twitter.com/mattvanswol/status/2080417854201975212?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080417854201975212%7Ctwgr%5Efab28861c8ccf5dcbf54046d86a9fae1fa344e10%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fmeltdown-real-reason-why-media-hates-elon-musk https://twitter.com/mattvanswol/status/2080427381463118215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080427381463118215%7Ctwgr%5Efab28861c8ccf5dcbf54046d86a9fae1fa344e10%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fmeltdown-real-reason-why-media-hates-elon-musk

The real agenda is embedded in this line of questioning. The global elites and the far-left present a false narrative of consensus – The notion that they represent the majority and the “majority” is very angry with Elon for his trespasses against the liberal order. Perhaps more than Twitter, they are specifically sensitive about the closure of USAID.
Why? Not because they care about poor little starving children with AIDS in Africa. It is questionable how many US dollars were actually going into these humanitarian projects versus the amount of dollars going into the hungry pockets of Democrat politicians and leftist NGOs. The reality that the media doesn’t want to address is that USAID was a central funding hub for the spread of woke ideology and propaganda around the globe.
Without endless cash supplied by USAID fraud, the multicultural and intersectional vision of the far-left is greatly hindered. Just look at how quickly, for example, Pride and transgender activist movements dissipated once federal funding through organizations like USAID dried up. What about mass immigration? Do Americans really need to be funding shelters and services for migrants traveling through Mexico seeking to enter the US illegally? Because this is what USAID was doing.
DOGE dislodged an organization that was a cancer on the entire world, including the US. This is what the media is truly upset about. And it should be noted that the US is not responsible for the well-being of the entire world. If people in third world countries can’t survive without US subsidies, maybe they should learn how.
But Musk’s most egregious crime was the leave the liberal plantation. Leftists are radical collectivists and they see each individuals personal success as a platform to serve the interests of the greater movement. Any individual who walks away from the collective and takes his platform with him is viewed as a traitor, but also a thief. Progressives see Musk as their property. They see everything he builds as their property. They believe that Musk owes them.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2080429870505468064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080429870505468064%7Ctwgr%5Efab28861c8ccf5dcbf54046d86a9fae1fa344e10%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fmeltdown-real-reason-why-media-hates-elon-musk

The assertion by Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes that her outlet and her comrades are “traditional liberals” promoting limited government and individual liberty is perhaps the most laughable claim a journalist has uttered in recent memory. The Economist is a globalist news platform, and was partially owned by the Rothschild family for decades, right up until March of this year when they sold their share.
The Economist aggressively promoted anti-freedom policies during the Biden Administration including mandatory vaccinations during Covid. They also supported, in theory, the idea of vaccine passports, which would have resulted in the most oppressive shift away from personal liberty in modern history. They consistently attacked people who opposed the mandates for “spreading misinformation” and defended the concept of government pressure on the public.
Of course, none of the mandates enforced by liberal governments proved to make any difference in the spread of covid, and the Infection Fatality Rate remain relatively static at an average of 0.23%. All that hysteria and tyranny over a virus that 99.8% of the population would easily survive.
Traditional liberalism in the media is long dead. It does not exist. It has been replaced by woke authoritarianism. This is why, as Musk notes, no one trusts the media and most people hate them. In 2025 over 70% of US adults said they have low trust or no trust in the mainstream media. These companies might have incredible amounts of money behind them, but it’s all irrelevant without the public trust.
Full interview again:

The Economist Elon Musk July 23rd 2026 pic.twitter.com/xti3kXcZFc
— Lord Withers (@_lordwithers) July 24, 2026

National Museum of American History, to be precise.

The New York Times doesn’t like it at all.

• Trump Orders Signs Outside Smithsonian Warning Of Woke Exhibits (JTN)

The signs would even redirect potential visitors to places where American history is more accurately presented, according to the order, though it did not give examples of what those locations and resources would be. President Donald Trump escalated his battle against wokeness at the Smithsonian Institution on Friday, ordering his administration to place signs outside the National Museum of American History to warn visitors that some of its exhibits have been made “inaccurate.”

The signs would even redirect potential visitors to places where American history is more accurately presented, according to the order, though the order did not give examples of what those locations and resources would be.“Because the museum has failed to appropriately honor the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence during this 250th anniversary year of the founding of our country,” the order reads, government agencies “shall install temporary exhibits or signage on N.P.S.-maintained sidewalks, walkways, and land used by the public that corrects inaccurate information presented in the museum.”
The order comes after the White House Domestic Policy Council released a 162-page report on the museum, accusing its director of using the museum as a “political instrument” to accomplish her own ideological goals at the expense of the museum’s original mission.The museum was first approved by Congress in 1955 to tell the national story of the United States, to “place before” visitors “a stimulating permanent exposition that commemorates our heritage of freedom and highlights the basic elements of our way of life.” The museum’s director, Anthea Hartig, defended the museum’s changes to American history, stating in a congressional hearing this week that the museum was representing history in all of its complexity, according to the New York Times.
“When historians talk about reframing a traditional narrative, we don’t mean erasing it,” she said in her testimony. “We mean adding the evidence, the voices, the objects that earlier tellings left out so that more Americans can see themselves reflected in the national story.”House Republicans, however, accused her of hijacking history with woke ideology to suggest even Mickey Mouse was racist. The order also follows Trump’s March 27, 2025, executive order aimed at purging “revisionist” and ideological materials from U.S. history references and exhibits at federally funded museums and sites.

We’re supposed to think he wants to be.

• Will Trump be the First American Caesar? (Paul Craig Roberts)

Journalism as an honest career has been wrecked by journalism schools teaching that the purpose of journalism is to change society, not to report facts, by bought and paid for narratives that serve organized lobbies, by government and Israel Lobby censorship, and so on. When you read a news report today you not only cannot trust it, but the writing is so poor that often you cannot ascertain what the journalist is saying. I have done my best to understand reports I have read of the attempt of the US Congress to use the 1973 War Powers Act to stop Trump’s use of US lives and money to turn Iran into a second Gaza for Israel.

Normally, it would be reprehensible for the US government to sacrifice the lives of American military men and women in order to advance Israel’s agenda of Greater Israel. Why are Americans dying and paying for conquests for Israel’s agenda of Israeli rule from “the Nile to Pakistan?”Israeli-owned Trump pretends that the war he is forcing Americans to fight for Israel’s territorial expansion is being fought to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. This is a blatant lie, just like the one Colin Powell told the UN about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction.”
Iran signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and has not enriched uranium to the level that could be used for nuclear weapons. All investigatory agencies attest to this fact. Trump’s assertion that he is protecting Americans from “weapons of mass destruction” is identical to the lies the George W. Bush regime told when Secretary of State Colin Powell was sent to the UN to lie through his teeth about Saddam Hussein’s non-existent “weapons of mass destruction.” As the lie worked on dumbshit Americans before, Trump and his Zionist allies assume it will work a second time. Trump might be correct that Americans never learn from being repeatedly bamboozled. Americans fall for whatever is made to sound patriotic.
As best as I can tell from “journalists” who never learned how to write, the US House of Representatives voted 214-208 in favor of a War Powers Act Resolution to cease military action in Iran. This required some Republican help, such as Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who thinks the American people are more important than Trump’s service to Israel, and Republican Representatives Tom Barrett, Warren Davidson, and Brian Fitzpatrick who apparently see it the same way as Massie. You can see why Israel spent $32 million to remove Massie from Congress. And dumbshit Americans think they are a sovereign nation. Only Russia and Venezuela interfere in American elections. Never Israel.
Initially the US Senate passed the War Powers resolution to halt Trump’s war against Iran, but the Republican supporters reversed it when Israel’s man–Donald Trump–confronted them. In the re-vote, the US Senate rejected the resolution to end the illegal and unjustified war 47-49.
The War Powers Act of 1973 was the US Congress’ last attempt to restrain the US executive branch from overriding the US Constitution, which requires a declaration of war by Congress before going to war. The executive branch had eased America into a war in Vietnam without Congressional approval. That Congress did not impeach and remove the president, who had voided his oath of office by his unconstitutional war, was the first sign that America, like the Roman Republic, was transitioning into a Caesarship. It was Democrat Lyndon Johnson, not Republican Richard Nixon, who was responsible for the Vietnam war.
Trump Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, 100 percent.” What does Rubio know about the Constitution? Nothing. It is the Trump regime’s initiation of war without a declaration of war by Congress that is unconstitutional. What Mark Rubio is saying is that any limitation on the power of the executive branch is unconstitutional.
This theory of the American state has been developing for some time. In 1992 Terry Eastland published a book, Energy in the Executive: The Case for the Strong Presidency that argued that the three branches of government–executive, legislative, and judicial–were not exactly equal and that the executive branch held the upper hand. We have actually experienced America’s wars and restrictions on the US Constitution’s ability to protect American citizens consistently evade the Constitution for decades.
As I have made the case, America, the United States, is the Constitution. When the Constitution is shredded, so is America. Without the Constitution, America no longer exists as America. So now we have Caesar Trump, unconstrained by Congress, the Judiciary, and the people, at war with Iran in the service of Israel. This is the behavior of a Caesar, not the behavior of a US president as defined by the US Constitution who is sworn into office by his oath to protect the US Constitution. Trump protects Israel. Israel is not America. Trump does not protect America.
There is no attempt to impeach Trump, and there are no complaints from law faculties, from bar associations, presstitutes, organized interest groups, university presidents, corporate leaders, Christian denominations. Just complaints from a few of us whose voices won’t be heard above the noise of “Iranian Nukes.”
Is Trump Caesar or Octavian? Who will be the next Caesar?

” Mamdani is a Twelver Shi’ite, an adherent of the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

• Is Zohran Mamdani Mentally Ill? (Robert Spencer)

Surprisingly, New York City’s Marxist Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani admitted that the man who stabbed two people on the Upper West Side on Thursday “yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks.” This was not, however, an indication that the mayor was ready to acknowledge the reality of Islamic jihad terrorism. Almost immediately after noting that the perpetrator screamed the jihadi war cry, Mamdani added: “The NYPD’s initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor.”

Ah, of course. Claiming that obvious Islamic jihadis are mentally ill is the common practice of authorities in Europe, and we have seen it in the U.S. as well. Officials don’t want to acknowledge the reality of Islamic jihad, as that would raise uncomfortable questions about why they’re doing so little (if anything) to stop the jihadis, and so they pretend that each and every violent Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” is mentally ill.
This may exonerate Islam for the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings, but it creates new problems of its own: Why do only Muslims seem to contract this particular mental illness? Why does it so often result in their being violent toward non-Muslims, rather than toward their fellow Muslims? With jihadis filling up mental hospitals, are the genuinely mentally ill people safe there?And in this particular case, it raises more problems for Zohran Mamdani himself, for the attacker has not one, but two belief systems in common with the boy mayor. Is Mamdani mentally ill, too? The mind reels.
The New York Post revealed Saturday that “the madman who screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ while stabbing an Asian and Jewish man in separate harrowing hate attacks on the Upper West Side was a fan of Karl Marx, with police finding one of the communist author’s books inside his apartment.” Cops searching the apartment of Raul Morales found Marx’s writings, along with “two Qurans, a Jehovah’s Witness Bible, and a book on Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.”
The Jehovah’s Witness Bible aside, the Qur’ans and the Commie writings make it sound as if the police got lost, and ended up searching Gracie Mansion instead of Raul Morales’ place. For despite his denials, Mamdani is most certainly a Marxist. In late Feb. 2021,
Mamdani was a featured speaker at the online Winter Outreach Conference of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, and reminded his audience of “the end goal of seizing the means of production.” That is a quintessential Marxist imperative; Mamdani, amid all his claims that he is not actually a communist, has never retracted this statement, or addressed it at all.
Then there are the Qur’ans. What sect Raul Morales belongs to has not been revealed, but Mamdani is a Twelver Shi’ite, an adherent of the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic Republic has for 47 years now made no secret of its intention to make its oft-repeated chant of “Death to Israel” a reality, and the Qur’an that both Mamdani and Morales revere as the perfect and eternal word of Allah states: “You will find the Jews and the idolaters the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe.” (5:82)
Of course, not every Marxist or every Muslim is mentally ill, and sane and insane people can hold the same beliefs. Nevertheless, if the shoe were on the other foot, the media would be slavering to destroy Mamdani’s political career. Skeptical? Don’t be. Imagine if Mamdani and Raul Morales were both Christians and registered Republicans, and Morales had screamed “Jesus is Lord!” while stabbing people. Don’t you think the media would be spending all its days since that attack demanding that Mamdani condemn the attack in stronger terms and explain what he plans to do in order to stop Christian and Republican violence?
To ask such a question is to answer it. Yet in the present case, no journalist, not one, will dare to ask Mamdani if he is going to call on the mosques in New York City to start teaching against antisemitism and violent jihad. The very idea would be “Islamophobic,” and hence inconceivable. For the media, Morales’ alleged mental illness ipso facto means that Islam has nothing whatsoever to do with his screaming “Allahu akbar” while stabbing a Jewish man who was coming out of Jewish services. So what if he and Mamdani have the same beliefs? That doesn’t mean that Mamdani is insane, too. Of course it doesn’t. And most likely, Morales isn’t, either.

But lots of sympathy.

• Mamdani’s Netanyahu Arrest Plan Has No Legal Basis (Victor Davis Hanson)

Sami Winc: So, let’s turn to the International Criminal Court. And [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani wants to enforce its laws in New York City. When Bibi Netanyahu shows up, he says he’s going to arrest him because they have a warrant out for Bibi for war crimes and crimes against humanity. I want to just note one thing about those war crimes.They are starvation as a method of warfare. They’ve been accusing the Israelis of stealing or subverting supplies that are supposed to go to Gazans. And we just had the U.N. admit that, in fact, it is Hamas doing that. So I’m not sure why we haven’t seen war crimes

Victor Davis Hanson: I’m really surprised. I know people are going to be shocked by this, but Mamdani, with that socialist smile and that oozy, unctuous personality, I thought he wouldn’t be so stupid to admit that he’s an absolute antisemite and hates Israel. Because any person who listened to his video and read what he wrote, the first question is, OK, you have a policy that anybody that you think, in your infinite wisdom, committed genocide can’t come into your city. He said, you can’t come into our city.
It’s not your city. You’re an interloper. You had about 11% of the resident population vote for you. And it’s not your city, I’m sorry. You may think it is. You’re the mayor for a while, but it’s not your city. And then the question everybody has is, though, I know our listeners are saying, well, of course, when the Palestinians come in, because they aided and abetted Hamas in many cases, you’re going to arrest them given Oct. 7. You’re going to arrest the Iranian delegation because they were responsible, that government, for killing 40,000 to 50,000 of their own well after Gaza. Oh, wait a minute, you’re not going to do that because members of your staff were secretly planning to meet with them as a friendly little chat.
Are you going to go after the Pakistani government? Because they have, they’ve killed a lot of people, a lot of people. They also had bin Laden, right, harboring the world’s greatest terrorist on their own territory and protected him. Are you going to go after the Chinese government? They’ve got a million people in a re-education—I shouldn’t say that—in a labor camp, concentration camp.
You’re going to go after the Muslim Azerbaijanis because they ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian, what, thousand-year enclave in Azerbaijan? No, you’re not going to do any of that because you’re an antisemite and you only want to focus on Jews. And so he looks–and then he, I don’t know, he’s–I’m not a lawyer, but most of our listeners aren’t lawyers, but they all know that a mayor in charge of the boroughs of New York can’t enforce federal law that says what? What is federal law? What federal law is–take a pause. Mamdani, there is a statute that we’ve signed onto that says that people who come to the U.N. that are authentic, genuine diplomats cannot be arrested by the United States.
You understand that? They cannot be. No. 2, do you really think the International Criminal Court has any jurisdiction? We’re not a signee to that court. They have zero, zero jurisdiction. Did you know that the head of the International Criminal Court was just fired for sexual harassment? It’s a corrupt organization.
Don’t you understand that? It has no authority in the United States. You have no authority to interfere with federal law. And I have a feeling that if all of that didn’t stop you and you went ahead and you called up the chief of police—she was standing right by him—and said, go get NYPD and cut off the Israeli motorcade. We’re going to put him in Rikers until we formally charge him. They wouldn’t do it. And so he knows that.
Winc: Did you notice that Rubio took the opportunity to say, Not only do we–everything you said about the International Criminal Court, but we want to dismantle the International Criminal Court?
Hanson: I hope so. We shouldn’t give a dime to the U.N. Actually, we should get the U.N.–they always give these platitude speeches, and then their diplomats, for the first and only time in their life, in the case of about 90 countries, come over here and they vote. You know, they vote in the General Assembly on resolutions, half of which, until recently, were just about condemning Israel. And you think, well, if you don’t vote in Somalia, and you don’t vote in Egypt, and you don’t vote in, I don’t know, you don’t have a fair vote in Uganda till recently, why would you vote over here? And what would that mean? The first time in your life you’d live it up. And they’re always getting caught for not paying parking tickets, speeding, because they have exemption.
And they’re always giving lectures to us about the Global South versus the Global North, about people of color. I’ve said that in print twice. Why don’t we take the U.N.—we don’t have to fund it. We just say to them, Go, take your pick. You could put it in Cambodia. You could put it in Peru. You could put it in Nigeria, and there would be among the people of the world, and you wouldn’t have to see those awful Americans anymore.
And they won’t do it, because they won’t be, after they make some denunciation of Israel on the floor of the Security Council or the General Assembly, they won’t, three hours later, walk down the street to NPR and be told, well, why did you say that speech, Ambassador Kinte-Wata? Well, you know. And that’s what they love. They love all the global media. They love the restaurants. They love the hotels. They love the Western lifestyle that they hang out all night at, and then they trash the United States during the day, and it’s just so boring. Just go away. You know what I mean?
I just say go away. I was the biggest supporter of legal immigration. I still am, but this latest iteration of all these people coming in here from third-world countries, and whether it’s the illegal 40,000 illegal truck drivers—those are illegal—or it’s people like [Melat] Kiros or [Darializa] Chevalier or [Rep. Rashida] Tlaib, their parents, first- or second-generation, or Mamdani or Pi—and they all lecture us, lecture us about how awful we are.

‘Largest Group Of TDS Sufferers Ever Put Together’

“When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished…”

• ‘Show Must Go On’: Trump Delivers Remarks at Correspondents’ Dinner (ET)

President Donald Trump attended the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on July 24. The event that was originally held on April 25 was abruptly canceled due to an assassination attempt against him. “I am delighted to be here,” Trump said as he began his speech, which lasted an hour. “Amazing people, a lot of people that I like. Some I don’t like at all, but I respect most of them. I must say that you do a great job, amazing job, and it’s an honor. As I said three months ago, the show must go on.”

Trump continued his speech with jokes and said, “This place is really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together.” The rescheduled gala took place at the Waldorf Astoria. During his speech, Trump said he is the most transparent president in history and took several jabs at the media, joking that many media organizations would be “broke” once he leaves the White House. “When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished,” the president said. He took direct aim at CNN’s Kaitlin Collins (and ‘Fake Tapper’):
“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins… I thought she had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.” CNN released a statement during Trump’s speech defending its reporters, writing in part:”Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians, but our right to report and present that reporting without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Constitution.”He also joked that, in order to save the media, he would announce a fourth presidential run.
“That’s why tonight, to show just how much I care about the press,” Trump said, “I’m pleased to announce my intention – and this is somewhat of a scoop – my intention to run for a fourth term as president of the United States.”He then put on a “Trump 2028” hat, drawing laughs from the audience.

This was his first time attending the dinner as president, except for the April event, which was canceled after a shooting occurred just outside the main ballroom. Trump joked about the dinner itself, saying it was “far worse” than he expected. At the same time, he acknowledged that he and the reporters who attended the April dinner “went through a period of trauma” that created a unique bond between them. He said he would attend next year’s dinner. Throughout the speech, Trump occasionally praised the media, saying he respected most reporters and liked some of them. However, he also said that much of the coverage of his administration and policies had been unfair.
The president also criticized his opponents, targeting individual journalists before shifting to Democrats and other public figures. Trump rebutted the longstanding claim that he decided to run for president after former President Barack Obama mocked him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. He said Obama’s remarks were not a factor in his decision to enter the race in 2016. “I just decided that I wanted to make America great again. This had nothing to do with that dinner,” he said.
HILARIOUS: President Trump: “When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished… That’s why tonight, to show how much I care about the press and I want to save your ratings, I am pleased to announce my intention to—and this is somewhat of a… pic.twitter.com/mJBTvSybGT
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) July 25, 2026

After Trump’s remarks, mentalist Oz Pearlman took the stage and performed mind-reading tricks for the audience, concluding the event. White House Correspondents’ Association outgoing President Weijia Jiang delivered the opening address at the dinner.
“Whatever may divide us, we stand together against political violence,” she said. “An assassination attempt on our president is an attack on democracy itself,” she added, drawing applause from the crowd. “Tonight, our message is this: We are back. We will not be intimidated.” The dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel on April 25 was interrupted when gunshots were fired outside the ballroom. Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man from California, allegedly got past security with a shotgun and shot at a Secret Service officer who was wearing a bulletproof vest. Security officers quickly responded and arrested Allen. The officer was not injured, and no one else was hurt.
The Secret Service immediately evacuated Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and several Cabinet members from the venue. Allen is charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at the event. He also faces one count of transporting a firearm across state lines with intent to commit a felony and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He has pleaded not guilty. At the event, the White House Correspondents’ Association presented special awards to Secret Service Police Officer Victor Gonzales and to the staff of the Washington Hilton to honor their exceptional service during the shooting. The association plans to return to Hilton for next year’s dinner.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a black-tie gala attended by media personalities, business leaders, celebrities, lawmakers, and Cabinet officials to celebrate the Fourth Estate and White House reporters. The association said the logistical challenges in organizing a second dinner led it to scale back the event, resulting in a smaller gathering with a reduced guest list. The Washington Hilton’s ballroom can hold 3,000 people, while the Waldorf Astoria only fits 700.
As part of the enhanced security measures, each guest was required to present a unique QR code and a government-issued photo ID to get through the ticketing. The guests then went through layers of [..]security to access the ballroom. The White House Correspondents’ Association was founded in 1914 to protect press freedom and preserve journalists’ access to the White House. It held its first dinner in 1921, and the first president to attend was Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
Full speech::

Without a face to vote for, who will donate?

• Democrats Are Worried The GOP’s Cash Advantage Could Hurt Their Chances (ZH)

The Democratic Party heads into the midterms with generic congressional ballot polling and historical precedent on its side. It is nevertheless worried that the majorities it so desperately wants could still slip away.Politico reported this week that Democratic strategists increasingly fear their favorable political environment could be overwhelmed by a Republican cash stockpile that dwarfs their own.

Federal Election Commission filings through the end of June show the three main GOP national committees and their affiliated congressional super PACs sitting on a combined $657 million. Their Democratic counterparts held $334 million. Add President Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, which reported more than $400 million on hand several weeks earlier, and the Republican reserve runs to more than three times what Democratic Party committees and congressional super PACs can muster between them.
That gap matters more this cycle than it would have in any previous one. On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled in NRSC v. FEC that federal limits on coordinated party spending violate the First Amendment, overturning a 2001 precedent and freeing national party committees to spend without ceiling in direct coordination with their candidates. Committee money that once had to be routed through independent expenditures can now be aimed straight at a race.
Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson, an adviser to former Gov. Roy Cooper’s Senate campaign in North Carolina, calls the imbalance the central threat to his party’s hopes this cycle. “What is putting the House majority and the Senate majority, nationally, in danger is the Republicans’ massive stockpile of resources that they’re putting together to push back,” Jackson said.

He warned that the spending gap could erode the advantage Democrats have built everywhere else. “If you get outspent five to six to eight to one, that can alleviate the environmental advantage that Democrats have this cycle,” Jackson said.
The committee-level numbers are lopsided almost everywhere. The Republican National Committee reported $128 million in cash against $16 million for the Democratic National Committee, which is also carrying $18 million in debt. The National Republican Senatorial Committee held $55.9 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s $41 million. The National Republican Congressional Committee held $92.7 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s $79 million.
The super PAC gap is wider still. Senate Leadership Fund, the leading Republican Senate super PAC, reported roughly $112 million more on hand than the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC. Congressional Leadership Fund, its House counterpart, held about $51 million more than House Majority PAC.
The national totals obscure a more complicated picture in the marquee Senate races, where the money runs the other way. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff holds roughly $40 million more on hand than Rep. Mike Collins in Georgia. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico has nearly $20 million more than Attorney General Ken Paxton. In North Carolina, Cooper is about $17 million ahead of former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley. In several of the contests that will decide both chambers, individual Democratic candidates are burying their opponents even as the national party apparatus falls behind.
The picture inside the party gets messier once primary season is factored in. A wave of insurgent challengers aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America has forced sitting Democratic incumbents into costly primary fights this cycle, draining accounts well before anyone gets near a Republican opponent.
Senate Majority PAC spokeswoman Lauren French rejected the idea that the committee gap tells the whole story. “Republicans can crow all they want about getting massive checks from donors and businesses and billionaires, but we’re going to win because we have the actual support from people who are voting,” French said.
Other Democratic strategists are less confident that grassroots enthusiasm can offset a structural disadvantage. Jesse Ferguson argued that the media environment itself has made the shortfall more expensive than it would have been in past cycles. “Too many people think that fragmentation of media meant more efficiency and spending less. Wrong – it means you have to spend more,” Ferguson said. The proliferation of streaming platforms, social media, and other digital outlets has driven up the price of political advertising, strategists say, raising the stakes for whichever side can deploy the deepest reserves of outside money.
What should worry Democrats most is that the Republican advantage has barely been touched. Trump political director James Blair said last month that Republican spending would begin “very soon,” without offering a timetable. The fear on the Democratic side is that the bulk of MAGA Inc.’s $400 million war chest is being held back deliberately, to be dumped into competitive House and Senate races in the closing weeks – at the exact moment undecided voters start paying attention and Democratic committees have the least room left to answer.

“It is gut-wrenching to read these emails. Our lives were in Dr. Nath’s hands, and we were carelessly tossed away without a care…”

• Top NIH Official Wanted to Halt Research Into COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries (ET)

Top officials with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) expressed misgivings about researchers with the agency studying people with neurological issues after they received COVID-19 vaccines, according to newly released emails. Dr. Avindra Nath, a senior investigator with the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, was studying people with post-vaccination neurological problems in 2020 and 2021. In an email on April 10, 2021, he sent a draft of a paper to the institute’s director, Dr. Walter Koroshetz, that outlined what he had found.

“Early recognition and treatment with corticosteroids can reverse the symptoms,” Nath wrote. The following day, the institute’s director sent the manuscript to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who at the time was director of another NIH institute.“There have been steady slow stream of reports to me of post vaccination neurologic conditions, seem to be mostly peripheral nerve disorders … maybe an occasional spinal cord issue,” Koroshetz told Fauci. “Avi has been collecting a bunch. He has a report sent out to publish. Hard to know not due to chance but are timed to the vaccination.”
Another NIH employee sent the manuscript to then-NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Lawrence Tabak, a second top NIH official, and shared that the New England Journal of Medicine rejected the paper. “What do you make of this?” Collins wrote in response. “The draft letter doesn’t explain how these 32 patients were referred—leaving one to wonder whether this is common or rare.” Koroshetz told Collins that many reports had been lodged with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and that Nath had been attracting referrals because he had appeared on a podcast to discuss neurological problems following COVID-19 vaccination.
Koroshetz also said that Nath, and another employee at his institute, had suffered tinnitus after receiving COVID-19 vaccines, and that Nath had hearing loss. Collins said the approach taken by Nath’s team was “very troubling,” adding, “collecting anecdotes and then trying to build a case isn’t scientifically compelling—and will have the main consequence of feeding vaccine hesitancy and social media overreaction.” Tabak wrote privately to Collins, telling him, “I don’t understand why Walter does not shut this down.”
“While the emails do not prove that Collins, Tabak, or Fauci expressly ordered Nath to abandon the manuscript, they raise serious questions about whether NIH leadership viewed its potential effect on vaccine confidence as a compelling reason to suppress its publication,” the Informed Consent Action Network, which released the missives on July 22, said in a statement.mCollins, Fauci, and Nath did not return requests for comment by the time of publication. Tabak could not be reached. The paper was never published in a journal. It was released as a preprint, or without peer review, in May 2022, more than one year after Nath sent it to Koroshetz.
Dr. Danice Hertz, a retired gastroenterologist who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shortly after it was authorized in 2020 and suffered severe problems, was one of the patients who was examined by Nath’s team. “I have always believed that Fauci must have told Nath to stop talking to us, as we were all abruptly dismissed from Nath’s care without explanation. Now I know that my suspicions were true,” Hertz told The Epoch Times in an email after reading the newly released missives.
“It is gut-wrenching to read these emails. Our lives were in Dr. Nath’s hands, and we were carelessly tossed away without a care. This is unlike any medical care that I have ever witnessed in my 33 years practicing as a gastroenterologist. Shame on them. This deep corruption needs to be exposed.”

https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/2080971332880085476?s=20

Episodes of the Starship documentary are posted to https://t.co/bDd3GxQXMC for those who’d like to understand more about how it all works https://t.co/sMMnhkZ26J
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026

All 13 Starship Launches

Flight 1: Apr 20, 2023
Flight 2: Nov 18, 2023
Flight 3: Mar 14, 2024
Flight 4: Jun 6, 2024
Flight 5: Oct 13, 2024
Flight 6: Nov 19, 2024
Flight 7: Jan 16, 2025
Flight 8: Mar 6, 2025
Flight 9: May 27, 2025
Flight 10: Aug 26, 2025
Flight 11: Oct 13, 2025… pic.twitter.com/DDoNE4I6FF
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 25, 2026

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2080811807233720817?s=20

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Debt Rattle July 11 2026

Jul 112026

July 11, 2026 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:24 am Finance Tagged with: ceasefire, COVID, Iran, NATO, Rubio, Russia, Trump, Ukraine, Zelensky 35 Responses »

William-Adolphe Bouguereau La naissance de Vénus 1879

• Trump Agrees To Renewed ‘Talks’ With Iran, but Says Ceasefire Still ‘Over’ (JTN)

• Trump Reveals His Plan for If Iran Succeeds in Assassinating Him (Margolis)

• Trump Won’t Sign Landmark Housing Bill In Protest Over Stalled SAVE Act ZH)

• Kiev Behind Monaco Attack Over Tycoon’s Plan To Expose Corruption (TASS)

• Ceasefire Worst-Case Scenario For Ukraine – Zelensky’s Favorite Arms Maker (RT)

• NATO Is Spending Itself Into Oblivion (Scott Ritter)

• Russia No Longer Believes West Wants Ukraine Peace Talks – Lavrov (RT)

• ‘We Are Not At War’ – Czech PM Questions Bloc’s Ukraine Strategy (RT)

• The Men Who Own the War Now Run It (Antiwar)

• A Rubio Summit That Saves the World? (Sarah Anderson)

• Rubio Deports Convicted Rapist Protected by Walz (Turley)

• Elon Foretold – The Man Who Sold the Moon (J.R. Dunn)

• Scenario (James Howard Kunstler)

• Germany’s Debt Crisis Crescendos (Thomas Kolbe)

• What’s Driving Europe’s Auto Industry Crisis? (RT)

• RFK Jr. Plans to Create a List of Injuries Caused by COVID-19 Vaccines (ET)

https://twitter.com/ToniLL22/status/2075181070593454200?s=20 https://twitter.com/warDaniel47/status/2075319010690818300?s=20

Joe Rogan: "You say that China has 10 years to go…"

Guest: "At most."

Joe Rogan: "What do you mean by that?" pic.twitter.com/SNrGLbNWvk
— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) July 10, 2026

A rich tapestry today, if I say so myself.

• Trump Agrees To Renewed ‘Talks’ With Iran, but Says Ceasefire Still ‘Over’ (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Friday announced that Iran had sought to resume peace talks with the United States and that he had agreed to do so, but would not halt combat operations in the interim. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks.’ We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he posted on Truth Social.

Trump renewed strikes on Iran this week, declaring the ceasefire over and asserting that the Iranians had not negotiated in good faith. Last month, the U.S. and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was meant to extend the ceasefire for 60 days. The war began in February, but was in a state of nominal ceasefire for months, despite intermittent flare ups. Active hostilities resumed on both sides this week.

“I’ve been No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know.”Then Trump quipped, “I hope you’ll miss me.”

“That’s the way they act, and that’s the way they’ve done it for 47 years..”

• Trump Reveals His Plan for If Iran Succeeds in Assassinating Him (Margolis)

President Donald Trump knows that Iran wants to see him dead. And if by chance it succeeds, he has plans in place for what should happen next. In an exclusive interview that The New York Post published Friday, Trump revealed he has left standing orders for the U.S. military to respond to his assassination with overwhelming, unprecedented force. “I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with,” Trump told The Post. “The only thing is, I’ve left instructions — if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.” No big deal, just the president calmly laying out his own contingency plan for revenge from beyond the grave.

Asked about reports that Israel recently flagged fresh intelligence on a plot to kill him, Trump waved it off as nothing new. Iran has wanted him dead since 2020, when he ordered the strike that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, and nothing about that has changed. “No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no,” he said. “I’ve been No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know.”Then Trump quipped, “I hope you’ll miss me.” What a very Trump thing to say, don’t you think?
As you know, authorities have foiled multiple assassination plots against Trump since the nearly successful attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024, including the most recent one at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting back in April. So this isn’t a one-time scare. It’s an ongoing campaign.
Iran hasn’t exactly hidden its intentions lately, either. Demonstrators at the funeral for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this week unfurled banners openly calling for Trump’s killing. One eulogist told mourners, per Iranian media, “Why shouldn’t we kill the one who killed my imam and my leader? … Trump’s killing is our duty… Why is the most despicable man in the world still alive?” That message came at the funeral of Iran’s own supreme leader, broadcast for the world to see.
Meanwhile, Trump called off the US-Iran cease-fire and their nascent memorandum of understanding after Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and Tuesday. nIn response, the president removed the US waiver on Iranian oil sanctions and launched nearly 200 strikes across Iran on Tuesday and Wednesday. Trump’s frustration with the Iranians was on full display at the NATO summit in Ankara this week, calling them “evil” for unleashing attacks in the strait despite the cease-fire and an additional promise to ramp down tensions as they buried slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Despite his efforts to make a deal with Iran, Trump openly talked in Turkey that Iran was still out to kill him. “They had leaders, they’re gone. Then they had another set of leaders, they’re gone. Now they have another set of leaders — they may be gone, who knows?” Trump said at the summit. “And you know what? I may be gone too. Because I’m their No. 1 target — it’s out all over the place. Because they’re scum.” He made clear the pattern isn’t new. “That’s the way they act, and that’s the way they’ve done it for 47 years,” Trump added.

“If he doesn’t, it’s still law,” Johnson said last week of the president’s refusal to sign.”

• Trump Won’t Sign Landmark Housing Bill In Protest Over Stalled SAVE Act ZH)

President Donald Trump declared Friday morning that he won’t sign the sweeping bipartisan housing bill awaiting action on his desk in protest of the Senate’s failure to pass his signature elections legislation. Unless the president issues an outright veto by midnight, however, the housing package will become law Saturday without his signature.In a Friday morning Truth Social post, Trump said he was withholding his signature “in PROTEST” over the Senate’s inability to pass the SAVE America Act, a comprehensive elections overhaul that would require photo identification to vote and proof of citizenship to register, and would bar most mail-in balloting, with exceptions for military service, disability, illness and travel.

The president asserted that the elections bill is “polling at 97% with the Republican Party” – a figure he offered without citing a source – and called its failure “a serious threat to any politician who votes against it.” He renewed his demand that Senate Republicans “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER,” warning that Democrats would abolish the 60-vote rule “in their very first hour” back in power. Rendering “Democrats” throughout with a derisive misspelling, Trump added that the “title of DUMB” would revert to Republicans if the party allowed the stalemate to stand.
A Deadline, Not A Veto This is of course performative unless Trump actually vetoes it. Under the Constitution, a bill becomes law automatically if the president neither signs nor vetoes it within 10 days, excluding Sundays, while Congress is in session. That clock on the housing measure – the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act – runs out at the end of Friday. Because Congress has remained formally in session through the window, the “pocket veto” that would let the bill die quietly is widely viewed as unavailable. That leaves Trump two choices: veto the legislation outright, or let it lapse into law. His post on Friday, notably, promised only not to sign it.
A veto would face long odds. The Senate approved the package 85-5 on June 22, and the House passed it 358-32 – margins far beyond the two-thirds needed in each chamber to override. Congressional observers caution, though, that override votes can scramble such numbers, as some members retreat rather than be seen defying the president. Lawmakers overrode a Trump veto of a defense bill once before, in the final weeks of his first term. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a close Trump ally, has already conceded the likely endgame. “If he doesn’t, it’s still law,” Johnson said last week of the president’s refusal to sign.

”Viktor Medvedchuk says the uncovering of the schemes “would have spelt a disaster for the Kiev regime ahead of the NATO summit”

• Kiev Behind Monaco Attack Over Tycoon’s Plan To Expose Corruption (TASS)

Last week’s bombing attack in Monaco was carried out by Vladimir Zelensky’s special services as Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Yermolayev was planning to expose Kiev’s corruption schemes, Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the Different Ukraine movement and former leader of the banned Opposition Platform – For Life party, told TASS. “Western media immediately saw the link between the attack on businessmen Yermolayev and the regime of Zelensky, who sought to keep him quiet. Yermolayev was planning to address the European Parliament and explose corruption schemes in Ukraine, a scenario that would have spelt a disaster for the Kiev regime ahead of the NATO summit,” the politician explained.

Namely, active officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have been implicated in the attack, Medvedchuk said. “The detained suspects in the murder of Anastasia Berezovskaya, 39, the individual wanted by Interpol for the attempted assassination of businessman Vadim Yermolayev in Monaco, are Ukrainian security officers,” he said. One of them, according to Medvedchuk, is Vladislav Reut, 33, a native of Zhitomir, who has served with Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). And the other detainee is Vitaly Zhikovich, 49, from Uman, who served for Kiev Region police until 2020. “We are talking about a special operation carried out by [Ukrainian] security officers and orchestrated by the criminal regime of Zelensky,” Medvedchuk stressed.
On June 29, an explosion occurred in the entrance of an apartment building in Monaco. According to BFMTV, one of the three injured was Yermolayev, a citizen of Cyprus, whom the media included on the list of the wealthiest Ukrainian businessmen. It was reported that he owned a network of fraudulent call centers in Ukraine. Yermolayev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019. In 2023, Kiev imposed sanctions against him.

“Reaching a truce with Russia will prompt “all” Ukrainian men to flee the country, while the West will forget Kiev, the head of corruption scandal-plagued firm Fire Point has claimed..”

• Ceasefire Worst-Case Scenario For Ukraine – Zelensky’s Favorite Arms Maker (RT)

A ceasefire with Russia would be the “worst-case scenario” for Ukraine, threatening the country’s statehood, the head of Vladimir Zelensky’s favorite arms manufacturer, Fire Point, has said. Denis Shtilerman made the remarks in an interview with Ukrainian outlet LIGAnet published on Wednesday. The company, which has recently been embroiled in a number of corruption scandals, stands to profit from the conflict. Shtilerman argued that the fighting should continue regardless, insisting that a truce with Russia would leave Ukraine in an even worse position.

He also questioned whether Kiev’s Western backers would honor any security commitments made as part of a ceasefire. “Look, if a truce is reached, it would – most regrettably – be the worst-case scenario for our state. We must remember how the US and other countries treat their obligations,” Shtilerman said. “I am talking about international agreements in which they guarantee the territorial integrity and independence of other states. And what do we see? Nothing.” Shtilerman also said Kiev would be abandoned and forgotten by its backers if a ceasefire is reached – echoing Russian officials who have warned that Ukraine is only useful for the West as a tool against Russia.
“If there is any kind of truce, we will be forgotten very quickly. There will be no investment appeal – there will be no money here. The borders will open, and all the men will leave. After that, the Russians will come in and seize the country,” Shtilerman said. Fire Point, which originally operated as a film scouting agency owned by Zelensky’s associates, has emerged as a ‘miracle’ player in Ukraine’s defense sector, producing an array of long-range drones and missiles used to strike deep into Russia. The company has been actively promoted by the Ukrainian leader during his regular overseas trips and has reportedly secured contracts worth up to $1 billion in a matter of months.
The image of the company has been damaged by the corruption scandal related to Zelensky’s inner circle and his former close associate Timur Mindich, the central figure in an alleged $100 million corruption scheme in the energy sector. Surveillance recordings recently published in Ukrainian media suggest Mindich effectively controlled Fire Point while enjoying preferential treatment from then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.

“If bloc members continue to ramp up their spending, they will eat themselves from the inside, and Russia won’t have to lift a finger ..”

• NATO Is Spending Itself Into Oblivion (Scott Ritter)

On the eve of this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye, the bloc released a report titled ‘Defense Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2025)’. On the surface, the report shows a staggering increase in the level of defense spending by several NATO members over the course of the previous decade, with Lithuania leading the way with an increase of some 777%. In aggregate, NATO members, in seeking to meet the 2% GDP threshold for defense spending set by the US a decade ago, has seen a $1.364 trillion increase in the money invested in the militaries of the respective members over the past decade. That’s a lot of money.

Two questions emerge from this data: First (and foremost), has this increase led to any qualitative or quantitative advantage on the part of NATO over Russia? And second, can NATO members sustain this kind of growth in defense expenditures over the course of the next decade? It must be understood that the NATO of 2014 was very much an empty shell when it came to meaningful projection of military power. Over-reliant upon the US for its core defense needs since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO had become a shadow of its former self, a far cry from the cutting-edge military organization that had been built up in the decade of the 1980s.
The reality is that despite the massive increase in defense spending, NATO’s military capabilities were not advanced in any meaningful fashion over the course of the past decade. This has become evident as NATO has, in the past few years, discussed the potential of deploying military forces on Ukrainian soil as part of any peacekeeping arrangement, should the Russia-Ukraine conflict reach a negotiated conclusion. It became obvious that the ‘big three’ European powers (France, the UK, and Germany) lacked any meaningful ability to project sustainable military power of any appreciable strength into Ukraine. This remains the assessment today.
Most of NATO defense expenditure has been in the form of sustaining an aging, decrepit system out of touch with the reality of modern conflict. And to the degree modernization has taken place, it has simply replaced an aging equipment set within a legacy system tied down in Cold War-era doctrine with a newer equipment set still hamstrung by tactics and operational theory ill-suited for the modern battlefield. Germany’s ill-fated decision to create a one-off fund of €100 billion ($114 billion) in 2022 to help revive a flagging Bundeswehr stands as a case in point regarding the efficacy of much of NATO’s defense spending over the course of the past decade – by 2025 the fund had run out, with little or nothing to show for it.
Russia. Ukraine has fielded the most capable non-Russian military in Europe today, and its forces are being bled white in the kind of war of attrition NATO forces could never survive. In short, the $1.34 trillion that NATO has spent in increased defense expenditures since 2014 has left the bloc treading water. NATO’s task is to build and sustain a modern military capable of fighting a modern enemy, such as Russia.
In this, NATO has failed. The next question is can NATO spend its way out of its current predicament? On paper, the answer is a heavily caveated ‘yes’. Anything is possible, in theory, if one is willing to throw enough money at the problem. But NATO’s problems are systemic in nature and tied to events it is not in control of. NATO has found itself engaged in a proxy war with Russia that compels it to divert valuable military resources – fiscal and material – to Ukraine, which has become a giant furnace which consumes all that is fed into it without advancing the problem favorably vis-à-vis Russia.
But money doesn’t grow on trees, and at the end of the day the NATO appetite for war will far outstrip the ability of its constituent membership to pay the bill. Military industrial capacity is lacking across the board, and the costs associated with fixing this deficit are prohibitively high. So, too, are the costs associated with the kind of massive military expansions being considered by nations such as Germany, which seeks to triple the size of its armed forces by 2029.
Even if the money were available for such an endeavor, the public appetite for supporting and sustaining this kind of expanded military infrastructure is lacking. The more Germany – and by extension, Western Europe – pours into defense, the more alienated society becomes, creating domestic political problems for those seeking massive increases in defense spending. In short, NATO is spending itself into oblivion.
While Russia cannot afford to remain stagnant in the face of increased NATO defense expenditures, especially when such increases are tied to increasingly bellicose statements about the potential for war between Russia and NATO in the coming years, the fact is the NATO defense expenditure phenomenon is a self-containing problem, meaning the bloc’s ability to continue defense expenditures at the present rate of growth will more than likely lead to the political and economic collapse of the individuals and political parties which currently advocate in support of such policies. All Russia really needs to do is keep the Ukrainian furnace burning, and NATO will consume itself.

“Moscow’s goodwill toward Western-backed negotiations has been exhausted, the foreign minister says..”

• Russia No Longer Believes West Wants Ukraine Peace Talks – Lavrov (RT)

Moscow no longer believes the West is genuinely interested in negotiating an end to the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Speaking at a news conference with Mozambican Foreign Minister Maria Manuela Lucas in Maputo, Lavrov accused the West of “imitating a willingness to negotiate while openly issuing ultimatums to Russia.” He argued that although the West has been calling for talks, it has spent more than a decade undermining every attempt to reach a peaceful resolution between Russia and Ukraine.

“In 2022, Russia and Ukraine had already reached a negotiated settlement. It was undermined by the very same West, openly and publicly,” Lavrov said. “We will no longer believe the West when it claims to want negotiated solutions. Our reserve of goodwill and hope has been exhausted once and for all.” Russia insists that the conflict has its roots in the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev and subsequent attempts by the new Ukrainian government to suppress the rebellion in Donbass by force. Ukraine later failed to implement the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, which were intended to reintegrate the breakaway regions into Ukraine by granting them broad autonomy through comprehensive political reform.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande, who mediated the Minsk talks in Belarus alongside Russia, later said that Kiev used the Minsk agreements to buy time to rebuild its military and economy. Lavrov argued that their remarks show the guarantees provided by France and Germany were “false.” According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, during peace talks in Istanbul in 2022, Ukrainian negotiators initially agreed to drop plans to join NATO in favor of neutrality and to limit the country’s armed forces, but later walked away from the negotiations under pressure from then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
While Johnson denied that he sabotaged the talks, he acknowledged in a 2024 interview with the Wall Street Journal that he had “thought that any deal with Putin was going to be pretty sordid.” Former US Undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland similarly said in 2024 that Washington advised Ukraine to not agree to Russia’s terms in Istanbul. US-mediated negotiations have also stalled in recent months as President Donald Trump has focused on the war with Iran. Russia has said it is ready to resume the talks at any time, provided that they are focused on addressing the “root causes” of the conflict, including Ukraine’s plans to join NATO.

“Escalation against Russia does not guarantee a peaceful resolution, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has warned..”

• ‘We Are Not At War’ – Czech PM Questions Bloc’s Ukraine Strategy (RT)

The Czech Republic remains skeptical about NATO’s strategy of continued military support for Ukraine, to which it does not contribute financially, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said as he left the bloc leaders’ summit in Ankara, Türkiye on Wednesday. Babis’ party won last year’s election on a nationalist platform that included reversing the Ukraine aid policy championed by his predecessor, Petr Fiala, and urging a diplomatic resolution of the conflict with Russia instead. The declaration approved by NATO leaders in Ankara this week highlighted a pledge of €70 billion ($80 billion) in military equipment, assistance and training for Ukraine in 2026, with a similar amount expected the following year.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis speaks to press ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara. July 8

The money is not a new package, but rather past commitments, including the European Union’s “loan” approved in April. The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia opted out of the mechanism.”We are not at war. Ukraine is at war,” Babis told reporters on Wednesday, when asked whether NATO’s increasing spending would pressure Moscow to negotiate, adding, “I don’t know, time will tell.” The prime minister said discussions during the summit focused on weapons rather than peace.Babis said the Czech Republic intended to reach the required NATO level of 2% of GDP level for military spending next year, but also needed money for healthcare, raising police salaries, and other domestic priorities.

Kremlin calls US backing of Ukrainian escalation delusional
Ukraine is seeking additional Western funding to ramp up long-range kamikaze drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, tankers and other targets. During a US-Ukrainian meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the escalation “creates the space to negotiate the end of this war,” with President Donald Trump endorsing his reasoning. Commenting on the American remarks on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the US leadership was basing its policy on “delusions that escalation and military pressure leads to a peaceful settlement track.” The a proach may prolong hostilities, but would also prompt Russia to “create a bigger buffer zone” with Ukraine, he warned.
Czech coalition strained by aid payment
The aid issue caused tensions in the Czech ruling coalition just before the summit, after Foreign Minister Petr Macinka announced the transfer of an unspecified sum to PURL, a NATO fund through which European members pay for American weapons intended for Kiev. Parliament speaker Tomio Okamura, a vocal critic of Ukraine, blasted the move for going against the coalition agreement, but Babis sided with Macinka, saying the money had been allocated by the Fiala government and could not be returned to the budget. The prime minister said the one-off small contribution to purchase interceptor drones was preferable to a direct transfer to the Ukrainian government.

“The private-equity takeover of the Pentagon..”

• The Men Who Own the War Now Run It (Antiwar)

There was a time when the arms dealer waited in the corridor. He financed the campaign, endowed the think tank, took the general to dinner, and hoped the man inside the office would remember him when the contract came up. The wall between the money and the decision was thin, often corrupt, but it was there. Someone held the public trust, and someone else tried to buy it, and you could at least tell the two apart. That wall is gone. The financier no longer waits in the corridor. He holds the office. He signs the checks. He is the buyer and the seller, the regulator and the regulated, the public interest and the private portfolio, fused into a single man in a single suit, and the arrangement is entirely legal, which is the whole problem.

One of these men may already be familiar from a previous article. His name is Friedrich Merz.
The chancellor was the warm-up act
From 2016 to 2020, Merz chaired the supervisory board of BlackRock’s German arm, the local office of the largest pool of private capital on earth – a fact confirmed, without embarrassment, by his own party’s foundation. Then he climbed back into politics, and in March 2025, as chancellor-in-waiting, he drove through the outgoing Bundestag — deliberately before the newly elected parliament could convene – the constitutional amendment that exempted defense spending from Germany’s debt brake. The borrowing limit Germans had treated as sacred since 2009 was gone. German military spending rose 24 percent in a single year to $114 billion, the largest in NATO Europe, and BlackRock held stakes in the very contractors – Rheinmetall, Hensoldt – that the money would flow toward.
He broke no law. He simply spent four years learning, from the inside, how the machinery paid out, and then went and pulled the lever. The arrangement was a particular kind that no scandal quite captures, because nothing in it is hidden. It sits in plain view, in regulatory filings and procurement requests, and it works precisely because everyone involved can say, truthfully, that they broke no rule. It reads as a German problem only until you cross the Atlantic. There the same face turns up in an American suit, several of them, installed not adjacent to the war machine but at its controls.
The banker who became the Navy
Consider John Phelan, who until March 2025 had no connection to the military beyond a seat on a charity board. His career was money: he co-founded MSD Capital, the private investment firm that managed the personal fortune of Michael Dell, and later founded his own firm, Rugger Management. He gave Trump’s joint fundraising committee $834,600 in April 2024. Months later he was nominated to run the United States Navy, and in March he was confirmed, handed a $263.5 billion budget and command of nearly a million sailors and Marines.
Before his confirmation, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to him about the obvious. He had recently earned over $5 million in capital gains from Palantir, a defense-software contractor that took in $541 million from the Pentagon in fiscal 2024 alone, and whose relationships Phelan’s own acquisition vehicle had once advertised. She asked him to divest his defense holdings and to recuse himself, for four years, from matters touching his former clients and employers, noting that a dozen Biden appointees had voluntarily gone beyond what the ethics laws required. Phelan declined to make the stronger commitment. He was confirmed anyway, 62 to 30, with eleven Democrats joining every Republican in the room.
The man overseeing the Navy’s shipbuilding budget was, weeks earlier, a private investor with money in the companies the Navy buys from. Nobody hid it. It was printed in his disclosures and read aloud at his hearing, and it changed nothing.
The private-equity takeover of the Pentagon
Phelan is the modest case. The full expression of the thing sits one floor up, in the office of the deputy secretary of defense, where Stephen Feinberg runs the day-to-day of the entire department. Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management and led it for thirty-three years; in his own sworn testimony to the Senate he put the firm’s portfolio at over $65 billion. He was a major Trump donor, and by the time he was confirmed in March 2025 he was, at a listed minimum net worth of $2 billion, the wealthiest official in the administration. What he has built since is not influence over the Pentagon. It is ownership of its investment arm.
Feinberg has surrounded himself with a circle of advisers drawn from his old firm. The group includes former Cerberus managing director John Gallagher and a deal team led by Cerberus alumnus George Kollitides – who was, until 2015, chairman and chief executive of Remington, the gunmaker Cerberus owned. Industry executives nicknamed the squad “Deal Team Six,” a joke on the SEAL unit that killed bin Laden, and Kollitides told a Milken Institute audience he found the name both fun and fitting while explaining that economic warfare has been a part of all successful nations for thousands of years. A Stanford professor watching this described it plainly: private equity has just acquired its largest organization.
The organization it acquired writes checks the size of nations. Under Feinberg, the Pentagon stopped merely buying weapons and began buying companies. It took a $400 million preferred-equity stake in the rare-earth miner MP Materials, enough to make the United States government the firm’s largest single shareholder at roughly 15 percent – ahead, as it happens, of BlackRock. It put $1 billion into an L3Harris rocket-motor unit slated to go public in 2026. Stakes in Trilogy Metals, Vulcan Elements, and ReElement Technologies followed, a portfolio that a group of House members warned was locking federal policy to the fortunes of individual firms – picking winners, and by definition creating losers.

“.. some European officials are questioning why they were even invited, as they don’t see left-wing terrorism as a threat to their countries..”

• A Rubio Summit That Saves the World? (Sarah Anderson)

I didn’t receive an invitation and most of you probably didn’t either, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invited the foreign ministers and other senior officials from over 60 countries to Washington, D.C. next week for a summit. The goal? To combat the “resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism,” according to Washington Post reporters who say they saw documents related to the matter. The documents make it “clear that the focus is on ‘far-left terrorists,’ who, the note says, are ‘increasingly turning to organized, deadly violence to advance their political objectives.'” As the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reports, “In recent years, the United States has seen an increase in the number of left-wing terrorism attacks and plots.” In 2025, far-left terrorist attacks outnumbered those from the far-right. Here’s more:

More contentious politics in the United States and the expansion of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement appear to have reenergized violent left-wing extremists. The left-wing movement as a whole has not returned to its violent heights of the 1960s and 1970s, but the number of terrorist incidents involving left-wing extremists so far this year puts 2025 on pace to be the left’s most violent year in more than three decades. Moreover, 2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing attacks outnumber those from the far right.
Unlike the highly structured far-left groups of the past, modern far-left and anarchist extremism relies heavily on decentralized, cross-border networking that is often organized online. Both U.S. and European intelligence agencies have pointed to growing coordination between decentralized Antifa and Antifa-like networks and European autonomous groups, especially surrounding major global events. This often leads to riots, arson, attacks on law enforcement, attacks on infrastructure and symbols of capitalism, and destruction of public and private property. News of the summit comes after the Trump administration released its counterterrorism strategy in May of this year.
While the strategy prioritizes hemispheric threats, like cartels, gangs, and other designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations that operate in the Americas, as well as Islamic terrorist groups, our national counterterrorism activities will also “prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist. We will use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa, and use law enforcement tools to cripple them operationally before they can maim or kill the innocent. We will do the same with the state sponsors of such groups and those governments undertaking lethal plots on U.S. soil or against Americans anywhere.”
But it sounds like we’re not stopping here at home. This ministerial Rubio is hosting will help strengthen cooperation in intelligence-sharing and law enforcement between nations that want to eradicate crime. The countries included in the invitations were most of Europe, some of Asia, and many nations from the Western Hemisphere.
Of course, as with anything the Trump administration does, there is some blowback. According to the Washington Post, some European officials are questioning why they were even invited, as they don’t see left-wing terrorism as a threat to their countries. Domestically, there is some concern that expanding counterterrorism activities against these groups could create a slippery slope for dealing with political activists, as well as create an opportunity for the next Democrat who becomes president to go after conservatives, even though the Trump administration’s strategy specifically states, “our counterterrorism powers will not be used to target our fellow Americans who simply disagree with us.”
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that far-left terrorism is “an old threat re-emerging with strong transnational links and new convergences,” according to the Post. He added, “Because this threat has not been adequately addressed in the past, each engagement, designation, or security assistance program creates a compounding effect supporting countermeasures at home and abroad.” Now, Trump and Rubio are attempting to adequately address it.
Does this sound ambitions? Yes. Is it necessary? Also, yes. It’s about time someone treats left-wing extremism and chaos as the transnational threat that it is. And if Rubio and Donald Trump’s Shield of the Americas summit in March was any indicator, this won’t be just some boring diplomatic meeting that’s all talk and no action. We’ve seen the Shield in action several times in just a few short months. It will be interesting to see exactly who shows up to this summit next week.

“.. repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl: “a cultural thing.” “It’s a Constitutional Thing”

Thanks Marco. Screw you, Walz.

• Rubio Deports Convicted Rapist Protected by Walz (Turley)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has failed in his extraordinary effort to protect a Laotian rapist from deportation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed that he revoked Tue Lue Vang’s legal status and removed him from the United States. After repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl between 2002 and 2004, Vang insisted it was “a cultural thing.” Well, this is a “constitutional thing” that the Secretary of State, not the Governor of Minnesota, determines who may remain in the United States after such a serious offense.

He was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. A Department of Justice (DOJ) Immigration Judge issued Vang a final order of removal on October 31, 2006 after his conviction. Minnesota’s Board of Pardons, composed of Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison, and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, granted his clemency. (They noted that the victim wrote a letter on his behalf.) They also pardoned another Laotian criminal illegal alien — a convicted armed robber — before he could be deported. At the time, Walz wrongly referred to Vang as a “citizen”:
“I can find no reason how Minnesota will be safer or better if Mr. Vang is deported to a country he has not been to since he was a child.I do not see how it would serve his family, nor the economic interest where we have a taxpaying citizen who is creating job growth and living a life free from any criminal activity. Rubio told Fox News: “Just weeks ago, a foreign child rapist was freed to once again endanger America’s children after receiving a pardon from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Tue Lue Vang admitted to committing heinous crimes against a 10-year-old girl in Minnesota. He attempted to pay his victim for her silence and dismissed his acts of child abuse as a ‘minor thing.’
Just days before he was scheduled to be deported, the Minnesota Governor pardoned him, setting him free to endanger American families once again.” He added, “Americans should never have to live in fear that foreign sex predators — shielded from deportation by their own elected officials — could endanger them or their children.” Vang was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He repeatedly raped the girl between 2002 and 2004, and told authorities after he was arrested that “it is a cultural thing…to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.” Rubio told Fox News Digital, “Americans should never have to live in fear that foreign sex predators — shielded from deportation by their own elected officials — could endanger them or their children.”
Vang’s use of Laotian culture was notable for some of us who have spoken or written about “the cultural defense.” I have long drawn the line in the use of the cultural defense on such violent acts. However, troubling outliers remain in the cases. In January 1985, Japanese immigrant Fumiko Kimura tried to commit oyako-shinju (or parent-child suicide) after learning of her husband’s infidelity. She walked her infant daughter and 4-year-old son in the frigid ocean off Santa Monica. The children drowned, but she was rescued. While she had lived in the United States for some 14 years, she claimed the cultural defense (even though oyako-shinju is illegal in Japan). She was successful.
Kimura received just one year in jail and five years’ probation. She then reunited with her husband. There have been several cases involving “marriage by capture.” We have had some cases related to the custom of zij poj niam, particularly in relation to the Hmong culture, where a man abducts a woman he intends to marry and takes her to his family home. The woman is expected to resist as a sign of her virtue. In a prior case, Kong Moua, a Hmong tribesman, drove to the Fresno City College campus and kidnapped a young woman from her job in the student finance office. She took her to his cousin’s house, but the Hmong woman did not believe in the cultural practice and called police.
Charged with rape and kidnapping, the defense successfully claimed the cultural defense. It secured a lesser charge of false imprisonment, and then the judge sentenced Kong Moua to just 120 days in jail and fined him $1,000, with only $900 of that going to the victim as reparations. It is unclear whether Vang was making such a claim, but most judges would reject it. The effort by Walz to keep him in the United States was equally dubious as a constitutional matter.

“How did a popular American writer of the 1940s come up with a novel that accurately portrayed the activities and historical role of Elon Musk as a pioneer in the exploitation of space?”

• Elon Foretold – The Man Who Sold the Moon (J.R. Dunn)

Nobody in the 1850s ever wrote a novel about a man who changes society by figuring out how to mass-produce horseless carriages. Similarly, nobody a century later wrote the story of the man who turns the world upside down by building miniature electronic brains in his garage. So how did a popular American writer of the 1940s come up with a novel that accurately portrayed the activities and historical role of Elon Musk as a pioneer in the exploitation of space? That man was Robert A. Heinlein, and his book, published in 1950, was titled The Man Who Sold the Moon.

Sci-fi has largely been a despised and dismissed genre, with some reason. It started out as pure pulp (at least in this country; in the UK, largely thanks to H.G. Wells, it was a serious and respected genre, with most writers producing a sci-fi novel at one time or another). The prose in U.S. sci-fi was subliterate. Characterization was nonexistent, consisting of types – the eccentric scientist, the stalwart space skipper, the evil space pirate, etc. Plots were minimal at best. The writers were either nerds or hacks. The editors were bottom of the barrel, and the readers didn’t care. (They still don’t.) The genre needed a serious shake-up, and at the beginning of the 1940s, that’s just what it got.
Robert A. Heinlein was a former naval officer, ex-mine owner, and ex-political operative forced into writing by illness. He was the farthest thing in the world from a hack. Internationally traveled, vastly erudite in a number of fields, and widely read, Heinlein was well aware of the stagnant status of sci-fi. John W. Campbell, editor of the unfortunately named Astounding Science Fiction, had long been on the watch for a writer capable of breaking up the logjam in the field. Heinlein filled that role and more. Within months, he was leading the genre. Within a couple of years, the primitives were gone, and those who remained were trying to match Heinlein.
As a writer, Heinlein was methodical – both in artistic and professional senses. He was devoted to realism, no easy trick when writing sci-fi. He dropped the generic space-opera settings of the 30s, instead compiling a chart of possible historical events involving the U.S. over the next two centuries to serve as a consistent background for his work. Heinlein later said that he simply extrapolated current trends into the future. All the same, the accuracy of some of the chart’s predictions is spooky. One prime example: the 1960s is labeled “The Crazy Years.”
The Man Who Sold the Moon was one of the keystone novels of the Future History sequence. It dealt with a 21st-century business magnate named Delos D. Harriman, who is convinced that exploitation of space is the next step and intends to put the U.S. on the moon in a big way. In this fictional world – so unlike our own – there is activity in space, but it’s limited strictly to Earth orbit. (I’m not sure that they have a space station that enables Democrat pols to take publicity trips.)
Harriman liquidates his holdings and obtains loans and contributions from other businessmen, using every possible goad and gimmick. (In one case, he shows up at the office of a commie-hating executive wearing a hammer-and-sickle button on his lapel: “From where you’re sitting, this is the exact size of the moon seen from earth.”) He oversees every aspect of the project from the design of the rocket to the training of the crew, overcoming obstacles, fighting lawsuits and government interference.
Harriman is up to his ears in debt, under fire over various scams he’s pulled along the way (One concerns USPO envelopes supposed to be canceled on the moon to be sold to collectors that may or may not have actually been on the ship. This will bring a smile of recognition to those who recall the Apollo 15 postage “scandal.”) At last, the rocket is ready. It lifts off, headed for the bright strand of Lune. …and it all goes perfectly. The ship lands, spends a short time on the surface, and returns to Earth, to the expected outcry from cranks claiming it was all a hoax. But Harriman pays no attention. He’s completing an even larger rocket, one that will set up an actual base on the lunar surface.
The book ends with Harriman watching that one lift off. He’d wanted to be aboard himself, but corporate board members, with so much investment money riding on the program’s success, wouldn’t allow it. Harriman was the key man, and if he was lost, everything else would go with him. There would be many other flights, and he would surely be aboard one of those…. But one of his associates, watching him, whispers, “He reminds me of Moses, gazing out over the promised land.” Moses, of course, never entered Israel himself, only resting his eyes on it from a distance.

“Witness list expanding in multi -conspiracy probe out of Fort Pierce. . . .” Paul Sperry, Real Clear investigations.

• Scenario (James Howard Kunstler)

Seth Rich, when he was alive, at his leisure

The scene: February of 2027, a federal courtroom in Stuart (Martin County), Florida, the third day of trial in the RussiaGate matter. Defendants seated on the right (from the judge’s vantage) are so numerous they require two tables, including John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, Strzok & Page, Bruce Ohr, Lisa Monaco, Mary McCord, Christopher Wray, Marc Elias, and seven other former federal officials.

Former President Barack Obama and former Sec’y of State Hillary Clinton, named as “unindicted co-conspirators,” are not present in the courtroom for the sake of decorum. Former MI6 agent, the slippery Christopher Steele, purveyor of the infamous “dossier,” is on-the-lam, whereabouts unknown. The charges against the bunch are Seditious Conspiracy (18 U.S. Code § 2384), Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice (18 U.S.C. §§ 1503, 1512, 1519), Conspiracy Against Rights / Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law (18 U.S.C. §§ 241, 242), Perjury (18 U.S.C. § 1621), Concealment (18 U.S.C. § 1001).
At 10:00 a.m., a “surprise” witness is ushered into the room. Gasps erupt from all angles. The witness is immediately identified by his snow-white hair and beard. Everybody sees it is Julian Assange. He is a surprise witness for security reasons. He has been flown from Sydney to New Delhi to Frankfurt, and finally to Miami in a US government airplane, the lone passenger.
Recall: in June 2024, Assange reached a plea deal with the US DOJ: guilty on one count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defense information. He was sentenced to sixty-two months (time served), crediting the approximately five years he had already spent in Britain’s Belmarsh prison while fighting extradition — but not counting the six years and ten months he was holed-up before that in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. There was no additional jail time, supervision, or financial penalty.
Assange is sworn and seated, led through preliminary questions as to his identity, place of residence, his former occupation running the news service known as Wikileaks, blah blah. The prosecuting federal attorney will now turn to the subject of one Seth Rich — remember him? The twenty-seven-year-old was working for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016 as Voter Expansion Data Director. At 4:00 a.m. July 10, 2016, Rich was found dead, shot twice in the back, on Flagler Place NW, in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in what police called “a botched robbery.”
Rather bizarrely from a police procedural standpoint, Rich’s wallet, stuffed with money, his watch, and his cell phone remained on his person. Only his laptop was taken in the “robbery.” It has been a “cold,” unsolved case all these years. Sometime before the murder, as early as Spring 2016, well before the Democratic party’s nominating convention, Assange’s Wikileaks received a large packet of information containing as many as 58,000 emails hacked out of the account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.
The emails detailed many curious machinations inside the DNC that year, including sketchy efforts underway to derail Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders, excerpts from Clinton’s paid private Wall Street speeches (e.g., to Goldman Sachs), references to Clinton’s health problems, her private email server issue, various Clinton foundation dealings, and a lot of strange chatter about “pizza” and other mundane food items that would eventually spawn the “PizzaGate” story alluding to alleged child sex cult activities centered around John Podesta and his brother Tony. It was quite a juicy load. But Wikileaks sat on it until just before the election. That spring and summer, Hillary was already laboring under the scandal about the private email server she had set up in her suburban Chappaqua, NY, home.
She had apparently used it casually when she ran the State Department to conduct official government business, including classified information, instead of her official government email address. That itself was against the law, apart from what else the content of the Podesta email trove revealed. The FBI had been working the server case that spring, and just weeks before the convention, FBI Director Jim Comey made a big public show of exonerating Hillary, declaring incorrectly that he declined to prosecute — since it is not the FBI’s job to prosecute, only investigate, and for the DOJ to actually decide whether to prosecute. But he did add for the record that her doings had been “extremely careless.”

“As Germany’s public debt expands, the dynamics of its sovereign bond market are beginning to change.”

• Germany’s Debt Crisis Crescendos (Thomas Kolbe)

As Germany’s public debt expands, the dynamics of its sovereign bond market are beginning to change. On Wednesday, the placement of new German government debt came close to failure for the first time. Only the intervention of Germany’s Finance Agency prevented a more serious outcome. Germany’s descent into the league of heavily indebted nations is unfolding at breathtaking speed. A brief chronology of recent events illustrates the trend. Last Friday, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil presented the key parameters of the federal budget for 2027. Federal spending is set to increase by €30 billion to €555 billion, roughly six percent more than the previous year. Unsurprisingly, the country’s borrowing requirements are rising at a similar pace.

On Monday, the minister spoke at length about supposedly advanced fiscal consolidation efforts. Taken in its original meaning, fiscal consolidation implies placing meaningful constraints on excessive government spending and at least slowing the pace of fiscal deterioration. Wednesday’s events in the bond market demonstrated precisely the opposite. What happened around midday was close to unprecedented in modern German public finance. During the auction of new federal bonds, Germany came dangerously close to a failed issuance. Only the intervention of the German Finance Agency, the institution responsible for issuing federal debt, prevented a more severe market signal.
What happened? bSeeking additional liquidity, Germany attempted to issue €6 billion of ten-year federal bonds. Under normal circumstances, such auctions are routine affairs. Pension funds, insurers, banks and hedge funds require high-quality sovereign debt to manage their balance sheets and diversify portfolios.This auction proved very different. At a yield of 3.09 percent, bids totaled only €4.022 billion. Ultimately, merely €3.902 billion was actually allocated. Roughly €2.1 billion, around 35 percent of the intended issuance, remained unsold, forcing the Finance Agency itself to absorb the excess supply temporarily.
Had the auction failed outright, the consequences could have been considerably more severe. A failed sovereign auction sends a powerful shock signal through financial markets and can trigger broader bond sell-offs and sharp increases in borrowing costs. That this did not occur is largely thanks to institutions such as the German Finance Agency and the European Central Bank — the intervention fire brigade of European capital markets — which can temporarily mask unsustainable fiscal policies by absorbing excess sovereign debt.
The auction’s bid-to-cover ratio, measuring demand relative to supply, fell to a worrying 0.7. Nor was this the first problematic auction in July. Already on July 1, Germany’s issuance of seven-year federal bonds encountered similar difficulties. In that case as well, the Finance Agency intervened by retaining roughly one quarter of the offering instead of the customary ten percent normally withheld to provide liquidity in the secondary market. Primary Dealers, which constitute the first line of absorption for newly issued sovereign debt within the euro area’s financial architecture, were evidently unwilling to absorb the full volume.
Could this represent the first signs of growing market turbulence caused by Germany’s rapidly expanding debt burden? By the end of this year, Germany’s official debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to approach 70 percent. Including the government’s various off-budget special funds, the effective figure already moves toward 80 percent. Unfunded liabilities embedded in Germany’s social insurance systems — particularly the statutory pension system — amount to several multiples of annual GDP.
None of this is extraordinary in today’s world of highly indebted governments. The United States currently carries a debt ratio near 125 percent of GDP. However, the world’s largest economy possesses considerably greater economic resilience than Germany, whose competitiveness has been weakened by years of costly energy policies. Globally, average sovereign debt now stands around 95 percent of GDP, roughly comparable to the euro area.

The final solution: “..the bloc plans to phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2035..”

Europe had a great car industry for 100 years.

• What’s Driving Europe’s Auto Industry Crisis? (RT)

European carmakers are facing one of the toughest crises in their history. Plant closures, layoffs, and shrinking profits have become increasingly common as Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers continue to expand their global footprint. German luxury carmaker Porsche has become the latest victim. The company is expected to cut an additional 4,000 jobs, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Monday. In March, the sports car manufacturer reported a 93% drop in operating profits following a costly pivot away from its long-term EV strategy.

But these setbacks are only part of the story. Behind them lies a combination of soaring energy costs, mounting regulatory pressure, shifting supply chains, and intensifying international competition that is reshaping one of the region’s most important industries. Since the Covid-19 pandemic and the global semiconductor shortage, European carmakers have been battered by weakening consumer demand and persistently high production costs, largely driven by elevated energy prices. The slump is evident in sales. Across the EU, new car registrations in 2025 remained nearly 30% below 2019 levels, while the UK market also failed to recover to its pre-pandemic performance.
At the same time, expensive energy has left European manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage compared with many rivals in Asia and North America. The strain is already triggering deep restructuring across the industry. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW have announced job cuts and cost-cutting measures; Stellantis has reduced output at several European plants, particularly in Italy; Renault is continuing its restructuring in France; and the UK has seen factory closures as manufacturers struggle to contain rising costs.
Which countries have been hardest hit?
The crisis is weighing most heavily on countries where the automotive industry is a major source of jobs and economic growth. In 2019, the sector supported around 13.8 million jobs – 6.1% of total EU employment – and accounted for more than 7% of the bloc’s GDP. Germany has been hit hardest, with the industry shedding around 125,000 jobs since 2019. In France, automotive employment has fallen by roughly a third since 2010, dropping from about 425,000 to fewer than 290,000 workers. In Italy, the wider manufacturing sector has lost more than 103,000 jobs since 2008, while a further 12,650 automotive positions are considered at risk.
Spain also remains heavily reliant on vehicle exports, while the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary are even more exposed, with much of their industrial output dependent on foreign-owned carmakers. As a result, even relatively small production cuts can have an outsized impact on jobs and regional economies. Outside the EU, the UK also remains vulnerable. Although its automotive sector is smaller, it still supports around 200,000 manufacturing jobs and some 800,000 positions across the wider industry.
How much of the problem stems from energy prices?
Energy costs have become one of the key structural pressures on Europe’s auto industry. After the disruption of traditional energy flows, the shift away from relatively cheap Russian pipeline gas has increased reliance on more expensive alternatives, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the US. For an energy-intensive sector such as automotive production – where steel, aluminium, chemicals, and battery materials are essential inputs – this has raised costs across the entire value chain.
The impact extends beyond final assembly plants. Suppliers of metals, plastics, and battery cells have also faced higher input costs, feeding through into vehicle prices and squeezing manufacturers’ margins. This is particularly significant for electric vehicles, which depend on energy-intensive battery production and raw material processing. Combined with competition from regions with lower energy costs, this has eroded one of Europe’s traditional advantages: cheap and stable industrial energy. As a result, energy has shifted from a competitive strength to a persistent headwind for European automakers.
Why are European carmakers losing ground to China? Europe’s weakening position in the global auto market is increasingly linked to the rise of China as the leading EV powerhouse. Chinese manufacturers have scaled up production rapidly, supported by fully integrated domestic battery supply chains – from raw materials processing to cell manufacturing – giving them a structural cost advantage over European rivals.
A vast domestic market also allows Chinese firms to produce at far larger volumes, lowering unit costs and speeding up innovation. By contrast, Europe’s market is fragmented across multiple countries and regulatory systems. European automakers also face higher production costs, particularly for energy and labor, alongside heavier regulatory requirements linked to emissions targets and industrial policy. According to the International Energy Agency, China produced 12.4 million electric cars in 2024, compared with 2.4 million in the EU and around 80,000 in the UK – roughly five times the combined European output.
The green transition impact
Under EU climate policy, automakers must meet increasingly strict COC emissions targets, while the bloc plans to phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. This has forced manufacturers to invest heavily in EV platforms, battery plants, software, and factory upgrades well before these investments generate returns. The UK is following a similar path through its Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate, requiring rising EV sales ahead of a 2030 ban on new internal combustion engine vehicles.
The pressure has been amplified by slower-than-expected EV adoption across Europe. As demand lags behind targets, automakers are caught between costly EV investments and continued reliance on petrol and diesel models to sustain profits. Several carmakers warn that both EU rules and the UK s ZEV targets risk moving faster than consumer demand. Critics say regulation has outpaced market readiness, while supporters argue that slowing the transition would leave Europe trailing in the global shift to clean mobility.

Vague.

• RFK Jr. Plans to Create a List of Injuries Caused by COVID-19 Vaccines (ET)

Health officials are proposing a plan to clarify which COVID-19 vaccine side effects would be eligible for government financial compensation, according to a new notice. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and one of its divisions said in a description of a proposed rule released on July 1 that they plan to establish an injury table for COVID-19 vaccines through the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).

“The Table will list and explain injuries that, based on compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence, are presumed to be caused by covered COVID-19 countermeasures, and set forth the time periods in which the onset of these injuries must occur after the administration or use of these covered COVID-19 countermeasures,” a summary of the rule, which has not been made public, stated. COVID-19 vaccines fall under the CICP because previous health secretaries declared and extended emergency declarations for COVID-19, which opened up the option of emergency clearance of vaccines and other countermeasures under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who just announced that he was ending the emergency declaration, is authorized under the declarations to provide benefits to people injured by the vaccines under the act, HHS officials noted in the proposal summary. “Under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy, HHS is restoring transparency and accountability because the American people deserve clear, evidence-based information about both the benefits and the known risks associated with medical countermeasures,” an HHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email. The spokesperson said that more information will be available when the notice is published in the Federal Register.
Aaron Siri, Kennedy’s former lawyer, wrote to Kennedy in 2025, urging him to create a COVID-19 vaccine-injury table. He pointed to the readiness and preparedness law, which states that the health secretary “shall by regulation establish a table identifying covered injuries that shall be presumed to be directly caused by the administration or use of a covered countermeasure.” An injury table would help people injured by vaccines apply successfully to the congressionally created program, which requires “compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence” that an injury was a direct result of a countermeasure, Siri wrote on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, which advocates for government transparency and change.
“A well-constructed injury table is needed for the CICP,” Richard Hughes IV, a former Moderna executive who is representing health groups in litigation against the administration that has halted some of its changes to vaccine guidance, told The Epoch Times in an email. “The real question is whether this administration would promulgate such a table or weaponize it to further platform misinformation.” Dr. Joel Wallskog, who suffered the neurological disorder transverse myelitis and other issues from COVID-19 vaccination and has sued the government over the CICP, told The Epoch Times in an email that the HHS proposal “is more appearance than substance.”
“It appears to do little more than streamline the process for the relatively small number of individuals whose injuries—primarily anaphylaxis and myocarditis/pericarditis—are already recognized under the current system,” added Wallskog, also the co-chair of the React19 nonprofit, which offers support to people injured by COVID-19 vaccines. “For everyone else who has been denied, nothing changes.” Erica Samp, who says she was injured by a COVID-19 vaccine, said in a post on X that she supported the plan but that she’s watching to see what details are included, including the covered injuries.
The CICP is both administered and adjudicated by HHS officials. It has compensated some people who have said COVID-19 vaccination caused health issues, but rejected others, including people such as Wallskog, whom doctors diagnosed as being injured by COVID-19 vaccines, The Epoch Times previously reported.
The CICP has, through June, compensated 60 COVID-19 vaccine injury claims, nearly all for myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation. The average compensation has been $4,000, aside from a few large payments, and about 99 percent of applications have been rejected. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said in 2024 that COVID-19 vaccines definitely cause myocarditis and shoulder injuries, but that other possible harms could not be conclusively linked to the shots. Some outside organizations, such as React19, have said that the available evidence supports a link between the vaccines and additional problems.

Elon Musk just said what every government on earth already knows and none will admit.

Musk: “AI is moving 10 times faster than government, maybe more.”

Not slightly faster. Ten times. And the gap compounds daily.

Every institution ever built runs on the same architecture.… pic.twitter.com/Efrc3eVc5d
— Dustin (@r0ck3t23) July 9, 2026

SpaceX is building the Gigasat Factory in Bastrop to manufacture AI satellites at massive scale.

This facility is planned to enable rapid production and deployment of thousands of AI satellites starting as soon as late 2027. pic.twitter.com/avloaJJ32h
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 9, 2026

Elon and the SpaceX team are aiming to launch 1 MILLION AI satellites into space and when this happens… this company is going to look dirt cheap at $2 trillion.

Any company serious about AI will be relying heavily on SpaceX for compute.

Mark my words. pic.twitter.com/eMgPnivNMl
— Teslaconomics (@Teslaconomics) July 10, 2026

Optimus V3’s hand is getting scary good.

Hands are one of robotics’ nastiest little problems. Gripping is easy.

Knowing how hard to squeeze an egg, turn a tiny screw, fold fabric, or pick up something fragile without launching it across the room?

Different game.

Tesla… https://t.co/uKe3ptfBXL pic.twitter.com/1QlZT4Cw1G
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 10, 2026

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Debt Rattle May 21 2026

May 212026

May 21, 2026 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:03 am Finance Tagged with: Anti-Weaponization Fund, Blanche, COVID, EU, Europe, Iran, Merkel, Sinaloa.Mexico, Ukraine, Yermak 30 Responses »

Pablo Picasso Femme nue couchée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) 1932

• Tense Trump-Netanyahu Call As US Presses Iran To ‘Sign The Document’ (ZH)

• Iran Warns Will Take War ‘Beyond The Region’ If Trump Restarts Attacks (ZH)

• Xi Warns US Against New Iran Strikes, Denounces ‘Law Of The Jungle’ (ZH)

• Acting AG Todd Blanche Takes a More Oppositional Approach to Democrats (CTH)

• Mexico Freezes Sinaloa Cartel Bank Accounts, Collaborates with US Intel (CTH)

• Ukraine Preparing Strikes On Russia From Nato Country Latvia – Moscow (RT)

• Zelensky Aide’s Jailing Was a Warning From Washington – Former Diplomat (RT)

• Michael Caputo First To Apply For $1.8 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ (JTN)

• Gutfeld Torches Colbert’s Legacy on the Way Out the Door (Matt Margolis)

• I’m Sorry, but California Is HOW Deep in the Hole? (Stephen Green)

• Nearly Half of French Voters May Support National Rally (RMX)

• EU Faces Backlash For Awarding Merkel With Order of Merit (RMX)

• UK COVID Inquiry’s Endorsement Of Censorship Sets Chilling Precedent (DS)

Elon Musk said five words on Joe Rogan that explain everything wrong with your life right now.

Musk: “Happiness is reality minus expectations.”

Five words.

And it explains why the most comfortable generation in human history can’t stop feeling empty.

Musk: “If you just go try… pic.twitter.com/432YlTz3N1
— Dustin (@r0ck3t23) May 20, 2026

CNN data analyst Harry Enten just knocked it out of the park.

He said he wasn’t surprised at all with the Thomas Massie upset because President Trump is the “general” of the Republican Party.

ENTEN: “I wasn’t surprised at all because the bottom line is this; Donald Trump is the… pic.twitter.com/ucJMZpydfe
— Overton (@overton_news) May 20, 2026

Elon Musk was asked how he’d manufacture satellites at scale.

He described building a factory on the moon.

And almost nobody caught what he was laying out.

Musk: “The lunar soil is like 20% silicon. So you can mine the silicon on the moon, refine it, and create the solar cells… pic.twitter.com/lAV4XEAYC2
— Dustin (@r0ck3t23) May 19, 2026

"Anthony Weiner's laptop wasn't just some perverts hard drive. It was the life insurance policy that kept the entire Clinton Crime Syndicate untouchable."

"The infamous 'life insurance' folder contains 1000s of files tying straight to Epstein's Island & the global elite." pic.twitter.com/7DeDId9JiL
— conspiracybot (@conspiracyb0t) May 19, 2026

Never once in 30 years seen him sleep on a plane. Always working.

The man who gave his entire life to Donald Trump — finally opened up to the world today. And showed America a hidden side of Trump that most of us never knew existed. Trump’s own pilot. The man who has flown him for 30 years. Who has sat in that cockpit while Trump sat behind him… pic.twitter.com/IaZ5solf0s
— The Husky (@Mr_Husky1) May 20, 2026

Bibi will not start bombing if Trump doesn’t want him to. Control has shifted.That is an achievement.

• Tense Trump-Netanyahu Call As US Presses Iran To ‘Sign The Document’ (ZH)

Iran Issues its Strait Passage Protocol
The following was issued from the Official Account of the Persian Gulf Strait Authority: The Islamic Republic of Iran has defined the boundaries of the Strait of Hormuz management supervision area as follows: “The line connecting Kuh Mobarak in Iran and the south of Fujairah in the UAE in the east of the strait to the line connecting the end of Qeshm Island in Iran and Umm al-Qaiwain in the UAE in the west of the strait.” The statement adds: “Frequencies in this range for passing through the Strait of Hormuz require coordination with the Persian Gulf Waterway Management and a permit from this entity.”

Trump: ‘Sign the Document’ or Face War’s Resumption
Trump and Netanyahu had a reported tense phone call related to ongoing Iran talks, and a proposed peace deal on the table. Netanyahu is said to be seeking a greenlight for renewed military action against Tehran, at a moment the Iranians have not compromised on the nuclear issue. Per fresh reporting in Axios: “Trump continues to say he thinks a deal can be reached, but that he’s ready to resume the war if it isn’t”: “The only question is do we go and finish it up or are they gonna be signing a document. Let’s see what happens,” he said on Wednesday at the Coast Guard Academy.
Trump also said Netanyahu “will do whatever I want him to do” on Iran, though he also said they had a good relationship. The two leaders have had temporary disagreements on Iran before but have remained closely coordinated throughout the war. Iran has confirmed it’s reviewing an updated proposal, but has not yet shown any signs of flexibility. The same report says of Israel’s position that “Netanyahu is highly skeptical about the negotiations and wants to resume the war to further degrade Iran’s military capabilities and weaken the regime by destroying its critical infrastructure.”
US Marines Board Iran-Flagged Tanker
The Pentagon has announced that US Marines have boarded another Iranian-flagged tanker, this time in the Gulf of Oman. It had been accused of attempting to violate the US naval blockade, after which it was boarded.But, as CENTCOM says, “American forces released the vessel after searching and directing the ship’s crew to alter course.” This as Iran’s IRGC Navy says 26 vessels, including oil tankers, container ships and other commercial vessels, transited in the prior 24 hours “in coordination” with Iranian authorities (per state news).

Earlier today in the Gulf of Oman, U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit boarded M/T Celestial Sea, an Iranian-flagged commercial oil tanker suspected of attempting to violate the U.S. blockade by transiting toward an Iranian port. American forces released the… pic.twitter.com/1AVT0MudKY
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 20, 2026

Iran Confirms Ongoing Exchange of Messages with US
Some latest from Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson: “Exchange of messages between Iranian and American sides continues based on the text of Iran’s 14-point resolution.” And more:
• Iran’s focus is on ending the war and fulfilling Iran’s clear demands
• The presence of the Pakistani Interior Minister is to facilitate the exchange of messages.
• Baqaei: We are exchanging messages with suspicion and good intentions
• Talking about ultimatums and deadlines regarding Iran is ridiculous.
• Iran also says US has to prove its goodwill and stop “piracy” against Iranian ships
Ghalibaf: US Seeking To ‘Start A New War’
Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says that Tehran sees signs that the United States is seeking to restart the war and still hopes the Islamic Republic will surrender: “The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said in an audio message carried by Iranian media.”Close monitoring of the situation in the United States reinforces the possibility that they still hope for the surrender of the Iranian nation,” he adds. Trump has given Iran ‘days’ – or also till the start of next week to come back to the table; however, on Wednesday he’s actually touting a ‘final’ deal draft is near, despite Iran still not budging on the nuclear issue.
Oil Plunges Further on Trump Comment
Again, possibly just more jawboning, but oil’s Wednesday morning plunge deepened upon Trump touting ‘final stages’ of talks with Iran… all of this as usually looking very premature… TRUMP SAYS US IN ‘FINAL STAGES’ OF TALKS WITH IRAN: POOL REPORT TRUMP SAYS ‘WE’LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS’ W/ IRAN: POOL REPORT TRUMP: DO WE FINISH IRAN UP OR WILL THEY SIGN, LET’S SEE TRUMP: SEEING IN IRAN THAT US IS RESPECTED
Another Likely Premature ‘Final’ Peace Draft Headline, Oil Tumbles
Crude prices tumbled on a regional Al Hadath headline suggesting the “achievement of a final draft” of what will be Iran’s latest peace proposal, though the recent pattern of this has shown little will likely come of it with Washington, amid ongoing apparent zero sum demands from each warring side. Pakistani Army Chief may visit Iran tomorrow to announce achievement of final draft of agreement text. Next round of negotiations will be held in Islamabad after Hajj season: Al Hadath Event Sources: If the Pakistani Army Chief does not head to Iran, the achievement of the final agreement formula may be announced within hours
More per Newsquawk…
MARKET UPDATE] Brent falls in excess of USD 3/bbl, WTI slips below USD 100/bbl, Equities bid and USD hit on reports the Pakistani Army Chief may visit Iran tomorrow to announce achievement of final draft of agreement text Pakistani Army Chief may visit Iran tomorrow to announce achievement of final draft of agreement text; The next round of negotiations will be held in Islamabad after the Hajj season (25th to 30th May), Al Hadath reports Sources say if Pakistani Army Chief does not head to Iran, the achievement of the final agreement formula may be announced within hours. Work is underway in earnest to put the finishing touches on the text of an agreement between Washington and Tehran..
BUT…

Al Arabiya sources: The US has informed Pakistan that it will not offer concessions to Iran on the nuclear demands and the Strait of Hormuz https://t.co/Av0QIGjyvL
— Faytuks News (@Faytuks) May 20, 2026

Weak.

• Iran Warns Will Take War ‘Beyond The Region’ If Trump Restarts Attacks (ZH)

Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, has summed up where things stand: “Since the ceasefire came into effect, both Washington and Tehran appear to be operating under the illusion that time is on their side,” he said. “Each seems to believe that the blockade and counter-blockade in the Strait of Hormuz impose greater costs on the other, while offering a breathing space to regroup for a possible resumption of hostilities,” Vaez told Al Jazeera. On Wednesday Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a fresh warning amid this ongoing standoff, warning that the Middle East war will extend beyond the region if the United States and Israel resume their attacks.

“If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you,” the IRGC say in the statement published to their website Sepah News. The warring sides are no closer to getting back to the negotiating table, after President Trump has given just a few ‘days’ to comply on the nuclear issue, which so far Tehran has not budged on. But in the meantime Iran still sees American guarantees as “insufficient” regarding a renewed war, Al Arabiya reports Wednesday. The Supreme Leader, who is still in hiding and believed to be recovering from serious injuries that resulted from prior airstrikes, has issued a fresh written message to the public:
Mojtaba Khamenei has commemorated the second anniversary of the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, saying the country is putting up a “unique historical resistance against two global terrorist armies in Israel and the US, the Fars News Agency reports. In another written statement, Khamenei said the war was making the burden on officials heavier than before , adding that he was grateful for the unity of the nation . In the Strait of Hormuz, there’s been a continued trickle of tankers making it through, reportedly after Beijing asked:
Two Chinese tankers laden with oil exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, shipping data showed, brightening hopes that the US-Israeli conflict with Iran may soon be resolved after positive comments from the US president and his deputy. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the war would be over “very quickly” while Vice President JD Vance talked up progress in talks with Tehran about an agreement to end hostilities.
https://twitter.com/anasalhajji/status/2056959126287110459?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2056959126287110459%7Ctwgr%5Ef50426984434b36495b1b7af8c6e30dc6ee770b3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Firan-warns-will-take-war-beyond-region-if-trump-restarts-attacks
And reports of a South Korean tanker safely traversing at this point: A South Korean oil tanker is currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s top diplomat said on Wednesday, in a report from AFP. “At this very moment, our oil tanker is passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul. Ship-tracking site MarineTraffic showed the South Korea-flagged tanker Universal Winner on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz near the entrance to the Gulf of Oman, bound for the southeastern South Korean city of Ulsan after departing Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi port.
As a reminder of prior Trump threats this week, and the typically vague timetable, the president on Tuesday renewed warnings that he could imminently resume bombing Iran, declaring the country will face a “big hit” if it refuses to accept US demands for a deal within days.

Netanyahu and Trump held what Israel’s N12 News described as a “lengthy and dramatic” phone call overnight, amid growing speculation over a possible new strike on Iran.
Netanyahu will skip both the opening of the Knesset session and a key vote on dissolving parliament today
— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) May 20, 2026

“Well, I mean, I’m saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can’t let them have a new nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters. Trump had the day prior said he was “holding off” on striking Iran on after requests from Gulf Arab states. Then he followed by claiming the attack was moments away from being launched. “We were all set to go… It would have been happening right now.”

Xi going through the obvious motions.

• Xi Warns US Against New Iran Strikes, Denounces ‘Law Of The Jungle’

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a high-stakes summit on Wednesday, just days after wrapping up closely watched talks with Trump, which by all accounts failed to produce any Washington-Beijing breakthroughs. The optics were carefully engineered, and many international outlets observed Putin’s state welcome was no less lavish and opulent than Trump’s own, with the Russian leader entering Great Hall of the People with full military pomp, children waving flags, and the standard marching band – again, strikingly similar to the red-carpet treatment rolled out for Trump last week.

For example, Al Jazeera writes that “We were expecting a more low-key ceremony, but he actually received an identical welcome treatment as Trump last week.” And more: He had the red carpet rolled out for him; he received a 21-gun salute, as well as children waving Russian and Chinese flags, saying, ‘We warmly welcome you.’mThe only difference is who greeted Putin at the airport. With Trump, it was Han Zheng, the vice president, and for Putin, it was Wang Yi, the foreign minister.
President Xi in his opening remarks delivered a sharp critique of the current geopolitical landscape, warning that the world is at risk of regressing into the “law of the jungle” – but hailed the Beijing-Moscow alliance as a crucial stabilizing force against what he later termed “all unilateral bullying” in the international arena, which appeared a passing jab at the United States. The very timing of the Putin summit has widely been viewed as a display of leverage.
Among key moments is that Xi called for “a comprehensive ceasefire” in the Middle East and the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. He characterized the standoff situation in the Persian Gulf as a “critical juncture between war and peace.” Xi called for the “unimpeded flow” of crude transit through the strait, as it is in “the common interest of the international community.” “My four-point proposal for maintaining and promoting peace and stability in the Middle East aims to further build international consensus and contribute to easing tensions, deescalating conflict, and promoting peace,” Xi said on the Iran crisis according to state news outlet Xinhua. Noticeably absent, however, was mention of finding peace in Ukraine. They agreed that it was “necessary to address the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis.”
As for Iran, Xi also explicitly noted that further hostilities in the Middle East were “inadvisable” and that a “comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency.” Putin during the summit sought to assure Beijing that Moscow remains a “reliable energy supplier” amid global oil supply shocks, noting their bilateral relationship sits at an”unprecedentedly high level.” He even at one point invoked a classical Chinese proverb to describe his relationship with Xi: “Even if we haven’t seen each other for a day, it feels like three autumns have passed.”

Xi Jinping welcomed Putin at Tiananmen Square

The leaders of Russia and China have concluded their talks in Beijing. The two sides signed around 40 bilateral agreements on cooperation in various spheres.

However, the future of the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline remains… pic.twitter.com/mnvLmYkwDi
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 20, 2026

Below are some quick highlights based on some emerging reporting Wednesday:

Treaty Extension: The signing of a wave of bilateral agreements across technology, trade, and intellectual property, anchored by the extension of the 25-year-old “China-Russia treaty of good neighborliness and friendly cooperation.”

The Energy Lifeline: Putin countered by assuring Beijing that Moscow remains a “reliable energy supplier” amid global oil supply shocks, noting their bilateral relationship sits at an “unprecedentedly high level.”

The Crude Lifeline: China remains critical in terms of an outside Russian economic lifeline, purchasing nearly 50% of Moscow’s total oil exports as Western sanctions continue to squeeze Russia’s domestic capital.

“.. a fearless cabinet nominee who confronts the corruption and fails is worth buckets more than a weak cabinet member who acquiesces and succeeds.”

• Acting AG Todd Blanche Takes a More Oppositional Approach to Democrats (CTH)

From the outset of Trump term-2, I have been saying the missing element, the fundamental flaw, was the administration not going full wolverine in opposition to the leftists in congress. When dealing with a comprehensively corrupt branch of government, a fearless cabinet nominee who confronts the corruption and fails is worth buckets more than a weak cabinet member who acquiesces and succeeds. We need more direct oppositional confrontation, done from a place of righteous -AND AUTHENTIC- indignation.

That said, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche carries a stronger disposition toward that confrontation than his predecessor. In this exchange Senator Chris Van Hollen, a man of notoriously corrupt disposition, and AAG Blanche battle over the establishment of a $1.776 billion victim’s compensation fund created to compensate people who have been targeted by a weaponized government.

Sheinbaum knows she needs the help.

• Mexico Freezes Sinaloa Cartel Bank Accounts, Collaborates with US Intel (CTH)

It is always a good idea to make note of things, put them into referenceable context, and then later tell the full story from background details that will surprise everyone else. Two significant events have taken place within the last few days against the backdrop of Sinaloa government officials beginning to turn themselves in to U.S. federal authorities. The first event is the Mexican government freezing the bank accounts and financial assets of those who have been named in the U.S. federal indictment. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says the seizures are out of her control, merely a process that takes place, yet the motives for her defensive protestations are more than a little transparent.

MEXICO – On May 18, President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit froze the accounts of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, his children, and senior aides. The action followed U.S. federal charges alleging they aided the Sinaloa Cartel through drug trafficking, weapons possession, and accepting multimillion-dollar bribes. Sheinbaum stressed the freeze was a technical, preventive step triggered by U.S. arrest warrants, not a domestic criminal finding.
The freezes come amid heightened U.S.-Mexico tensions over cartel corruption claims that have already strained security cooperation and political trust. Washington has broadened its anti-cartel strategy to target politicians accused of enabling organized crime, while Mexico remains sensitive to perceived foreign interference. Analysts warn the case could further erode institutional trust and complicate cross-border collaboration on security, trade, and migration. (more) The second event happened very quietly.
Mexico – Mexico’s federal government quietly approved a new intelligence-sharing arrangement that will allow multiple U.S. agencies to operate inside a major surveillance complex in Ciudad Juárez, according to a report by Drop Site News, even as President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has publicly pushed back against unauthorized CIA-linked activity in the country following the deaths of two U.S. officials in April. The report states that representatives from the FBI, DEA, ATF, Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection are expected to work from the 18th floor of Chihuahua’s new Centinela Tower in Juárez, a sprawling surveillance and intelligence hub operated by the state’s Secretariat of Public Security.
According to four senior Chihuahua security officials cited by Drop Site, the agencies will focus on intelligence-sharing tied to drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, organized crime and migration enforcement. (more) Last weekend, following the Tucson, Arizona, capture of Gerardo Mérida, a retired Mexican army general who served as public-security secretary in northwestern Sinaloa state, Sinaloa Senator Enrique Inzunza Cazárez, who is also facing drug trafficking and weapon charges, was taken into custody in San Diego by the DEA.
Both Merida and Cazarez were named in the lengthy indictment that included current Sinaloa Governor Rocha Moya, who, if ground reports are accurate, appears to be hiding while protected by the Mexican national guard. According to the New York Post reporting, businessman Enrique Diaz Vega – another name from the indictment – also turned himself into U.S. authorities in Arizona last Friday. That means four of the ten men named are currently in custody, with Governor Rocha Moya hiding out in Mexico.

“Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.”

• Ukraine Preparing Strikes On Russia From Nato Country Latvia – Moscow (RT)

NATO member Latvia has given Ukraine permission to use its territory for potential drone attacks against Russia, Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said. Ukrainian UAVs have targeted northwestern Russia on numerous occasions in recent weeks, particularly energy facilities in Leningrad Region, although some of the drones eventually crashed in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland. The SVR said in a statement on Tuesday that Ukraine “does not intend to limit itself to using the air corridors provided to the Ukrainians armed by the Baltic states.”

“The plan is to also launch the UAVs from the territory of these countries” against Russia in order “to significantly reduce the time it takes to reach the targets and increase the effectiveness of the terrorist attacks,” the statement read. Ukrainian drone operators have already been deployed to Latvia at the Adazi, Selija, Lielvarde, Daugavpils, and Jekabpils military bases, the agency said. Kiev persuaded Riga to agree to the operation by falsely claiming that it would be impossible to identify the exact launch site of the drones, the SVR said.
The agency expressed bewilderment about the “naivety” of the Latvian authorities, pointing out that modern reconnaissance methods and study of debris means the location from which a UAV was launched can be pinpointed with high accuracy. The SVR warned that “the coordinates of decision-making centers on Latvian territory are well known, and the country’s NATO membership will not protect the accomplices of terrorists from just retribution.” “Ultimately, the ‘caveman-like Russophobia’ of current Latvian leaders proved to be stronger than their capability for critical thinking and their sense of self-preservation,” it added.
The SVR said Ukraine is planning more drone attacks against Russia to demonstrate to its “ideological and financial supporters in Europe” that it is still capable of fighting and inflicting damage on the Russian economy. On Sunday, Moscow and its suburbs came under what appeared to be the largest Ukrainian drone attack in more than a year, in which three people, including an Indian national, were killed and over a dozen wounded. Kiev launched around 600 UAVs towards Russia in a single day, including around 130 at the Russian capital, according to Moscow.
During the raid, NATO jets were scrambled in Latvia after an unidentified drone entered the country’s airspace. Russia retaliated against Ukraine on Monday, carrying out a large-scale missile and UAV strike against military-related targets in the country. Earlier this month, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds was fired after Ukrainian drones hit oil storage facilities in the country. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said that under his leadership the Defense Ministry “failed to deliver on its promise of a safe sky over our country.”
Unlike top officials in Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, Spruds previously declined to criticize Kiev for the drone incursions, saying they will continue as long as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine remains unresolved, and insisting that Moscow is to blame. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu warned in April that if the Baltic States and Finland “deliberately provide their airspace” to Ukrainian UAVs, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

“The guy is filthy rich. He has billions of dollars, the same as Zelenskyy, stacked up in his pocket around the globe,” he alleged. “So this was just a show for the public.”

• Zelensky Aide’s Jailing Was a Warning From Washington – Former Diplomat (RT)

The brief detention of a former chief of staff for Vladimir Zelensy last week was a sign of mounting pressure from Kiev’s Western backers, former diplomat and ex-Prosecutor General’s adviser Andrey Telizhenko has told RT. According to him, the development reflects a possible redistribution of political influence inside Ukraine Andrey Yermak, a longtime confidant of Zelensky, was placed in pre-trial detention in connection with a money laundering investigation conducted by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies. He was released on Monday after posting bail set at $3.2 million.

Telizhenko said he never expected Yermak to remain in custody for long, arguing that the case was primarily political in nature. “The guy is filthy rich. He has billions of dollars, the same as Zelenskyy, stacked up in his pocket around the globe,” he alleged. “So this was just a show for the public.” According to the former diplomat, the prosecution reflects efforts by Washington to eliminate Yermak’s political influence and shift and clear the way for other figures, particularly former military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, whom he described as having close ties to US intelligence agencies.
Although Yermak formally resigned from his post last November amid corruption allegations, Telizhenko argued that his real influence stemmed from his close relationship with Zelensky rather than his official title. On paper the head of the presidential administration is “a pencil pusher job” focused on bureaucratic duties, Telizhenko explained. He also claimed that Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions lack genuine independence and are influenced by competing foreign interests. “The problem is Ukraine is divided between the British, Brussels, Washington, DC – it’s different groups,” Telizhenko told RT, arguing that Western cliques are competing for control over Ukraine’s future.

If it’s awarded, the floodgates may be opened. Try everybody arrested in connection with Jan 6. $1.8 billion is nothing.

• Michael Caputo First To Apply For $1.8 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ (JTN)

Michael Caputo, a former official of the first Trump administration, filed the first known claim under the Justice Department’s new $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Caputo seeks $2.7 million in restitution, according to a letter to the Justice Department that Caputo posted on X. He says he was targeted during “Crossfire Hurricane,” an FBI investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. “The machinery of government was clearly politically weaponized against my family,” Caputo states in the letter. Caputo was spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services during Donald Trump’s first term.

‘When I grow up, I want to be a Democrat.’ Sorry, kid, you can’t be both.”

• Gutfeld Torches Colbert’s Legacy on the Way Out the Door (Matt Margolis)

Stephen Colbert’s final episode airs Thursday night, and Greg Gutfeld had some thoughts. A lot of thoughts. And if you know Gutfeld, you know they were good. Taking over Colbert’s late-night time slot is Byron Allen, whose long-running syndicated show Comics Unleashed features Allen alongside four comedians pulling from their stand-up sets. Gutfeld played a clip from CNN, in which Allen told Michael Smerconish exactly what he’s going for.

“What I’m doing with Comics Unleashed, we don’t talk about politics. We don’t talk about anything that’s topical. We don’t talk about anything. We don’t do anything that’s racist or sexist or anti-Semitic or homophobic. Just be funny and don’t offend. I don’t care who you vote for. I don’t care. I’m here to make people laugh. You’re going to vote who you’re going to vote for no matter what I say. It doesn’t matter. It’s not my business. Do what you do. So I’m here to make you laugh.” Gutfeld appreciated the spirit of it, but wasn’t entirely buying the pitch. “That sounds like someone saying take up boxing, but don’t try to hit anyone,” he said. “Or a hooker saying she just wants to hold hands.”
On the surface, the setup makes sense from a business perspective. Colbert inherited a genuine late-night institution and proceeded to torch it with partisan politics, and that drove away viewers. So, steering clear of politics just makes logistical sense. But Gutfeld pushed back on the “don’t offend” part of Allen’s philosophy. Every joke offends someone, he argued — that’s kind of the point. “It’s not like a child telling her father, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a Democrat.’ Sorry, kid, you can’t be both.”
“See, every joke is going to offend someone. If there’s no risk, why bother?” Gutfeld asked. He even took a shot at roasts, calling them too comfortable because the offensive premise is already baked in. “It’s more fun to roast someone in a non-roast setting,” he said. “It’s why I always share my best zingers during my charity work at St. Jude’s Hospital.”
The deeper critique, though, was aimed squarely at what Colbert represented. Smart audiences know when a comic is playing it safe, and Colbert played it safe for years — just against the right targets. He spent four years ignoring what Gutfeld described as an almost bottomless well of material: “Mr. Magoo’s stumbling around the Oval Office, backed by a wine-soaked babbler,” with a son “filming himself with crack whores, loose bags of cocaine, and dogs biting Secret Service agents.” As Gutfeld noted, “the Bidens were an embarrassment of riches,” and yet, to Colbert and the rest of the left-wing late-night hosts, they were untouchable. “
He did nothing but safe comedy, ridiculing the approved targets his team hated, and then stuck his tongue firmly up the asses of politicians he supported,” Gutfeld said. Which brings it all back to the central irony. Colbert is being celebrated in some corners as a brave, truth-telling comedian willing to take risks. Gutfeld rejected that. “How was he able to last this long and lose millions every year?” he asked. “Because he did what he was told, which makes the idea that he’s leaving the job as some sort of risk-taking comic the biggest joke of all.”
Colbert’s Crutch: Why “Safe” Isn’t Funny pic.twitter.com/224AJbuhlw
— Gutfeld! (@Gutfeldfox) May 20, 2026

How deep is China?

• I’m Sorry, but California Is HOW Deep in the Hole? (Stephen Green)

What do you call a state absolutely flush with cash, with tax revenues booming more than 30% in just three years? If it’s California, you call it “Broke.” Wait, wut?“I once heard that the job of a budget analyst is to find the gray cloud in every silver lining, so unfortunately, along with the silver linings of revenues, we see quite a bit of gray clouds on the horizon,” Rachel Ehlers, deputy legislative analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), told California lawmakers on Tuesday. The silver lining is the revenue boom. The gray clouds are the state’s structural deficit, “both for the coming budget year, ’26-27, as well as forecast for ’27-28, even under the governor’s proposals,” Ehlers added.

“Really, the only way the budget proposal before you is balanced is by relying on reserves,” Ehlers added during an Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing. “Under the governor’s proposal, both withdrawals from reserves, as well as suspended requirements to put money into reserves, totals $20 billion.” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “plan” to close the deficit — and allow me to reiterate, during a stunning increase in tax revenue — is to raid the state’s rainy day fund. The LAO says the raid includes $1.5 billion worth of suspended deposits, a $5 billion withdrawal, a $7 billion suspended deposit, followed by another $7 billion withdrawal. Even so, that still leaves a $16.9 billion hole in the budget.
If you’re thinking that boom times are when you’re supposed to plug money into the rainy day fund instead of taking it out, you’d never make it in California politics. That’s a compliment, by the way. Imagine you got a $30,000 pay raise but spent so much money that you had to dip deep into your savings, postpone deposits into your IRA, and still had to put $15,000 worth of typical expenses like groceries on the MasterCard. Crazy, right? But in California, it’s the law. Follow me closely here, or you might not believe just how baked-in the madness is.
See, it doesn’t matter how much new revenue the AI boom brings in; Prop 98 — backed by the all-powerful California Teachers Association and passed by gullible voters — forces more money into schools and community colleges when General Fund revenues rise, but doesn’t really allow for lower spending when revenues fall. What if the AI boom proves to be a bubble that goes POP? What if the wealth tax passes in November and more billionaires flee the state? What if the stock market corrects and capital gains taxes crater? In other words, what if the revenue boom turns into a bust? Don’t you worry, gentle reader, because those Prop 98 “education” spending increases are more or less set in stone. Yet while California ranks around 12th place or so for spending-per-pupil, student proficiency is mired in the bottom half of states, and declining.
Medi-Cal — California’s version of Medicaid — also features structural impediments to achieving fiscal sanity. Medi-Cal is what happens when Sacramento builds a permanently expanding entitlement on top of a tax base that fluctuates wildly, depending on Wall Street and Silicon Valley. If California’s education spending is the very definition of Margaret Thatcher’s ratchet effect, Medi-Cal is the never-ending entitlement that blossoms in bad times, and grows only somewhat slower during the booms. California taxpayers put themselves on a treadmill where no matter how hard they run, it turns even faster.

Revolution all over Europe. The old guard is fast on its way out.

• Nearly Half of French Voters May Support National Rally (RMX)

Last Friday, an Ipsos poll conducted for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, Le Monde, and Cevipof indicated that 45 percent of French voters are now considering voting for the National Rally (RN) in the 2027 elections, meaning the anti-migration party’s candidate is favored to win the presidency. According to Antoine Bristielle, director of the Foundation’s Opinion Observatory, the poll shows that RN “has managed to unite very different electorates around a common foundation, but that its cohesion remains fragile as soon as one moves away from this foundation.”

The Jean-Jaurès Foundation identifies four main profiles of RN voters, which can be grouped into two categories. The “identity-based liberals” include older, politically engaged voters firmly rooted in the right, as well as the “forgotten France,” which represents “a working-class bloc, more economically vulnerable, marked by a strong sense of abandonment and combining demands for social protection with identity radicalism.” However, the other two groups are more recent profiles, demonstrating the RN’s expansion to new voters. The “shifting France,” representing those “less politically engaged and still uncertain,” and the “opportunistic radical right.”
This latter group of voters, seen as “more affluent, more educated, and highly politically engaged,” is, according to the report, “already largely aligned with the RN’s positions” but may have voted for other right-wing parties in the past. Immigration, as expected, is a paramount topic for at least three of the four groups. “There are too many immigrants in France” is confirmed by 97 percent of “forgotten France,” 99 percent of “identity-based liberals,” 43 percent of “shifting France,” and 96 percent of “opportunistic radical right.” As to the statement, “Now, I no longer feel as at home as before,” the percentages of support were 96, 98, 72, and 94, respectively.

Nobody says Old Guard like Merkel does.

• EU Faces Backlash For Awarding Merkel With Order of Merit (RMX)

Yesterday, the European Parliament awarded former German Chancellor Angela Merkel the highest ranking of its new European Order of Merit. Alongside Merkel, Poland’s former president Lech Walesa received the same recognition, as well as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Former European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso praised Merkel’s “tireless commitment to European integration and shared values, to bridging the East-West divide, and to strengthening the stability and cohesion of Europe.”

The EU, Merkel told those gathered, has been a “pioneer” when it comes to the regulation of social media and AI. However, she warned that more needs to be done, claiming that democracy itself is threatened by “lies” spread by the rise of social media. She even claimed that “the basic foundations of the European Enlightenment are in danger” because of it. Others were quick to counter her. Already, before she received the award, conservative and nationalist MEPs had reportedly left the chamber in protest. Merkel is seen as not only the architect of the EU’s open border policy back in 2015, which ultimately allowed in millions of migrants, with far-reaching and violent consequences for France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Austria, to list just a few stories.
She also laid the groundwork for Germany’s exit from nuclear power, which has fueled the country’s economic deterioration in the face of higher energy prices and the challenges of green technologies. However, at stake yesterday was Merkel’s attack on free speech and what many deem normal democratic principles.
Investigative journalist Zara Riffler called out Merkel for her idea of democracy: “Merkel is no longer making any secret of her understanding of ‘democracy.’ She wants tough regulation for social media & AI – she wants to punish ‘lies’ (!) – in other words, a digital world in which there is only the one truth that is approved from above. That is her true face.” Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s anti-migration AfD party, referenced the continuous efforts to ban the AfD in the face of its surging popularity among German voters as the real threat to democracy. “The only real danger to democracy comes from those who, with anti-democratic firewalls, seek to thwart a change of power through the voters. So that they can cling to their posts for a little while longer,” she wrote on X.

"Die einzige echte Gefahr für die Demokratie geht von jenen aus, die mit antidemokratischen Brandmauern einen Machtwechsel durch den Wähler zu vereiteln versuchen. Um sich noch etwas länger an ihre Posten klammern zu können." pic.twitter.com/adWNIdwc4q
— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) May 19, 2026

Other X accounts were more brutal. “David Gegen Goliath” wrote: “Angela Merkel has been awarded the European Order of Merit by the EU! Merkel was responsible for the refugee crisis – 5 million Muslims immigrated to Germany: 3 million Arab men. 60% without a job. I can’t believe it. They’re rewarding a criminal!” Finnish MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen claimed the European Parliament brought in random people to applaud Merkel, the woman “who destroyed Europe.”

For the first time, I had to leave my EU plenary seat with fellow MEPs.

Then the EU filled our elected seats with random people.

This couldn't happen in any other parliament. pic.twitter.com/xdkI04S75B
— MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen (@SebastianMEP) May 19, 2026
He told press that it is a “disgrace” that the person behind the migrant crisis was being given a prize. Referencing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and the girls being raped by migrants across the continent, the families ruined, Tynkkynen said Merkel should be in court for her “crimes against Europe” not being lauded.

“Dissent is the very essence of science.”

• UK COVID Inquiry’s Endorsement Of Censorship Sets Chilling Precedent (DS)

According to the UK’s Covid Inquiry, whose fourth report was published in April, there was “in principle, nothing unlawful or inappropriate in the government monitoring publicly available social media to identify potential trends in disinformation or misinformation” during the pandemic period. The same report, in declining to criticise the censorious activities of the UK Government during the pandemic, noted that the UK government’s Counter Disinformation Unit was required to ensure that its actions were “lawful, necessary and proportionate”.

On a careful reading of this language, the inquiry stops (just) short of expressly endorsing the full scope and extent of the government’s censorship operation. However, the relevant sections of the inquiry’s report create the distinct, and we can assume deliberate, impression that the CDU’s censorship operation was conducted in accordance with constitutional and democratic principles, and was not only justified but was necessary and proportionate. As someone who was on the receiving end of that censorship operation, with the receipts to evidence the very broad scope of commentary that was judged by the CDU to be wrongful or dangerous, this came as a serious disappointment, albeit not a great surprise.
Some would argue that in a national emergency scenario, some degree of information monitoring and intervention might be justified. The trouble with that argument is that one very quickly then has to grapple with the fact that – as we saw during the pandemic period – it’s precisely in moments of national crisis – moments where critical decisions must be made in complex situations – that contrasting views are most valuable and essential. As Jay Bhattacharya, Acting Director of the US Centres for Disease Control, has put it: “Dissent is the very essence of science.”
In my own case, the offending posts and articles caught by the CDU were typically either opinion pieces or comments quoted in mainstream news articles. They included such outlandish and outrageous statements as, “It would be unforgivable to close schools”, “Let children use playgrounds” and “It is indefensible that children’s lives are still not back to normal when the rest of society is”. Clearly, many would now agree with these viewpoints. However, even if some, or indeed many might not have agreed with those points of view at the time, the fact that they were valid, lawfully-expressed opinions cannot be disputed.
Perhaps the CDU’s hypersensitivity would not have mattered so much if, as according to the Covid Inquiry’s account, all that was happening during that period was “monitoring” of public sentiment by the government. The inquiry’s report notes that the CDU had ‘trusted flagger’ status with all of the major social media platforms, the effect of which was that CDU flags received special attention; but the same report is at pains to record that decisions about removing or suppressing content “remained exclusively a decision for each social media platform”.
Yet a subsequent investigation by the Telegraph revealed that 90% of the posts referred to social media companies by the CDU were taken down. Indeed, evidence given to the inquiry by the former head of the CDU confirmed that when information was flagged by the CDU it “immediately goes to the top of the pile. Whoever it is in whatever company then acts on it. It is the same system they have across government for things like terrorist content.”

First Starship V3 launch later this week! pic.twitter.com/JFX4CrSfnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 19, 2026

ln 1992 Al Gore predicted that within two decades, Florida would lose 60% of its population due to climate change. Today, 34 years later, Florida’s population is 425% higher than it was in 1992. pic.twitter.com/SXwO9bZ5Fb
— A Man Of Memes (@RickyDoggin) May 19, 2026

The size of St. Peter’s Basilica pic.twitter.com/frXXNRwJF0
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 19, 2026

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Debt Rattle May 15 2026

May 152026

May 15, 2026 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:57 am Finance Tagged with: Boeing, China, COVID, EU army, free passage, Hormuz, LNG, Nord Stream, Secretary of State, toll-free, Trump, Xi Jinping 34 Responses »

Camille Pissarro Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain 1897

• President Trump Discusses China Visit and Discussion with Chairman Xi (CTH)

• “Fantastic Day” With Xi, 200-Jet Boeing Deal, China Offers Hormuz Help (ZH)

• Iran Proclaims Safe, Toll-Free Passage For 30 Chinese Tankers (ZH)

• The Secretary of State Is Cool (Sarah Anderson)

• US Secretary of State Calls Chinese Military Second Strongest In World (TASS)

• Europe’s Dependence On US LNG Set To Surge (Irina Slav)

• US Wants To Restore Nord Stream & Purchase, At Steep Discount: Lavrov (ZH)

• NATO Chief Wants To Triple Money Flows To Ukraine – Politico (RT)

• Spain Wants An Eu Army: What Would It Mean? (RT)

• Trump Administration Uncovers Massive Welfare, Citizenship Abuses (JTN)

• This Is the Democrats’ Achilles Heel and the Republicans’ Super Power (Moran)

• US Gov’t Settles With Former NYT Reporter in Vaccine Censorship Case (ET)

• Fauci Accused Of Intentionally Burying COVID Lab-Leak Evidence (MN)

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2054756638155006263?s=20 https://twitter.com/CryptoNobler/status/2054841983630225712?s=20

Inflation is 3.8% and rising on Iran-driven energy costs, but still nowhere near the Biden-era highs.

The chart below shows us where we were four years ago: pic.twitter.com/RgM96bQ1hL
— Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore) May 13, 2026

Powerful and concerning.

This man James Erdman is a national hero for standing up against the CIA.

Pray for him and his family. https://t.co/89tx1kPz1u
— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) May 14, 2026

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2054734278869602379?s=20

Most Americans still think geopolitics is politicians giving speeches at podiums.

That’s the old world.

What President Trump is doing in Beijing right now is something entirely different:

Using CORPORATE POWER as a geopolitical weapon.

Look at the delegation he assembled for… pic.twitter.com/SUnEdLgtmE
— AJ Inapi (Allan) (@aj_inapi) May 13, 2026

Let Trump explain himself. Works for Xi.

• President Trump Discusses China Visit and Discussion with Chairman Xi (CTH)

President Trump sits down with Fox News Sean Hannity for an interview immediately following the fast-paced visit in Beijing, China.Hannity asks President Trump for his sense of the greeting and pageantry put on by Chairman Xi at the formal greeting, as well as some general discussion on the topics of a very lengthy talk between Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts.

President Trump and Chairman Xi discussed Iran and the current conflict which has impacted the global supply of oil. It should be noted that closure of the Strait of Hormuz in combination with the U.S. control over Venezuela oil production has reversed the dependency dynamic between Russia and China. Prior to oil/gas shortages (skyrocketing prices), and due to Western U.S/EU sanctions, Russia was very dependent on China for supplies and component goods. After oil/gas shortages were triggered by the Iran conflict, China became dependent on Russia for their energy demands. A rather unusual dynamic sitting like an 800lb Gorilla in the corner of the meeting between President Trump and Chairman Xi.

(1) Upon reelection President Trump told all U.S. energy providers to “drill baby drill” and maximize energy production. Trump then deregulated the industry for maximum efficiency: Secretaries Burgum (Interior), Wright (Energy) and Zeldin (EPA).
(2) Trump then meets with Putin in Alaska Aug 15, 2025. Three days later, Aug 18, 2025, Putin restarts Russia’s flagship Arctic project, the LNG export facility via the Northern Route to Asia.
(3) President Trump then signs contracts with Finland for the urgent start of Arctic icebreaking ship manufacturing in the USA and emphasizes the prior conversation about taking over Greenland which infuriates the Danes and EU.
(4) President Trump then triggers the Venezuela operation, captures Nicholas Maduro and -in addition to other benefits- forms a new strategic oil development relationship with the interim Venezuela government. Russia stays silent.
(5) President Trump then triggers Operation Epic Fury against Iran; completely changing the geopolitical landscape that surrounds energy partnerships. Energy flows through the Gulf of Oman are impacted.
(6) President Trump then removes specific sanctions against Russia permitting Russian oil and LNG to be sold (in petrodollars) into the Asian market. Meanwhile, the European Union is forced to increase LNG purchases from the United States.
Sure, it could all be just coincidence… or not. One thing is certain, the FIVE-EYES opposition (Canada, EU, U.K and Australia) do not think all of this downstream benefit that flows to Russia and the USA is coincidental. The FIVE-EYES opposition clearly see all of this as a strategic realignment between the USA and Russia, and they are going to do everything in their power to stop it.
Last point. The next world leader to visit China will be…. wait for it… Vladimir Putin.

“Trump and Xi agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open to free navigation and that Tehran should not charge a fee to ships using the critical waterway.”<

• “Fantastic Day” With Xi, 200-Jet Boeing Deal, China Offers Hormuz Help (ZH)

Boeing-China Jet Deal
A highly anticipated Boeing jet deal appears to have materialized after the first day of President Trump’s summit with President Xi Jinping. Fox News reports that Trump said Boeing secured an order for 200 “big” jets from China. He said the order was initially for 150, but the final figure will be 200

Trump Says China Will Help On Reopening Hormuz
It is nearly midnight in Beijing, and President Trump is still speaking on the record with corporate media, offering additional insight on the first day of the summit and state banquet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In comments to Fox News, Trump said Xi offered to help pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that Beijing may be willing to use its leverage over Tehran.

*TRUMP SAYS CHINA'S XI OFFERED TO HELP ON IRAN: FOX NEWS
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 14, 2026

This comes as energy insiders and traders warn that continued closure of the Strait through the end of the month could spark a worsening energy shock.
Trump also said Xi would not provide weapons to Tehran.
*TRUMP: XI SAID HE WON'T GIVE MILITARY EQUIPMENT TO IRAN https://t.co/9s2HQn4rPs
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 14, 2026

Trump, Xi Put Hormuz, Iran, Trade, Taiwan At Center Of Historic Beijing Summit
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are currently seated at the main table at a state banquet. President Xi called the visit historic, and said U.S.-China ties are “stable” amid talks with Trump’s team.
President Xi offers a toast at the state banquet dinner in Beijing: "To the bright future of China-U.S. relations, and the friendship between the two peoples, and to the health of President Trump and all of the friends present." pic.twitter.com/VmJeU4Xk1f
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 14, 2026

According to a White House readout, Trump and Xi agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open to free navigation and that Tehran should not charge a fee to ships using the critical waterway.

From the Bilateral Meeting in Beijing:

President Trump had a good meeting with President Xi of China. pic.twitter.com/WaH8hR1ZV3
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 14, 2026

Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. pic.twitter.com/7hYMIBoTZY
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 14, 2026

Beijing also signaled interest in buying more U.S. oil to reduce China’s reliance on crude and crude products transiting the Hormuz chokepoint. This signifies how the U.S.-Iran conflict is rewiring global energy flows.mTrump-Xi talks also covered fentanyl, securing market access for U.S. companies in the mainland market, and increasing Chinese investment in American industries and purchases of U.S. agricultural products. “American enterprises are deeply involved in China’s reform and opening up, a process from which both sides have benefited,” Xi told the leaders of U.S. companies accompanying Trump on the trip. Those CEOs include Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.

The two sides discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between countries, including expanding market access for American businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment.

Leaders from many of the United States’ largest companies joined a portion of the meeting. pic.twitter.com/i3Q1ogde2E
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 14, 2026

They have to give it to all

• Iran Proclaims Safe, Toll-Free Passage For 30 Chinese Tankers (ZH)

During President Trump’s ongoing state visit to China, he and President Xi Jinping agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must be open for the free flow of energy. They along with their senior officials have expressed agreement that no country can be allowed to exact shipping tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. Following this, Thursday saw Iranian state media proclaim that some 30 Chinese vessels are being allowed safe passage by Iran. Bloomberg also freshly reports, “The vessels were allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz with the coordination of the Iranian authorities and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, state TV reports, citing an IRGC naval official.

While it’s as yet unknown or unclear whether the US Navy side of the de facto blockade will also let them pass, Reuters has also reported the following: Iran has begun allowing some Chinese vessels to transit through the Strait of Hormuz following an understanding over Iranian management protocols for the waterway, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Thursday, citing an informed source. In particular the move also follows formal requests by China’s foreign minister as well as Beijing’s ambassador to Iran, with Tehran reportedly agreeing based on safeguarding the two allies’ strategic partnership.
Bloomberg cited the IRGC official as saying of the Iranian protocol for passage, “A new era in the Strait of Hormuz has started as many countries of the world and fleets have accepted that the best, quickest and simplest way for transiting this very important waterway is only though coordination with the IRGC’s naval forces.” This was after Wednesday saw the key milestone of a Chinese supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude having successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz, after previously being stranded for more than two months.
Also of note is that the Chinese Cosco Shipping tanker did not have to pay tolls. According to The Wall Street Journal: Lloyd’s List Intelligence data show the Yuan Hua Hu crossed the waterway through the corridor in the north controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ship trackers said the vessel switched off its transponder while sailing from an anchorage in Dubai towards Larak, then came back online for a couple of hours before going dark again. Ships crossing through Larak pay an average of $2 million each, according to brokers.
The Yuan Hua Hu is the third Chinese state-owned tanker to leave the Gulf since the start of the war. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott emphasized earlier this week that Washington and Beining “agreed that no country or organization can be allowed to charge tolls to pass through international waterways like the Strait of Hormuz.” China imports the bulk of its energy from the Middle East, and while it has amassed substantial crude oil stockpiles that are helping it weather the worst of the crisis – anecdotally over 1.4 billion barrels – restoring normal flows from the Persian Gulf is important for one of the world’s top energy importers.

Spittin’.

• The Secretary of State Is Cool (Sarah Anderson)

For years, we’ve had the media try to force the idea that certain Democrats were “cool” down our throats. Barack Obama is probably the best example. Turns out, he’s just a guy in mom jeans whose wife likes to go on podcasts and share enough marital gripes to make him sound overly henpecked. They tried with countless others. Eric Swalwell. We all know how that ended up. Turns out he’s less “cool” and more “pervy predator.” (Allegedly.) Gavin Newsom tries very hard himself to remind us he’s cool, but every time he does, he comes across as racist, ridiculous, or just plain out of touch.

For some, however, it’s effortless. I’m talking, of course, about our dear Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Most of y’all who read here regularly know I’m a fan and have been from the beginning of his career. I stuck with him, even when a lot of conservatives didn’t. I was thrilled when Donald Trump chose him as Secretary of State — it was the first breaking news story I got to write when I joined the team here at PJ Media. That’s who I learned so much of my Western Hemisphere foreign policy from over the years. bI say all this to admit that I’m biased. And I don’t know that Rubio is necessarily “cool.” He can actually be kind of dorky. But I’m not even sure that matters.
What does matter is that, while yes, he is a politician and proves that sometimes, he’s also human and relatable in a way that those guys I mentioned above will never be. Now that he’s arguably one of the most important men in the world, the MSM is catching on, and they don’t like it one bit. The biggest example of this is Rubio’s passion for rap music and the fact that he often injects lyrics into his speeches and appearances. He’s been doing this for a while, but the media has, apparently, just figured it out. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume a lot of you in our audience do not care for this kind of music.
Rubio has even joked himself in the past that it’s not really what a lot of conservatives listen to. Personally, I don’t mention it here often, but I’m a huge rap fan, and I think more conservative millennials like myself, who grew up on it in the 1990s, are too, and I think that adds to the secretary’s appeal to my generation. I’ve said before that one reason I always liked him is because I felt he spoke to my generation (even though he’s Gen X and a decade or two older than most of us). But this is not necessarily about his taste in the music. This is just one of many examples.
It’s about how he remains authentic and refuses to back away from his love for it, even if it may not be popular with all of his base. In his 2012 memoir An American Son, Rubio mentions that when he was in sixth grade, while his friends were listening to Van Halen and Ozzy Osbourne, he was discovering Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. He called hip-hop his “guilty pleasure,” and claimed that when he was on the campaign trail, he’d sit with his earphones on and close his eyes and envision winning his initial campaign for the Senate. And apparently his young staff members were always surprised about his musical tastes. Here’s something from the book The Rise of Marco Rubio:
Rubio liked to blast hip-hop on the stereo. ‘He can spit!’ one young staffer marveled to a friend, invoking the slang term for singing rap lyrics. A love of rap wasn’t exactly what they expected from the up-and-coming voice of righteous conservatism. You know, I get in trouble when I talk about that a little bit, because maybe I shouldn’t listen to that anymore, but the music is good, Rubio would later say. ‘[You’ve] just got to sometimes ignore what their politics may be and just enjoy the music.’
Fast forward back to 2026. On January 3, shortly after we captured Nicolás Maduro, Rubio said of Trump always doing what he says he’s going to do, “If you don’t know, now you know.” It’s a line from The Notorious B.I.G.’s — aka Biggie Smalls — 1994 song “Juicy.” The White House actually used it in a social media video last night, featuring Rubio aboard Air Force One, wearing the same Nike jogging suit Maduro wore the night we got him — a total troll move and yet another reason why Rubio is “cooler” than your average Democrat. During a hearing earlier this year, he quoted Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” when talking about life in Venezuela under the Maduro regime. At a Cabinet meeting in March, he quoted a Public Enemy song, “Welcome to the Terrordome.”

Full circle moment pic.twitter.com/6hkxyGNo8J
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2026

When he filled in for Karoline Leavitt during the White House press briefing last week, he worked in lyrics from Cypress Hill — saying the Iranian regime is “insane in the brain” — and Ice Cube, suggesting the regime should “check themselves before they wreck themselves.” For what it’s worth, Rubio has also said he’s a big EDM (electronic dance music) fan, and we’ve seen proof of that too. Most recently, him DJing a wedding in Florida a couple of weekends ago. My point is that none of this is forced. It’s not for political gain. He is just being who he is. And that’s something very few Democrats are able to do these days.
You can tell it’s a threat to the left because the MSM is starting to speak negatively about it. They see this cool dude whose star is rising at a rapid pace because of relatable things he says and does, who is a strong potential 2028 contender, and who is having fun while doing it. They also see they’ve only got, well, Gavin Newsom in Atlanta telling a predominantly black audience that he’s as dumb as they are, while his wife alienates most of the country with her absurd ideas that boys are bad and Southern conservatives are all hateful bigots.
They know they can’t win elections with that, so they have to send out their barking dogs to try to make Rubio look bad. On The Daily Show last week, they began mocking his use of rap lyrics, saying they’re inappropriate when talking about war. They also declared that rap music is no longer cool. And just look how sad Jake Tapper appears to be over the whole “rap lyric” situation.
https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/2052503376638669290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2052503376638669290%7Ctwgr%5E4d108a73701bc209eb84e584ad9138c3868f6e45%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2026%2F05%2F13%2Fthe-secretary-of-state-is-cool-and-the-msm-is-having-a-meltdown-over-it-n4952802
The Atlantic also recently published an article called “Is Marco Rubio the Happiest Cabinet Member?” On the surface, it sounds like a feel-good puff piece, like something, I don’t know, maybe yours truly would write, but the subheading gives it away: “While his colleagues deal with war and controversy, he’s laughing and talking in rap lyrics.” Laughing? Talking in rap lyrics? It’s criminal! Let’s just lock him up right now. I didn’t read the entire article, but it goes on to list all the supposedly bad things going on in the country, the world, and the Trump administration and declares “In a more normal time, he would seem like just another glad-handing politician. But consider the moment.”
If that’s the worst these people can come up — he laughs, he uses lyrics to make points, he’s enjoying his life — I’d say Rubio is doing much better than most of the current politicians in the U.S. And I, for one, am here for it. As a matter of fact, I’d like to see more.
https://twitter.com/SarahDownSouth/status/2051774945521279461?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2051774945521279461%7Ctwgr%5E4d108a73701bc209eb84e584ad9138c3868f6e45%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2026%2F05%2F13%2Fthe-secretary-of-state-is-cool-and-the-msm-is-having-a-meltdown-over-it-n4952802

And Russia?

• US Secretary of State Calls Chinese Military Second Strongest In World (TASS)

China has been building up its military at an unprecedented pace over the past decade, making it the second strongest in the world today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “I mean, the pace of growth in the Chinese military over the last 10 years has no precedent. <...> It’s hard to ignore how fast and how big [it’s growing]. <...> They are, right now, the world’s second most powerful military without a doubt,” he said in an interview with NBC News. According to Rubio, Chinese authorities “have ambitions to ultimately be able to project power globally the way the US does now.”

EU declares itself ready to be fleeced.

• Europe’s Dependence On US LNG Set To Surge (Irina Slav)

The European Union’s dependence on liquefied natural gas from the United States is set to rise significantly, reaching 80% of all LNG imports in two years, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has warned. In a report cited by Reuters, IEEFA noted that the European Union already imports significant volumes of U.S. liquefied gas, creating a potentially risky dependence on a single supplier. LNG imports from the United States into the EU accounted for 58% of overall LNG imports. Yet this dependence is only going to increase in the coming years, the outlet said, recommending more wind, solar, and heat pumps as an alternative.

This year, the United States will become the European Union’s biggest supplier of liquefied gas, even as the bloc also gobbles up every ton of Russian LNG it can buy ahead of the 2027 ban on Russian energy imports.The motivation for that ban, in addition to punishment for the war in Ukraine, has been to avoid overwhelming dependence on a single energy supplier, which is what the EU is currently doing with the U.S. Energy commodities are a big part of the trade deal signed last year by President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The deal featured a commitment on the part of the EU to buy $750 billion worth of U.S. energy commodities over a period of three years. The European Parliament earlier this year signaled it has problems with the deal, which angered the U.S. president, and he threatened to hike tariffs on EU goods unless the bloc signs the deal as is. The arrangement elevated American LNG, oil, and refined fuels in Europe’s energy supply mix. The actual supply of so many energy commodities, however, would be physically – and financially – challenging both for the suppliers and the buyers.

Someone actually mentions Seymour Hersh.

• US Wants To Restore Nord Stream & Purchase, At Steep Discount: Lavrov (ZH)

The Nord Stream pipelines have long slipped from headlines, apart from the occasional whodunnit narratives, and they have remained damaged and offline. The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombings occurred on September 26, 2022 – but their future fate is still up in the air and being wrangled over, including by Washington. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has alleged that Washington now it wants to buy the part of the pipelines owned by European companies, in order to assert influence and control over European energy.

“Take a look at how the Americans are planning to restore Nord Stream. I am talking about two gas pipelines, and they were blown up,” he told RT in an interview this week. “The Americans under Biden said that these gas pipelines would not work, but now they accuse the Ukrainians of blowing up these two pipelines,” he continued, before noting: “Actually, four pipelines. Three out of four were blown up. The Americans want to buy out the part that was owned by European companies.” He further explained that the US “wants to strike the deal at a price that is 10 times lower than the initial European investments” – according to Russian state media.
He explained that this would be about US control, and the ability to dictate the price of gas – instead of what would have been a prior mutual agreement between Russia and Germany, before the pipelines were sabotaged. “They [the US] openly stated that they wanted to halt gas transit via pipelines from Russia to Europe through Ukraine in order to control these flows as well,” he alleged. Last year ZeroHedge asked Trump directly about who was behind the Nord Stream sabotage op. “If you can believe it they said Russia blew it up,” Trump initially responded at the time.
“Well probably if I asked certain people they would be able to tell you without having to waste a lot of money on an investigation,” the president said. “But I think a lot of people know who blew it up, but I was the one who blew it up originally because I wouldn’t let it be built, and then when Biden got in he allowed it to be built.”
President strongly suggested that based on classified intelligence he knows exactly who was behind the September 26, 2022 covert operation which ended in the Baltic Sea explosions and major leaks which took the vital Russia to Germany natural gas pipelines permanently offline. Of course, with no investigation whatsoever (a serious European inquiry didn’t even begin till the following year), Western mainstream press coalesced around the dubious “Russia bombed their own pipeline!” narrative.

The Kremlin has hinted that the US could potentially take over and revive the damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines to supply Russian gas to Western Europe.

Asked whether Moscow would consider cooperation if American investors acquired EU stakes in the infrastructure, Kremlin… pic.twitter.com/YTawPt6iKg
— Brian McDonald (@BrianMcDonaldIE) May 13, 2026

In early 2023, famed journalist and Pulitzer price winner Seymour Hersh published a bombshell report which concluded that the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise. Hersh’s report has been subject to a lot of pushback since then, but he’s not backed off this initial reporting and investigation.

NATO want war. It’s that ssimple.

• NATO Chief Wants To Triple Money Flows To Ukraine – Politico (RT)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has urged member states to devote 0.25% of their GDP to aid for Ukraine, Politico Europe reported on Tuesday, citing diplomatic sources.Rutte reportedly raised the issue during a closed door meeting of NATO ambassadors late last month. If adopted, the proposal, first floated by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last year, would effectively triple aid to Kiev to around $143 billion annually, according to NATO estimates of the allies’ combined GDP cited by Politico.

The proposal is said to be partly motivated by frustration among some countries that they are contributing more support to Ukraine than others. Several allies, including major NATO members France and Britain, reportedly oppose the initiative. The discussions on increasing support for cash-strapped Ukraine come as the country has been rocked by another major corruption scandal allegedly involving figures close to Zelensky.
On Thursday, Ukraine’s top anti-corruption court is expected to rule on whether to detain Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, who was named a suspect in a money laundering case involving kickbacks in the energy sector and elite real estate developments outside Kiev. According to the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the suspects, including former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, laundered around $9 million through investments in the construction of the Dinastia (Dynasty) residential complex.
Last year, investigators uncovered a $100 million kickback scheme allegedly orchestrated by Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s longtime former business partner, who has been described in the media as his “wallet.” Mindich fled the country to avoid arrest, while several senior officials, including two ministers, resigned.

““If you are already part of NATO, then you can’t create a separate army. And if you have, like the European army, and then you have the NATO one, then, you know, the ball just falls between the chairs.”

• Spain Wants An Eu Army: What Would It Mean? (RT)

Spain has become the latest European nation to call for the EU to build its own army as opposed to relying on the NATO framework, citing a growing rift with the US. The idea itself, however, has split European NATO members, with many still viewing the US-led military bloc as a preferable defense mechanism. Whatever the outcome of those debates, most NATO nations are engaged in an accelerated militarization campaign costing hundreds of billions of dollars in the long run, citing an alleged Russian “threat.”

The idea of a joint European army harks back to the early days of the Cold War, when in the early 1950s, France pushed for the European Defense Community, which would have brought France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg into a common 100,000-strong European force. The plan received US backing. However, France later balked, fearful of a potential loss of sovereignty and West Germany gaining an oversized role while memories of World War II were still fresh. Still, under Charles de Gaulle, France was highly skeptical of NATO, seeing it as a tool for US dominance in Europe. In 1966, de Gaulle pulled France – which was struggling to cling to the remnants of its colonial empire and superpower status – out of the NATO command structure.
The idea of an EU army has since resurfaced several times, most notably during the Balkan wars and illegal bombing of the former Yugoslavia. While European leaders mostly backed the US-led strikes, the internal dissent was significant, and the campaign showed a humiliating reality for the EU: a security crisis in its own backyard was being handled mostly by the US. During the 2011 Libya intervention, it was much worse. Not only were EU powers dependent on the US doing all the heavy lifting, but the campaign also led to a European fracture. Only France and the UK coordinated the strikes with the US, while Italy was initially opposed to the intervention. Later, France and Italy worked at cross purposes, supporting different sides in the Libyan Civil War.
The EU army debate once again took center stage following the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014. Amid tensions with Russia, bloc members ramped up military spending and drew joint procurement plans. In 2022, plans were announced to establish a EU Rapid Deployment Capacity – a force of up to 5,000 comprised of personnel from European states with a mandate for missions abroad. Some EU nations, however, have called for a standalone European army with wider authority, citing Washington’s growing unreliability and the need for strategic autonomy.
Who is in favor?
Spain has become the most recent proponent of the EU army idea. On Monday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares made the case in an interview with Politico, saying, “We cannot be waking up every morning wondering what the US will do next … our citizens deserve better.” He added: “This is the moment of the sovereignty and independence of Europe. The Americans are inviting us to that.” In a thinly veiled allusion to US President Donald Trump, Albares stressed that the EU has to be “free of dependence,” as well as “free of coercion, whether it comes to tariffs or the use of military threat, [or] the consequences of someone else’s decisions.”
While his comments came amid a stark rift with the US over the Iran war, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for “a real European army” already in February, stressing that the bloc needs it “not in ten years’ time, but now” and pledged Madrid would contribute all necessary resources. In France, an EU army has long been a personal project for President Emmanuel Macron, who began calling for a “true European army” as early as 2018, arguing the continent could not rely solely on the US. One year later, he famously proclaimed NATO “brain dead,” also citing failure to coordinate efforts with the US. In April, Macron also stressed that the EU’s “objective is not to be the vassals” of the US and China.
In Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who leads the center-right Forza Italia party, has stressed that “if we want to be a peacekeeping force in the world, we need a European army,” describing it as a premise for “an effective European foreign policy.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, however, has been more cautious, stating that the issue is not on the agenda, adding that the bloc’s defense should be based on the cooperation of national armies.
Who is against?
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has been among the most vocal critics of the concept. In February, she described the idea of a European army as “extremely dangerous,” saying that its proponents “maybe haven’t really thought this through practically.” “If you are already part of NATO, then you can’t create a separate army. And if you have, like the European army, and then you have the NATO one, then, you know, the ball just falls between the chairs.”
In Poland, the bloc’s most aggressive defense spender at 4.7% of GDP in 2025, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called the idea “unrealistic because national armies will not merge.” However, he was more sympathetic to a brigade-sized “European legion” comprised of EU citizens or even candidate states, which could be involved in foreign operations short of a confrontation with a near-peer adversary. In Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pledged to build “Europe’s strongest conventional army,” but has been skeptical of a bloc-wide force due to legal hurdles, arguing that the EU should “focus on the tasks that we need to accomplish now.”
The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – have historically been among the most skeptical of EU defense autonomy, fearing it could dilute US commitments. In this vein, outgoing Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds has called NATO “irreplaceable.” As for the US, in 2018, Trump strongly opposed the idea of an EU army, dismissing it as “very insulting.” “Perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the US subsidizes greatly!” he said at the time.
What’s Spain’s beef with NATO?
Spain’s problem is not necessarily with NATO itself, but rather with the current US administration. Madrid has vehemently opposed the US-Israeli war on Iran, and refused to allow its bases to be used for attacks. Trump subsequently called Spain “a terrible ally” and threatened to cut off all trade. The US president encountered similar problems with the rest of NATO members, slamming the bloc as a “paper tiger” and accusing it of “turning their backs on the American people.” Another point of friction was Greenland, which Trump threatened to annex, meeting strong pushback from the EU.

“Minnesota’s Somali community just the start ..”

• Trump Administration Uncovers Massive Welfare, Citizenship Abuses (JTN)

The Trump administration’s work to pare back waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government has reportedly exposed a vast network of taxpayer-fleecing scams, abuses of immigration, and of the citizenship process across all corners of the United States. The story involves resettled refugees soaking up federal paychecks to run home healthcare and childcare businesses, transnational criminal organizations exploiting food benefit programs, and scammers using fake student profiles to make off with millions in federal student loans. It also involves non-monetary forms of fraud, especially in immigration — legal and illegal alike.

Minnesota’s Somali community just the start
The Trump administration’s focus on fraud was originally sparked by new attention on a massive COVID-19-era fraud scheme in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Last year, the number of individuals charged by the Justice Department in the scheme surpassed 70. The defendants, the vast majority of whom are part of the state’s large Somali immigrant community, were accused of systematically defrauding a federally-funded state food program, instead using the proceeds to enrich themselves, as Just the News has extensively reported.
Recent public reports indicate that federally-funded state government programs beyond just Minnesota are ripe for exploitation and fraud. In a sweeping investigation, the Daily Wire and a researcher from the Capital Research Center found that Ohio spent billions of federal dollars on “personal services” payments to home healthcare companies with dubious credentials. These funds are frequently used to compensate individuals for performing non-medical tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and “companionship” for their own family members. Because these services are conducted inside private residences without supervision, it can be difficult to verify actual service delivery.
The investigation found a surge in dubious home health companies that appear to exist solely to bill the government. In Columbus, the reporters found a single windowless office building that houses 94 different companies that have collectively billed taxpayers $66 million over a few years. Many of the business owners lacked medical training or had criminal records, the outlet reported. There is evidence that this type of fraud is specifically encouraged by the way federal government programs are set up. For example, the Office of Refugee Resettlement runs a program that helps new immigrants develop “microenterprises,” like home healthcare companies, “to help generate an income and achieve self-sufficiency.”
Welfare fraud a top priority
The Trump administration has made hunting down this type of welfare fraud a top priority. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year establishing a national task force to combat such fraud and appointed Vice President JD Vance to lead it. The task force, with help from the Justice Department and other government agencies, has vigorously pursued states where potential fraud has been documented. Last month, it shut down 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies in California after Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Dr. Mehmet Oz in January raised concerns about fraudulent hospices in Los Angeles, linking the issue to the Armenian mafia in the area.
California and Ohio were apparently only the tip of the iceberg. On Wednesday, the task force announced that it would be halting $1.4 billion in federal funding for home health and hospice providers across the entire United States. Vance also issued an ultimatum to all 50 states on Wednesday, demanding they show that they are adequately protecting against fraud in federally funded Medicaid programs, or risk losing that funding.
“Today, we are sending, across 50 Medicaid programs, letters that will require them to show that they are effectively and aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states,” Vance said at a press conference. “These letters are the first step. The first effort to try to force these states to get serious about prosecuting fraud.” “We’re a generous country. We’re generous people. I love that about this country,” the vice president added. “But part of that generosity is that it extends to our fellow Americans. We cannot give Medicare and Medicaid benefits to everybody all over the world.”
Dr. Oz said this week that there are signs the Medicaid programs were also exploited by foreign governments. “We’ve got Russian government involvement, we believe, in Los Angeles. We’ve got the Chinese government involved in a big fraud ring in New York,” Oz said in an interview with Fox News. “In New York State, the number-one job in the entire state is not retail, it’s not folks working in shops, it’s personal care services. Why? It’s because it’s a jobs program for the state.”
Federal investigators have previously identified foreign exploitation of federal benefits programs. Last month, prosecutors charged five Romanian nationals for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to steal nearly $1 million worth of food assistance benefits in Ohio and California. Last year, another Romanian national was sentenced to ten years in prison for stealing more than 36,000 EBT card numbers in California and New York using skimming devices. He had connections to a Romanian criminal organization, according to prosecutors.

Something to do with age.

• This Is the Democrats’ Achilles Heel and the Republicans’ Super Power (Moran)

Last month, 12-term Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) died at the age of 80. He was the fifth Democrat to die in office since Jan. 3, 2025, when the new Congress was seated. Someone is trying to tell the Democrats something (“Yes Lord, we’re listening”). We are, but what about the Democrats? The message is for them, and the “silver ceiling” they’ve placed on running for Congress is about to shatter into a thousand pieces.”In fact, scan the lists of congressional candidates this cycle, and you’ll find a record 80 Gen Z and millennial candidates challenging Democrats aged 65 and older — up from just 24 last cycle,” reports The Hill. “And those young challengers are increasingly outperforming older incumbents in both fundraising and polling, in some cases by double digits.”

These younger Democrats have lots of energy, lots of moxie, and a passel of bad ideas. And they’re coming to Congress in a revolutionary wave. Democratic leaders are holding back the change for reasons that, to them, seem sound. A change so drastic and radical would roil the party, setting off leadership fights and behind-the-scenes brawls for choice committee assignments. Also, while younger Democrats may win primaries in blue districts, how would they fare in the general election? Even some blue districts considered “safe” may end up being competitive.
“There’s a real rift in the ability of Democrats to reach young people and have an authentic message that they are fighting for them when it seems that [older lawmakers] are fighting just to hang on and have another term in Congress,” warned Brian Derrick, co-founder and CEO of a political fundraising platform. “There’s a silver ceiling on what Democrats can achieve while this generation refuses to pass the torch and step aside.” Republicans have their own problems with aging members, but they have taken steps to address that problem in the last two cycles. Speaker Mike Johnson is 54, while other leaders are in their 50s and early 60s.
The current leadership is younger than the previous era, particularly in the Senate, where the departure of leaders in their 80s has dropped the average age of the top brass by nearly a decade. The Massachusetts Democratic primary race is a good example of the Democrats’ problems. Rep. Seth Moulton, a veteran and experienced lawmaker, is running against 80-year-old Sen. Ed Markey. The current leadership is younger than the previous era, particularly in the Senate, where the departure of leaders in their 80s has dropped the average age of the top brass by nearly a decade.
Semafor: “At campaign stops in community town halls to backyard fundraiser barbecues, Moulton is dragging the Democratic Party’s quiet family conversation about age into the light of day, arguing to voters that the stakes of the race are bigger than ideology and speak to the future of the party itself.
“Why does this race matter, beyond Boston or Newburyport?” Moulton asked a crowd of about 200 at Newburyport’s City Hall. “Because it’s a referendum on the future of the Democratic Party. In fact, it’s the last Senate primary before the November midterms. So people are either going to look at the Democratic Party and say: Oh, there they go again, reelecting the same establishment gerontocracy that we just voted against two years ago; or they’re going to say, no, it looks like the Democratic Party is changing. It’s listening.”
Markey isn’t alone. Elderly incumbents across the country who’ve won endorsements from colleagues, labor unions, and progressive organizations are not scaring challengers away. Instead, they’re drawing them – in the form of younger Democrats willing to say the uncomfortable part out loud to voters, whose harsh memories of Joe Biden dooming their 2024 campaign – and of four Democrats dying in their House seats since that election – are still fresh.”
In Connecticut, 77-year-old incumbent Rep. John Larson of the 1st Congressional District lost the party endorsement to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 46. There’s going to be a primary, but the writing is on the wall for Larson. Bronin won by 10 points at the convention and has outraised the incumbent. “
There’s a reason that so many Americans are starting to support age limits, because it’s just good and healthy to get renewal every once in a while to get some new voices and new perspectives,” Bronin told Semafor. “I’m running because he’s been in elected office for almost half a century, and in Congress for almost 30 years, and he’s part of a Democratic establishment that keeps doing the same thing despite the fact that the world has changed.”
“Moulton and Bronin are seeing some of the same angst in their parts of New England – a non-ideological worry that their party has too many senior citizens in power, and that they should have retired after Donald Trump’s comeback,” says Semafor. The younger Democrats have ideas, but don’t possess the power to make those ideas into law. Many of them have no idea how to proceed. They don’t realize that while some of their ideas sound good and poll well, turning those ideas into law requires an entirely different skill set.
The Hill: Voters are increasingly supporting younger candidates over older incumbents; the only question is whether the party’s older voices want to be seen as a constructive part of the party’s evolution or as the biggest obstacles to its growth.
Voters are proving quick to punish the latter: 78-year-old Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) is trailing 37-year-old challenger Christian Menefee by at least 20 points in his runoff battle. Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), at 78 years-old, had to suspend her Senate bid in April after voters flocked to the upstart campaign of 41-year-old Graham Platner (D). If older candidates are unwilling to recognize how the party is changing, voters will do the recognizing for them. These younger Democrats are more radical, angrier, and more willing to ditch the Constitution to get what they want. They’re a danger to the republic and a danger to the United States as we know it.

Yeah yeah, NYT. Now do the Automatic Earth.

• US Gov’t Settles With Former NYT Reporter in Vaccine Censorship Case (ET)

The U.S. government has reached a settlement with a former New York Times reporter who was kicked off Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic for posts about vaccines Officials in a settlement agreement dated May 11 and obtained by The Epoch Times said that the government “did in fact violate the First Amendment by exerting substantial coercive pressure on social media companies such as Twitter to suppress disfavored speech like Plaintiff’s,” referring to former New York reporter Alex Berenson.

Officials said they were paying Berenson $150,000 to settle the case, which was filed in 2023 against then-President Joe Biden, Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and others. In exchange, Berenson moved to dismiss the case. “I’d like to thank the Trump administration for acknowledging the government’s unconstitutional actions against me in 2021 and standing for my First Amendment rights as a journalist and American,” Berenson told The Epoch Times in an email.
The government under President Donald Trump already settled a case raising similar issues and involving multiple states, agreeing not to take actions “to threaten Social-Media Companies with some form of punishment (i.e., an adverse legal, regulatory, or economic government sanction) unless they remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech.”
Twitter banned Berenson in 2021 after he wrote in opposition to mandating COVID-19 vaccination because “it doesn’t stop infection or transmission.” Berenson and Twitter settled a different lawsuit arising from the same incidents, with Twitter acknowledging that it should not have banned the journalist. Emails disclosed in other litigation showed that U.S. officials during the Biden administration, as well as Gottlieb, who is also a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, communicated to Twitter executives their view that Berenson’s posts violated Twitter rules and that he should be punished. Berenson said in his lawsuit that the actions violated his First Amendment rights.
A federal judge in 2025 dismissed the suit against Gottlieb, a former White House adviser named Andrew Slavitt, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, concluding that Berenson had not alleged “discriminatory animus” by the individuals. She later threw out the litigation against the government, finding that Berenson did not have standing to bring a First Amendment claim against federal officials. Berenson, in an appeal, said that Twitter’s permanent suspension violated company policy, which required leadership approval, noting internal emails that showed top Twitter executives did not approve the ban. He also said the case should not have been dismissed because he had adequately alleged discrimination.
“Defendants targeted Berenson’s speech by reason of his status as a representative speaking for and to unvaccinated Americans,” the appeal stated. Berenson told The Epoch Times, “I look forward to continuing to pursue Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb and chairman Dr. Albert Bourla for their role in the conspiracy to deplatform and silence me.” Lawyers for Gottlieb and Bourla said in a May 11 brief to the appeals court that Berenson’s claims fail in part because unvaccinated Americans do not constitute a recognizable class, undercutting the discrimination allegations. They also said Gottlieb’s communications with Twitter were “noncoercive expressions of opinion on matters of public concern,” and thus protected by the First Amendment.

“Anthony Fauci is sitting sipping margaritas somewhere with his multi-million dollar financial success as a result of duping the American people into putting an experimental vaccine into their bodies..”

• Fauci Accused Of Intentionally Burying COVID Lab-Leak Evidence (MN)

A CIA operations officer provided explosive sworn testimony Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci of directly intervening in the intelligence community’s review of COVID-19’s origins. James Erdman III, a veteran CIA special operations officer, told senators that in August 2021 the intelligence community was on the verge of concluding the virus most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. Days later, that position reversed with no clear explanation.

Erdman stated under oath: “Dr. Fauci’s role in the cover-up was intentional. Dr. Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by leveraging his position to ensure the IC consulted with a conflicted list of curated subject matter experts, public health officials, and scientists.”

BREAKING: A CIA whistleblower just testified UNDER OATH that Anthony Fauci DIRECTLY meddled with intelligence agencies to cover up the COVID lab leak.

Every day that Fauci remains free is an INJUSTICE.

Per the whistleblower, the CIA was on the verge of calling it a lab leak —… pic.twitter.com/V6c4Xx67zd
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 13, 2026

He added that intelligence leaders “purposefully downplayed the lab origin” and “knew the virus came from Wuhan but pushed the natural origin narrative anyway.” Erdman testified that CIA scientists had circulated papers noting “all the conditions were present for a lab leak,” yet senior analysts ultimately buried or softened those assessments.
Senator Rand Paul pressed Erdman on the timeline. Paul described the Biden administration’s final moves as a “clean-up operation,” noting: “Scientific analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19. Yet those conclusions never shaped the official narrative… It was not until after the 2024 election that the outgoing Biden administration directed the CIA to issue an assessment not because of new intelligence, but so officials could walk out of the door claiming there was nothing left to find.”

Sen. Rand Paul: "CIA scientists from an early time…were concluding that a lab leak was the most likely hypothesis?"

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III: "There were agencies within the IC circulating papers…that said that all the conditions were present for a lab leak." pic.twitter.com/qBp8BCrYvg
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 13, 2026

Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) demanded accountability. He told the witness: “All these hearings are important. What you said is super critical… But where is the accountability? This is what I hear from my constituents all over Ohio… they want to see the perp walks.” Moreno continued: “Anthony Fauci is sitting sipping margaritas somewhere with his multi-million dollar financial success as a result of duping the American people into putting an experimental vaccine into their bodies or risk losing their jobs. He’s not accountable to anybody.”
Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul pushed back after the CIA labeled the public hearing “political theater.” Johnson stated: “This committee needs an apology! This is not political theater. This is what the American people need to see.” Paul added: “Closed-door testimony doesn’t provide oversight. Public testimony provides oversight.”

Fox’s Bill Melugin just exposed the stunning no-show by Senate Democrats at the CIA whistleblower hearing on Covid.

Not a SINGLE Democrat was in the room — even though several sit on the Homeland Security Committee.

MELUGIN: “There are no Senate Democrats inside of that hearing… pic.twitter.com/dERE0QpHWY
— Overton (@overton_news) May 13, 2026

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin noted the complete absence of Senate Democrats from the Homeland Security Committee hearing, despite several members serving on the panel. One Democrat, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, walked past the media setup but did not enter the room. Erdman also raised separate concerns about oversight of declassification efforts. He claimed the CIA “took back 40 boxes of JFK and MK-Ultra files” that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was reviewing.
The whistleblower further alleged the agency “illegally monitored the computer and phone usage” of investigators working on the COVID-19 origins probe under presidential direction. He said: “These were Americans being spied on illegally while carrying out duties directed by the President and under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.” The testimony aligns with earlier official reviews of the pandemic’s beginnings.
It builds on the White House’s comprehensive lab-leak assessment released in April 2025 and Department of Defense and Defense Intelligence Agency reports indicating the Biden Pentagon may have suppressed aspects of the origins investigation. It also connects to prior reporting on gain-of-function research and public statements downplaying alternative theories, including pieces examining the experiment that may have started the pandemic. The hearing underscores ongoing scrutiny of how federal agencies assessed and communicated the virus’s origins more than six years after the first cases emerged in Wuhan.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2054868440762978330?s=20 https://twitter.com/XFreeze/status/2054906460308672707?s=20

U.S. corps are valued at 7x more than Chinese corps. In fact, U.S. corps are worth much more than the other top ten countries combined.
We create so much wealth because of creative entrepreneurs who are free to build new companies that make new things.
It ain't rocket science. pic.twitter.com/a7eseZf8VY
— David Asman (@DavidAsmanfox) May 13, 2026

"Documents we got from Kash Patel's FBI reveal something a little troubling…the FBI created a memo laying out how they could resume the case [against President Trump]." @jsolomonReports on newly discovered FBI documents from the "Arctic Frost" investigation, alleging a… pic.twitter.com/yVTLaI6YR1
— Just the News (@JustTheNews) May 13, 2026

https://twitter.com/JoshHall2024/status/2054701571913453926?s=20

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Debt Rattle April 29 2026

Apr 292026

April 29, 2026 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:36 am Finance Tagged with: assassination attempt, Carney, COVID, Iran.Hormuz.collapse, Jimmy Kimmel, oil storage 31 Responses »

Vincent van Gogh Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer 1888

• Trump Claims Iran in ‘State of Collapse’ (ZH)

• Trump Says Iran Caved on Strait of Hormuz Closure (Salgado)

• Iran Already Scrambling for Oil Storage After Two Weeks of US Blockade (ZH)

• Iran Has DAYS Until This Crisis Hits (Stephen Green)

• Carney Claims All Nations Tell Him They Regret Making Deals with Trump (CTH)

• Why Some Democrats Think Trump Staged Latest Assassination Attempt (Taft)

• The Chilling Embrace of Political Violence in the United States (Turley)

• Trump Is Putting Americans into Digital Prison (Paul Craig Roberts)

• House Judiciary Expands Probe Into Biden Admin Spying On GOP Congressmen (JTN)

• Kimmel Defends ‘Expectant Widow’ Sketch (JTN)

• ‘Beyond the Pale’: Trump Joins Melania’s Call to ABC to Fire Kimmel (Salgado)

• Knives Out: Is a Coup Brewing in Kiev? (Ryumshin)

• Top Fauci Advisor David Morens Charged In COVID Records Cover-Up: DOJ (ZH)

https://twitter.com/paranoidream/status/2048816718676660621?s=20

This is why OpenAI was created https://t.co/OnA4a20GPW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2026

Exactly https://t.co/hd6rx0aF2i
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2026

Scam Altman owned the OpenAI Startup fund while simultaneously lying to the world that he didn’t financially benefit from OpenAI https://t.co/87qeo9SZrz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2026

In March 2016, Billionaire Daniel Pena says that if Trump is ever POTUS he's going to change the world.
pic.twitter.com/n9vYtvgLH1
— Mila Joy (@Milajoy) April 28, 2026

https://twitter.com/triffic_stuff_/status/2048729874374738053?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2049119894508089410?s=20

When violence is categorized accurately, this unequivocally true.

You know who the bad guys are, because they’re the ones who want censorship of free speech. https://t.co/Vb9l88ePQI
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2026

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2049135738852184131?s=20 https://twitter.com/aj_inapi/status/2049113559058223554?s=20

Wow. This new release from Chuck Grassley on the Clinton Foundation is a staggering 91 page treasure trove. I just skimmed it, and it is all there, Uranium One, Russia, Boeing, Haiti, Hillary’s brother, and all the other stuff. And the FBI did not even open a full investigation,… https://t.co/S6q3YEoTn5 pic.twitter.com/mSR3HsIuBg
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) April 27, 2026

Dr Oz says American medical schools are teaching students how to separate kids from their parents and talk to them about gender issues

If medical students don’t agree to do this, their grade is docked

Dr Oz says his own son was taught this

“Oliver was in medical school, taught… pic.twitter.com/XeTb4PiL4h
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 26, 2026

Bill O’Reilly just took CBS’ Norah O’Donnell to the woodshed over her “shocking” and unprofessional ambush of President Trump on 60 Minutes.

He said actual journalists don’t “gutter snipe” unverified claims during an interview.

O’REILLY: “I have a beef with 60 Minutes.”

“I… pic.twitter.com/kPsE2ZASil
— Overton (@overton_news) April 28, 2026

Keyword today is “storage”. If Iran doesn’t find a solution fast, they will have to inflict forever damage on their own infrastructure.

It’s like a car factory without a parking lot.

• Trump Claims Iran in ‘State of Collapse’ (ZH)

Literally one minute before market-open, and President Trump issues the following big claim: he says that Tehran has informed Washington they are in a “state of collapse” and that the Iranians want the US to “open the Hormuz Strait”. Of course, even if it were true, why would the Iranians admit such a thing to their enemy during a state of war? There have been some signs of political fracture – especially tensions between IRGC and civilian leadership – but so far the evidence has been anecdotal at best. Currently the internal Iranian government debate seems to be on whether to talk to the US or not – but again, amid the fog of war… all Western MSM can do is speculate, aside from the rare Iranian ‘anonymous’ source that might whisper in a reporter’s ear.

Oil Rises to 3-week High as Trump Doesn’t Appear Open To Iran Proposal
Reporting from Monday evening and overnight says President Trump doesn’t appear open to Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, which hinges on the US naval blockade being lifted but pushes the nuclear issue off to later negotiations. As a result, oil prices have continued to rise, climbing above $110 a barrel Tuesday morning – a first in three weeks, amid concerns of a prolonged strait closure. As for the latest tankers to actually make it through, CBS describes: Four civilian ships appeared to leave the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday without Iranian interference, including a Japanese oil tanker carrying some two million barrels of crude from Saudi Arabia.
The Panama-flagged crude oil tanker Idemitsu Maru called at Saudi Arabia’s Juamyah industrial port in early March, according to open source data from the MarineTraffic ship tracking website. For the past week it had remained anchored off the coast of Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf, until late Monday, when it sailed toward Iran’s Larak island in the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday morning, tracking data showed the vessel passing south of Iran’s Larak island, which analysts say the regime had used as a “toll booth” to collect fees from some ships before military authorities declared the strait entirely closed again last week.
The White House has insisted that there would be no scheme for Iran collecting tolls as part of any future deal, but the Iranians appear to be forcing the issue, and have said the funds will help with the country’s reconstruction after the devastation wrought by US-Israeli bombing raids.
Three M’s
Independent news organization Drop Site says that Iran is now setting its own terms for ending the war as President Trump’s narrative on negotiations flails. One Iranian analyst has said that Tehran believes it has the three M’s on its side: “munitions, markets, and the midterms.” The report cites Hassan Ahmadian, a well-known Iranian analyst and associate professor at the University of Tehran, who explains: “The Iranians are saying time is working in our favor for the three Ms: munitions, markets, and the midterms. These three Ms help Iran in its position and weaken US positions.”
“Obviously in the U.S., they want something to say, ‘We squeezed Iran and we got this.’ My perception is that the Iranians are keen to deny the United States that – they wouldn’t give what Trump wants as a victory,” he added. A separate Iranian official, privy to negotiations and so remaining anonymous, stated: “We’re currently moving forward with our own design, and we feel continuing negotiations doesn’t make sense until the U.S. government lifts the maritime blockade.” “
The scope of the conflict has expanded, and naturally the issue is no longer purely nuclear,” the official added. Indeed, the latest proposal for ceasefire out of Tehran focuses on the US Navy ending its blockade, and leaves the nuclear issue for future consideration, given it has proven an impasse in the prior Islamabad talks. But Washington as been asserting its own leverage:

New reporting from Bloomberg shows Iran has 22 more days of available storage.

“The Islamic Republic has enough unused storage capacity to last another 12 to 22 days, Kpler analysts wrote in a report Monday.”

But even more importantly, they highlighted the time horizon until…
— Brett Erickson (@BrettErickson28) April 28, 2026

President Trump explained – in his own inimitable manner – what we described last week: time is running out for Tehran… as oil blockade stalls the flow state of Iran’s economy permanently… Trump told Fox News on Sunday that the US blockade on traffic to and from Iranian ports is putting major pressure on the country’s export infrastructure:
“When you have, you know, lines of vast amounts of oil pouring through your system, if for any reason that line is closed because you can’t continue to put it into containers or ships, which has happened to them — they have no ships because of the blockade — what happens is that line explodes from within, both mechanically and in the earth.”“It’s something that happens where it just explodes. And they say they only have about three days left before that happens. And when it explodes, you can never, regardless, you can never rebuild it the way it was.”

“.. the Trump administration must beware of taqiyya, the Islamic principle of lying to political opponents to accomplish the goals of jihad.”

• Trump Says Iran Caved on Strait of Hormuz Closure (Salgado)

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the genocidal Iranian regime is collapsing and ready to cave on reopening a key economic waterway. nThe U.S. Navy has been enforcing a partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after the Iranian regime refused to remove its mines from the strait and repeatedly attacked ships sailing through it. But on April 28, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Iran has just informed us that they are in a ‘State of Collapse.’ They want us to ‘Open the Hormuz Strait,’ as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!). Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Apparently, Iran’s oil crisis grew too desperate.

I personally think we should resolve the leadership question in Iran by bombing the rest of the genocidal regime’s leadership into oblivion; otherwise, we will with 100% certainty be fighting another round or four or 20 with the remaining regime leaders in the future. The same murderous mullahs who have attacked Americans, slaughtered Israelis, and massacred their own Persian people for half a century — not to mention repeatedly violating their ceasefire agreement with the USA — are not going to change their behavior. They’re buying time to save their own sorry backsides.
One of the prime negotiators has been Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, who was boastful in March of targeting Americans and civilians indiscriminately across the Middle East. He fought for Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the 1980s and has been working for the terrorist Iranian regime for decades, according to Britannica. Why should he survive and retain power? And if the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, isn’t already dead, why should he survive to carry on his father’s bloody legacy? The regime is still executing freedom protestors. And Araghchi’s fellow negotiator, “Death to America” Qalibaf or Ghalibaf, is even worse, as I reported last week:
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Ghalibaf (or Qalibaf), the same man who recently proved so stubborn in refusing a peace deal when he met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, is bragging that negotiations are a form of warfare and he thinks he is winning against the United States. “I, as a soldier, am fighting in the realm of negotiations,” he smirked… He praised Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah, which has bombarded Israel throughout this conflict… Qalibaf further bragged about convincing Trump to announce the ceasefire in a social media post, saying it was a way of putting all the onus of the ceasefire request on America, and ignored his own Iranian regime’s immediate ceasefire violations with missile attacks on multiple nations.
If Qalibaf and Co. are now singing a different tune, the Trump administration must beware of taqiyya, the Islamic principle of lying to political opponents to accomplish the goals of jihad.

Iran needs Hormuz open or they drown in oil.

• Iran Already Scrambling for Oil Storage After Two Weeks of US Blockade (ZH)

Trump’s blockade is having a predictable effect on Iran’s economy and oil industry, with reports that the regime is scrambling to repurpose old and rusty tankers as floating storage. Kharg Island is hitting capacity and the results could lead to disaster for Iran’s oil wells.

The regime is reportedly moving to expand crude storage at the island, where around 90% of their energy exports are processed, by reactivating a 30-year-old crude carrier called M/T Nasha. It’s a bad sign for Iran, indicating that the country’s main oil hub is nearing its onshore storage limit. Maritime analysts say the vessel, which had been anchored empty for years, is being repositioned as floating storage to absorb crude that still has to move out of the system.

To prepare for the possibility of running out of oil storage space at Kharg Island, Iran has brought NASHA (9079107) out of retirement. She's a 30yo VLCC that's been anchored empty for the past few years; currently spending 4 days on a trip that should take 1.5–2 days. #OOTT pic.twitter.com/jFhq2xP0mU
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) April 23, 2026

But how much time will decommissioned tankers buy Iran? Current estimates indicate Kharg Island has roughly 13 million barrels of spare onshore storage remaining at the terminal, while net inflows are running at about 1.0 million to 1.1 million barrels per day. At that pace, storage could be filled in about 12 to 13 days, which places the saturation point in late April to early May if current flows hold. A large tanker gives them another potential 2 million barrels of capacity. In other words, not much.
This data is a near match to JP Morgan’s recent assessment that Iran has between 20 – 26 days of capacity (including emergency measures) before they hit the wall and are forced to shut down their oil fields. Trump’s assertion on Sunday that Iran’s oil infrastructure may “explode in three days” due to the blockade might be a bit optimistic, but with the threat of overcapacity it is likely that the Iranians will be forced to the negotiating table in the near term. The regime’s only other option is to divert the oil away from Kharg to the Jask Oil Terminal at Kooh Mobarak using the Goreh-Jask pipeline. But this storage is limited and may already be full.
There are also limited reports that Iran is increasing “flaring” at wells to burn off excess. To keep wells operating safely (avoiding sudden shutdowns that can cause permanent geological issues), operators are flaring off excess associated gas (and possibly some liquid byproducts) at a heightened rate.If wells are forced to shut down due to lack of storage, this could cause permanent damage and render the wells unusable in the future. Recovery is expensive and difficult. If the current data is accurate, then Iran has approximately two more weeks before their economy is destroyed. Loss of $430 million per day in export revenues aside, permanent damage to their oil fields would result in a long term economic disaster.
The danger of well shutdowns is probably the reason why the regime has offered new proposals every few days to open the Strait of Hormuz, though, they continue to call for a separate negotiation on their estimated 970 pounds of enriched Uranium stockpile. There is little incentive for Trump to lift the blockade at this time, given the amount of leverage he will have over the Iranian economy if he maintains restrictions on their oil exports for another two weeks. The regime is trapped between a rock and a hard place, and will have to decide soon if their oil wells are more important to them than their Uranium.

“Tehran likely has until April 29 before its onshore storage facilities are filled.” The Trump administration on Sunday gave the same estimate.”

• Iran Has DAYS Until This Crisis Hits (Stephen Green)

The Islamic Republic is “scrambling” to find places to put the oil that President Donald Trump’s blockade stops the regime from selling before suffering “irreversible” damage to the country’s oil production. “If the Iranians have to shut down oil and gas production due to a lack of storage capacity, there will be permanent damage to the productivity of the oil fields,” Marketwatch cofounder Derek Reisfield told the New York Post on Monday. “The damage will be irreversible,” he said. “The loss in capacity could easily be half a million barrels in daily production.” That’s a significant hit to a pre-war production rate of a little over three million barrels.

Oil wells can’t just be flipped off and back on again like a switch, and that’s a yuge problem. Once capped, a single oil well can require months — or longer — and millions of dollars to bring back into production. That’s why the Islamic Republic last week brought an aging tanker out of retirement to use as a floating storage unit. The Nasha, Tanker Tracker reported, is “a 30-year-old VLCC that’s been anchored empty for the past few years; currently spending four days on a trip that should take 1.5-two days.” That was almost a week ago. Now things are worse. According to the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the regime “is resorting to previously unused methods to conserve storage space,” including “using containers and ‘junk storage’ — disused tanks in poor condition—in the southern oil hubs of Ahvaz and Asaluyeh.”
Tehran might be able to move some oil to China by rail, but not much. The rail links between the two countries simply aren’t built for oil transportation. How long before the regime simply runs out of room and starts having to cap wells?Estimates differ. Naval expert John Bulkeley estimated on Monday that in just “a few days the IRGC will have to start stopping the oil wells from pumping,” while Zero Hedge today put the figure at “about 12 to 13 days.” The American Enterprise Institute told The Post that “Tehran likely has until April 29 before its onshore storage facilities are filled.” The Trump administration on Sunday gave the same estimate.
That’s Wednesday, for those keeping score at home. I dunno. Maybe they could just let the oil just spill and create a nearly unprecedented ecological disaster for the next government to clean up. With the IRGC, anything is possible. Open Source Intel quoted a recent Iran International report claiming that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council “reportedly warned that anti regime protests could resume within days as the economy deteriorates. Officials said economic pressure is the main trigger.”The same report estimated the regime can only withstand another six to eight weeks of the blockade, with up to two million private sector jobs disappearing along with energy extraction and exports. “Security officials reportedly concluded unrest is inevitable, with only the timing uncertain.”
Or as Margaret Thatcher once famously advised President George H.W. Bush, “This is no time to go wobbly.” Granted, not everything here is running smoothly. Gas hit $4.24 here yesterday after dropping down below $3.50 just a week or so ago. But there’s a world of difference between having to pay more for gas for a little while and being a terrorist regime about to drown in its own oil.

“.. we understand administration officials review these CTH research inputs.”

• Carney Claims All Nations Tell Him They Regret Making Deals with Trump (CTH)

Today is not a good day for the Canadian trade team. It started with Quebec’s new Premier in Washington DC meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer {citation} in order to talk trade saying on Twitter, “Quebec wants a renewal of the [USMCA] to ensure a stable and predictable framework for our economic exchanges.” However, Mrs. Christine Fréchette (pictured left) then bragged about having strategic discussions with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. {citation}

For those who might not know, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a parasitic Wall Street and K-Street lobbying organization that has been locked out of trade influence since President Trump took office in 2017. It was the U.S. CoC who sold out our manufacturing base, paid-off prior administrations and wrote the actual trade language in almost every trade deal that destroyed U.S. manufacturing.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a lobbying organization who focuses on the bottom-line profits of U.S. multinational corporations, and they don’t care what happens domestically to American jobs, American manufacturing and American wages. The CoC is the organization who created the rust belt and destroyed our manufacturing base under the guise of promoting a “service driven economy.”
If Canada wants a successful trade negotiation with the USA, the Chamber of Commerce is the last organization they should be strategizing with.
Then comes Prime Minister Mark Carney who not only steps on a rake, but he also publicly insults President Trump and the entire U.S. trade team by saying every country in the world privately tells him they regret making a trade agreement with President Trump. I’m going to post the entire video of Prime Minister Mark Carney discussing USMCA (Canada calls CUSMA) trade negotiations because the tone deafness of it is off the charts. That includes the Canadian Prime Minister saying that Section 232 national security reviews are a violation of the U.S-Canada trade agreement. Carney believes any independent U.S. trade position that negates trade with any Canadian sector is a violation of trade rules, yet he is afraid to sue over Sec 232 because he doesn’t want to discover the flaw in his mindset.
Carney, like Trudeau before him, is highly upset about the U.S. tariffs on Steel, Aluminum and Softwood Lumber. Factually, those raw material sectors of the Canadian economy have been dumping product into the USA for decades despite the Canadian government simultaneously dismantling their industrial dirty jobs. This is how the Canadian system works: Canada dumps raw materials into the USA market, then skips the manufacturing part (dirty jobs) because they are not climate friendly, then imports manufactured component parts from China and elsewhere, assembles the components and then tries to find markets for their finished goods, usually in the USA.
President Trump has worked to stop the “dumping part” by placing tariffs on the Canadian raw materials (Steel, Aluminum, Softwood Lumber), in order to generate our own industrial sectors of mining, logging, steel and aluminum works. This tariff block creates a situation where Canada needs to find other outlets for their raw material dumping….. which them becomes funny because Europe has already rejected them (same reason as Trump) and China doesn’t need them.
As a consequence, Canada has no choice except to try and force the USA to accept the dumping by lobbying Democrats and various business interests like the Chamber of Commerce to put political pressure on President Donald Trump. So far, their approach not only isn’t working – but it’s also insulting.If Prime Minister Mark Carney keeps promoting this type of ridiculous anti-Trump trade narrative for domestic consumption (orange man bad), the Canadian people are going to be blindsided when the backfire surfaces. It has already backfired; the Canadian people just don’t see it yet.

Note: We are drawing attention to this because we understand administration officials review these CTH research inputs. President Trump is not going to like this insult.

Because the media tell them so.

• Why Some Democrats Think Trump Staged Latest Assassination Attempt (Taft)

Pssst. Did you hear the conspiracy theory about President Donald Trump staging his own attempted assassination? It’s in the news. The conspiracy theory goes that the most transparent president in the history of America staged his own assassination attempt as a false flag. This means that these attempts are his own darned fault because he planned them. Yeah, that must be it. Besides, Trump is looking too good, too presidential, too heroic for there to be any other explanation for this political violence against him than that he staged attacks to burnish his Q rating. Conspiracy theories abounded after the Butler assassination attempt. But they have exploded now. Even as the gunshots sent White House correspondents diving under the tables at their big dinner and giving away lucite blocks and gold plaques like Halloween candy, the conspiracy theory stories have exploded.

Wired ran a story called, “STAGED: Conspiracy Theories Are Everywhere Following White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting.” Two days before the latest attempt occurred, CNN ran a story headlined, “How would an assassination attempt be staged?” The day before, CNN ran a story about Trump staging his own attempted assassination in Butler, Penn., titled, “The conspiracy-theory monster that Trump fed may be coming for him.” WaPo reported, “First came the shooting and then came the conspiracies.” And none other than the New York Times bannered a story called, “After Correspondents Dinner Shooting, Rumors and Conspiracy Theories Spread.” The piece was subtitled, “Influencers jumped to fill the information void with conspiracy theories about the attack at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday.”
Actually, there was no void to fill. Right after the shooting, the president held a presser with multiple Justice officials to discuss next steps. We knew the name of the would-be assassin, had social media information, knew where he lived, and even found his Teacher of the Month plaque from the misguided Torrance, Calif., school that hired this monster. The president spent hours on the phone with reporters on Fox and ABC News throughout the night and the following morning, filling the alleged void. And still we got the pap about Trump running a false flag to help himself.
Of course, the president has his haters. Remember, there was a swath of reporters who claimed they’d boycott the White House Correspondents’ Dinner if the president showed up. Did they do that to Barack Obama after it was revealed he charged reporters with espionage, tapped the AP’s phones, or spied on reporters or naw? The naws have it. Or, are a few of those “fake news” conveyors all unhinged like this one, who said while hiding under a table and within earshot of a sitting congressman on Saturday night, “I hope they kill the orange MF.” Gee, maybe Trump staged the latest — or all the attacks — to change the subject away from the current Candace Owens, Steve Schmidt, Tucker Carlson, and Rick Wilson anti-Trump talking points.
[..] Lincoln Project hitman and slander machine operator Steve Schmidt, right after the 13th attempted assassination, had deep thoughts on President Trump and how this was all his fault.

Immediately after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Lincoln Project co-founder @SteveSchmidtSES blamed President Trump for "poisoning the rhetoric" in America:

"He is a vile and disgusting man." pic.twitter.com/dUG2XrcCDl
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 26, 2026

Now, where on earth would the media and the left — same people — get the idea that someone would stage a fake attack to produce a narrative? Did you happen to read in the past few days about the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is alleged to have paid leaders of racist organizations to be more racist to create a desired narrative and generate more donations? The organization is accused of paying a group leader to flood the zone at the 2017 Charlottesville instant-protest. I went over the indictment on my recent Adult in the Room Podcast. Here’s part of that discussion.

But there’s so much more. What about all the paid informants and law enforcement officers urging lawbreaking on January 6? Earlier today in Shorter Pritzker: Trump Deserved It, and I’ll Justify It by Completely and Hilariously Wrecking Myself, I went down memory lane to the Trump campaign in 2016 and all those bird doggers at Trump rallies who were paid to create a narrative. That’s why it’s so easy for them to believe that someone would stage a fake assassination attempt. Because they’d do that.

“.. many seem unsure whether we represent something beyond the totality of our wealth or power. We were much more than that when we first assumed the moniker of Americans.”

• The Chilling Embrace of Political Violence in the United States (Turley)

We are seeing increasing support for violent action across social media, including those lamenting that the recent presidential assassination was not successful. Conservative sites have been featuring teachers and others who were upset that the recent effort failed, including one who has now lost her job. The current violence and violent rhetoric have been building for years as our leaders fuel the rage in the nation.

One poll by the University of Virginia Center for Politics found that 52 percent of Biden supporters say Republicans are now a threat to American life, while 47 percent of Trump supporters say the same about Democrats. Among Biden supporters, 41 percent believed violence is justified “to stop [Republicans] from achieving their goals.” An almost identical percentage, 38 percent, of Trump supporters embraced violence to stop Democrats. The support for violence has been growing. One prior poll shows a quarter of Americans supporting political violence.
An earlier survey from the Baker Center at Georgetown University also captured the growing divide among Americans on this 250th anniversary year of our revolution. The public’s distrust of the media, democracy, and each other appears to be growing as one out of seven Americans now embraces political violence. That survey also showed the continuing drop in support for the media. As the mainstream media continues to show the same bias and advocacy journalism that has been alienating many citizens, roughly half (49%) of the public has little or no confidence in the press. Roughly the same percentage believes that the press favors the Democrats in its coverage. The percentage with great confidence in the media is now just 18%.
One of the most chilling aspects of the survey is the drop in faith in each other and in democracy. A shocking 57% believe that members of the opposite party are a somewhat or very serious “threat to the U.S. and its people.” Only 69% say that democracy is “preferable to any other kind of government.” The drop in support of democracy is particularly concerning with almost 10% of the public saying that political violence is “sometimes” warranted and 5% say that individual acts of political violence are “often” or “very often” justified.
With the third attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, the survey suggests and a sizable number of Americans may share the views of Cole Allen that even murder is now a legitimate, even righteous, response to political opponents. The New York Times recently ran a podcast in which radical Hasan Piker, the New York Times Opinion Culture Editor Nadja Spiegelman, and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino captured the moral relativism that has taken hold of the left in American society. They cheerfully described the rationale for everything from “microlooting” to murder.
In response to latest assassination attempt, Hakeem Jeffries declared, “I don’t give a damn” about criticism over his reckless rhetoric. That is hardly surprising for a politician whose favorite political prop appears to be a baseball bat, but it shows how politicians hope to ride this rage wave back into power. For Jeffries, rage may be the ticket to becoming the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. The sad fact is that violent rhetoric works in an age of rage. Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger called upon her supporters to “Let your rage fuel you.” She then refused to withdraw her support for the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Jay Jones, who once expressed his desire to kill his political opponents and his children.
It is the combination of this rising moral relativism with the failing faith in our system that represents an existential threat to our Republic. We will be facing unprecedented economic and social challenges in this decade. We have a system that is designed for such changes. In my book, Rage and the Republic” I discuss what I view as a crisis of faith in our values and ourselves.
When Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur asked, “What then is the new American, this new man?” he was a Frenchman. Later, the author, cartographer, farmer, and diplomat would adopt a new name as John Hector St. John as well as a new identity: an American farmer. ,,, What was so striking about Letters from an American Farmer was the fourth word: American. At a time when most people still identified with their states as Georgians or Virginians, Crèvecoeur wrote as one of a new people known as Americans…
The greatest challenge of this century may be a rediscovery of that essential character that seemed so clear to these early writers when they first came upon our shores. Call it a crisis of faith or a confusion of the times, but many seem unsure whether we represent something beyond the totality of our wealth or power. We were much more than that when we first assumed the moniker of Americans. The question, is what we are now? Or, perhaps more pointedly, what do we aspire to be in this new century?

“America’s 15 minutes in the sun are over.”

Not sure what exactly he wants to say apart from that.

• Trump Is Putting Americans into Digital Prison (Paul Craig Roberts)

The Trump regime has shown that its true agenda is to dump Americans into captivity. Trump and his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, a George Soros lackey, are using undocumented aliens as an excuse to force American citizens into total digital surveillance. The Burning Platform explains:

“In a move that exposes the true agenda behind the “America First” rhetoric, the Trump administration is barreling forward with an executive order that will force every American to hand over their biometric facial data or be locked out of the banking system entirely. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a longtime Soros protégé who helped wreck the British economy in the 1992 Black Wednesday raid [by Soros on the British currency], has confirmed the policy is “in process.” Banks will be required to verify every customer’s citizenship using a U.S. passport containing embedded RFID chips and government-ready facial recognition biometrics. No passport? No bank account. Period. Real ID, driver’s licenses, and every other common document will not suffice. This is not border security. This is the final knot in the digital noose.
“The order’s language is chillingly straightforward: banks must fully “know your customer,” including immigration status. Undocumented immigrants “don’t have a right to be in the banking system,” Bessent declared. But the real target is every American citizen. Millions without passports will now be compelled to get one with high-resolution facial scans formatted for seamless integration into centralized government databases. Once your face is digitized and permanently linked to your money, the infrastructure for a cashless surveillance state is complete. Track, freeze, or deny funds at will based on compliance, social scores, political dissent, or future “misinformation” flags. This is how they build the cage: one “security” measure at a time.” https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/04/25/trump-administration-fast-tracks-the-digital-control-grid/
Notice that Trump’s unconstitutional executive order pretends the order is against “undocumented immigrants” who Bessent says “don’t have a right to be in the banking system.” What a blatant lie! Undocumented immigrants have the right to work and they are paid via checks drawn on bank accounts. The federal government issues them ID cards and states issue them driving licenses. They receive housing, medical, food, and educational benefits. In some Democrat states and cities they vote in US elections and serve in state and local governments. California passed a law, or tried to, to allow immigrant-invaders to serve as police officers. Immigrant-invaders have been extended the Constitutional rights that the US Constitution gives to US citizens. So what does Bessent mean that undocumented aliens cannot have a bank account?
Is this the best disguise the Trump regime can give to tyranny? The infrastructure of tyranny “is being built right now, under the cover of “securing the border” and “know your customer.” Trump is adding to the construction of tyranny by urging Congress to approve a FISA domestic spying program. Trump says he is willing to give up his Constitutionally protected civil liberties for national security and the military’s needs. Be sure you understand what is occurring. The federal government let in millions of undocumented immigrant-invaders including criminals and possibly terrorists. To protect against this threat, the federal government wants to take away the Constitutionally protected civil liberties of US citizens.
Trump’s plan leaves Americans completely unprotected against government just as the American colonists were unprotected against the British government except by force of arms.. Congress will vote for “national security” and “for the military.” Voting against the military/security complex is as dangerous as voting against Israel.

President Trump says now is the perfect time for Congress to immediately approve the FISA domestic spying program for national security reasons because the “military really needs it.”

Trump says he is willing to give up his liberties for safety, even though FISA was weaponized… pic.twitter.com/HyFr6frPAG
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) April 26, 2026

The US Constitution has been destroyed piece by piece for a long time. Today hardly a remnant remains. President Lincoln destroyed states rights during 1861-1865, thereby wiping out limits on federal power. 1913, the eve of the First World War, brought the termination of the Constitutional prohibition of an income tax, and it established centralized control over the banking system, to which Americans had long been opposed. President George W. Bush set aside, unchallenged, habeas corpus and asserted presidential power to hold citizens indefinitely on suspision alone without evidence presented to a court. Obama asserted the right of the president to execute American citizens on suspicion alone without due process of law.
The Biden regime used the power it claimed to imprison citizens on the basis of false allegations. And now Trump, himself a victim of weaponized law completes the federal government’s construction of Tyranny for the American People. The American people, as insouciant as they have proved to be time and time again, have little comprehension that America’s time as a free society has come to its end. This coming July 4 will the last time Americans hear about America’s unsurpassed freedom and the men who gave their lives for us to have it. No such freedom will any longer exist. The agendas of organized interests have overridden the agendas of the American people–family, morality, good will toward others.
America wastes its resources and lives fighting wars for Israel’s agenda of Greater Israel and for the profits of the military-security complex. The American liberals and the Zionists have achieved their goal. Today Americans are so disunited that it is impossible for a leader to arise. Trump has proven himself to be a tool of the Zionist agenda and of the authoritarian state. When the Democrats return to office, they will be focused on imprisoning Trump and his supporters, not on restoring the American Republic created by the Founding Fathers.
America’s 15 minutes in the sun are over.

If just a little part of this is true, there goes US politics.

• House Judiciary Expands Probe Into Biden Admin Spying On GOP Congressmen (JTN)

Revelations last year claimed the Biden FBI snooped on the phone records of multiple Republican members of Congress, including eight senators, during its January 6 investigation known as Arctic Frost. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan expanded his committee’s investigation Monday into allegations that the Biden administration spied on Republican lawmakers. Revelations last year claimed the Biden FBI snooped on the phone records of multiple Republican members of Congress, including eight senators, during its January 6 investigation known as Arctic Frost.

Jordan sent the latest letter to Alpine Bank CEO Glen Jammaron requesting documents and communications related to allegations that the Biden administration’s Department of Justice may have subpoenaed financial institutions for records of private customer data for Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert. The letter asks the bank to produce documents and communications relating to any material sought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in relation to investigations about the 2020 presidential election. It also sought documents and material related to Arctic Frost and activities conducted by former Special Counsel Jack Smith and asked for the material by no later than May 11.

Trump made a lot of people not funny. Colbert, Kimmel etc., they have nothing left at all. Is it a writers’ crisis?

• Kimmel Defends ‘Expectant Widow’ Sketch (JTN)

In his opening monologue on Monday, Kimmel said that sketch referring to first lady Melania Trump as an “expectant widow” was a joke about the president’s age and not a call for assassination. Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show, responded on Monday to demands from first lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump that he be fired for his “expectant widow” comment. In a sketch last week that was a parody of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel referred to Melania Trump as an “expectant widow.” Following the shooting on Saturday, the first lady demanded Kimmel be fired for what she said was a call for violence.

The president later joined his wife in the demand, posting on Truth Social, “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.” Kimmel on Monday night joked about the controversy in his opening monologue and went on to say that the joke was about Trump’s age and not a call for the president to be assassinated, according to the Washington Post. President Trump is 79 and his wife turned 56 on Sunday. = Kimmel also claimed the president and his wife know the sketch wasn’t a call for violence and noted that he’s been “very vocal” in his opposition to gun violence.
One of Kimmel’s scheduled guests for Monday night, mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was set to perform magic tricks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, canceled his appearance on the show following the shooting and the Trumps’ outrage. ABC and corporate parent the Walt Disney Company suspended the production of Kimmel’s show for six days in September 2025 following public criticism and pressure from Trump administration officials over a Kimmel monologue about the reaction to the assassination of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

She’s man enough to handle Kimmel.

• ‘Beyond the Pale’: Trump Joins Melania’s Call to ABC to Fire Kimmel (Salgado)

President Donald Trump has joined his wife in calling for ABC News to sack vile “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel, and the president was even more furiously direct than the first lady was. Trump used his usual medium of posting on Truth Social to state that Kimmel’s unamusing and disgusting assertion that First Lady Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow” was a joke “far beyond the pale.” Kimmel has been using his late night show on ABC News to make the most disgusting pro-assassination comments for many months now, however.

The president began, “Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking.” For most of 2025, Jimmy Kimmel Live! averaged 1.1 to 1.8 million viewers per episode, which was below the average Nielsen-based viewership for shows in the first two quarters of last year. Kimmel is a failure as a show host, which doesn’t stop him from continuing to spew vile, extremely biased propaganda like his pre-White House Correspondents’ Dinner satire.
Referring to Kimmel’s tactic of showing a clip of Melania on screen while he mocked her as if she were present, Donald Trump continued, “[Kimmel] showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be. He then stated, ‘Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.’ [Two] day[s] later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives.”
Cole Tomas Allen, the shooter, “was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,” Trump added. The U.S. Department of Justice has since charged Allen with three federal charges of attempted assassination, interstate transportation of a firearm for committing a felony, and firearm discharge during a violent crime. The charge of attempting to assassinate the president carries a life sentence with conviction. Trump ended, “I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
First Lady Melania also seemingly urged the Disney Company, which owns ABC, to fire Kimmel. “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she posted. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”
She declared, “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.” Kimmel is part of the hate campaign that inspired Cole Allen.

If only…

• Knives Out: Is a Coup Brewing in Kiev? (Ryumshin)

Almost six months have passed since ‘Mindichgate’ erupted in Ukraine. The corruption scandal, which allegedly implicated large parts of the ruling elite, became the most serious political test of Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency and, for a time, threatened to bring it to an abrupt end. To stabilize his position, Zelensky was forced into concessions. His long-time ally Andrey Yermak was removed, and in his place came Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), a figure widely seen as a moderate critic of the president. The cabinet was also reshuffled, with new figures brought in to broaden the coalition. In return, anti-corruption bodies such as NABU and SAPO eased their pressure on the president.

The immediate crisis has subsided. But the structure of power in Ukraine has shifted significantly. The clearest sign of this transformation is the rise of Budanov. Initially, the new head of the presidential office kept a low public profile. Over time, however, he has grown more confident, and more visible. Throughout April, Budanov appeared to walk a careful line in his public statements, often striking a tone at odds with Zelensky himself. While the president has prepared the country for a prolonged conflict, Budanov has spoken of ongoing negotiations and suggested that peace may not be as distant as many assume.
When Zelensky highlighted Ukraine’s technological breakthroughs, Budanov has downplayed them. He has also openly acknowledged the growing difficulties of mobilization, a rare admission from a senior official in a country at war. At the same time, Budanov has been carefully constructing his public image. In Western media, he is presented as both a war hero and a pragmatic “dove,” a man who understands the need to bring the conflict to an end. For domestic audiences, his team promotes stories of personal bravery, portraying him as a hands-on commander who has taken part in operations and narrowly escaped danger.
The result is a carefully balanced political persona, and one that increasingly resembles that of a future president. Budanov’s ambitions are hardly a secret in Kiev. His approval ratings reportedly rival those of Valeriy Zaluzhny, once seen as Zelensky’s most serious potential rival. Unlike Zaluzhny, however, Budanov remains firmly embedded within the system. He is said to have cultivated connections abroad, including with figures in Donald Trump’s political orbit, while at home he enjoys support among influential members of the ruling Servant of the People party.
For Zelensky, bringing Budanov into the inner circle may have seemed a logical move. Where Zaluzhny was sidelined and sent abroad, Budanov was co-opted in an application of the old principle: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. In theory, this should allow the president to monitor potential dissent within the elite. In practice, it has created a new risk. By elevating Budanov to the centre of power, Zelensky has given him both visibility and institutional leverage. The head of the presidential office is no longer a background figure but a key political actor, one capable of shaping narratives and, potentially, alliances.
The fault line may emerge over the question of negotiations with Russia. As the conflict drags on and the situation at the front becomes more difficult, a growing segment of the Ukrainian elite appears to favor some form of compromise. This sentiment increasingly clashes with Zelensky’s public stance.

There will be much more of this soon, pwomise,

• Top Fauci Advisor David Morens Charged In COVID Records Cover-Up: DOJ (ZH)

With Pam Bondi out (related?), the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has indicted Dr. David M. Morens, a longtime senior advisor to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. The 78-year-old Morens faces charges including conspiracy against the United States, destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, concealment, removal, or mutilation of records, and aiding and abetting. Dr. David Morens. Look at that criminal brow. According to the indictment, Morens allegedly used his personal Gmail account to evade Freedom of Information Act requests and worked with others to conceal communications related to COVID-19 research grants during the pandemic.

Fauci advisor David Morens admits in an email that he "learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia'd but before the search starts" https://t.co/sn6hvwDF7R pic.twitter.com/1MroXRWNQO
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 28, 2026

Morens served as Senior Scientific Advisor in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022 – advising senior leadership, including Fauci, on policy matters, infectious disease issues, and aspects of COVID-19 origins research. He also gathered information from grantees and the scientific community and helped prepare briefings for Fauci to use with the White House, Congress, and the public.
The Congressional Investigation
The indictment follows years of scrutiny by Congress. In June 2023, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic began obtaining emails showing that Morens had been using his personal Gmail account for official government business specifically to avoid FOIA disclosures. Over the following months the subcommittee issued document requests and subpoenas, conducted transcribed interviews with Morens in December 2023 and January 2024, and ultimately obtained tens of thousands of additional pages from his personal email account in late April 2024.
As Paul Thacker of the DisInformation Chronicle noted in 2024, the subcommittee released a detailed staff memo and more than 150 pages of emails on May 22, 2024, documenting what it described as serious questions about potential wrongdoing and illegal activity by Morens. The emails included discussions of deleting records and routing sensitive communications through personal accounts. Sen. Ron Johnson had raised similar concerns even earlier. In November 2023 he wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Inspector General Christi Grimm, stating that Morens’ actions may have directly obstructed congressional oversight efforts related to NIAID activities during the pandemic.

More than two years ago, my PSI staff discovered and made public emails in which Dr. David Morens bragged to colleagues about his efforts to avoid transparency by destroying federal records and using his personal email to communicate on “sensitive issues.”

Today, @OIGatHHS…
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) April 28, 2026

Key Emails
Two emails in particular have drawn significant attention. In a February 24, 2021 message to Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance and Gerald Keusch, Morens wrote that he had learned from an NIH FOIA official “how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe. Plus, I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.” In an April 21, 2021 email to Daszak, Morens added: “PS, I forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.” (“Tony” refers to Anthony Fauci.)
These messages, along with others detailing coordination with EcoHealth Alliance after its NIH grant was terminated, formed a central part of the congressional record. nOn May 22, 2024, Morens appeared for a public hearing before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. He faced questions from both Republican and Democratic members about the emails, his relationship with Daszak, and his role in efforts to restore EcoHealth’s terminated grant and shape public messaging around COVID-19 origins..

It’s happening. Cybercab is in volume production.

No steering wheel. No pedals. Nothing to take over.

It’s made to drive itself from day one.

Under $30K. Can’t be ignored.

Now it’s real.@Tesla https://t.co/oMshxkMM9t pic.twitter.com/J2Xs8ot2bT
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 27, 2026

I don’t think people realize how revolutionary the Tesla Cybercab is.

Everything about this vehicle is optimized for purely for autonomy at scale.

Cybercab isn’t manufactured using traditional methods, instead Tesla created a new approach called the "Unboxed Process" by which… pic.twitter.com/r5J2DcftRV
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) April 27, 2026

Elon Musk: "Smartphones will not have Apps in the future – You will get everything through AI."

OpenAI are reportedly developing designed to 'Make apps obselete'

In a few years your phone becomes a simple AI edge node just a screen and audio device where AI agents anticipate… https://t.co/OfDRhWE5IT pic.twitter.com/a20nNsn356
— Interstellar (@InterstellarUAP) April 27, 2026

In 1994, Japan ceased all mandatory vaccines for children under 24 months old.

Can you guess what happened next? pic.twitter.com/qOGX4xw7YT
— healthbot (@thehealthb0t) April 27, 2026

A MIT professor gave a 1-hour lecture in 2019 that has 18 million views.

He died 5 months after recording it.

It was his final gift to the world.

Patrick Winston taught at MIT for 50 years.

The smartest engineers on earth sat in his classroom.

And he spent his last lecture… pic.twitter.com/zNjEWyOrS3
— CyrilXBT (@cyrilXBT) April 28, 2026

The most detailed image of human cell

For perspective, the human body contains approximately 37 trillion cells,

Life is a miracle pic.twitter.com/HYe2J43fWc
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) April 27, 2026

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Debt Rattle January 24 2025

Jan 242025

January 24, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 10:56 am Finance Tagged with: bitcoin, COVID, GOP, JFK, MLK, nazi, Oval Office, peace, Putin, RFK, Trump, Ukraine, Zelensky 34 Responses »

Salvador Dali Hallucination. Six Images of Lenin on a Grand Piano 1931

• I Would Meet With Putin Immediately – Trump (RT)

• Trump Knows Ukraine Conflict Means Nuclear WWIII, Gives Peace A Chance (SCF)

• Zelensky Says He Could Speak With Putin (RT)

• Zelensky Is ‘No Angel’ – Trump (RT)

• Trump Gives First Oval Office Interview (JTN)

• Trump To Pull 20,000 US Troops From Europe – Sources (RT)

• Trump Orders Plan for Release of JFK, RFK, MLK Assassination Records (ET)

• Nazispolozza: The Left’s Third Reich Mania Collapses into Comedy (Turley)

• US News Channel Fires Presenter After She Calls Musk A Nazi (RT)

• GOP To Push Trump Nominees Through Democratic Walls (JTN)

• SCOTUS Denies RFK Jr. Request To Block California’s Doctor Investigations (ZH)

• COVID Death Coverup: Trump-Hating Lawyers at DOJ Strike Again (PJM)

• Larry Fink Predicts $700,000 Bitcoin (RT)

• Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order (ET)

• West Could Orchestrate More International Conflicts – Russian Spy Chief (RT)

• UK Faces ‘Debt Death Spiral’ – Ray Dalio (RT)

Trump WEF

NOW – Trump Sticks it to WEF Globalists, Touts His America-First Agenda to the World Economic Forum in Davos |

America is back.

President Trump just stood before an entire conference of globalists at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and made it… pic.twitter.com/aLiw1W8pmi

— Overton (@overton_news) January 23, 2025

TRUMP: We're Asking Saudi Arabia And OPEC To Lower Oil Prices To Help End Ukraine War

"Saudi Arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in America. But I'll be asking the Crown Prince, who's a fantastic guy, to round it out to $1 trillion."

"I'm also going to ask Saudi… pic.twitter.com/S3bWB7JMT9

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) January 23, 2025

J6
https://twitter.com/i/status/1882144316145226065

Listen to this father speak out about what was done to his son who was a J6 prisoner. pic.twitter.com/2vAxVaoRX9

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) January 23, 2025

Chamath

Chamath Palihapitiya: While Silicon Valley created AirPods and Instagram Reels, Elon created reusable rockets and electric cars.

“I think it's fair to say that we have had a lost decade in Silicon Valley.

And when you look underneath why, what are the two most or three most or… pic.twitter.com/K4AwxWYbCX

— ELON CLIPS (@ElonClipsX) January 24, 2025

The best

A Message to the Unvaccinated .. pic.twitter.com/mwNGVtXMnC

— “Sudden And Unexpected” (@toobaffled) January 22, 2025

OMG

‘THE DEEP STATE IS REAL:’ White House Advisor Reveals How Bureaucracy Protects “Its Own Interests,” Predicts Bureaucracy Will ‘Crush’ RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary; "If I Was Given an Order… I Would Either Try to Block It or Resign”

“RFK Jr. is a very bad pick for HHS… it’s… pic.twitter.com/eYt7s935EJ

— O’Keefe Media Group (@OKeefeMedia) January 23, 2025

Putin says Zelensky is not a legitimate representative of Ukraine. No deals can be made with him. Has anyone told Trump?

• I Would Meet With Putin Immediately – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as quickly as possible to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict. Trump, who took office on Monday, has repeatedly pledged to quickly negotiate a settlement between Russia and Ukraine. “From what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we’ll leave as soon as we can. I’d meet immediately,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “Every day we don’t meet, soldiers are being killed on the battlefield.” The Kremlin previously said it was open to such talks. Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied that a Putin-Trump phone call was in the works. Trump has reportedly given his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, 100 days to hammer out a settlement between Moscow and Kiev.

On Wednesday, the US president threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia if Putin refuses to accept an unspecified “deal” to end the conflict. “Such dialogue between the two presidents had occurred during Trump’s first term,” Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin “has not received [such] signals so far.” Russia has insisted that Ukraine must abandon its plan to join the US-led NATO alliance in favor of becoming a neutral country. Putin has also demanded that Kiev renounce its claims to Crimea and four other regions that have voted to leave Ukraine and become part of Russia. Speaking to Bloomberg on Wednesday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky argued that communication with Kiev should be “a priority” for the Trump administration. He added that he was open to negotiations if Trump could provide tangible “security guarantees” to Ukraine.

“..at least he is willing to give peace a chance with Russia over Ukraine. That alone makes Trump a welcome change from the vile warmongering of Biden and his would-be successor Kamala Harris.”

• Trump Knows Ukraine Conflict Means Nuclear WWIII, Gives Peace A Chance (SCF)

The chances of a peace deal in Ukraine are suddenly a lot higher under President Donald Trump only because he has a realistic sense of a nuclear Third World War happening between the United States and Russia if that conflict is not ended promptly. Peter Kuznick, an esteemed American professor of history, says that the Biden administration brought the world closer to a nuclear conflagration than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Biden did this by relentlessly arming Ukraine with weapons to strike deeper and deeper into Russia instead of trying to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Indeed, there was no diplomatic effort from Washington under Biden. It was ideologically and propaganda-driven for confrontation, as was the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

Kuznick points out that Trump is no John F Kennedy in terms of the latter’s depth of historical and philosophical knowledge. But in comparison with Joe Biden, Trump has shown more humanity and common sense by not insulting Putin and in reaching out for a peaceful end to the slaughter in Ukraine. Biden called Putin a thug and said he would back Ukraine as long as it takes to defeat Russia. The last Democrat administration spent $175 billion of U.S. taxpayers’ money propping up a NeoNazi regime in Kiev that has lost over one million military casualties since the war erupted in February 2022. By contrast, newly inaugurated President Trump says that he wants to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a priority to find a peaceful way out of the conflict and to avoid a catastrophic escalation between nuclear powers.

Putin has welcomed a meeting with the new president and said he appreciates the urgent concern to avoid a nuclear disaster. Kuznick is author of The Untold History of the United States, which was coauthored with acclaimed film director Oliver Stone. The book was turned into an award-winning television series aired on Showtime, Netflix and other channels. Kuznick deplores the way the U.S. and NATO partners undermined international security by expanding on Russia’s borders despite earlier promises to the Soviet leaders that would not happen. If peace is to be found in Ukraine, it must be based on a bigger picture of lasting global security that considers all nations’ concerns. That means the United States must treat Russia’s national security concerns over NATO’s expansion seriously and respectfully.

Can the Trump administration deliver? It is packed with hawkish figures like Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Donald Trump is better placed than the Biden adminstration to cut a deal with Russia for peace in Ukraine and thereby avoid nuclear disaster, says Kuznick. Trump’s cabinet is filled with billionaires and his mercurial, superficial understanding of the world can be deprecated. Maybe his peaceful aspirations are muddled and not feasible given that Trump is surrounded by hawkish figures. But at least he is willing to give peace a chance with Russia over Ukraine. That alone makes Trump a welcome change from the vile warmongering of Biden and his would-be successor Kamala Harris.

“According to Putin, the move violated the Ukrainian constitution, leaving parliament as the sole legitimate authority in the country.”

• Zelensky Says He Could Speak With Putin (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said he could engage in direct peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin if US President Donald Trump provides Kiev with enough security guarantees, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Zelensky signed a decree banning himself from any negotiations with Putin in the fall of 2022 after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, along with the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, officially became part of Russia as a result of referendums. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga said earlier this month that the legislation remains in force. However, in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday in Davos, Zelensky appeared to have changed his stance on the issue. According to the agency, the Ukrainian leader now says he wants to secure a commitment from Trump to support and secure Ukraine before engaging with Putin.

“The only question is what security guarantees and honestly I want to have understanding before the talks. If he can guarantee this strong and irreversible security for Ukraine, we will move along this diplomatic path,” he said. Last year, Putin said he would only be able to negotiate with Zelensky if he were to hold an election and win it, to restore his legitimacy. Zelensky remains in power in Ukraine despite his term having officially expired in May last year. The Ukrainian leader canceled the presidential vote, citing martial law that he imposed due to the conflict with Russia. According to Putin, the move violated the Ukrainian constitution, leaving parliament as the sole legitimate authority in the country.

On Tuesday, US President Trump said he is ready to meet with Putin “anytime” to discuss a diplomatic settlement to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. “We are talking to Zelensky. We are going to be talking with President Putin very soon and we will see how it all happens,” he said. Earlier this week, the Russian leader commended Trump’s intention to resume contacts between Moscow and Washington, which had been halted by the Biden administration. However, he stressed that dialogue can only happen on an “equal and mutually respectful basis.” Putin said Moscow noted the US president’s apparent willingness to restore communication and “do everything to prevent World War Three.”

“Putin shouldn’t have done it,” Trump, who took office on Monday, told Hannity. “He shouldn’t have done it and it has to stop.”

• Zelensky Is ‘No Angel’ – Trump (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky bears some responsibility for the armed conflict with Russia, US President Donald Trump has said. He argued that Zelensky, who has been granted a glowing reception in many Western capitals, should have done whatever necessary to avoid hostilities. During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired on Wednesday and Thursday, Trump reiterated the need to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, set to enter its fourth year next month. “Zelensky – I got to say this – he wants to settle now. He’s had enough. He shouldn’t have allowed this to happen either,” Trump said. “You know, he’s no angel. He shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen,” he added. “First of all, he’s fighting a much bigger entity,” Trump stressed. He previously questioned the unconditional military and financial aid provided to Kiev by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

Trump also described Zelensky in the past as “the greatest salesman on Earth.” In the same interview, Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and threatened to impose more sanctions on Moscow “if they don’t make a settlement fast.” “Putin shouldn’t have done it,” Trump, who took office on Monday, told Hannity. “He shouldn’t have done it and it has to stop.” The president has repeatedly claimed that he would quickly negotiate a fair deal between Russia and Ukraine, but provided no specifics about possible terms. Both Moscow and Kiev have previously said that freezing the conflict along the current front line would be unacceptable. Putin has insisted that Kiev must abandon plans to join the US-led NATO military alliance, and renounce claims on Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia in 2022.

Earlier this month, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said he hopes to resolve the conflict within 100 days. Trump has criticized Biden for neglecting diplomacy and said on several occasions that he was open to having a conversation with Putin. So far no date for negotiations has been announced. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied earlier this week that a phone call between the leaders was being arranged.

“We can get our country back,” he said. “But if we didn’t win this race, I really believe our country would have been lost forever.”

• Trump Gives First Oval Office Interview (JTN)

President Donald Trump gave his first Oval Office interview on Wednesday addressing a wide range of problems facing the United States, but assuring the nation that they are “all solvable.” “They’re all solvable problems … with time, effort, money — unfortunately — but they’re all solvable,” President Trump said in the interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. He also reiterated his belief that this election was the most consequential in history. “We can get our country back,” he said. “But if we didn’t win this race, I really believe our country would have been lost forever.” Since taking office on Monday, President Trump signed a mountain of executive orders addressing the core issues from his campaign, including immigration, reversing Biden green energy policy, and delaying a ban on the popular social media app TikTok.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1882297253622386926

In the interview, Trump specifically dismissed criticism of his policy towards the popular social media app TikTok, which he promised to save from legislation passed by Congress which required the app to separate from its Chinese owner or be banned from the United States. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order to extend the deadline for the app’s parent company ByteDance to divest of the platform or face a ban. Security and privacy concerns about the app have simmered in Washington for years, spurred by the China-based parent company ByteDance’s close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. “But you can say that about everything made in China. Look, we have our telephones made in China, for the most part. We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that?” Trump asked.

“You know, the interesting thing with TikTok, is you’re dealing with a lot of young people, so they love–Is it that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids watching crazy videos?” Trump also told Hannity that he truly believes he was saved by God from the would-be assassin’s bullet on the campaign trail last year, echoing his inaugural speech where he said he was “saved by God to make America great again.” “I turned…if I didn’t turn you know when the turn was like split second, perfect timing. So something happened, and I don’t think you can call it just luck,” Trump said, confirming that the incident increased his faith in God. Trump also said he is currently reviewing the John F. Kennedy assassination files and plans to release them.

“We are in there for $200 billion more than the EU. I mean, what are we, stupid? I guess the answer is ‘yes.’ They must think so..”

• Trump To Pull 20,000 US Troops From Europe – Sources (RT)

US President Donald Trump is considering reducing his country’s military contingent in Europe by 20% as he reviews Washington’s commitment to the continent, Italian news agency ANSA has reported, citing EU diplomatic sources. If the pullout occurs, the number of US service personnel in Europe will decrease from around 100,000 to 80,000, the agency reported on Wednesday. In recent conversations with European leaders Trump has “consistently” expressed a desire to downsize the US military presence on the continent, the sources said. “Furthermore, for those [US troops] who remain, he would like financial contributions from European countries, because these soldiers are a deterrent, and the costs cannot be borne solely by American taxpayers,” one of ANSA’s sources claimed.

Earlier this month, Trump said NATO member states in the EU should be spending 5% of their GDP on defense, way beyond the current goal of 2%. “They can afford it,” he claimed. On Tuesday, the US president called on Brussels to “equalize” with Washington when it comes to the support it provides to Ukraine. “We are in there for $200 billion more than the EU. I mean, what are we, stupid? I guess the answer is ‘yes.’ They must think so,” he said. Trump also pledged to impose tariffs on the bloc due to its trade surplus with the US. “The EU is very bad for us,” he claimed. During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron noted: “now that the new administration has taken office in the US, it is more important than ever for Europeans… to play their full part in consolidating a united, strong, and sovereign Europe.”

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

This time, let’s see it all.

• Trump Orders Plan for Release of JFK, RFK, MLK Assassination Records (ET)

President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered plans to be drafted for the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The president signed an executive order on Jan. 23 directing the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to prepare a plan in 15 days for the “full and complete release” of the JFK assassination files. The deadline for the plans for the RFK and King files is 45 days “That’s a big one,” Trump said while signing the order in the Oval Office. “A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.” Trump promised at his pre-inauguration rally in Washington on Jan. 19 that he would release the remaining records on the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and King in the coming days.

The FBI accused Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union for a period after embracing Marxism, of assassinating JFK in 1963. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as authorities were moving him from the Dallas police headquarters to the county jail just two days after the assassination, stirring decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. JFK’s assassination coincided with a period of increasing mistrust in the federal government, and many Americans still believe that Oswald was part of a larger plot to kill the president. Gallup’s most recent poll on the subject, conducted in October 2023, found that 65 percent of U.S. adults reject the theory that a lone gunman killed JFK. Trump and former President Joe Biden previously released thousands of documents related to JFK’s killing. Roughly 99 percent of the assassination files had been released as of 2023, according to the National Archives.

However, Biden had agreed to delay the disclosure of additional records because of the necessity of protecting “against identifiable harms to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, and the conduct of foreign relations that are of such gravity that they outweigh the public interest in disclosure.” JFK’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), whom Trump has nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, launched a petition in 2023 on the 60th anniversary of the assassination demanding that the Biden administration release all remaining government records on his uncle’s murder. RFK Jr. was just 9 years old when his uncle was assassinated in 1963, and he was 14 when his father was assassinated during the 1968 Democratic presidential primaries.

“The 1992 Kennedy Records Assassination Act mandated the release of all records related to the JFK assassination by 2017. Trump refused to do it. Biden refused to do it. What is so embarrassing that they’re afraid to show the American public 60 years later?” RFK Jr. wrote in a statement on his website in 2023. “Trust in government is at an all-time low. Releasing the full, unredacted historical records will help to restore that trust.” Biden had moved to redact some of the last remaining JFK assassination files, but Trump’s order states that this action is “not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue.” “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,” the order reads.

“So Trump is a Nazi. Musk is a Nazi. Half the country are Nazis. The problem is that, if you say everyone is a Nazi, then no one is a Nazi..”

“AOC is a certified Nazi hunter, a license that seems only to be available to figures on the left.”

• Nazispolozza: The Left’s Third Reich Mania Collapses into Comedy (Turley)

One of the least successful efforts of the left and many in the media this election was to paint Republican voters as “Nazis” hellbent on destroying democracy. While once verboten as a political comparison, liberal politicians and pundits have developed something of a Nazi fetish, where every statement and gesture is declared a return of the Third Reich. It seems like each news event presents a Rorschach test where every inkblot looks like a Nazi. That mania reached absurd, even comedic, levels with the attack on Elon Musk over an awkward gesture during the inauguration celebration. An exuberant Musk told the crowd, “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.” As he gave those words, he placed his right hand on his chest and stretched his arm outward, his palm facing the floor. He then repeated the gesture before putting his hand on his chest again.

It was all done in a matter of seconds, but it was enough for the usual mob to erupt in faux outrage. Pundits insisted that Musk had chosen the moment to come out as a Nazi on national television. The Washington Post breathlessly reported this week how the “Nazi-style salute” had “invigorated fans on the far right.” The usual liberal professors were rolled out to offer a patina of authority to the ridiculous claim. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University, declared, “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.” Mike Stuchbery went on X (the company owned by the man he now suggests is a Nazi reenactor) to declare, “I studied the Nazis at university, taught the history of Nazi Germany on two continents and wrote for major newspapers about Nazi Germany. I am internet famous for fact-checking chuds [gross people] on the history, ideology and policy of Nazi Germany. That was a Nazi salute.”

Well, that settles it. As the outrage continued, any doubt or dissent was denounced as evidence that you are obviously a Nazi as well. That became a bit embarrassing when the leading Jewish organization, the Anti-Defamation League, stated the obvious: This was not a Nazi salute but rather an “awkward gesture.” The core principle of liberal mob tactics is that there can be no divergence, even by a group like the ADL. The way to deal with opposing ideas or writings is by making someone persona non grata. If you do not cancel others, you will be canceled. So the ADL was effectively declared soft on Nazis by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY): “Just to be clear, you are defending a Heil Hitler salute that was performed and repeated for emphasis and clarity. People can officially stop listening to you as any sort of reputable source of information now. You work for them. Thank you for making that crystal clear to all.”

We’ve reached a level of absurdity where Jewish advocates are treated like they are virtual Nazi sympathizers. This is not the first time the Democrats have labeled Trump and his supporters “Nazis.” It started years ago as Democrats repeated analogies of Trump to Hitler and his followers to brownshirted neo-Nazis. Defeating Trump has been compared to stopping Hitler in 1933, and media personalities like Rachel Maddow went on the air with a hysterical claim that “death squads” were authorized by the Supreme Court. When Trump held a massive rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden before the election, the media were apoplectic and immediately declared it … you guessed it … akin to a Nazi rally. From the Washington Post to the New York Times, the media formed an affinity group meeting to fret over “echoes of 1939.” In case anyone missed the message, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz emphasized “a direct parallel” with the Nazis.

Over at the Nation, David Zirin treated Madison Square Garden (known for everything from cage fights to dog shows) as an almost Vatican-like space: “With his fascist New York City rally, Donald Trump has befouled what many believe to be a sacred space: Madison Square Garden.” So Trump is a Nazi. Musk is a Nazi. Half the country are Nazis. The problem is that, if you say everyone is a Nazi, then no one is a Nazi. It loses its meaning. That includes Ocasio-Cortez, who appears to have joined the ranks of the Reich after critics posted her making a Musk-like gesture during a speech. There was no torrent of media fretting about how the gesture reflected the extremism of AOC’s questioning need for a Supreme Court, seeking to bar Trump and dozens of Republicans from ballots, or supporting censorship. AOC is a certified Nazi hunter, a license that seems only to be available to figures on the left.

Of course, labeling political opponents as diabolically evil fanatics and seeking to bar candidates from ballots sounds a lot like … well … it sounds familiar. There is an alternative. We can put the rage rhetoric aside and have honest debates over differences on politics and laws. In other words, we can fight over policy … and leave the Nazis out of it.

“..his critics, who should find better ways to attack their opponents than calling “everyone Hitler.”

• US News Channel Fires Presenter After She Calls Musk A Nazi (RT)

A Milwaukee-based CBS affiliate has dismissed one of its weather presenters after she reportedly called Elon Musk a Nazi on social media, over a gesture the tech billionaire made during an inauguration rally for US President Donald Trump. Musk has been forced to deny making a Nazi salute, dismissing the allegation as a “dirty trick” by his critics, who should find better ways to attack their opponents than calling “everyone Hitler.” WDJT-TV (Channel 58), where meteorologist Sam Kuffel had worked since 2019, has confirmed her departure but provided no official explanation in an internal memo to or public comments, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While the station described the matter as a “personal issue,” Kuffel was reportedly dismissed one day after commenting on Musk’s gesture on her Instagram account.

The TV channel has removed Kuffel’s bio from its website and no longer mentions her in its weather section, but retains articles written by her. Her Instagram account has been set to private, but screenshots purportedly capturing her posts are available online. She has not commented publicly on the incident. Before her tenure at WDJT-TV, the journalist worked at WAOW-TV (Channel 9) in Wausau, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in atmospheric science. The Anti-Defamation League, a US-based pro-Israeli group which monitors anti-Semitism and hate speech, has described Musk’s gesture as “awkward” but did not say it was a Nazi salute. Similarly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an International Criminal Court warrant on charges related to genocide, has tweeted in support of the X owner, declaring him to be “a friend of Israel.”

The Dems play a silly game of delaying all confirmations.

“We’re going to wear down the Democrats. Either you’re going to play ball with us, or you’re going to go without sleep..”

Ratcliffe was confirmed yesterday. We get one per day?

• GOP To Push Trump Nominees Through Democratic Walls (JTN)

Four days into President Donald Trump’s second administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the sole Senate-confirmed member of the Cabinet, putting the 47th president well behind his recent predecessors in positioning his key advisors, a situation some Republicans have attributed to Democratic intransigence. The perceived obstruction efforts of the opposition party have Republican leadership gearing up for a tense battle to push Trump’s nominees over the finish line, be it “the easy way or the hard way.” While Rubio earned unanimous approval for the post on day one, Senate Democrats blocked the advancement of Trump’s CIA Director-designate, John Ratcliffe, and several key nominees have yet to even receive hearings.

“Democrats blocked John Ratcliffe’s confirmation vote because they don’t care about qualifications, integrity, or national security,” the Senate GOP account insisted. “But they do care about denying President Trump his cabinet, even if it hurts the country.” The upper chamber had expected to confirm Ratcliffe on Tuesday, though the Democrats managed to delay the final vote through a procedural measure. A former Director of National Intelligence and D.C. insider, Ratcliffe’s confirmation has not ranked among the more contentious of Trump’s nominees. Republicans, however, appear to have doubled down and are planning to work through the weekend to push through Trump’s nominees “the easy way or the hard way.”

Ratcliffe is far from the only Trump nominee to face scrutiny, however. FBI director-designate Kash Patel, DNI-designate Tulsi Gabbard, and Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all have yet to appear before their relevant Senate committees at all. Republicans’ assertions that Democrats have held up Trump’s Cabinet appointments appear to hold some water relative to the confirmation pace of some recent Democratic administrations and even Trump’s first term. His confirmation pace, thus far, appears just shy of Biden’s. In his first term, Trump saw two key officials receive Senate confirmation on Jan. 20, 2017. James Mattis and John Kelly received confirmation as Secretary of Defense and Department of Homeland Security secretary, respectively. Elaine Chao followed suit as Transportation secretary on Jan. 31, 2017.

Now-former President Joe Biden, secured the confirmations of DNI Avril Haines and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin by this point in his presidency. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were confirmed on Jan. 25 and 26, 2021, respectively. President Barack Obama, however, saw seven members of his Cabinet confirmed via voice vote on Jan. 20, 2009. Several more were confirmed by either voice vote or roll call by Jan. 23. To be sure, several contentious nominees, including Pete Hegseth have cleared key procedural hurdles on the way to a floor vote, even earning some Democratic support despite personal scandals and a bevy of negative headlines. Republicans appear bullish on confirming Trump’s top nominees, especially Hegseth, but are also increasingly open to less conventional measures to steamroll through Democratic procedural hurdles.

“We’re going to wear down the Democrats. Either you’re going to play ball with us, or you’re going to go without sleep,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said on Fox News. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, for instance, has already vowed that the Senate will work through the weekend on confirming Cabinet nominees and has further declared that Republicans were willing to work “Nights. Weekends. Recesses.”

The whole issue should have been solved by now. All of it. Including all vaccine damage.

• SCOTUS Denies RFK Jr. Request To Block California’s Doctor Investigations (ZH)

Justice Elena Kagan, who handles urgent appeals from California, rejected the emergency application in Kory v. Bonta late on Jan. 21. She did not explain why. The decision came 13 days after the case was docketed by the court on Jan. 8. Kagan did not ask California to respond to the application. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was listed as one of two attorneys representing the physicians in the case. President Donald Trump has nominated Kennedy, an activist on environment and health-related issues, to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The other co-counsel on the application is Richard Jaffe of Sacramento, California. The Medical Board of California considers the expression of the doctors’ dissenting views on the disease as potentially dangerous misinformation that needs to be suppressed.

The board argues that it has legal authority to discipline the doctors for speech it deems to be medical misconduct. The physicians counter that they didn’t surrender their free speech rights when they obtained medical licenses. The application was initiated by Dr. Pierre Kory and Dr. Brian Tyson, both medical doctors; Dr. Le Trinh Hoag, an osteopathic physician; Physicians for Informed Consent; and Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization founded by Kennedy. Kennedy has resigned from the nonprofit because of his pending HHS nomination, Jaffe told The Epoch Times. The application stated that California’s executive and legislative branches are “threatening California physicians with professional discipline for their viewpoint speech contrary to the mainstream COVID narrative.”

After the Federation of State Medical Boards in July 2021 asked its member medical boards in the United States to punish physicians for advancing perceived “COVID misinformation” and “disinformation” among patients and the public, Medical Board of California President Kristina Lawson announced in February 2022 that the board planned to sanction physicians for what it called “COVID misinformation.” The California Legislature passed AB 2098, which took effect in January 2023, making the dissemination of “misinformation” about the disease an offense for which doctors could be disciplined, the application stated. After a federal district judge halted the law in January 2023, the Legislature repealed the misinformation provision effective January 2024. The application said the board continued to probe physicians for violating its COVID-19 policy following the repeal.

The applicants were challenging “the practice and policy of threatening and targeting physicians with discipline for providing information and recommendations contrary to the mainstream COVID narrative,” according to the application. On April 23, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California rejected a request to preliminarily block the state’s enforcement program, holding that the applicants lacked legal standing. Standing refers to the right of someone to sue in court. The parties must show a strong enough connection to the claim to justify their participation in a lawsuit. The ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Nov. 27, 2024. The California Business and Professions Code, under which the California Medical Board claims its disciplinary authority, “regulates conduct, not speech,” the appeals court stated. “It provides for enforcement of the standard of care, which is the standard for physicians’ treatment of patients,” the court added.

To demonstrate standing, the applicants had to demonstrate that there was “a credible threat that the [board] will prosecute them under the statute,” but they did not do so, the appeals court stated. The Ninth Circuit said the court record showed that the only disciplinary action taken against a doctor “involved a physician encouraging her patient to use veterinary ivermectin and resulted in the stipulated surrender of her license.” The applicants were asking the Supreme Court for an injunction stopping the state from “continuing their enforcement program targeting the information, opinions, and recommendations on COVID-19 which California licensed physicians may provide to patients.” A related challenge that Kennedy and Jaffe filed with the Supreme Court was rejected by the full court on Jan. 13.

Kory

Dr. Pierre Kory Unveils the Immunological Catastrophe: The Misattribution of Post-Vaccination Syndromes to Long COVID in a Flagrant Display of Scientific Negligence
"I tell you another deception. The entire country medical system calls the chronic problems after COVID, they call… pic.twitter.com/Ex6bWVpj3L

— Camus (@newstart_2024) January 23, 2025

“Stop the press! The Inspector General concludes that senior DOJ officials engaged in a, wait for it, leak? How did the Republic survive?”

• COVID Death Coverup: Trump-Hating Lawyers at DOJ Strike Again (PJM)

The last time a tornado hit Washington, D.C., like this was August 1814. That’s when British troops were fleeing a frightening twister. The storm extinguished fires the British set and killed more redcoats than the American army did. In the last 72 hours, Donald Trump has whirled through the Washington bureaucracy with similar fury. Things that seemed impossible last week, Trump made possible, like revoking LBJ’s sixty-year-old Executive Order 11246 that mandated the use of race in government contracting. Yet there is a mountain of problems. Meet two DOJ lawyers who used their positions to target the first Trump administration: Deborah Zerwitz and Jennifer Ramella. Unlike Jack Smith, Zerwitz and Ramella are still employed at DOJ. Zerwitz and Ramella are two progressive DOJ lawyers who work for the Inspector General. They authored the recent hit job on the first Trump term.

More on who they are in a moment, lots more. Here’s the hit. Just before the inauguration, the pair authored a little-noticed hit piece on actions taken in the first Trump term. Specifically, they worked on a report by the DOJ Inspector General. The DOJ IG published a report about nursing home COVID deaths that occurred in New York and elsewhere. In 2020, state officials in New York and elsewhere were shoving COVID patients into assisted living facilities, where their virus promptly spread to existing residents and killed them by the thousands. The Trump Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the despicable behavior under laws prohibiting discrimination against institutionalized persons, particularly the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 1997).

The law is often referred to in shorthand as “CRIPA.” People in nursing homes have a federal civil right to not have Governor Andrew Cuomo shove sick patients with a deadly disease into their otherwise healthy nursing homes. The Inspector General report makes the shocking conclusion about the Trump DOJ: “The OIG investigation found that three then Senior DOJ Officials violated DOJ’s Confidentiality and Media Contacts Policy by leaking to select reporters, days before an election, non-public DOJ investigative information regarding ongoing DOJ investigative matters, resulting in the publication of two news articles that included the non-public DOJ investigative information.” Stop the press! The Inspector General concludes that senior DOJ officials engaged in a, wait for it, leak? How did the Republic survive?

In other words, the Inspector General investigated political appointees for talking to reporters about the behavior of targets of investigations. The offending conduct was something that took place all during the Robert Mueller investigation, the Jack Smith investigation, and every single investigation of Donald Trump during the Biden administration. In other words, the new DOJ inspector general report is abject horse manure. It stinks so bad the attorneys involved in the Inspector General report aren’t fit to hold their positions anymore at the Department of Justice. Too many bureaucrats on the GS scale have used their petty powers to smear and malign Donald Trump and his presidency, as Zerwitz and Ramella did here. Their behavior is particularly despicable because it provides political cover to state officials who were acting in a way that cost lives, the very thing federal law is designed to prevent.

Their report obscures the fact that Governor Cuomo and other state officials shoved COVID-infected people into nursing homes during the height of the pandemic and caused thousands of unnecessary deaths. The facts are straightforward. In April 2020, the DOJ received complaints about the COVID-related deaths of large numbers of elderly military veterans who lived in a Massachusetts nursing home. Allegations included claims that local officials concealed the deaths and stacked the dead bodies in a trailer. The Trump Justice Department launched an investigation in 2020 and issued a press release about its investigation. DOJ subsequently learned that several state agencies in Massachusetts were also investigating, so DOJ paused its investigation to give the state a chance to investigate the case first.

Information then surfaced that COVID-related nursing home deaths occurred at astonishing rates in New York and elsewhere because Governor Cuomo and other state officials required nursing homes to accept COVID-positive individuals. Thousands died because of this decision. Families sought answers, rightfully so.

DOJ officials opened an investigation, and the available information suggested that death rates in four states – New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan – were much higher than in other states. DOJ asked each of the four states to produce data about their nursing home COVID-related deaths under CRIPA enforcement powers. The Trump DOJ transparently issued press releases about these requests, too: “Protecting the rights of some of society’s most vulnerable members, including elderly nursing home residents, is one of our country’s most important obligations,” said then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband. “We must ensure they are adequately cared for with dignity and respect and not unnecessarily put at risk.”

“If you’re frightened of the debasement of your currency, or you’re frightened of the economic or political stability of your country, you can have an internationally based instrument called Bitcoin that will overcome those local fears..”

• Larry Fink Predicts $700,000 Bitcoin (RT)

Bitcoin could reach an astonishing $700,000 if institutional investors allocate between 2% and 5% of their portfolios to the cryptocurrency, Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, has predicted. The digital coin has seen a surge in its value in recent months. In 2024, its price jumped 121%, reaching the peak of $108,135 in December. On Monday, following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Bitcoin hit a record $109,225. Trump had previously announced plans to make the US the world’s “crypto capital” and to set up a national Bitcoin reserve. Fink told an audience at a panel in Davos on Wednesday that he is “a big believer” in the world’s largest cryptocurrency as an instrument, highlighting its potential as a financial hedge.

“If you’re frightened of the debasement of your currency, or you’re frightened of the economic or political stability of your country, you can have an internationally based instrument called Bitcoin that will overcome those local fears,” Fink said. The investor cited a momentum towards institutional adoption of the cryptocurrency. “I was with a sovereign-wealth fund during this week, and there was a conversation, should we have a 2% allocation? Should we have a 5% allocation? If everybody adopted that conversation, it would be $500,000, $600,000, $700,000 for bitcoin,” argued Fink. The investor noted that he wasn’t promoting the token. Last year, BlackRock launched Bitcoin Trust and Ethereum Trust, exchange-traded funds investing directly into the two crypto tokens. Fink used to be skeptical of digital assets. In 2018, he told Bloomberg that BlackRock’s clients had zero interest in crypto.

Created in 2009, Bitcoin allows people to send and receive money over the internet without relying on traditional banks or governments. The decentralized nature of the token has also facilitated its misuse by organized crime gangs and for other illicit purposes such as money laundering and terrorist financing. The price is primarily affected by supply, market demand, availability, competing cryptocurrencies, and investor sentiment. Despite wide use for buying goods and services, there are no uniform international laws that regulate Bitcoin. The token was adopted as official currency in El Salvador in 2021. Governments around the world have been wary of the cryptocurrencies’ growing influence, warning about the dangers of investing into a volatile asset. According to an opinion piece by financial analyst Susie Violet Ward published by Forbes on Monday, Bitcoin’s institutionalization would compromise its original ethos as “freedom money,” with regulatory and economic control eroding the token’s decentralization.

See also Ryan McMaken’s excellent overview in yesterday’s Debt Rattle. The key line:

“..all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof..”

Those are two separate things!

• Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order (ET)

A U.S. judge on Jan. 23 blocked President Donald Trump’s order limiting birthright citizenship. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour after a hearing in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order that prohibits the Trump administration for 14 days from enforcing Trump’s order, which the president signed hours after taking office on Monday. “This is blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour told a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department during the hearing. The ruling was made in a case brought by the attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington state. It was one of several lawsuits lodged against the executive order. Trump’s order was set to take effect on Feb. 19. It says that the federal government does not automatically recognize birthright citizenship for children who are born to illegal immigrants in the United States.

Historically, babies born on U.S. soil receive U.S. citizenship. That’s based on court rulings interpreting the U.S. Constitution, which says in part that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Congress also passed a law containing similar language. Trump’s order says that the Constitution’s citizenship clause “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States” and “has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’” It clarifies that the federal government does not automatically grant citizenship to babies whose mothers are in the United States and whose fathers are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents.

In their motion for a temporary restraining order, state officials said that Trump went beyond his powers with the order, describing it as “flatly contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment’s text and history, century-old Supreme Court precedent, longstanding Executive Branch interpretation, and the Immigration and Nationality Act.” Without court intervention, the order would leave more than 150,000 babies born this year without citizenship because their parents are illegally in the country, according to the attorneys general. Government officials said in response that the court should not issue a restraining order because the states have not suffered any injuries and because the plaintiffs are not likely to succeed.

“Ample historical evidence shows that the children of non-resident aliens are subject to foreign powers—and, thus, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to birthright citizenship,” government lawyers said.That included a Supreme Court justice writing in legal commentaries that birthright citizenship should not apply to babies whose parents were in the country “for temporary purposes.” Coughenour sided with the states, telling the courtroom before Department of Justice attorney Brett Shumate had even finished talking that he had signed the restraining order sought by the states.The two-week order is in place while Coughenour weighs issuing a preliminary injunction, which would likely remain in place as the case proceeds in the courts. Schumate during Thursday’s hearing argued the executive order was constitutional and that any order blocking it would be “wildly inappropriate.”

“The United States is losing its dominant global position, which may prompt Western elites to fuel new armed conflicts between nations..”

• West Could Orchestrate More International Conflicts – Russian Spy Chief (RT)

The United States is losing its dominant global position, which may prompt Western elites to fuel new armed conflicts between nations, according to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). In an interview with RIA Novosti previewed on Friday, Naryshkin said the US is “gradually degrading and losing control.” He cautioned that some influential figures may attempt to spark international conflicts to serve their interests. The global situation in 2025 will remain unstable, the SVR chief predicted, highlighting the need for prudence among regional and global players. Naryshkin stressed that much depends on the rationality and restraint exercised by these actors.

The Russian official added that while the shift to a new, fairer multipolar world order is “complex and fraught with risks,” the emergence of new centers of power has significant potential for economic development and the ability to ensure global security and stability. Naryshkin expects the US and EU to be major participants in the future global architecture, with a level of influence on par with that of other great powers, including China, India and Russia. A new pan-Eurasian security arrangement will make the world as a whole more stable, he added. Moscow and Beijing have accused the West of refusing to accept that the economic rise of non-Western nations gives them a greater role in international affairs. Instead, Washington is seeking to replace international law with a “rules-based order” that gives the US undeserved benefits and suppresses competition, officials from Russia and China have argued.

“Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have described their fiscal rules as “ironclad” and “non-negotiable.”

• UK Faces ‘Debt Death Spiral’ – Ray Dalio (RT)

The UK faces significant fiscal risks due to its rising borrowing costs and increasing debt levels, the boss of the world’s largest hedge fund, Ray Dalio, has warned. Britain’s annual interest payments have surpassed £100 billion (roughly $125 billion), Dalio, the founder of investment management firm Bridgewater Associates, said in an interview with the Financial Times. The recent sell-off in fixed-interest loan securities issued by the UK government, known as gilts, coupled with the weakening of the British pound, indicate that the market is struggling to absorb the government’s higher borrowing requirements, he explained. “When you get to the point that you have to borrow money to service the debt and interest rates are rising, so that debt-service payments rise, so you need to borrow more money to pay them, you’re in what the markets call a death spiral,” the investor told the FT in Tuesday’s report.

The UK’s ten-year borrowing costs rose from 3.75% in mid-September to a 16-year high earlier this month at 4.93%, the outlet noted. ”As those risks increase, everybody looks at that need to borrow more money at higher interest, which creates [a] self-reinforcing debt deterioration cycle,” Dalio also pointed out. The UK government in October adopted a budget for the financial year 2025/2026, pledging more funding for essential services and social support, and increased debt-servicing costs. Although the government announced tax increases, analysts have pointed out that these may not fully cover the additional spending, particularly amid slower economic growth.

The British pound has been declining since September, having lost about 8.2% of its value against the US dollar. The drop has been attributed to rising borrowing costs, market apprehension about the country’s debt levels, and reduced investor confidence. The trends have prompted another warning, this one from Berlin-based credit rating agency Scope Ratings. Recent moves in UK debt markets and the falling pound suggest that cracks may be appearing in Britain’s reserve currency status, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing Denis Shen, a top analyst at the agency. The UK’s vulnerability to emerging market-style sell-offs could jeopardize its AA credit rating, Shen warns. In response to the challenges, the UK government said it remained “absolutely committed” to strict fiscal discipline. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have described their fiscal rules as “ironclad” and “non-negotiable.”

Cold day
https://twitter.com/i/status/1882097894423142503

Denial
https://twitter.com/i/status/1882470128580796628

Cuttlefish

7. An amazing cuttlefish camouflage

pic.twitter.com/ZyfA8X1UCc

— Dr King Winter (@I_Am_Winter) January 23, 2025

Phonics
https://twitter.com/i/status/1882264331016163414

Titanic

pic.twitter.com/rnbNvvz6Xu

— Doglover (@puppiesDoglover) January 23, 2025

Airplane

A teacher showing his paper aeroplane pic.twitter.com/Jw0B1U765M

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) January 23, 2025

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Debt Rattle December 11 2024

Dec 112024

December 11, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:59 am Finance Tagged with: Alvin Bragg, Boeing, censorship, COVID, Daniel Penny, DOGE caucus, DOJ, Hegseth, Kash Patel, Tesla, Tulsi Gabbard 57 Responses »

Johannes Vermeer Woman holding a balance 1662-63

• Pressure Mounts For Support Of Trump’s Cabinet Picks During Honeymoon (JTN)

• 250 Conservative Veterans Sign Letter Backing Tulsi Gabbard Nomination (Hill)

• Pete Hegseth Lashes Out At Media ‘Smear’ Campaign (RT)

• Pete Hegseth Will Be Confirmed As Secretary of Defense, Predicts His Lawyer (JTN)

• DOJ Spied On Kash Patel, Staffers Without Telling Courts (JTN)

• How Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Plans To Keep Trump Case Alive (ZH)

• Giuliani Says Jury Verdict In Penny’s Case Is A Black Eye To Bragg (JTN)

• Russia Close To Winning Ukraine Conflict – Spy Chief (RT)

• Obstruction of Immigration Enforcement Could Prove Costly for Citizens (Turley)

• Bernie Sanders Says Musk Is Right On Military Spending (JTN)

• Boeing Reportedly Restarts 737 Max Production (ZH)

• State Dep. Scrambles To Scuttle $100M Censorship Network Before Trump (ZH)

• Putin-the-Unready Is Beginning to be Held Accountable (Paul Craig Roberts)

• Elon Musk Jokes Bill Gates Could Go “Bankrupt” On Short Tesla Bet (ZH)

• SCOTUS Asked to Block State From Probing Doctors Who Question COVID Policies (ET)

• Western Conservatives Find Asylum In The Russian Federation (SCF)

Newt

.@newtgingrich on President Trump: “The guy just keeps coming… this is a mythic figure, almost like the various Scandinavian Beowulfs and other kinds of sagas. There’s no practical way you can explain Trump within a normal political structure.” pic.twitter.com/5jbcXMGIXU

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) December 10, 2024

Judge+Sachs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1866257322798100761

Putin

Living amongst the Russians, you realise just how offensive the Nazi symbolism is to them.

Putins' brother died of diphtheria during the Nazi Siege of Leningrad, his grandmother killed by Nazis in 1941, his uncles died fighting on the Eastern Front. pic.twitter.com/copYTB7Org

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) December 9, 2024

Freak out

John Fetterman on how Dems should handle Trump: "If everything is a freak out, then people can just tune you out. … So, at some point, if you don't just pick your spots, then no one's going to just pay attention at that point."

He said he was going to wait to see if GOP can… pic.twitter.com/gaZCOOcaHn

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 9, 2024

Elon AI

“The other AIs being produced are not maximally truth-seeking; they tend to be trained to be politically correct. We need an AI that loves humanity, and that’s why I created xAI.”

一 Elon Musk

pic.twitter.com/kx60NdyJQE

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) December 10, 2024

“..the first Democrat to join the House’s newly-formed DOGE caucus..”

• Pressure Mounts For Support Of Trump’s Cabinet Picks During Honeymoon (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump seems to finally be enjoying the honeymoon period he didn’t get after his 2016 victory, with Democrats publicly expressing willingness to work with him on key initiatives and public polling showing broad approval of his plans. After winning the White House the first time, Trump didn’t experience the traditional polling bump and sense of public optimism that often comes with a new president. The post-2024 transition period, however, has been discernibly different. In a recent Rasmussen Reports survey, 55% of voters expressed the belief that Trump’s election win had given him a mandate to implement his agenda, while 32% disagreed and 13% were unsure. A separate Napolitan Institute survey, found that 53% approved of how Trump is handling the transition while 43% disapproved.

As he goes to war with some Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans over his Cabinet nominees, public support for his agenda seems to be giving him momentum to push through the controversial personnel picks who will implement it. Some Democrats, moreover, have expressed openness to specific nominees and interest in participating in some of his initiatives. The incoming commander-in-chief has repeatedly pointed to his landslide electoral victory that saw him carry both the Electoral College and the popular vote to support claims of a mandate for change. To that end, he has selected nominees for key departments with unconventional backgrounds and has rattled upper chamber lawmakers in doing so. The confirmation hearings won’t begin until January, but in the meantime, lawmakers face a pressure campaign from Trump supporters to get on board with his efforts.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., last week became the first Democrat to join the House’s newly-formed DOGE caucus, a group of lawmakers dedicated to trimming the size of the government and working with Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “I’ve been clear that there are ways we can reorganize our government to make it work better for the American people,” he said at the time. “The Caucus should look at the bureaucracy that the DHS has become and include recommendations to make Secret Service and FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] independent federal agencies with a direct report to the White House.” Potentially driving lawmakers like Moskowitz to get on board with the DOGE agenda is public polling data suggesting it enjoys broad support. The Napolitan survey also found that 52% of Americans approve of the way Trump is managing the transition.

Some of the specific proposals from DOGE co-leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, such as bringing federal employees back to the office, have majority support. Fifty-seven percent of Americans backed requiring federal employees to cease remote work, while just 28% opposed the move in the Napolitan survey. Fifty-three percent backed firing those who refused to work in-person. Another 60% supported moving some federal agencies out of the Washington, D.C., area. The public is, at best, cautiously optimistic about DOGE’s prospects, even if they support its efforts. Only 45% think the new department can “easily eliminate” trillions in waste. Forty-nine percent think eliminating waste fraud and abuse will balance the budget.

At least some of Trump’s cabinet picks seem to have picked up support from upper chamber Democrats, notably Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whom he tapped for Secretary of State. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., had positive words for the Florida Republican, as did other lawmakers across the aisle. “Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own,” Fetterman said. “That being said, my colleague [Rubio] is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation.” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., moreover, has also expressed interest in Rubio’s potential confirmation. “I look forward to talking to him. You know, Marco Rubio, you have strange bedfellows, and you have strange alliances,” she said.

Fetterman also expressed openness to Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Oz and Fetterman squared off for one of the Keystone State’s Senate seats in 2022. Fetterman insisted he doesn’t have “any kind of bitterness” toward Oz and was “open to dialogue” on the issues relevant to CMS. To be sure, Democrats haven’t signed up to back some of his more contentious nominees. Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, R, had to drop his bid for Attorney General in the face of intransigent Democrats and moderate Republicans who refused to support him.Now, Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth faces uncertain prospects as Democrats largely oppose him and some of the same Republicans concerned with Gaetz have not committed to his confirmation.

“A warrior whose vote cannot be bought, and whose integrity cannot be folded,” the letter reads. “We are honored to call her one of our own.”

• 250 Conservative Veterans Sign Letter Backing Tulsi Gabbard Nomination (Hill)

More than 250 veterans have signed a letter supporting former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), President-elect Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence. The letter offers a fierce defense of Gabbard’s “lifelong devotion to service” and blasts critics who call into question her loyalty. “We are appalled by the baseless attacks questioning Tulsi’s loyalty to our great nation. For over 20 years and across multiple combat deployments, Tulsi has risked her life to defend the safety, security and freedom of the American people,” the letter reads. “These attacks insult not only her, but every one of us veterans who have served our country.” The support comes as Gabbard faces growing scrutiny for her past comments on Moscow and her 2017 visit with the former Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad.

Gabbard — who served in the House for eight years as a Democrat — has made remarks about the Russia-Ukraine war that were sympathetic to Moscow and echoed by Russian state news, which has praised her nomination. In the Middle East, Gabbard visited Syria in 2017 and said Assad was not an enemy of the U.S. — though she later labeled him a “brutal dictator.” The remarks have gained renewed attention in recent days, as the Syrian government collapsed and Assad was driven out of the country by rebels. The letter comes days after a group of nearly 100 former national security officials issued their own letter about Gabbard, urging the Senate to “carefully scrutinize” the former congresswoman. They raised concerns about her experience level, her past comments and meeting with Assad, and that she has “publicly cast doubt on U.S. intelligence reports.”

“Her sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Assad raises questions about her judgment and fitness,” the letter last week read. The veterans, in their letter Monday, push back against “so-called ‘experts’ in Washington” who have criticized Gabbard, saying their attacks are “baseless lies and smears.” “Unable and unwilling to challenge the substance of her views, her critics resort to baseless lies and smears, exposing the weakness of their arguments,” the letter reads. “Tulsi’s patriotism, shaped on the battlefield, mirrors the values and aspirations of the American people far more than the failed policies of so-called ‘experts’ in Washington, who have been part of the problem for too long.”

The veterans praise Trump in the letter for selecting Gabbard as the nominee, saying, “As Director of National Intelligence, she will be a fearless reformer and a true patriot, ensuring that the intelligence apparatus serves the American people and protects our Republic.” “We are deeply grateful to President Trump for appointing Tulsi Gabbard to this critical role and proud to stand beside her—a leader whose courage and convictions we know firsthand. A warrior whose vote cannot be bought, and whose integrity cannot be folded,” the letter reads. “We are honored to call her one of our own.” The letter was signed by former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, both of whom served for short periods of time in the first Trump administration. Reps. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) signed the letter, as did Rep.-elect Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.).

“They take something, then add anonymous sources, and contortions, and flat-out lies and then they try to try you in the media..”

• Pete Hegseth Lashes Out At Media ‘Smear’ Campaign (RT)

Donald Trump’s nominee to be US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, has accused the media of staging a libel-based show trial to prevent him from becoming the next Pentagon chief. The US president-elect’s naming of Hegseth has led to a series of negative news reports that have raised questions about his fitness for the job and likelihood of being confirmed by the Senate. Among the accusations leveled at the army veteran and television presenter are alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct. In 2017, then Fox News host Hegseth was accused of raping an unnamed woman after a Republican convention in California. Police investigated the claim and did not file any charges. It was reported recently that Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed sum, and both parties signed a confidentiality agreement. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Hegseth insisted that “the left” is trying to use the case to stage a show trial in the media.

”This is what the left does… It’s the anatomy of a smear. They take something, then add anonymous sources, and contortions, and flat-out lies and then they try to try you in the media before you can even get into the doors with senators,” he said.Hegseth went on to say that Trump urged him to “keep fighting” and “stand up for the change that needs to come to the Defense Department.” During his re-election campaign, Trump accused the Democrats of damaging America’s standing on the world stage and vowed to restore the country’s prestige under a “peace through strength” banner.Under the US constitution, presidential appointments to significant offices must be confirmed by the upper chamber of the US Congress, the Senate. Historically, the Senate has confirmed most nominations, with only three exceptions in the past 100 years.

Hegseth

Hannity: You were fully exonerated and correct me if I'm wrong here, wasn't there videotape evidence that was responsible for exonerating you?

Hegseth: In addition to personal witnesses and all of that, it was fully investigated at the time years ago. I was completely cleared. pic.twitter.com/KYkv7ZBuj1

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 10, 2024

“The most effective army is the one that the enemy does not want to face on the battle [field]..”

• Pete Hegseth Will Be Confirmed As Secretary of Defense, Predicts His Lawyer (JTN)

Timothy Parlatore, the attorney for Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, on Monday said that he believes his client has enough support in the Senate to get him confirmed early next year. President-elect Donald Trump nominated Hegseth, a former Fox News host, for the position last month, but reports of allegations of sexual misconduct and heavy drinking have threatened to derail his confirmation. Parlatore said that the nominee has had some positive discussions with Republican senators in recent weeks that have focused on policy, which have helped them feel more confident in confirming Hegseth. The lawyer did not have a specific count for how many Republicans are now on board with Hegseth, but said his team was “feeling very good” about the numbers.

The attorney also said that Hegseth had a good discussion with Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who described the conversation on Monday as “encouraging.” “I think that once … you kind of strip away all of the anonymous, you know, fake claims, then that gives him the opportunity to sit down with Senator Ernst and others and start talking about policy,” Parlatore said on the “Just The News, No Noise” TV Show. “Let’s talk about what we’re going to actually do to improve the Pentagon. And I think that that is one place where the two of them really have found common ground.” Parlatore said that some of the policy ideas that Hegseth has would get “politics” out of the Defense Department, and that he is focused on returning the department to military readiness and projecting a strong military to deter enemies from attacking. “The most effective army is the one that the enemy does not want to face on the battle [field],” Parlatore said.

“.. because the DOJ sought court approval ex parte to keep its surveillance secret, he wasn’t alerted until earlier this fall, six years after the initial subpoena.”

• DOJ Spied On Kash Patel, Staffers Without Telling Courts (JTN)

The Justice Department spied on two House members and and several congressional staffers in a leak investigation without telling the courts, the agency’s inspector general found in a sweeping investigation released Tuesday. As a result, the department obtained phone records from the two members of Congress and 43 staff members including President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, who worked as a staffer on the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee at the time. The department initiated the probe to investigate leaks to the media of FBI classified information as part of the now-discredited Trump-Russia probe which had recently been shared with Congress.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the Justice Department, in filings with the court, did not reference “the fact that they related to requests for records of Members of Congress or congressional staffers,” despite implicating constitutional separation of powers between two government branches. Patel, who is poised to become the new director of the FBI if confirmed, previously sued former Trump Justice Department officials and FBI Director Christopher Wray, accusing them of violating his Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures when they tried to obtain Patel’s personal records, Just the News previously reported. Patel said he was completely unaware of the subpoena until December 2022, when Google notified him about it.

Another former staffer, Jason Foster, previously told Just the News that he confirmed that the government successfully asked a federal court to hide its spying on Congress for five consecutive years. Foster is now the head of the Empower Oversight whistleblower center. In 2017 at the time of the secret surveillance, he was the chief investigative counsel for Sen. Chuck Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The seizure of his personal data occurred in 2017 while he worked for the Senate, and ordinarily under the original court order, Foster would have been notified a year later. But because the DOJ sought court approval ex parte to keep its surveillance secret, he wasn’t alerted until earlier this fall, six years after the initial subpoena.

He should not be allowed to keep this hanging over Trump’s head.

• How Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Plans To Keep Trump Case Alive (ZH)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – who had a Biden DOJ plant in his legal case against former President Donald Trump – is trying to ensure his hush money case doesn’t vanish into thin air as Trump prepares for his return to the White House. According to court filings revealed Tuesday, Bragg’s office is fiercely opposed to dismissing the case outright but is open to pausing proceedings while Trump serves his second term as president. The 82-page legal brief, prosecutors’ most detailed argument yet, stops short of recommending an explicit course of action but outlines several ways to keep the case alive. Among them: delaying sentencing until after Trump leaves office in 2029 or freezing the case while leaving the jury’s guilty verdict intact, The Hill reports.

“The extreme remedy of dismissing the indictment and vacating the jury verdict is not warranted in light of multiple alternative accommodations that would fully address the concerns raised by presidential immunity,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy. The filing comes as Trump, now president-elect, wages a legal battle to quash the 34 felony charges stemming from hush money payments to an adult film star. Trump’s lawyers claim his status as president-elect grants him immunity and demands immediate dismissal. Prosecutors, however, aren’t buying it. They argue that immunity doesn’t apply until Trump is inaugurated, meaning the case could theoretically proceed to sentencing before January 20, 2025 — a prospect Trump has vowed to fight tooth and nail. Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial, will now decide the case’s fate, with a ruling expected any day.

The DA’s office acknowledged the complications of prosecuting a sitting president but stopped short of saying the case should be completely shelved. Trump was convicted by a Manhattan Jury ‘of his peers’ on 34 counts of falsifying business records, however his reelection to the highest office in the land has put a damper on prosecutors’ plans. Sentencing was initially scheduled for last month, only to be postponed indefinitely by Judge Merchan, making it increasingly unlikely Trump will face punishment anytime soon. That would leave open the possibility that Trump could still proceed to sentencing in 2029, after he leaves office. Alternatively, state prosecutors said the judge could terminate the case without tossing Trump’s conviction, noting a jury verdict removed the presumption of innocence, he was never sentenced and his conviction was “neither affirmed nor reversed” on appeal because of presidential immunity. -The Hill

Trump’s legal team is crying foul, claiming the prosecution disrupts his transition efforts and his ability to govern effectively. “Wrongly continuing proceedings in this failed lawfare case disrupts President Trump’s transition efforts and his preparations to wield the full Article II executive power authorized by the Constitution pursuant to the overwhelming national mandate granted to him by the American people on November 5, 2024,” Trump’s attorneys fumed in a recent filing. Prosecutors hit back, accusing Trump of using delay tactics to muddy the waters. “Having filed those motions to dismiss and then sought repeated adjournments of sentencing to permit their determination by this Court, it is particularly brazen for defendant to argue that the Supremacy Clause bars the Court from taking any action on the motions defendant himself filed,” Conroy wrote.

“.. the judge had wanted the jury to convict Penny, but that jurors, who ride the subways, understood Penny acted to save others.”

• Giuliani Says Jury Verdict In Penny’s Case Is A Black Eye To Bragg (JTN)

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday night claimed that a New York City jury sent a strong message to the city’s ruling elite by finding Daniel Penny clear of any wrongdoing in the death of Jordan Neely. Penny, a former Marine, was acquitted by the Manhattan jury earlier Monday, after he kneeled on Neely’s neck on a subway last year, which prosecutors argued resulted in the man’s death. The jury was deadlocked on a more serious charge last week, which resulted in the charge being dismissed, but they only debated the lesser charge briefly on Monday before finding Penny innocent. Giuliani said that the verdict was a “shocker” given how fast it was reached, but that it was “great day … for justice.” He also claimed the judge had wanted the jury to convict Penny, but that jurors, who ride the subways, understood Penny acted to save others.

“The jury of New Yorkers, and they ride the subways and you can be the most left wing wacko [but] you ride the subways, you’re scared,” Giuliani said on the “Just The News, No Noise” TV show. “And Penny, they know Penny did the right thing. This is a person to person, human reaction above the heads of the fools that have run the city for so long. The crazy, silly, criminal-loving liberals.” Giuliani also said that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should have resigned or been removed from office the second he claimed he would not prosecute people “for beating up cops” or “resisting arrest.” “He’s probably not prosecuted half the cases that come before him,” Giuliani said. “He’s responsible for any number of murders in New York, and beatings. There are probably seven to 10,000 criminals walking the streets of New York that would not [be] if I were the mayor or Mike Bloomberg and Ray Kelly.”

The former mayor added that Neely, who has a history of mental illness and had been arrested himself in the past, should not have been on the street to begin with. “The person who caused this is number one, the New York system, and then the people who didn’t deal with his mental illness,” Giuliani said. “Mr. Penny didn’t have anything to do with this. He just tried to save people. [Neely’s] father had years to try to save us from this guy, and didn’t do a damn thing.”

“..the regime of Vladimir Zelensky has completely lost its legitimacy and, as a result, its ability to be negotiated with.”

• Russia Close To Winning Ukraine Conflict – Spy Chief (RT)

Kiev’s military is now close to complete collapse, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin has said, adding that the current Ukrainian government has completely lost its legitimacy and is unfit for talks. In an interview with the Russian magazine Razvedchik (“Spy”) released on Tuesday, Naryshkin reiterated that the Ukraine conflict is essentially not a battle against Kiev but rather a struggle against the collective West, and that Russia’s freedom and sovereignty is at stake. The intel chief expressed optimism about Russia’s progress on the battlefield. “The frontline situation is not in Kiev’s favor. The strategic initiative in all areas belongs to us, we are close to achieving our goals, while the Ukrainian army is on the verge of collapse.”

According to Naryshkin, the regime of Vladimir Zelensky has completely lost its legitimacy and, as a result, its ability to be negotiated with.” The Ukrainian leader’s presidential term expired this past May, after he refused to hold a new election, citing the ongoing martial law. Russian forces have been making steady progress in recent weeks. Ukrainian commanders, meanwhile, have been complaining about a lack of manpower and exhaustion in their ranks, despite the draft age having been lowered from 27 to 25 and mobilization rules tightened this past spring. Moscow has said that its main goals in the conflict are Ukraine’s neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification. It has also signaled that it is ready to declare an immediate ceasefire and begin peace talks as soon as Ukraine withdraws from all Russian territories, including Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye Regions.

If woke is the only identity you have left…

• Obstruction of Immigration Enforcement Could Prove Costly for Citizens (Turley)

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston recently became the latest Democratic leader to engage in a chest-pounding call to arms in resistance to the incoming Trump administration’s plan to deport people who entered the United States unlawfully. While a post-election poll by YouGov for CBS News shows that a massive 73% of adults want President-elect Donald Trump to prioritize the repatriation of illegal migrants, the mayor pledged to not only have Denver police “stationed at the county line to keep (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) out” but also that “you would have 50,000 Denverites there.” Johnston said it would be like a “Tiananmen Square moment” and answered yes when questioned whether he’d be ready to go to jail. That moment soon passed, however, as lawyers apparently explained to the mayor that armed resistance to the federal government is often called – wait for it – insurrection.

It appears that Johnston was not keen on becoming the Jefferson Davis of the left, so he backpedaled, stating, “Would I have taken it back if I could? Yes, I probably wouldn’t have used that image.” Yet, Johnston is not alone in pledging resistance to repatriation efforts. Cities are reaffirming or adopting sanctuary city status, including most recently Boston. The cities pledge to continue their ban on any cooperation with the federal government in detaining or removing unlawful migrants. Other mayors are pledging to use city funds to pay for the defense costs of those fighting deportation. The doubling down on sanctuary city promises will likely draw more migrants to those communities, which some mayors have welcomed despite the heavy costs of housing, education and other city services.

Immigration proved to be one of the top issues for voters in this year’s election, which brought control of both houses of Congress and the White House to the GOP. Citizens overwhelmingly supported new tough immigration measures, including deportations. With Democratic cities joining the “resistance,” they may find the costs even higher. Congress cannot compel cooperation without triggering constitutional concerns. In Federalist #46, James Madison recognized the right of state officials to oppose federal policies, including “the refusal to co-operate with officers of the Union.” In cases such as Printz v. United States (1997), which involved federal requirements that states cooperate on gun control measures, the Supreme Court enforced an anti-commandeering line that allowed states to refuse such federal orders.

However, this is a two-way street. Just as cities and states do not have to carry water for the federal government, the federal government does not have to supply the water to the states. The second Trump administration and Congress can play hardball by barring federal funds in various areas for these cities. With their status as sanctuary cities, housing, law enforcement and social programming costs will continue to rise. Many of those budgets are heavily infused with federal funding. However, if cities resist or frustrate federal policy, there are ample reasons why the federal government might restrict funding. Such measures can go too far. The Supreme Court has warned that financial penalties can be so coercive that they effectively commandeer states. However, the federal government is not required to spend money on services where costs are rising at least in part because of resistance to federal law.

Under constitutional law, the federal government cannot be a bully, but it does not have to be a chump.It’s clear that elected leaders like Johnston did not think very long or well before starting a war with the incoming administration. In addition to the possible loss of federal funds, acts of resistance can trigger criminal liability if they amount to actively shielding or hiding unlawful migrants sought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under federal immigration law, it is a felony when anyone in “knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.”

That is not triggered by a simple refusal to cooperate, but some officials have been accused of crossing the line, including state judges. It also could endanger private groups that work closely with these cities in housing and transporting unlawful migrants. Moreover, as I wrote recently, Trump can cite a curious ally in this fight: Barack Obama. During the Obama administration, the federal government largely triumphed over states in barring their interference with federal immigration policies. Back then, Democrats supported President Obama in claiming that the federal government had overriding authority on immigration in cases like Arizona v. United States. The pressure on cities could grow if the Trump administration prioritizes members of violent gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) or Tren de Aragua for deportation. To resist those efforts would be politically unpalatable in cities dealing with crime associated with such gangs. It could take years to hash out these efforts. However, if Denver’s Mayor Johnston is any measure of the resistance, the chest-pounding may decline when the federal funding dries up.

“Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change.”

• Bernie Sanders Says Musk Is Right On Military Spending (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency has energized Republicans, but it’s also receiving attention from some liberal lawmakers, including Bernie Sanders. Sanders, the independent from Vermont, wants to help Trump’s DOGE, which is co-led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Sanders has his eye on the U.S. military budget. “Elon Musk is right,” Sanders wrote on X. “The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions. Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change.”

Sanders’ comments come before the U.S. House is set to vote on a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes nearly $900 billion to support U.S. military service members, infrastructure, and defense capabilities during the 2025 fiscal year. The 1,813-page document released Saturday by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees outlines U.S. defense policy priorities and their costs for 2025. Most of the proposed funds, $849.9 billion out of the $895.2 billion topline, would go to programs within the Department of Defense. Ramaswamy and Musk wrote in a November op-ed that the military is on their list. “The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency’s leadership has little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent,” they wrote.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s annual audit once again resulted in a disclaimer opinion. That means the federal government’s largest agency can’t fully explain its spending. The disclaimer this year was expected. And it’s expected again next year. The Pentagon previously said it will be able to accurately account for its spending by 2027. Musk has gone even farther in his criticism of military spending. He called the military’s most expensive ever project, the F-35 stealth fighter, “obsolete.” “The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people,” Musk wrote on X. “This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed.”

In May, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found the cost of the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon system was projected to increase by more than 40% despite plans to use the stealth fighter less, in part because of reliability issues. The U.S. Department of Defense’s F-35 Lightning II is the most advanced and costly weapon system in the U.S. arsenal. It’s a joint, multinational program that includes the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, seven international partners and foreign military sales customers. The Pentagon has about 630 F-35s. It plans to buy about 1,800 more. And it intends to use them through 2088. DOD estimates the F-35 program will cost over $2 trillion to buy, operate, and sustain over its lifetime. The Pentagon hasn’t responded to Musk’s comments. Late last month, a reporter asked Defense Department Press Secretary Air Force Major General Pat Ryder about Musk’s comments on the F-35.

“Yeah, as I’m sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently a private citizen, I’m not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35.” Trump set lofty goals for the new group. “It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project,’ of our time,” Trump’s announcement said. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.” The original Manhattan Project was a research and development project during the second World War that led to the creation of nuclear weapons. Ramaswamy and Musk have previously outlined their plans for DOGE, which could include mass federal layoffs and reductions in federal regulations. Musk and Ramaswamy said they won’t rely on action from Congress and will instead “focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws.”

There will be another accident. And then?

• Boeing Reportedly Restarts 737 Max Production (ZH)

Boeing has reportedly resumed production of its 737 Max aircraft at its Renton factory in Seattle, Washington, a little more than a month after a seven-week strike by 33,000 unionized factory workers concluded with a new contract. This marks a critical step in the company’s recovery efforts during a particularly turbulent year. Reuters was the first to report on Boeing’s restart of production of its best-selling commercial jet. According to three sources familiar with the situation, production at the Renton factory resumed last Friday. “Production resumed on Friday, said one of the sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with media. Boeing declined to comment.” -RTRS. Analysts at Jefferies forecast that Boeing will likely average around 29 737 Max jets per month in 2025, falling far short of the company’s pre-restriction goal of 56.

Earlier this year, the FAA capped 737 Max production at 38 per month due to safety vulnerabilities within Boeing’s production line at Renton. Two Max crashes, Covid travel downturn, supply chain snarls, financial challenges, and multiple Max jet incidents — including a door panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 — have been mounting headwinds for the struggling planemaker. On top of this all, a seven-week strike sent the company to the brink of a devastating stall. The good news is that Boeing is under new leadership, with newly appointed CEO Kelly Ortberg dismantling disastrous DEI initiatives and shifting the focus to safety as the era of wokeism comes to an abrupt end. As of mid-November, Goldman’s Noah Poponak and Anthony Valentini still had a “Buy” rating on the planemaker with a 12-month price target of $200.

“Our 12-month price target of $200 is derived from targeting a 4.5% free cash flow yield on 2026E free cash, discounted back one year at 12%. Key risks: (1) the pace of air traffic growth, (2) supply chain ability to ramp-up production, and (3) contract operating performance within the defense segment,” the analysts said. Shares of Boeing were up 1% to $158 handle in premarket trading. However, on the year, shares were down 40%. Shares have been locked in a multi-year lateral between $100 and $250 following the Max jet crashes. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker recently told Reuters that he wouldn’t be surprised if it took the company a couple of months to ramp production at Renton to the FAA’s production limit.

“[Elon] Musk put the GEC on the map in March 2023, when he deemed it to be the “worst offender in U.S. government”..

• State Dep. Scrambles To Scuttle $100M Censorship Network Before Trump (ZH)

The State Department revealed in a Monday filing that they are “substantially likely” to shut down their $100M Global Engagement Center (GEC), which was revealed in early 2023 to have been funding a “disinformation” tracking group which worked to pressure advertisers to demonetize outlets it accuses of spreading “disinformation.” Except, they’re really just “realigning” the “Center’s staff and funding to other Department offices and bureaus for foreign information manipulation.” The move comes amid a lawsuit from Texas AG Ken Paxton and several conservative media outlets listed a GEC-funded “dynamic exclusion list” of websites it doesn’t like, which it would then distribute to ad tech companies – such as Microsoft’s Xandr – in order to try and “defund and downrank these worst offenders,” and deprive said sites of ad revenue.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1864036564579561767

As Headline News’ Ken Silva notes further; it’s unclear how the GEC’s closure will affect the lawsuit. Monday’s court filing said lawyers for all parties are still discussing the implications. [Elon] Musk put the GEC on the map in March 2023, when he deemed it to be the “worst offender in U.S. government” when it comes to censorship and media manipulation. According to revelations from the “Twitter Files”—a trove of internal records about the censorship decisiosn made within the social media company—the GEC funded groups such as the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which in turn compiled blacklists of Twitter accounts that were supposedly tied to foreign disinformation campaigns. The Digital Forensic Research Lab sent those blacklists to Twitter so that the company could deactivate the accounts listed.

Federalist senior legal correspondent Margot Cleveland further revealed in April 2023 that the GEC marketed anti-conservative censorship products to private-sector tech firms. Cleveland also noted that the GEC apparently worked with infamous FBI Agent Elvis Chan, who was revealed in the Twitter Files to be in constant touch with the social media firm about censorship issues. Despite those scandals, Democrats had been pushing to renew the GEC’s $100 million budget before it expires at the end of the year. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who drafted the original legislation in 2016 that led to the GEC, argued last year that the censorship network was crucial to counter foreign disinformation. “There’s no way to combat Russian and Chinese misinformation without the GEC,” Murphy insisted.

The Russians weren’t going to save Assad yet another time. Cost/benefit.

• Putin-the-Unready Is Beginning to be Held Accountable (Paul Craig Roberts)

John Helmer’s December 8 report from Moscow substantiates my conclusion that the Russian government’s inability to acknowledge reality, instead relying on agreements with Russia’s enemies, results in failure . In Ukraine by trying to minimize conflict, the Kremlin maximized conflict. In Syria relying on diplomatic rather than military means resulted in a massive strategic defeat for Russia and Iran. The Middle East, where the correlation of forces were moving against US/Israeli dominance, has been lost to Greater Israel and US control of oil flows and waterways. From Moscow John Helmer reports that recriminations are running high for Putin’s loss of Syria. And it is not only Putin who is being held accountable but also the commanders of Russia’s forces in Syria, head of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, Russian military intelligence (GRU), and the Defense Ministry.

They are all damned for failure to detect, warn, and act to prevent the Israeli-American-Turkish overthrow of Assad and the Syrian government. The same group of failures are damned for failure to prevent the Israeli air force from preventing the resupply of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from providing reinforcements. Putin, like American presidents, puts the defense of Israel before the interests of his own country. Putin is so fearful of offending Israel that he constantly refused to provide his Syrian ally air defense from Israeli attacks. Now that Putin and Lavrov, essentially two 20th century American liberals, have brought a massive strategic defeat down on their heads and Iran’s, Russia’s last remaining Middle East ally, it is likely that Netanyahu and Trump’s Zionist appointees will behave more aggressively against Iran and Russia.

The Zionist are on a roll, having reversed their declining fortunes in one fell swoop while again Putin sat on his butt. As much as I admire Putin, he is certainly not proactive, or sometimes even aware, and thus lacks the leadership ability that a leader of a threatened country needs. Putin would be perfect in peace time, but he is not up to dealing with an existential threat. Putin and Lavrov are too fearful of offending someone to be able to act. I don’t know how far the recriminations will go. But if Washington should also succeed with its color revolution in Georgia, the Zionist neoconservatives could succeed in their plan to destabilize Putin. Whether Putin’s fall would help the neoconservative agenda depends on his replacement. The chance is high that Putin would be replaced with a more determined war leader. Regardless, the Russian defeat has caused a loss of confidence in Putin’s leadership, and it will encourage more provocations that are not good for peace.

“If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates..”

• Elon Musk Jokes Bill Gates Could Go “Bankrupt” On Short Tesla Bet (ZH)

The rivalry between two of America’s top billionaires, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, continued on Tuesday morning when Musk jokingly suggested on X that Gates’ alleged short position on Tesla might lead to his financial demise. “If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates,” Musk wrote on X, referring to a multi-billion dollar equity short Gates put on Tesla a couple of years ago.

This is why it’s a big “fuck you” to Bill Gates since day 1 $TSLA pic.twitter.com/MLkBwGDQqW

— Teslaconomics (@Teslaconomics) December 10, 2024

According to Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Musk, Gates held an undisclosed short position in Tesla, allegedly worth billions. In late 2023, Musk wrote on X: “Gates placed a massive bet on Tesla dying when our company was at one of its weakest moments several years ago. Such a big short position also drives the stock down for everyday investors,” adding, “To the best of my knowledge, Gates *still* has that massive bet against Tesla on the table. Someone should ask him if he does.” Musk noted, “The lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy of Gates who had the nerve to ask me to donate to his mostly window-dressing environmental causes, while simultaneously aiming to make $500M from Tesla’s demise, boggles the mind …”

[..] There is still no word on whether Gates has doubled or tripled down – or possibly cut his Tesla short bet. Tesla shares have surged 62.5% this year, primarily due to President-elect Donald Trump’s victory and Musk’s increasing relationship with the incoming administration. In terms of wealth, Bloomberg data shows Musk is number one on the Billionaire Index at $376.2 billion, while Gates is number six at $165.9 billion. Regarding Tesla, the company’s market capitalization is nearing $1.3 trillion, and it ranks eighth on the list of the world’s most valuable companies. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas wrote in a June note that Tesla is much more than an EV company, with tailwinds in the powering up America theme in the era of AI data centers. Naomi Seibt, a German teen who denounces the woke agenda, wrote on X, “Can’t imagine a greater form of retribution than bankrupting the vaccine vegan.” Another X user asked: “Why would someone who constantly talks about protecting the environment short the stock of one of the most environmentally friendly companies on the planet?”

“It’s a disfavored practice to go to a second Supreme Court justice after the first one has turned down the request, so it was a long shot..”

• SCOTUS Asked to Block State From Probing Doctors Who Question COVID Policies (ET)

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas this week revived an emergency application to block the Washington Medical Commission from investigating licensed physicians in the state over their criticism of COVID-19 policies. The Washington state commission deems the doctors’ dissenting views on the disease as potentially dangerous misinformation that should be suppressed. The physicians counter that just because they have medical licenses they don’t forfeit their free speech rights under the First Amendment. The Dec. 4 order by Thomas regarding the application in Stockton v. Ferguson was unusual in that Justice Elena Kagan rejected the same application on Nov. 20. The applicants renewed their request in a court filing directed to Thomas on Nov. 22. Supreme Court rules allow an application that has been denied by one justice to be presented to another justice. Neither Thomas nor Kagan explained their respective decisions.

The application is now scheduled to be considered by all nine justices at the court’s private judicial conference on Jan. 10, 2025. The justices could grant an injunction against the commission, deny the injunction, or schedule the case for oral argument. As of Dec. 6, the Supreme Court had not requested a reply from the commission. The application was brought by former professional basketball player John Stockton along with Drs. Richard Eggleston, Thomas Siler, and Daniel Moynihan and another 50 unidentified medical doctors, as well as Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025, has nominated Kennedy to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, an attorney, is also listed as co-counsel on the application.

The applicants filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, which denied the injunction on May 22. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the injunction on Sept. 3. An appeal remains pending in the Ninth Circuit. The application states that it concerns the state’s program that targets “Washington-licensed physicians for expressing public views on COVID-19 that diverge from prevailing orthodoxy.” The state calls the doctors’ viewpoint “misinformation” and claims that it may “regulate this speech,” which is something the Supreme Court ruled in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra (2018) that it cannot do, according to the application. “The Court should speak clearly and decisively to state actors, professional organizations, other non-state actors, and the national media: Public speech does not lose its constitutional protection from government action simply because it is uttered by a healthcare professional, even if it is at odds with medical orthodoxy,” the application stated.

In September 2021, based on its authority under Washington state’s Uniform Disciplinary Act, the Washington Medical Commission began enforcing a policy against doctors “for public speech critical of COVID-19 policies,” which has resulted in “disciplinary actions against at least ten healthcare practitioners,” it stated. Around the time the enforcement actions began, Washington Secretary of Health Dr. Umair A. Shah said, “It has never been more vital for trusted healthcare professionals to band together against the threat of misinformation.” “As we battle COVID-19, with so many tools at our disposal to protect ourselves and others, it is viral misinformation, rooted in unfounded scientific claims, that often stands in our way.”

The commission is prosecuting Eggleston and Siler for opinion articles that they wrote in The Lewiston Tribune and American Thinker, respectively, that criticized COVID-19 policies. The applicant Children’s Health Defense, which has a Washington state medical doctor as a member, joined the application because “[the nonprofit group] is actively involved in advocacy and protecting freedom of speech and Covid vaccine related issues and educates the public on these issues,” the application stated. The applicants’ attorney, Richard Jaffe of Sacramento, California, told The Epoch Times that he is “hopeful” about the application. “It’s a disfavored practice to go to a second Supreme Court justice after the first one has turned down the request, so it was a long shot,” he said.

But Thomas “seems to think it’s an important issue” that needs to be heard, Jaffe said. There are many articles in the mainstream media “talking about how they’re not sanctioning enough doctors for speaking out in public against vaccination or repeated boostering,” he said. “The country needs some guidance from the Supreme Court as to what the First Amendment means in terms of a physician’s free speech,” Jaffe said.

“Offering asylum to these foreigners is simply giving ordinary people a chance to live in freedom..”

• Western Conservatives Find Asylum In The Russian Federation (SCF)

Defending family and traditional values has long been a central guideline of Russian policy, both domestically and diplomatically. Moscow is expanding its efforts to counteract the degrading cultural influence of the West in the country, as well as offering a safe haven for foreigners interested in living in accordance with their ancestral values. Recently, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that makes it easier to obtain visas and citizenship for conservative-minded citizens from countries of degrading neoliberal ideologies. The goal of the Russian initiative is above all humanitarian, providing an opportunity for like-minded citizens to live in peace, away from the psychological and ideological challenges imposed by Western countries that have adhered to the so-called “woke agenda”.

As part of this initiative, Russian state organizations have been implementing various initiatives to provide refuge to foreigners interested in living in the country. A major press conference was recently held, bringing together Russian and foreign citizens interested in sharing their experiences of living in accordance with traditional values in Russia. The conference was led by State Duma deputy Maria Butina, who currently heads the Russian Parliament’s Committee on International Relations, and brought together a number of foreigners and members of civil society, including businesspeople from different sectors. Together with Russian authorities and journalists, foreigners who have taken refuge in Russia were able to share their impressions of life in the country, job opportunities and other personal experiences.

Among the foreign citizens who participated in the event were some public figures, such as the German journalist Anna Lipp, who suffered severe persecution in her country due to her support for the special military operation in Ukraine, and Martin Held, an Austrian citizen and author of the social project “Moya Rossiya”. In addition to them, the Frenchman Alexander Stefanesco, businessman and founder of the project “Ruspatriation”, also participated in the conference, as well as several other distinguished foreigners who were well received in Russia due to their common mentality with the local people. As a result of the conference’s discussion, participants announced the creation of the “Welcome to Russia!” project, which aims to show Russian reality to foreigners interested in living in the country, as well as to assist with processes such as legal bureaucracy and cultural adaptation.

In the end, Russians and foreigners showed interest in contributing to the arrival of more conservative-minded citizens in Russia, which is welcomed by both migrants, who can finally live the way they believe is right, and by natives, who can interact with like-minded foreigners and develop deep cultural ties that strengthen Russia’s image as a civilizational pivot. There is certainly a deep strategic Russian interest in receiving such immigrants. In recent years, Russia has faced a major challenge in integrating thousands of immigrants from the post-Soviet space, mainly from the Caucasus and Central Asia, into its society. On the other hand, Western immigrants, who are almost always Christian and conservative, certainly show fewer cultural barriers to adaptation than Central Asians, which facilitates a balance in the migration scenario, avoiding tensions in public opinion regarding the reception of foreigners.

However, the main point of the Russian project is humanitarian. Conservative people are being persecuted in the Western Hemisphere simply because they do not agree with so-called “progressive” ideas, such as woke culture and the LGBT agenda. Offering asylum to these foreigners is simply giving ordinary people a chance to live in freedom, without the state violating their values and beliefs. In the past, the US has created a strong anti-Russian propaganda campaign advocating a false conservatism, which it justified by the claim that the USSR and post-Soviet Russia were examples of moral degradation. History has shown which side in the world arena really defends traditional values. Today, it is clear to an increasing number of Western citizens that it is not in the US or Europe that Christianity and conservatism are truly valued and protected.

Cat maze
https://twitter.com/i/status/1866310477749555559

Grass
https://twitter.com/i/status/1866327339568976354

Octopus
https://twitter.com/i/status/1866290032614809600

Spike
https://twitter.com/i/status/1866273168563876321

Change

Some of the most satisfying transformations in moviespic.twitter.com/9p1tHUw1a6

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 10, 2024

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Debt Rattle December 4 2024

Dec 042024

December 4, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 10:05 am Finance Tagged with: California, COVID, Fani Willis, FBI, Georgia, Government Gangsters, Kash Patel, MSNBC, NATO, pardon, second front, Syria 66 Responses »

Johannes Vermeer The geographer 1668-69

• FBI Agents Back Kash Patel As Next Director: ‘He’s the right fix’ (JTN)

• The Government Gangsters (Glenn Beck)

• Tucker Carlson Claims US Embassy Has Muted Zelensky (RT)

• Trump Offers Canada Chance To Join US (RT)

• Joe Biden Cloaks His Legacy in Infamy With the Hunter Biden Pardon (Turley)

• In Pardoning His Own Son, Biden Argues That US Justice Sucks (Marsden)

• “Trump-Proofing” California Could Be a Costly Option for Californians (Turley)

• Ukraine Will Reject Any Alternative To NATO Membership – Foreign Ministry (RT)

• Kiev Should ‘Disregard Everything And Everyone’, Become Nuclear Power – MP (RT)

• Georgia: A Second Front for Putin (Paul Craig Roberts)

• The Second Front Has Been Activated In Syria (Sonja van den Ende)

• EU Reports Dramatic Fall In Birth Rate (RT)

• EU Has Weakened ‘A Lot’ Amid Ukraine Conflict – Hungarian FM (RT)

• The End Of Fake News? MSNBC Hits New Low In Ratings (ZH)

• Ryanair CEO O’Leary: Germany Is Run By ‘Idiots’ (RMX)

• Fani Full Release Ordered After Fulton DA Sat On RICO Records (ZH)

• House Oversight Report Supports Lab-Leak Theory for COVID-19 Origin (ET)

• The Skripals Are As Good As Dead – The Judge Has Buried Them (Helmer)

YMCA

Victor Willis, the singer behind YMCA, has released a message thanking President Trump for dancing to his song. He said the song has “benefited greatly” from Trump's use.

Willis also reiterated that the song is not a gay anthem and may sue news outlets calling it gay.

"Sadly,… pic.twitter.com/Yx5QFmJIyw

— George (@BehizyTweets) December 3, 2024

Article III

Trump Lawyer Mike Davis issues stern warning to GOP Senators after full endorsement of Kash Patel for FBI Director:

“If they don’t vote to confirm this highly qualified FBI Director nominee they’re going to face the political wrath of the Article III Project.” pic.twitter.com/UkMmlb5bZ5

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 2, 2024

In a blanket pardon, you lose the 5th

Lawyer explains the wrinkle in the Hunter Biden Pardon

Everyone missed this… pic.twitter.com/CATzvrJYOX

— TestDummy (@TestDummy04) December 2, 2024

Georgia
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863938810196955257

Georgia PM: “Some people, including the EU ambassador, have told us that they will recognize Georgia only if murderers, executioners, kidnappers of TV stations, business racketeers and people who started the war in 2008, return to power.”

EU as morass.

pic.twitter.com/uoXrfDoDDk

— Alternative News (@AlternatNews) December 2, 2024

Gaetz

Why are no Republicans in power talking about the now indisputable fact that DOJ and FBI guys attempted to blackmail and extort Matt Gaetz and his family?

The scheme implicates foreign & domestic intelligence agencies.

Gaetz was framed, and people need to go to jail for what… pic.twitter.com/QsI6Xi86Pl

— George (@BehizyTweets) December 4, 2024

Benz

.@joerogan: When did the U.S. government get started with internet censorship?@mikebenzcyber: "It started in 2014 with the Ukraine coup and the counter-coup. In 2014, we had about 25 years of successful free-speech diplomacy, and then we successfully overthrew the government of… pic.twitter.com/UYjHxYBo7K

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) December 3, 2024

https://twitter.com/i/status/1864152269153063050

Biden AI

Since @JoeBiden is evidently never going to give us this address, which we so desperately deserve, I decided to create it for you using AI.

Please enjoy and always dare to dream. pic.twitter.com/yi5rsqu2oT

— Andrew—Author of America Rises (@AmoneyResists) December 3, 2024

“..an influential retired bureau supervisor says a large number of agents support Kash Patel for the job..”

• FBI Agents Back Kash Patel As Next Director: ‘He’s the right fix’ (JTN)

As Democrats try to stymie President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for FBI Director, an influential retired bureau supervisor says a large number of agents support Kash Patel for the job because of his national security experience and his vision to replace the law enforcement agency’s leadership who allowed politics to usurp crime fighting. “This guy is completely and 100% qualified to run that organization. He’s what’s needed today. He’s the right fix,” retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeff Danik told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview Monday. While Democrats and news media critics have suggested that Patel was selected to be a loyalist seeking revenge on Trump foes, Danik noted Patel’s extensive career experience, which includes stints as a federal public defender, federal prosecutor, counterterrorism director at the National Security Council, senior counsel to the House Intelligence Committee and chief of staff to both the Defense Secretary and the Director of National Intelligence.

“He has the correct balance, in my view, having been there for almost 30 years,” Danik said of Patel. “He has the correct balance of prosecutor, which is what we do. We feed the prosecution tube. Defense attorney, so the other side of that coin. Intelligence, the intelligence agencies, which is a key element to the FBI’s either success or failure. “And then also, I think this is personal, that he’s been a victim himself of the system,” Danik said. “And the combination of those things uniquely qualifies him beyond his, you know, substantial accomplishments.” Those accomplishments, Just the News confirmed, include two major government awards for Patel’s work on national security during the Obama administration.

The recognitions included a 2017 Assistant Attorney General’s award of excellence for Patel’s prosecution of 12 Al-Shabab terrorists who killed 72 and injured dozens more with suicide bombings targeting sports fans watching a 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer match at two locations in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. They also include a Central Intelligence Agency Award for Human Intelligence Gathering for his work combating terrorism in East Africa. Patel mentioned both awards in a lawsuit he filed against a news media organization back in 2019 and they were confirmed by government officials who spoke to Just the News.Danik’s full-throated endorsement of Patel is significant, since he is a popular figure in the FBI retiree community as an accomplished bureau supervisor in the Miami area known to help and counsel agents currently on the job.

“I talk to agents all the time. I’m constantly involved with helping them, counseling them through tough times, or helping on the job or just after retirement,” Danik said during an interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast. “And there’s a large group that are highly, highly supportive of him, of the President-elect, and are willing to help with whatever jobs or tasks are involved in getting behind the scenes.” “When somebody new comes into into an organization, even if they’re somewhat familiar with it, there’s a lot of complexity involved with these federal bureaucracies. They have really established lots of different little machine gunner nests that need to be known about before you go in,” he added. Danik was explicitly supportive of Patel’s oft-stated strategy of “cleaning house” in the upper echelons of the FBI, saying that is where cases involving Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and others have been politicized to the detriment of the nation.

X thread.

• The Government Gangsters (Glenn Beck)

Trumps FBI Director Kash Patel knew the Deep State’s plan to remove Joe Biden and pardon Hunter to hide their crimes. Garland and Wray should have been impeached. Fauci, the CIA and the Media lied about the origins of Covid. Wray has the Epstein files. He says the FBI can be fixed by shutting down the Hoover building immediately and opening it up the next day as a Museum of the Deep State letting everyone walk the halls for free and leaving it open 365 days a year. He says twenty people can run the FBI, the other seven thousand agents that are sitting in that building should be chasing criminals around America, not distorting statistics about January 6th so Christopher Wray can go to Congress and lie and say domestic violent terrorism is on the rise.

THE GOVERNMENT GANGSTERS: Trumps FBI Director Kash Patel knew the Deep State's plan to remove Joe Biden and pardon Hunter to hide their crimes. Garland and Wray should have been impeached. Fauci, the CIA and the Media lied about the origins of Covid. Wray has the Epstein files.… pic.twitter.com/HhoQc2YGCY

— Truth Justice ™ (@SpartaJustice) December 3, 2024

He encourages the arrest and prosecution of Hunter Biden over the crime of prostitution for calling a Hooker, which is prosecutable in almost every jurisdiction in America and he also says Joe Biden can be prosecuted for receiving money overseas, ill gotten gains, which is illegal. There are bigger crimes involving Ukraine and other matters, but these are simple and fast crimes to prosecute. The investigation into the Hunter Biden Laptop was shutdown by the FBI and the Department of Justice with the help of the media, proving this was a coordinated Deep State effort. He says the Obama-Clinton Administration has been running the White House for years, not Joe Biden. The Deep State is evil, vindictive and very smart.

He names the Top Five Deep State Operatives in America which are General Mark Milley of the U.S. Department of Defense, Mark T. Esper former Secretary of Defense, William Barr former U.S. Attorney General of the Department of Justice, Christopher Wray current FBI Director and Merrick Garland the current Attorney General of the Department of Justice. He says the Deep State will be shattered under the second Trump Administration, but it will be a monster fight. He read the entire secret JFK files and the secret seven pages of the 9/11 report, he says he has seen it all and will recommend to President Trump to release all the files to the American people including the Epstein files. He refers to the Deep State Operatives as Government Gangsters that will be brought to justice.

“..Carlson published a video on X in which he previewed the upcoming release of an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov..”

• Tucker Carlson Claims US Embassy Has Muted Zelensky (RT)

American journalist Tucker Carlson has said the US government has been blocking his attempts to organize an interview with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky for more than a year. On Wednesday, Carlson published a video on X in which he previewed the upcoming release of an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The journalist said the conversation with Russia’s top diplomat was aimed at providing a perspective on how close Washington and Moscow could be to a direct clash, after the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden granted Ukraine permission to fire American-made long-range weapons deep into Russian territory.

In the same clip, filmed on Manezhnaya Square in the heart of Moscow, the former Fox News host revealed that “we have also tried for over a year to get an interview with Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.” According to Carlson, his team “have attacked that from a bunch of different angles. We have spoken to a lot of different people around him, had dinner with them. We have been in talks continuously.” “And those efforts have been thwarted by the US government. The American Embassy in Kiev, which our tax dollars pay for, told the Zelensky government: No, you may not do the interview. You can talk to CNN. You cannot talk to us,” Carlson said.

In June, the journalist said he had agreed an interview with the Ukrainian leader. However, Zelensky’s press-secretary, Sergey Nikiforov, swiftly rejected the claim, saying that “Tucker Carlson should check his sources in the FSB (Russia’s Federal Security Service) more carefully.” Zelensky “has a completely different schedule, and Tucker Carlson is not on it,” Nikiforov stressed. Carlson’s latest trip to Moscow is his second since the escalation between Russia and Ukraine in early 2022. In February, he interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the recording of their two-hour conversation getting 14 million views on YouTube and 185 million views on X in the first three days after its release.

Western Canada would be interested. But not the east. Though Québec…

• Trump Offers Canada Chance To Join US (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has suggested that Canada should become the 51st US state unless it manages to halt the flow of illegal migrants and drugs across its border with the US, Fox News reported on Monday, citing sources. According to the report, the incoming US leader made the remarks last Friday during a dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Earlier last week, Trump threatened to place 25% tariffs on goods coming from both Canada and Mexico upon inauguration in retaliation for illegal immigration, as well as the “crime and drugs,” coming to the US across the borders with the two countries. Trudeau called Trump shortly thereafter to attempt to dissuade the incoming US president from going ahead with the proposed hike, and on Friday arrived at Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago to continue discussions.

According to people reportedly present at Friday’s dinner who heard Trump’s discussion with Trudeau, the US president-elect repeated his earlier claim that Canada had failed its neighbor by allowing drugs and illegal immigrants from over 70 different countries to enter the US. He also reportedly chided Canada for the US trade deficit with it, which he estimated at around $100 billion. Trudeau reportedly told Trump that such punishing tariffs would destroy the Canadian economy. Trump was said to have replied with a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Canada could avoid this by becoming the 51st US state, with Trudeau as governor. He later expounded on the idea, saying that Canada could even be divided into two states, one conservative and one liberal. The remark was reportedly received with nervous laughter from Trudeau and other dinner attendants, while Trump once again emphasized that he plans to carry out his threat as soon as he returns to the White House on January 20.

After the dinner, Trudeau told reporters he had “an excellent conversation” with Trump, without revealing its details. Trump later called his meeting with Trudeau “productive” and noted that the Canadian prime minister had “made a commitment” to work with the new US administration on Trump’s key points of concern. He did not mention his previous tariff hike threat again. Many US imports from both Canada and Mexico are currently exempted from tariffs because of the USMCA trade agreement that Trump enacted during his first term. Experts have warned that it is not clear how Trump could implement the proposed tariff hikes without violating that deal. Many economists have also warned that tariff hikes could backfire on the US economy by causing a spike in domestic prices, and also lead to retaliatory actions by targeted countries that could spark a trade war.

Watters: At one point Trump told him to get the trade deficit under control, telling the prime minister it's unacceptable for the U.S. to run up to a.. trade deficit, and if they don't, they can expect a flat 25% tariff on all Canadian goods on day one. Trudeau apparently wasn't… pic.twitter.com/ZAggT12W1v

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 3, 2024

“Even among past scandals in the abuse of the pardon power, Biden has done lasting damage not just to his legacy but his office.”

• Joe Biden Cloaks His Legacy in Infamy With the Hunter Biden Pardon (Turley)

President Joe Biden’s decision to use his presidential powers to pardon his own son will be a decision that lives in infamy in presidential politics. It is not just that the President used his constitutional powers to benefit his family. It is because the action culminates years of lying to the public about his knowledge and intentions in the influence-peddling scandal surrounding his family. Even among past scandals in the abuse of the pardon power, Biden has done lasting damage not just to his legacy but his office. Despite its noble origins and purpose, the pardon power historically has not been a pristine power used by past presidents. As I have previously written, it was used to benefit the political cronies of past presidents. President Warren Harding was even accused of selling pardons, including to mob enforcer Ignacio Lupo, known as “Lupo the Wolf.” Former president William Clinton waited for the final days of his presidency to pardon his own brother as well as a major democratic donor.

In 2023, I wrote that Biden might follow this same pattern and pardon his son as a lame-duck president. The column suggested that Biden might withdraw as a candidate for office and then take the action as a father: “The pardon-and-apology approach might appeal to Biden not only as an effort to convert vice into virtue but to justify his withdrawal from the election as a selfless act.” In the 2020 election and throughout his presidential term, Biden repeatedly lied to the American public with an ease and impunity that shocked even many political veterans in Washington. He was repeatedly asked if he knew about Hunter’s foreign dealings, including millions in alleged deals with Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, and other clients. President Biden lied and denied such knowledge. As I detailed in my testimony in the Biden impeachment hearing, he had repeated discussions of these dealings. He is even on tape discussing news stories on the dealings.

President Biden was also repeatedly asked if he met any of his son’s clients. He repeatedly lied. We have pictures and records of dinners and meetings with these clients. Hunter Biden was expressly thanked for his arranging such access to his father. Few reporters pressed Biden on the corruption scandal, but they were often met not only with denials but angry retorts from the president. When Fox reporter Peter Doocy raised it, the President steamed “Yes, yes, yes. God love you, man — you’re a one-horse pony, I tell you.” When CBS’s Bo Erickson broke ranks and raised the scandal and drew a rebuke from Biden “I know you’d ask it. I have no response, it’s another smear campaign, right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask.” The President continued to lie throughout the election, the presidential debates, and his term. Then, the press repeatedly asked him whether he would pardon his son. The President was now running for reelection and again lied.

He and the White House said over and over again that no such pardon would occur and was not being contemplated. That was also a lie. NBC is reporting that, while issuing these denials last June, there were discussions about the pardon. The pardon power was written in absolute terms, and a president can even, in my view, pardon himself. However, what is constitutional is not necessarily ethical or right. This is one of the most disgraceful pardons even in the checkered history of presidential pardons. President Biden has lied to cover up a corruption scandal that reportedly brought his family millions in raw influence peddling. His portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of immunity and power conveyed by Hunter in his dealings. There were diamonds as gifts, lavish expense accounts, and a sports car, in addition to massive payments that Hunter claimed were “loans.”

There are messages where Hunter belies the President’s portrayal of a political witch hunt, including messages like the one to a Chinese businessman openly threatening the displeasure of Joe Biden if money is not sent to them immediately. In the WhatsApp message, Hunter stated: “I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.” The President has now pardoned Hunter for his convicted felonies and any crimes he may have committed from “Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.” It is all now being buried under a sweeping immunity deal and a pack of presidential lies.

“Too bad that time’s up for you to actually do anything about this kind of systemic selective prosecutorial bullying, beyond serving your own family’s interests.”

• In Pardoning His Own Son, Biden Argues That US Justice Sucks (Marsden)

One of the big bonuses of being US president is that you can pardon any federal crimes you want on the way out the door. It’s a chance to help out family, friends, donors, or curry favor with potential future business associates in your post-White House career. US President Joe Biden just handed one out to his own son, Hunter Biden, who was facing up to 25 years prison in a firearms case and 17 years for a tax case. That length of sentence would make it seem that Hunter was accused of waving a gun around or firing it off in the vicinity of someone, but that’s hardly even the case. Instead, he was convicted of lying on his paperwork when applying for one. One of the questions asks whether you’ve smoked pot or done any other drugs “unlawfully.” No way, Hunter said. But unfortunately for him, a quick Google image search reveals spades of images of him with a crack pipe hanging from his mouth. Whoops.

In the tax case, he was convicted of three felony offenses and six misdemeanor offenses, according to his dad’s Justice Department statement, having “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.” And when he was finally made to pay up, having blanked out on paying for four tax years, he indulged in some creative accounting in inventing some business deductions. Enter Joe in the role of the parent who shows up at the school principal’s office to explain why his kid is such a screwup and can’t get his homework done on time for the tax man. “Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently,” Biden wrote in a statement. Sounds like Hunter’s serious addiction in this case was not paying taxes, just like every other American facing similar charges.

Everyone’s addicted to something. Maybe some other Americans were too busy double-fisting Ding Dongs or Twinkies to cater to the tax man? Or working on their gains at the gym? Or on a Netflix bender? Where’s their pardon? I’m sure Americans will be thrilled to learn that the president figures that indulging in some nose candy constitutes a free pass from any serious consequences of messing up your taxes – or just ignoring their existence altogether. Tax man knocking at the door? Just answer while smoking a giant blunt and tell him to bugger off. What about the gun stuff, though? Joe has an answer for that, too. “Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” he wrote.

Yeah okay, and most drivers who speed aren’t hauled up on speeding charges. Not because they aren’t doing it, but because there isn’t a cop sitting in the back of each one of their cars waiting for them to go over the limit and give them a ticket. Biden is literally saying that Hunter has been “treated differently” simply because he’s Biden’s son. Is he seriously blowing the whistle on his own Justice Department, and American justice, in general, with accusations of political prosecutions? Sure sounds like it. Too bad that, as president, he wasn’t actually in any position to actually do anything about it, huh? How about the tax man targeting Donald Trump’s returns? Is that not political, too, Joe? What about all the other felony charges that seemed designed to derail his return to the presidency? “For the first time in American history a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” Biden said earlier his year. “But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.”

Are we talking about the same system of justice that sucks so much that you had to correct its errors so your kid could avoid becoming someone’s Alcatraz amigo? “It says a lot about the United States that we work relentlessly to free Americans who are unjustly held around the world,” Biden said amid a prisoner swap with Russia this summer. How much work has Biden done – beyond his own kid’s case – to ensure that people who mess up on government paperwork in the US aren’t facing prison terms that rival those of genocide perpetrators? “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said. Sounds like a real problem. Too bad that time’s up for you to actually do anything about this kind of systemic selective prosecutorial bullying, beyond serving your own family’s interests.

“Californian voters surprised many Democrats this election with almost 40% voting for President-elect Trump over California’s own Vice President Kamala Harris..”

• “Trump-Proofing” California Could Be a Costly Option for Californians (Turley)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is widely known to be angling to be the next Democratic presidential nominee after the implosion of Vice President Kamala Harris. This week, Newsom positioned not just his campaign but also his state as part of the “resistance” for the next four years against the Trump Administration. Newsom pushed a special session to secure a $25 million war chest to take the Trump Administration to court, even before the inauguration and release of policies by the incoming administration. I wrote earlier about how the loss of both houses, as well as the White House, will mean that lawfare and obstructive efforts will shift to the states. Newsom is moving to out-position governors (and potential primary opponents) like Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker moved first in a chest-pounding press conference that he would stop the incoming administration from trying to remove undocumented persons, declaring, “You come for my people, you come through me.” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) added that he will “fight to the death” against Trump’s agenda. Newsom has upped the ante by demanding millions to pre-fund litigation against the new administration. With a massive budget debt burden, Newsom has continued to pile on new debt for politically popular initiatives. I cannot recall any state pre-positioning funds for the sole purpose of litigating against any incoming administration. The most obvious area of disagreement is the effort to ramp up the enforcement of immigration laws and to carry out deportations.

While polls show that the public overwhelmingly supports such enforcement, including deportations, California is seeking to take the lead in court actions designed to slow or frustrate such efforts. It could prove costly, not just in litigation expenditures. The Trump Administration could seek to withhold federal funding from states and cities obstructing enforcement efforts. In the meantime, sanctuary cities are continuing to face rising costs associated with rising populations of undocumented migrants. For example, as we previously discussed, Denver Mayor Mike Johnson (D) declared that he was preparing the Mile-High City for its “Tiananmen Square moment” to fight the federal government in any attempt to deport unlawful migrants. Johnson warned that he would have not only Denver police “stationed at the county line to keep [ICE] out” but also “50,000 Denverites.” He later walked back the comments while repeating that the city is positioning itself to be part of the resistance.

Now the Common Sense Institute (CSI), a non-partisan research organization estimated that eight percent of the city’s 2025 budget of $4.4 billion is now dedicated to housing and services for undocumented persons. If true, that amounts to $356 million or $7,900 per migrant. California has led other states in offering a wide array of benefits to undocumented persons. Notably, Californian voters surprised many Democrats this election with almost 40% voting for President-elect Trump over California’s own Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Kiev’s NATO ambitions were the key reason behind the current conflict.”

• Ukraine Will Reject Any Alternative To NATO Membership – Foreign Ministry (RT)

Ukraine will not accept any kind of security guarantees as a substitute for NATO membership, according to a Foreign Ministry statement published on Tuesday. In the document issued ahead of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels this week, Kiev blasted the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine gave up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal for security guarantees from Russia and the West. The Foreign Ministry called the pact a “monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making,” and urged its Western backers to issue it an invitation to the US-led military bloc during the meeting in Brussels. “Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates, or substitutes for Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the ministry said in a statement, marking this week’s 30th anniversary of the memorandum’s signing.

The criticism comes amid recent Russian advances and the upcoming return of US President-elect Donald Trump to the White House in January, which has raised uncertainty over US support as Kiev fears it could be forced to the negotiating table. “We are convinced that the only real security guarantee for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent factor for further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is only Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the statement said. Ukraine was left with around 1,700 nuclear warheads after the collapse of the Soviet Union. While this stockpile technically made Ukraine the world’s third-largest nuclear power, the weapons themselves remained under the operational control of Russia, and were surrendered under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. This agreement involved the US, UK, and Russia providing security assurances to Kiev in return for the removal of the weapons.

While Ukraine has never controlled nuclear weapons, in 2022, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky expressed regret about his country agreeing to relinquish them, suggesting that Kiev has “every right” to reverse the decision. Earlier this year, Zelensky said Ukraine could protect itself by becoming either a nuclear state or a member of NATO. He later backtracked, saying Kiev does not have any alternative “except NATO.” NATO, however, is “highly unlikely” to heed Kiev’s call for a membership invitation during this week’s meeting, Reuters reported, citing diplomats, saying it would take weeks or even months to reach a consensus from the bloc’s 32 members for the decision. Ukraine made NATO membership a strategic goal in 2019. This was a red line for Moscow, which has for years expressed concerns about the bloc’s creeping expansion towards its borders. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Kiev’s NATO ambitions were the key reason behind the current conflict.

Forget it. Think Oreshnik.

• Kiev Should ‘Disregard Everything And Everyone’, Become Nuclear Power – MP (RT)

Ukraine must become a nuclear power to protect itself no matter the consequences, an opposition MP said on Tuesday. Becoming a member of NATO, which the current government hopes will happen, is not enough, Aleksey Goncharenko has argued. This week marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, which comprises three nearly-identical multilateral agreements with former parts of the USSR that had nuclear weapons stationed on their territories at the time the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine agreed to denuclearize in exchange for security assurances by Russia, the US, and UK. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday to complain that the document has not applied to Kiev since the US-backed armed coup of 2014.

The anniversary, it said, is a good time to extend to Ukraine a formal invitation to NATO, it claimed. ”NATO is a good thing. But NATO will not defend us. Nuclear weapons would,” Goncharenko wrote in response on social media. “So we should disregard everything and everyone and make the bomb. Then we’ll figure things out.” The MP also rebuked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky for missing the opportunity to get a “normal peace treaty” with Russia and NATO membership before the 2023 ‘counteroffensive’. He belongs to the party of former President Pyotr Poroshenko, who lost to Zelensky in the 2019 presidential election. The Budapest Memorandum with Ukraine should serve as a reminder to Western leaders that the “development of European security architecture at the expense of Ukrainian interests rather than in alignment with them is doomed to fail,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

The country “will not accept any alternative, imitation, or substitute for a NATO membership with full rights,” it added. In recent statements, Zelensky has been sending mixed messages on NATO membership, suggesting that Kiev would be willing to accept accession of only the territories currently under its control, or accession of all claimed territories without protection under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Kiev claims that Ukraine was the third-largest nuclear power after Russia and the US, before agreeing to give up the weapons. The Ukrainian government has denied having a secret nuclearization plan, after German media claimed last month that it does.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas took the side of the 34%, whom she declared to be the “Georgian people,” not the 54% who won the election.”

• Georgia: A Second Front for Putin (Paul Craig Roberts)

President Putin faces the possibility of a second Ukraine, a second war front that could result from Washington’s success in staging a coup d’etat in Georgia with a color revolution. Riots ongoing since the “Russian party” defeated the “Western party” by 54% to 34% have convinced the Prime Minister of Georgia that the West is in the process of launching a color revolution to overthrow, as was done in Ukraine, the democratically elected government. Putin is silent and consequently could find himself fighting on two fronts. Then the West will open a third front. This is what Putin can expect from consistently presenting himself as a non-interventionist unless Russia is attacked. Russia, certainly the most powerful military entity on earth, carries no weight in Western councils. Georgia, the country, became a part of Russia in early 1800. In 1917 Georgia became one of the provinces of the Soviet Union.

The country became independent in 1991 when the collapse of the Soviet Union gave Washington the opportunity to break up the Soviet Union. Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Central Asian provinces were turned into independent countries. In 2003 Washington engineered the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia, which put a pro-Western government in office. In 2008 Washington sent its US trained and equipped Georgian army into South Ossetia, a disputed province that did not agree to leave Russia with Georgia. As Russian peacekeepers were killed in the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia, Putin sent in the Russian Army which quickly destroyed the American trained Georgian Army and conquered Georgia in five days, which is what should have happened in Ukraine. Failing to realize that Washington would continue to try to turn Georgia into a front against Russia, Putin turned Georgia loose and took his army home.

Putin, a true believer in non-interference even when it is at Russia’s expense, left Georgia to be subverted by Washington. Putin did not require that Georgia shut down Washington’s NGOs operating in the country or that Georgia subordinate itself in any way to Russia. Consequently, Washington got a French-born woman installed as president of Georgia, and Washington’s propaganda and NGOs have convinced 34% of Georgians to prefer alignment with the West than with Russia. It is part of Washington’s intent to surround Russia with missile bases. Washington’s EU puppet has threatened to impose sanctions on the democratically elected Georgian government for failure to void the election and put in office a pro-West government. The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas took the side of the 34%, whom she declared to be the “Georgian people,” not the 54% who won the election.

She promised that the EU would punish those who won and that sanctions against Georgia was one of the options for dealing with the Georgian people’s refusal to comply with EU rule. Last Saturday the US State Department spokesman announced Washington’s suspension of its strategic partnership with Georgia, thus setting up Georgia for overthrow. The Georgian President supports Washington’s NGO protesters and said the parliamentary elections are illegitimate. There is no indication that the Russian government realizes that the overthrow of the pro-Russian government means trouble for Russia. Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, writes nonsensically about the attempt at “color revolution” as if it is merely an internal affair for Georgia.

“..Uyghur jihadists in Syria pose an overlooked yet significant regional and international security problem..”

• The Second Front Has Been Activated In Syria (Sonja van den Ende)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will go down in history as the most corrupt leader of the most extreme radical settler regime ever seen in the “promised land” called Israel, has negotiated a supposed ceasefire with Hezbollah, which will last for 60 days. Shortly after the ceasefire in Lebanon came into effect, and after Israeli Netanyahu warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he was “playing with fire”, a new front was opened from Idlib to Aleppo. The terrorist group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an attack on Aleppo from their last enclave in Idlib. HTS and other factions called the al-Fatah al-Mubin group, just another small terrorist organization affiliated with HTS, advanced in the western countryside of Aleppo and took control of strategic points in the villages of Qubtan al-Jabal and Sheikh Aqil.

According to sources and Syrian media, around 50 people were killed, including terrorists, Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers and an SAA soldier who was taken back to Idlib as booty. Who is HTS? If you believe Western sources, they are a Sunni Islamist political and armed organization involved in the Syrian civil war. It was formed on January 28, 2017, as a merger between Jaysh al-Ahrar, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haq and Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. Syrian and Iraqi people call the organization Daesh, which means “the one who crushes”. The West sometimes gave it another name, ISIS or Islamic State. Also, the so-called Syrian civil war is a proxy war of the West to get the oil and gas out of Syria (and Iraq). This is well known among Syrians, who see their oil being stolen by the U.S., initially by their proxies Daesh, but now more directly with the help of the U.S. military.

The main goal of the U.S. is to replace Russian allies with those of the U.S., usurping Assad’s power with radical jihadists, aligned in the past mainly with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, so that the U.S. could build a pipeline through Syria to Europe. The evidence is clear that U.S. President Barack Obama, against advice and warnings from his top military officers, pursued a policy to protect the fundamentalist Sunni organization Al Qaeda in Syria. Proof that the U.S. (and its Western client states) under the Obama administration sponsored terrorists in Syria and Iraq is in the form of the last mentioned group, the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. Obama had to admit before the entire Western press that Nour al-Din al-Zenki, who beheaded an eleven-year-old Palestinian boy in cold blood in front of rolling cameras, was indeed a terrorist group.

But so were all the others who the U.S. kept on sponsoring with weapons and money (as did Europe and the entire West). Later, they all merged with Daesh (ISIS). In 2016, during the liberation of Aleppo by the Syrian Arab Army, fighters from other terrorist groups (all fighting under the banner of Daesh but fighting among themselves) captured and killed members of the Zenki movement. Many of those who survived were later granted asylum in Europe (particularly Germany) along with other terrorists. But to this day, Europe is in denial and calls them rebels, while the evidence of gang violence happening in the cities of Europe is clear. Some say because of President Assad’s humane offer, they chose to be exiled to the enclave of Idlib, where a concentration of jihadists (after 2016) is now located.

The biggest Daesh group there has become HTS, and almost all groups are affiliated with them. Also, there are remaining Uyghurs, many of whom are in Idlib. This group is extremely violent, and they know they can’t go back to China. According to one report, Uyghur jihadist fighters in Syria have served as a force multiplier for insurgents there. Uyghur fighters gained ground in Idlib, the only Syrian province that still has a large local and foreign jihadist presence. Uyghur jihadists in Syria pose an overlooked yet significant regional and international security problem. They are likely to become a greater threat if fighting in Idlib winds down and the province is not decisively captured by a strong state or non-state actor hostile to jihadist groups.”

Here’s the plan: “The negative natural change (more deaths than births) was outnumbered by the positive net migration..”

• EU Reports Dramatic Fall In Birth Rate (RT)

The number of babies born in the EU fell to a record low last year, according to the latest data from the bloc’s statistical office (Eurostat). Despite this, the total population has been on the rise due to mass immigration. Births across the EU’s 27 member states stood at 3,665,000 in 2023 – a decline of 5.5% year-on-year, as per Eurostat’s figures. Birth rates have been falling steadily across the EU since 2008. The number of births last year was the lowest in the EU countries since comparable data was first collected in 1961, and the annual decline is the largest on record, the Financial Times (FT) reports. The sharpest drops in births over the past decade have been recorded in Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states.

Demographic experts polled by the FT believe the longstanding trend of Europeans having fewer babies may have been exacerbated by concerns over economic and political tensions on the international level, the worst surge in inflation in a generation, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a recent report, the Total Fertility Rate has halved from 3.3 children per woman in 1960 to 1.5 in 2022 in the 38 countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which include 22 EU member states plus Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and others. According to Eurostat, all EU regions have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 live births per woman.

Nevertheless, the population of the EU has been on the rise over the past decade, with the exception of the pandemic year of 2021. The most notable jump was recorded in 2023, according to Eurostat figures. “The negative natural change (more deaths than births) was outnumbered by the positive net migration,” the agency said in a release in July. Eurostat attributed the population growth to increased migration after the pandemic and the influx of immigrants from Ukraine who received temporary protection status in the EU.

“When I sit on the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council with other foreign ministers and listen to some, I’m so sad, that such kind of extreme pro-war positions are present..”

• EU Has Weakened ‘A Lot’ Amid Ukraine Conflict – Hungarian FM (RT)

The EU approach to the Ukraine conflict has ultimately weakened the bloc “a lot,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said, branding the decision to blindly follow Washington’s polices a “big mistake.” The top diplomat made the remarks while speaking exclusively to RT’s Saskia Taylor in an interview on Monday. Comparisons between EU and US aid to Ukraine by the bloc’s leaders are a “very bad and harmful approach from the European perspective,” Szijjarto said. While the US is hardly affected by the enduring hostility between Moscow and Kiev, the conflict has taken a heavy toll on the EU, according to the minister. “There is destruction taking place in Europe, and the European economy is faced with the impacts and the consequences of this war. So therefore, following the US policies without any kind of criticism, that’s a big mistake and I do believe that the strategy the European Union has been following in the recent 1000 days is a failed one,” Szijjarto said.

The EU has “weakened a lot” during the conflict, and the approach taken by the bloc has proven to be a wrong one, the diplomat stated. I do believe that instead of globalizing the conflict, the right strategy would have been to localize it and to do everything in order to resolve it, to make peace, instead of pouring oil on the fire, which has been the case. “There are many extremely pro-war politicians in Europe. When I sit on the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council with other foreign ministers and listen to some, I’m so sad, that such kind of extreme pro-war positions are present,” Szijjarto stated. Hungary itself has taken a different approach, remaining “the only country in Europe or European Union which has not delivered weapons to Ukraine,” he noted. “We are the only country in NATO, almost the only one, which speaks openly about the red lines which must be kept seriously. And we are the ones who speak openly about our assessment that NATO is a defense alliance and not an attack,” Szijjarto added.

The foreign minister also touched upon the situation in Georgia, which has been gripped by unrest over the past few days after Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that he would freeze accession talks with the EU until 2028. The protests have been openly backed by the EU, with the stance taken by the bloc’s leadership hardly surprising given that Hungary has been “under attack for the last 15 years,” Szijjarto suggested. “My problem is that this is very [common] in Europe. In the case, if it is not the liberals to win an election, the democratic nature of the whole country and the whole political system is being questioned immediately. If it is liberals to win, everything’s fine. If it’s patriots to win, if it is conservatives to win, if it is right-wing to win, the nature of democracy is immediately questioned. And this is totally unacceptable,” he said.

“During the week of Nov. 6, MSNBC averaged just 38,000 viewers among adults 25-54..

• The End Of Fake News? MSNBC Hits New Low In Ratings (ZH)

The leftist “news” channel MSNBC is facing a ratings crisis, with some of its advertiser-coveted viewership dropping to a two-decade low, according to Nielsen data reviewed by Fox News. During the week of Nov. 6, MSNBC averaged just 38,000 viewers among adults 25-54, its lowest-rated non-holiday weekday since July 19, 2004. As reported by Fox News, this demographic is widely prized by advertisers and is crucial for network revenue. Low viewership impacted shows like The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle and Jose Diaz Balart Reports, both of which saw their smallest audiences ever. Other shows—including Chris Jansing Reports, Deadline: White House and Katy Tur Reports—saw their worst days ever among the demos. Several shows lost over 50% of their 25-54 audience.

Among those shows are The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, All In with Chris Hayes, Chris Jansing Reports, Inside with Jen Psaki, The Rachel Maddow Show and Joy Reid’s ReidOut. This slump couldn’t have come at a worse time, as MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast, announced cuts to cable channels, excluding NBC News and Bravo TV. CNN reports that MSNBC will be moved into “SpinCo,” a publicly traded cable programming company. Tech mogul Elon Musk has hinted at purchasing MSNBC, while journalist Jack Posobiec says he’s recruiting investors to take control of the left-wing network.

Podcast host Joe Rogan joked about replacing Rachel Maddow if Musk buys MSNBC: “I will wear the same outfit and glasses, and I will tell the same lies.”Along with viewership and Comcast scandals, MSNBC is under the scrutiny of its viewers after Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with Donald Trump, despite having previously compared him to dictators. Al Sharpton faces ethical scrutiny after his nonprofit quietly took a $500,000 donation from the Harris campaign ahead of his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. MSNBC conceded that Sharpton blindsided them with the donation. “MSNBC was unaware of the donations made to the National Action Network,” an MSNBC spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon.

“Hamburg will see its flights cut by 60 percent, BER by 20 percent and Cologne/Bonn by 10 percent.”

• Ryanair CEO O’Leary: Germany Is Run By ‘Idiots’ (RMX)

In an interview for the industry magazine “Airliners,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary attacked German politicians, calling them “a government of idiots,” criticizing in particular the Greens, whom he accused of “stupid solutions,” reports DoRceczy. He was also skeptical about the future government of the Federal Republic of Germany. “I don’t think the next government of Germany will be any better,” he said. Ryanair’s boss described the German aviation market as one of the worst in Europe, calling Berlin’s BER airport “dysfunctional,” adding that the airport could only function as “a regional airport at best.”

According to him, high fees of over €50 per passenger are a key reason why the German aviation industry is only slowly recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. This is why Ryanair has already reduced its German capacity from 16 million to 13.5 million seats. The fleet of 300 aircraft will be moved to more attractive markets, with the location “determined strictly on the basis of expected profits,” he said. Ryanair will be withdrawing completely from Dortmund, Dresden, and Halle/Leipzig airports by March 2025, while Hamburg will see its flights cut by 60 percent, BER by 20 percent and Cologne/Bonn by 10 percent. “Further cuts could come next year with the summer flight schedule, as Ryanair increasingly favors lower-cost destinations outside Germany,” DW reports.

“Defendant is ORDERED to provide Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure..”

• Fani Full Release Ordered After Fulton DA Sat On RICO Records (ZH)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been ordered by a local judge to release all communications between her office, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office, and the January 6th Committee regarding her RICO case against President Donald Trump and his allies, after she was found to have violated federal law by withholding them. “The Court also hereby ORDERS Defendant to conduct a diligent search of her records for responsive materials within five business days of the entry of this Order. Within that same five day period, Defendant is ORDERED to provide Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure,” reads a Tuesday order. If Willis can’t find them, she is mandated to follow court-ordered procedures to “provide an explanation why such correspondence does not exist.”

Willis, who had been served on March 11, 2024 in the suite involving conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, failed to respond by an April 10 deadline. After later claiming she ‘misunderstood’ the court’s directive, she then said that the document release would jeopardize her RICO case. [..] As the Epoch Times notes further… “In mid-2023, Willis told a local radio station that she was not coordinating in any way with Smith’s office in investigations and cases brought against former President Donald Trump. Smith had charged Trump, now the president-elect, with both classified documents-related and 2020 election-related charges in two different jurisdictions, while Willis brought charges against him and more than a dozen others for alleged election-related crimes in Fulton County.

“I don’t know what Jack Smith is doing and Jack Smith doesn’t know what I’m doing,” Willis said in July of that year. “In all honesty, if Jack Smith was standing next to me, I’m not sure I would know who he was. My guess is he probably can’t pronounce my name correctly.” Since then, however, she has made no comments about Smith’s investigation. Smith, meanwhile, has never commented on Willis’s case against Trump. Smith in November filed court papers confirming he would be dropping his election case against Trump and would stop the appeals process in his classified documents case. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he would terminate Smith as special counsel upon taking office.

A letter sent by Willis’s office on Dec. 17, 2021, to the House Jan. 6 committee had “requested access to any Select Committee records relevant to her investigation into President Trump’s actions to challenge the 2020 presidential election, including ‘recordings and transcripts of witness interviews and depositions, electronic and print records of communications, and records of travel,’” House Judiciary Republicans said in a report released last year relating to an investigation they launched into Willis. Willis has been critical of House Republicans’ investigation into her office and the Trump case, accusing House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) of trying to interfere in the case at one point. “Jim Jordan has, time after time after time, attacked my office with no legitimate purpose,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in May. “Anyone who knows Jim Jordan’s history knows that he only has the purpose of trying to interfere in a criminal investigation.”

In a letter issued to Republicans in 2023, Willis said Republicans are trying to “obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.” Her case against Trump has stalled in recent months after one of the president-elect’s co-defendants submitted a court filing earlier this year claiming Willis and then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade were engaged in a romantic relationship. The pair confirmed they were in a relationship but denied any wrongdoing. A judge overseeing the case issued an order in March allowing Willis to remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did hours later. Trump and several of his co-defendants appealed the decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals earlier this year, where the case is still pending.”

“By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced..”

• House Oversight Report Supports Lab-Leak Theory for COVID-19 Origin (ET)

A Republican-led oversight subcommittee has concluded that the COVID-19 virus likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, following a two-year investigation into the pandemic. The House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a 520-page report on Dec. 2, detailing the findings of the subcommittee’s investigation. The report found that the U.S. National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and that EcoHealth Alliance Inc. used U.S. taxpayer dollars to facilitate this research at the lab. It also found that the Chinese communist regime, agencies within the U.S. government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.

The committee said that COVID-19 possesses biological characteristics not found in nature and that data indicates that all COVID-19 cases stemmed from a single introduction into humans, unlike previous pandemics, where there were more spillover events. “By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced,” the oversight subcommittee said in a statement. The report said that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has a history of conducting “gain-of-function” research under low biosafety precautions. Several researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick with a COVID-like virus months before the first case of the outbreak was allegedly detected at a wet market, according to the report.

The report said that in January 2021, the U.S. State Department published an unclassified fact sheet that stated: “The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness.” Citing the fact sheet, the report stated that the Wuhan Institute of Virology “has a published record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research to engineer chimeric viruses.” The report said the June 2023 ODNI assessment supported this conclusion and went further, stating, “Scientists at the WIV have created chimeras, or combinations of SARS-like coronaviruses through genetic engineering, attempted to clone other unrelated viruses, and used reverse genetic cloning techniques on SARS-like coronaviruses.”

The June 2023 ODNI Assessment said that some of the “WIV’s genetic engineering projects on coronaviruses involved techniques that could make it difficult to detect intentional changes.” Among those interviewed during the panel’s investigation was Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who stepped down from his role in December 2022. The report stated that Fauci had “prompted” a research study titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2”—which dismissed the idea that the virus was laboratory constructed—to “disprove” the lab leak theory. Fauci testified at a June hearing that he did not suppress the lab leak theory and did not view it as inherently a conspiracy theory but said that “some distortions on that particular subject are,” according to the report.

“Hughes’s expression of his gratitude to everyone associated with the Novichok narrative except for the Skripals means he is burying them..”

• The Skripals Are As Good As Dead – The Judge Has Buried Them (Helmer)

After Yulia Skripal has testified through her doctor that she was attacked with a poison spray in a restaurant minutes before she and her father, Sergei Skripal, collapsed on March 4, 2018, the British Government hearings on what happened have attempted to suppress her evidence. Yesterday, December 2, the hearings ended with a statement by Jack Holborn, a lawyer paid by the Home Office to say he represents the Skripals, and to claim they agree to the suppression of their own evidence. “Sergei and Yulia Skripal are grateful to this Inquiry for its work,” Holborn said. “Thank you.” Page 158 The retired judge who has directed the hearings, Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley), let slip in his closing statement that he understands the Skripals are dead or incommunicado in prison because he omitted to thank them for their participation. “

I am grateful,” Hughes said, “to all the Core Participants and chiefly, of course, to those most closely connected to the events, namely Dawn Sturgess’ family, who have coped, if I may say so, admirably with what must have been at times extremely difficult evidence to listen to.” Only the Skripals were closer to the events than the Sturgess family or the ambulance crews, police, intelligence agents, doctors, and government officials who have been called to testify on their oaths. But Hughes ruled on September 23 that the Skripals were not allowed to testify either in the open hearing room, behind closed doors, or by remote internet link. Hughes’s expression of his gratitude to everyone associated with the Novichok narrative except for the Skripals means he is burying them.

Holborn has been seconding Andrew Deakin KC, a lawyer also paid by the Home Office to represent the Skripals. Neither of them has asked questions of any witness nor made submissions throughout the eight weeks of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry hearings. Deakin’s opening statement on October 14 lasted 88 seconds. “Both Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” Deakin said, “would like to express their sorrow at the death of Dawn Sturgess and to offer their deepest sympathies to her family and loved ones. Sergei and Yulia Skripal also express their sympathy to those who were injured in the course of this incident. Finally, Sergei and Yulia would like to express their profound gratitude to the emergency workers, police and hospital staff who risked their lives to help them. Sergei and Yulia keenly await the outcome of this Inquiry. They look forward to better understanding the circumstances of the Salisbury attack, to considering the Inquiry’s conclusions as to who was responsible for that attack and to being able to move on with their lives.” Page 156-57. Deakin did not appear again.

In open testimony at the Inquiry it has been revealed that Yulia Skripal’s doctor at the Salisbury District Hospital, Stephen Cockroft, discovered she had recovered consciousness on March 8, four days after the attack. The police evidence to the Inquiry is that Skripal then communicated by eye signals to Cockroft that she remembered being sprayed, not at home but at Zizzi’s Restaurant where she and her father had been lunching just before they collapsed. The senior police source for this evidence was Keith Asman; he is the chief of forensics for the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTPSE) group which in the investigation of the Novichok affair has combined the Metropolitan and regional police forces with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Security Service (MI5). In his witness statement, Asman repeated what another police officer, code-named VN104, had recorded from Dr Cockroft. The evidence of Detective Inspector (DI) VN104, identified as the deputy head of the Metropolitan Police investigating Novichok, was not called into open or closed testimony by Hughes.

Frens
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863534908569981204

Slide
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863660969118822457

Bonedigger

This is Bonedigger, a disabled 500 pound (227 kg) lion with his unlikely Dachshund friends who have been inseparable ever since the lion was a cub.

Especially Milo, an eight-year-old Dachshund which rarely leaves his side, plus Bullet and Angel, who became friends too. pic.twitter.com/7oEWiaXYmO

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 2, 2024

Kestrel

Helping a kestrel mom feed her babies.pic.twitter.com/CoVLq8ZIGM

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 3, 2024

Seal

This seal could have gone his whole life not knowing lizards exist pic.twitter.com/zwFpd1s8g0

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

Dunkin

pic.twitter.com/eBPOOUhU5R

— Doglover (@puppiesDoglover) December 2, 2024

Chihuahua
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863677018270994682

Save the bees

She saved a whole colony of bees. What a legend. pic.twitter.com/jCSuQTA4Me

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 2, 2024

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Debt Rattle November 22 2024

Nov 222024

November 22, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:45 am Finance Tagged with: attorney general, COVID, DOGE, ICC, long range weapons, Pam Bondi, Pax Americana, Redfield, tariffs, Trump, West Bank 59 Responses »

Giovanni Bellini Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and Female Saint 1500-04

• Trump Nominates Pam Bondi For Attorney General After Gaetz Withdraws (ZH)

• Biden Is Trying To Throw Trump Under The Ukrainian Bus (Lukyanov)

• This Is The Most Evil Thing I’ve Seen In My Lifetime – Tucker Carlson (MN)

• Ukraine ‘Global War’ After Western Long-Range Weapons Used – Putin (ZH)

• Ukraine Sends Its Own Skilled Workforce To The Front Lines (SCF)

• In The Beginning Was The Pax Americana (Pacini)

• Trump May Not Need to Pull Trigger on Tariffs (ET)

• DOGE Wants To Cut $1.9 Trillion In Government Spending (Duro)

• Musk, Ramaswamy Reveal DOGE Blueprint To Cut Government Waste (ZH)

• The Prospects for Trump’s Agenda (Paul Craig Roberts)

• Trump Opposes Israel Annexation Of West Bank, Republican Sources Say (MEMO)

• ICC Issues Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Gallant (Sobczak)

• Former Green Beret: Trump Can “Turn Loose Delta Force” On The Cartels (MN)

• US Played ‘Substantial’ Role In Causing Covid Pandemic – ex-CDC Chief (RT)

• US Government Funded Creation of the Coronavirus (Paul Craig Roberts)

• UK School Removes All Christmas References to Make Children Feel “Safe” (MN)

• French Establishment Desperate To Stop Rise Of Conservatives (ZH)

Peace

WWIII EXCLUSIVE: A Cease-Fire Between Ukraine & Russia Is Secretly Being Negotiated Behind The Scenes By President Trump & Elon Musk

PLUS— Russia Successfully Simulated A Nuclear Attack That Can Evade NATO Defenses With Their ICBM Strike On Ukraine

LIVE:https://t.co/e60j44YPjH pic.twitter.com/mgAh1ZPUGa

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) November 21, 2024

https://twitter.com/i/status/1859328265644802352

pic.twitter.com/iJkc2nPofO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2024

NEW: Joe Rogan rips Bill Gates, says he and everyone else who got rich off of COVID-19 is responsible for ruining millions of lives.

"Bill Gates, who's on television telling everybody, get the vaccine. You won't get Covid. And then afterward, that didn't work after he had… pic.twitter.com/gdQSZMzszW

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 20, 2024

Naomi Alex

BREAKING: Under The Constitution, The 25th Amendment Removal Of Biden For Launching WWIII Would Hand Power To Congress To Remove Kamala Harris As Well, Reports Dr. Naomi Wolf@naomirwolf

WATCH/SHARE THE LIVE SHOW HERE:https://t.co/lTy12LEy9g pic.twitter.com/zs9ICo8OU2

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) November 20, 2024

Legal immigration

Legal immigration to America is ridiculously slow & difficult, even for super talented people. Needs to be fixed.
pic.twitter.com/h65o4ShPgX

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2024

O’Reilly
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859433139568844906

750

Every American should be aware of this

Oversight Committee reveals FEMA is giving illegal migrants over $10,000 dollars while offering Hurricane Victims $750

“I was able to get to a figure in excess of $10,000 for an individual — That as a citizen of a foreign country, how… pic.twitter.com/NAHVgaWMZm

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) November 20, 2024

Homan

JUST IN: Incoming Border Czar Tom Homan starts tearing up while discussing the Laken Riley case, eviscerates Democrat leaders who allowed it to happen.

"I want every mayor, every governor of a sanctuary jurisdiction to listen to that tape."

"Listen to this young girl fight for… pic.twitter.com/7mFlHzGTlX

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 21, 2024

Gore Limbaugh

1992. Al Gore and Rush Limbaugh debate climate change.

Gore was wrong. Limbaugh was spot on about the entire scam. pic.twitter.com/Wc495ry6EJ

— MAZE (@mazemoore) November 21, 2024

That was fast. Did they feed him to the wolves to keep the others safe(r)?

• Trump Nominates Pam Bondi For Attorney General After Gaetz Withdraws (ZH)

Update: Donald Trump said he is nominating former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and his personal trial lawyer, to run the US Department of Justice, after his first pick, former Representative Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening.

Bondi, age 59, is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician. A Republican, she served as the 37th Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019. She is the first woman elected to the office. In 2020, Bondi was one of longtime ally President Donald Trump’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial. By 2024 she led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. Trump initially picked Gaetz, as his AG but the former US representative from Florida said he would no longer seek the post after intense scrutiny over a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct, including having sex with a minor.

JUST IN: MSNBC guest melts down over Trump picking Pam Bondi as the next Attorney General, says they should "fear" her because she's competent.

Liberal political scientist Jason Johnson said Bondi is an "effective pick" who is "worse" than Matt Gaetz.

"We should all fear [her]… pic.twitter.com/PUaGWVqEeR

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 21, 2024

—
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has withdrawn his name for consideration for attorney general amid growing controversy over sexual misconduct allegations. “While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz wrote on X. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance…

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) November 21, 2024

President-Elect Trump acknowledged Gaetz’ efforts in a statement on Truth Social: I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do! It’s unclear what’s next for Gaetz, as he resigned from Congress after Trump picked him for consideration. Rubio’s Senate seat?

The truth about Matt Gaetz withdrawal from AG Nomination: pic.twitter.com/X4zR2CE9uB

— Owen Shroyer (@OwenShroyer1776) November 21, 2024

“The final days of Democrat rule in Washington promise to be risky.”

• Biden Is Trying To Throw Trump Under The Ukrainian Bus (Lukyanov)

We’ve seen an uproar since it’s become apparent that the US has given Ukraine permission to launch long-range strikes deep inside Russia. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, Moscow’s unequivocal warnings that such a move would be seen as NATO’s direct entry into the war. And secondly the fallout from the dramatic change in the political situation in the US. Of course, in foreign policy terms, it’s on the Ukrainian issue that the differences between the outgoing and incoming American administrations is most visible. And Kiev is engaged in a feverish search for ways to reverse a situation that is becoming increasingly unfavourable for its interests. Finally, there is the turmoil in Western Europe, where elites are simply unable to comprehend the magnitude of the impending change. The news, which clearly resembles a fateful turning point, was quickly downplayed, if not denied.

The French and the British were quick to distance themselves from speculation that they too had immediately issued such authorizations – at an official level they repeated that they were only considering the possibility. Meanwhile, American sources close to the current ruling circles clarified the area of hypothetical use – only where hostilities are currently taking place. Most importantly, the range of reactions in Western countries was extremely wide. From the unbridled jubilation of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters among liberal NGO lobbyists, the EU’s hardline Josep Borrell and the governments of the most militant countries of Eastern Europe, to the sharp criticism of representatives of the future Donald Trump-led American administration and officials from certain European countries. To sum up, the picture is roughly as follows: the use of the weapons under discussion may complicate Russia’s actions, but will not change the overall nature of the campaign.

Nevertheless, they present significant potential for escalation, the limit of which is unclear. A frequently asked question is: why has this decision, which Kiev has been seeking all year, being taken now? Again, there are several purely speculative answers. Officially, the last straw was supposedly the data on the presence of North Korean units in the area of the armed conflict. For which there is no evidence. The White House, it is said, wants to send a signal to Pyongyang that it should stop cooperating with Moscow by authorizing strikes on their alleged bases. There is no point in speculating on the veracity of these claims. But two points are worth noting. First, it is not entirely clear why the possible involvement of the North Koreans has caused such a stir. Second, why would Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-un, seen in Washington as a ruthless totalitarian ruler, would suddenly be frightened by such a signal and rush to reconsider his previous alleged decisions. If indeed it even happened in the first place.

Another version is that the US administration understands that negotiations to end the conflict are inevitable and that Ukraine is approaching them from an increasingly unfavorable position. Accordingly, it is necessary to assist Kiev in improving its bargaining position, and the best way is to hold a bridgehead in the Kursk border area for further bartering. Whether proponents of this theory are right are wrong, we can’t say – but strangers things have happened. Finally, let’s look at what is in fact the generally accepted opinion of most commentators, both in the West and Russia. The Biden administration is trying to secure its historical legacy and make it as difficult as possible for Trump’s new team to get out of the Ukraine quagmire. In terms of legacy, of course, the situation is far from black and white – it all started with an attempt to strategically defeat Russia and reaffirm American/Western hegemony in the world.

Now the task is to ensure that the conflict is prolonged in the hope of some positive changes for Ukraine and vice versa for Russia. What will come out of this is unpredictable. Some Trump associates have been very negative, accusing Biden of trying to provoke World War III. Indeed, if Trump inherits a confrontation at its peak, the responsibility will be enormous and the room to maneuver will be limited. There is, however, a view that this may be convenient for the Trumpists. After all, the new president has the right to turn American policy on its head as soon as he takes office, citing the real threat of dragging the country into direct war.

This is conceivable, but it remains unclear which way Trump will turn. His approach to governing is still rooted in business, hence the endless references to the deals he will make. Trump’s first term failed to prove that business techniques can automatically transfer to international relations. And the members of his team who will influence policymaking are extremely diverse, ranging from market disruptor Elon Musk to more traditional Republican strongmen in positions in the State Department and national security apparatus. Finding a balance won’t easy. Meanwhile, everyone is entering a dangerous phase in which the chances of descending into unmanageable confrontation are greater than before. The final days of Democrat rule in Washington promise to be risky.

“The US has become a fascist state under the administration of President Joe Biden..”

• This Is The Most Evil Thing I’ve Seen In My Lifetime – Tucker Carlson (MN)

During a discussion with president-elect Trump’s former Office of Management and Budget Director, Russ Vought, Tucker Carlson posited that the outgoing administration is attempting to saddle Trump with a global conflict. “If you doubt how serious the opposition is to the public, not just to Trump, but to the majority of the country that voted for him, They’re trying to leave him with World War III on the way out,” Carlson urged. Russia is furious about the Biden administration lifting restrictions on use of US developed long range missiles, and Putin has repeatedly stated that such a move would mean NATO countries are at war with Russia. Carlson continued, “I can’t imagine a more desperate or evil thing for Tony Blinken, who I think is desperate and evil, in my view, to do. Leave him with a war?”

Russ Vought ran OMB under Trump the first time, and hopefully will again. Here’s what he learned about how the deep state actually works.

(0:00) What is the Office of Management and Budget?
(7:57) How Our Intel Agencies Overrule the President
(29:21) What Will the Congressional… pic.twitter.com/vl9au8UwU7

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 18, 2024

“A lame-duck president trying to start a war with the world’s largest nuclear power, Russia. What do you make of that?” Carlson asked Vought. Vought responded, “It’s incredibly insidious, and then add to the fact that he can’t put two sentences together and he is largely not in control of his own government,” referring to Joe Biden. “You have almost an unelected president with individuals behind the scenes doing this,” he continued, further asserting “It doesn’t surprise me, though. I mean, these are the same people that have weaponized the Department of Justice and the lawfare.” “I have a colleague, Jeff Clark, who they’re trying to disbar because of the care he showed on behalf of the president in dealing with voter integrity and election fraud after 2020,” Vought further noted.

“The system has thrown everything at the warriors who are on the field. You’re seeing that with Tulsi, you’re seeing that with Matt Gaetz,” he pointed out, adding “Why is all of this stuff being thrown at him slanderously?” Carlson also discussed the spiralling escalation in Ukraine with journalist Glenn Greenwald, noting that the decision to escalate the conflict with ATACMS missiles is “the most evil thing I’ve seen in my lifetime.” Greenwald also pointed out that Ukraine doesn’t have the expertise to use the guidance system for the weapons and therefore NATO countries and the US would be actively involved in launching them at targets inside Russia. As we highlighted yesterday, NATO member state Sweden is sending out pamphlets advising citizens how they should prepare for nuclear war in the wake of the escalation.

Permanent Washington decides nuclear war is preferable to Donald Trump. Glenn Greenwald on the nihilism of our ruling class.

(0:00) Permanent Washington Dangerously Misunderstands Vladimir Putin
(23:06) We Are on the Verge of Nuclear War
(28:11) The Concerted Effort to Control… pic.twitter.com/GOJDslU23W

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 20, 2024

“..the weapon appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, adding, “But it is a new type we have been tracking.”

• Ukraine ‘Global War’ After Western Long-Range Weapons Used – Putin (ZH)

On Thursday President Vladimir Putin issued a stern warning in the wake of Ukraine launching long-range strikes on Russia’s territory utilizing newly approved US and UK long-range missiles. “Kiev has launched a long-range missile strike against military facilities located within internationally-recognized Russian territory,” began his televised address by saying. He confirmed British-made Storm Shadow missiles and US-made HIMARS were fired targets located in Bryansk and Kursk Regions. He said this action threatens to turn the Ukraine conflict into a global war. “A regional Ukraine conflict instigated by the West has acquired elements of a global one,” Putin spelled out, and noted that these systems cannot be used without the direct operational involvement of Western military specialists.

But he went on to claim that the inbound Western rockets were intercepted by Russian defenses. “The goals that have apparently been set by the enemy have not been achieved.” He suggested injuries among some personnel at a command center in Kursk, but noted it continues full operations. He also asserted that no Western systems can counter Russia’s new missiles, on display earlier in the day. “The use of such weapons by the enemy cannot affect the course of the situation in the Special Military Operation zone,” Putin stressed. He also said it was a big mistake for the US to pull out of the the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Can things cool prior to Trump taking office, or will Zelensky and the West risk bigger confrontation, to likely trigger Russian hypersonic missiles or even a tactical nuke? This is indeed an ultra-dangerous slide.

* * *

Update(1057ET): Ukraine’s earlier claim that its territory had been struck by an intercontinental ballistic missile fired by Russia is being hotly disputed, hours after widespread reports first appeared. US officials are saying it appears to be a new intermediate-range ballistic missile and not an ICBM which targeted the central city of Dnipro The NY Times has reported in follow-up of the attack that “several Western officials said that the weapon was not an ICBM and instead was likely an intermediate-range missile that flies shorter distances.” Zelensky himself had claimed Russia used a new class of missile. “All the parameters — speed, altitude — match those of an intercontinental ballistic missile,” he said. “All expert evaluations are underway.” But US defense officials are contradicting this:

A senior U.S. official said the weapon appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, adding, “But it is a new type we have been tracking.” US officials have also called it an “experimental” missile. There’s also been some quibbling among experts are how to characterize the projectiles which were observed hitting Ukraine at incredibly high rates of speed, in terms of rocket size and distance. Assuming Washington is correct, and that it wasn’t an ICBM, this suggests Zelensky’s hasty verdict is all about threat inflation coming at a time he’s desperately trying to get the West’s attention, arguing in favor of greater NATO military intervention against Russia.

They’re supposed to keep the country running.

• Ukraine Sends Its Own Skilled Workforce To The Front Lines (SCF)

The situation in Ukraine is deteriorating rapidly, reflecting a reality that the leaders of the Kiev regime have long tried to hide behind empty promises of Western support. As the conflict prolongs, the shortage of human resources at the front has become one of the country’s greatest weaknesses, forcing the authorities to reverse their policies of exemptions from mobilization. Now, those who were previously tasked with maintaining the country’s military infrastructure, such as Ukrspecexport’s and other key defense companies’ workers, are being called to serve on the front lines. The conscription of these professionals, who were previously responsible for maintaining Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian aircraft and systems in various parts of the world, reflects the imminent collapse of Kiev’s military capabilities. Their call-up is not only a desperate measure, but clear evidence that Ukraine, in its attempt to resist, is sabotaging itself by dismantling its own skilled workforce.

For years, Ukraine has relied on its expertise in Soviet-era military technology, providing maintenance services and exporting repairs to countries that still use Soviet equipment. This industry was, for a time, one of the country’s main sources of revenue and influence, allowing Kiev to remain relevant on the geopolitical arena. However, as Russian offensives intensified, Ukraine’s industrial facilities were systematically destroyed, making it impossible for Ukraine to maintain its mask of military power. Russian attacks have strategically destroyed the industrial base that supported Kiev’s armed forces, irreversibly weakening its critical and defense infrastructure. This is evidenced by Ukraine’s increasing inability to repair and maintain its own equipment, a situation that is now directly reflected in the shortage of specialists to repair what remains of its military machinery.

The impact of this situation is really deep. Not only has Ukraine lost the ability to maintain its combat systems, but it is also now forced to call up its best technicians and engineers to serve in the trenches, rather than maintaining what is still functioning in its defense industrial base. If even the most qualified professionals, who are responsible for ensuring the operation of aircraft and other sophisticated systems, are being sent to the battlefield, this points to a complete structural collapse of the Ukrainian military apparatus. It is no longer a question of simply fighting, but of ensuring the survival of the armed forces with extremely limited resources. The country is literally exhausting its ability to maintain the war, leading to its own unavoidable defeat.

This forced mobilization of specialists shows not only a failure in the military field, but also a broader fiasco in the country’s governance. The decision to send its best professionals to the front lines is a direct echo of the exhaustion of the Ukrainian political system. In addition to being a clear sign that Ukraine can no longer maintain effective mobilization, this measure puts vital sectors of society at risk. Soon, other professionals in essential fields, such as doctors, professors, and scientists, may be called up, further weakening the country’s social and economic structure. What remains of Ukraine’s infrastructure is being eroded by a war that Kiev clearly cannot win, and its desperate mobilization only accelerates its collapse.

“..Huntington, wrote The Clash of Civilizations, in which he predicted that the world would be fragmented into distinct cultural blocs based on civil, religious and economic identities..”

• In The Beginning Was The Pax Americana (Pacini)

We often speak of the collective West, Hegemon, Seapower and Civilization of the Sea in relation to the United States of America. It is necessary to understand well what is the origin of this geopolitically determinant power for the world order. He who wins the war, dictates the rules Let us make clear at once an empirically incontrovertible factual truth: He who wins the war, dictates the rules of the post-war order. Whoever wins, writes history. Whether we like it or not, the defeated never had much decision-making power (which is not to say that they could not organize well to retaliate and return to power – but that is another matter). World War II ended with the victory of the United States of America as the first, undefeated and predominant power. From there followed an expansion of U.S. influence toto orbe terrarum in all respects (cultural, economic, military, political).

The twentieth century was the “American century.” Almost the whole world took the shape the U.S. wanted to give it. The second half of the century was marked by the low-tension conflict of the Cold War, which ended-if it really did-with the collapse of the Soviet political system in the USSR and the beginning of the unipolar phase of American global domination. That period aroused much optimism in the West for a new world order, marking the end of the military and ideological rivalry of the 20th century. Two possibilities were on the horizon: a system based on balance of power and egalitarian sovereignty, or a U.S.-led liberal hegemony based on the values of democracy. The first approach evoked perpetual conflict, while the second promised lasting peace and global stability. U.S. hegemony, already dominant in the transatlantic region after World War II, was seen as a model of peace and prosperity.

However, the collapse of the Soviet Union removed the justification for a world order built on the balance of power, pushing the United States toward a mission of recognized hegemony to prevent the rise of new rivals. American supremacy, as declared by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, was deemed “indispensable to ensure global stability.” This was the Pax Americana: the U.S. would ensure a period of prosperity and global peace – as early as the end of WWII – by extending control over the entire world. A peace for America was equivalent to a peace for the globe; a war for America would mean war for the entire globe. The stated goal of building a peaceful world often justified imperialistic approaches, revealing the contradictions of the hegemonic project. Set this paradigm as an axiom of reasoning in international relations and geopolitical programming, lo and behold, everything acquired new meaning.

The world had been formatted and the “control room” was now in Washington. It was the time of ideologies. In the “short century” everything had changed rapidly. The great world chessboard was constantly being shaken and reshuffled. The clash between the Western bloc and the Eastern – or Soviet – bloc characterized all concepts of each country’s politics in an extremely powerful way. In the 1990s, two visions dominated the debate on world order: that of Francis Fukuyama and that of Samuel Huntington. Fukuyama in his famous book The End of History, envisioned a future in which liberal democracy and capitalism would triumph universally, leading to perpetual peace under the leadership of the United States: he argued that economic interdependence, democratic reforms, and shared institutions would unite the world around common values, which were, of course, American values.

Any other model of civilization would have been beside the point, because History was finished, there would be nothing left to write about. In contrast, Huntington, wrote The Clash of Civilizations, in which he predicted that the world would be fragmented into distinct cultural blocs based on civil, religious and economic identities. Individualism and human rights, according to him, were peculiar to the West and not universal. His theorizing assumed a future marked by conflicts between civilizations, fueled by the decline of Western hegemony and the emergence of alternative powers, particularly in Confucian and Islamic societies.

“These offers will be in the form of, ‘We promise to buy more natural gas from the U.S. … We promise to move more production to the U.S.’”

• Trump May Not Need to Pull Trigger on Tariffs (ET)

Economists near-universally warn that President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to impose “across-the-board” 20-percent tariffs on imports will trigger inflation, disrupt domestic industries, and spur global trade wars.
Despite overwhelming critical consensus, Trump calls tariffs “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” and hasn’t backed down since his Nov. 5 reelection. But the threats may be a “negotiating tactic” to give the United States leverage in mediating trade pacts, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) President Adam Posen said during a Nov. 14 virtual event. And it may be working already. Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Canada, “and maybe some others, are likely lining up offers,” he said. “These offers will be in the form of, ‘We promise to buy more natural gas from the U.S. … We promise to move more production to the U.S.’”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested on Nov. 8 that European Union (EU) nations can buy more liquified natural gas (LNG) from the United States to avoid tariffs. Speaking to reporters after congratulating the president-elect on his reelection, von der Leyen said Trump appeared eager to sustain what the Congressional Research Service calls “the world’s largest trade and investment relationship,” which accounts for 46 percent of global GDP. About 48 percent of LNG used by EU nations is imported from the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Noting that EU nations import up to 16 percent of LNG from Russia, von der Leyen said there’s room for a deal. “Why not replace it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our energy prices?” she asked.Posen said this is exactly what Trump’s team wants to achieve.

“The ideal outcome for the Trump administration is they’ve made this threat, a set of threats, but they don’t actually have to implement them, and they get these goodies,” he said. In the short term, Posen said, some nations may acquiesce. “They’ll say: ‘Okay, we don’t want to be on the bad side of the U.S. We don’t want a bad side of a President Trump.’ But in [the] medium-term, two to four or five years out, I think the reverberations could be quite large.” Responses from “like-minded U.S. allies” will differ from those from China, Mexico, and nonaligned nations, such as India and Indonesia, he said. Allies are “probably just going to try to make nice with Trump: ‘We’re going to be aligned with the U.S. on national security and, therefore, against China,’” Posen said. “We should just … try to be on the inside of a ‘Fortress America economy’ and grow with them.”

There are at least two problems with this scenario, he said. “Getting these goodies is really not necessarily going to solve a bunch of problems. A number of people close to the president-elect believe trade deficits are really a big deal. “These measures are likely to actually increase U.S. trade deficits because they’ll drive up the dollar, drive up inflation.” Posen said the second problem is that “this is not a one-round game,“ adding that ”once this happens … the question is, how do economies adapt and how do they cope?” “Maybe in that sense … people start building the U.S. out. That’s something we’re going to watch,” he said. Without an effort to renegotiate trade deals before imposing “across-the-board” tariffs, which also would slap a 25-to-100 percent fee on imports from Mexico, “I think the Trump administration is underestimating how other countries might react,” he said.

A 60-percent tariff on imports from China will spur “asymmetric trade warfare,” Posen said. “If the U.S. says, ‘Well, we don’t want steel, we don’t want batteries, we don’t want EVs from China’ … then the Chinese can say, ‘Well, we don’t want Hollywood movies, we don’t want American video games, we don’t want American accounting firms,’” he said.

“..a “ranking of the most crazy expenses funded by your taxes.”

• DOGE Wants To Cut $1.9 Trillion In Government Spending (Duro)

Expectations were high when Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy took the lead in creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but those smiles quickly faded following their first announcements. While Musk, owner of the social network X, promised to cut government spending by $1.9 trillion, Ramaswamy revealed plans to eliminate entire agencies as part of the overhaul they are preparing. Government spending currently stands at $6.75 trillion annually, and cutting it as much as possible is a top priority for Trump. However, Musk and Ramaswamy will have just over a year and a half to implement their reforms, as the president-elect has set an expiration date for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — July 4, 2026. On that date, as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence, the tycoon aims to make the current government bureaucracy a thing of the past.

“Massive waste, fraud and abuse”
Both businessmen emphasized that much of the current government spending stems from what the former Republican primary contender called “massive waste, fraud, and abuse” within the administration. Ramaswamy further warned on Fox News that suppliers wouldn’t escape the cuts either, stating, “We expect massive reductions from all federal contractors and others who overbill the government.” Before beginning their official duties, both Musk and Ramaswamy have already pointed out several questionable expenses, such as sponsored drag shows in Ecuador, that will be featured in what Musk has promised will be a “ranking of the most crazy expenses funded by your taxes.” This is part of his commitment to transparency in the process. Ramaswamy also announced that ‘entire agencies’ will be shut down as part of the planned cuts. “We expect mass reductions. We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts in federal contractors and others that are overbilling the federal government. So, yes, we expect all of the above.”

From Starbucks coffee makers to overpriced soap at the Pentagon
During his time as a Republican pre-candidate, Ramaswamy identified several agencies for elimination or significant restructuring, both in terms of functions and size. These include the FBI, the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also under scrutiny is the Pentagon’s waste, especially following its failure in the most recent audit of its massive $824 billion budget. Among the questionable expenses uncovered were $192,952 spent on Starbucks espresso machines for the U.S. Navy between 2017 and 2021, as well as nearly $1 million the Air Force paid Boeing for overpriced C-17 cargo plane parts as part of a 20-year contract. Perhaps most shocking to analysts, however, was the Defense Department’s purchase of soap dispensers at an eye-popping markup of 7,943%.

Trans monkeys and alcoholic mice to be studied by NIH
On the other hand, animal experimentation, particularly those conducted for ‘woke’ purposes, will also be under review. For instance, a Florida lab received $477,000 to study “transgender” monkeys, injecting male monkeys with female hormones to observe changes in behavior. In a similar vein, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocated $33 million to a company managing around 3,000 primates, funding studies on gambling and methamphetamine addiction without changing the animals involved. In addiction research, it was also reported that the NIH spent an additional $3 million of taxpayer dollars on injecting hamsters with steroids to “assess whether current drugs for aggressive juveniles can suppress steroid-induced aggression.” The NIH also allocated $2.3 million to inject cocaine into six-month-old beagle puppies and $1.1 million to train mice to drink large amounts of alcohol.

Passing the REINS Act, a priority for DOGE
Along with the cuts, part of Musk and Ramaswamy’s task will be to shine a light on excessive or redundant legislation that burdens taxpayers. In this regard, the India-born entrepreneur has called for the swift passage of the REINS Act, which would give Congress greater control over executive spending resulting from presidential executive orders.

DOGECast

BREAKING: Vivek just announced that he will be pausing his own weekly podcast to launch a new show with Elon called "DOGEcast," which they will use to give the nation regular updates on their cost-cutting

I am going to be watching every single minute of their new show. Imagine… pic.twitter.com/NvkuGNyoIp

— George (@BehizyTweets) November 20, 2024

“We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”

• Musk, Ramaswamy Reveal DOGE Blueprint To Cut Government Waste (ZH)

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have laid out their vision for the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to a new WSJ op-ed, the pair writes that “Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government. That isn’t how America functions today. Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but “rules and regulations” promulgated by unelected bureaucrats—tens of thousands of them each year.” They call government bloat “antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision,’ as it “imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers.” President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size. The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”

As the Epoch Times notes, the urgency for downsizing the federal government is due to the ballooning costs of paying interest on our ginormous national debt. I and others have been writing about the debt problem for decades, but now the national debt has reached a critical stage. According to usdebtclock.org, the federal debt passed $36 trillion last week. There is nothing inherently significant about the number $36 trillion, but as you can see from the accompanying chart published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the annual cost of the federal debt has exploded from under $600 billion in 2020 to over $1 trillion now. Here’s the plan:

1. Regulatory Rescissions: Rolling Back Illegitimate Regulations
The most immediate and significant action DOGE will take is targeting the tens of thousands of regulations imposed by federal agencies, many of which exceed the constitutional authority granted to these agencies.

• Using Supreme Court Rulings as a Guide: Following the rulings in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022) and Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), DOGE will work to identify regulations that overstep the bounds of the authority Congress has granted. These rulings clarify that agencies cannot enact major economic or policy decisions without explicit congressional approval. DOGE will compile a list of regulations that should be nullified and present them to President Trump for executive action.

• Immediate Suspension and Review of Regulations: Through executive orders, the president will pause enforcement of these overreaching regulations and initiate a full review process for rescission. This action will prevent regulations that were never approved by Congress from continuing to harm businesses and individuals.

• Creating a System to Prevent Reviving Illegitimate Regulations: Once regulations are rescinded, DOGE will ensure that future administrations cannot simply reinstate them. Any reactivation of these regulations would require a new act of Congress, ensuring that regulatory power is returned to the people’s elected representatives.

2. Administrative Reductions: Streamlining Federal Agencies
Alongside regulatory rescissions, a drastic reduction in the size of the federal bureaucracy will be necessary. DOGE will target specific reforms to reduce the number of federal employees, streamline agency operations, and focus government efforts on its core constitutional responsibilities.

• Identifying Minimum Staffing Needs: DOGE will collaborate with agency leaders to identify the minimum number of employees required to carry out essential functions. With fewer regulations to enforce, many agencies will require significantly fewer staff. As regulations are rescinded, the corresponding workforce reductions will follow.

• Cost-effective Employee Transitions: For those whose positions are eliminated, DOGE will support their transition into the private sector, providing incentives for early retirement or voluntary severance. Programs designed to make these exits as seamless as possible will be implemented, ensuring a smooth process for both employees and taxpayers.

• Leveraging Executive Authority to Limit Bureaucratic Growth: President Trump will use his authority to amend civil-service rules to curtail administrative overgrowth. This could include actions like large-scale firings or moving federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., to reduce costs and decentralize power.

• Restoring Accountability in Federal Agencies: Agencies will be required to return to in-person work, ending the COVID-era trend of remote work. This will incentivize employees who are unwilling to meet this expectation to voluntarily exit, reducing the overall headcount.

3. Cost Savings: Tackling Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Beyond reducing the size of government and eliminating unnecessary regulations, DOGE will focus on eliminating wasteful spending and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used efficiently.

• Ending Unauthorized Expenditures: A significant portion of federal spending, over $500 billion annually, is either unauthorized by Congress or used for purposes Congress never intended. DOGE will work with the administration to end these wasteful programs, including unnecessary funding to international organizations and progressive groups, while scrutinizing expenditures like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

• Overhauling Federal Procurement: The government’s procurement system is notorious for waste and inefficiency. DOGE will conduct large-scale audits of federal contracts, suspending payments where necessary to identify and eliminate inefficiencies. This will be especially critical for agencies like the Department of Defense, which has failed repeated audits, indicating a lack of oversight over how taxpayer money is spent.

• Targeting the Deficit and Overspending: While entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid are often the focus of budgetary discussions, DOGE will tackle the more immediate waste, fraud, and abuse that plagues most federal agencies. Through targeted executive actions, DOGE will curb these excesses without the need for new legislation.

A Historic Opportunity
With a mandate for change and a supportive legal framework, DOGE has the opportunity to make meaningful strides in reducing the size and scope of the federal government. Through regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and targeted cost savings, this initiative aims to eliminate wasteful spending and restore accountability in Washington. The ultimate goal of DOGE is to make its own existence obsolete by July 4, 2026 – the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. By then, it is hoped that a leaner, more efficient government will be in place, one that is more responsive to the needs of the people and more in line with the vision of the Founders. If successful, this reform effort will be a gift to the nation, ensuring that future generations inherit a government that is both effective and accountable.

“Trump is going to need intelligent cool hands to keep enthusiasm focused on where it is needed, so that hot heads don’t rush us into wider war..”

• The Prospects for Trump’s Agenda (Paul Craig Roberts)

Cities and states controlled by left-wing Woke anti-American Democrats are busy at work organizing to oppose the will of the American people as expressed in the presidential election. In Pennsylvania the corrupt Democrat authorities are openly defying the ruling of the State Supreme Court and counting invalid ballots in their effort to overturn the election of the Republican US senator. In Massachusetts, Illinois, and California, corrupt anti-American Democrat governors and legislators are prohibiting any cooperation with federal authorities in identifying and deporting illegal aliens. Most Democrat jurisdictions have taken the side of immigrant invaders and criminal gangs against the American people. The Democrat authorities speak of those who have illegally entered the US as “our people” to be protected from deportation. Badly ruled Democrat cities have joined the organized Democrat effort to prevent President Trump from protecting America’s border.

They are proud to be standing for foreign aliens against America. This shows that the Democrat Party is nothing but a collection of far left ideologues who hate the United States and are doing their best to destroy it. Americans have no greater enemy than the Democrat Party. Do Trump, his government, and his supporters have the will and determination to arrest, indict, and imprison elected Democrats who refuse to obey US law? In other words, are the Trump forces as determined to rescue America as Democrats are to destroy it with open borders, critical race theory, and transgender indoctrination? The Democrats had no compunction about trying to destroy Trump with false indictments devoid of evidence. In contrast, Republicans have the evidence. Do they have the strength to act on it? Trump can achieve nothing without a firebrand Attorney General. The sorry excuses he appointed his first term are the reasons he failed. Matt Gaetz is surely a disrupter, a firebrand.

He has the personality and determination to clean up the two most corrupt areas of the US government–the Justice (sic) Department and the FBI. Both are anti-American institutions who commit taxpayer resources to framing up American patriots, while criminals like Hunter Biden and Hillary walk. The question is: can Gaetz be confirmed? Is the corrupt American Establishment going to permit a person who would indict them to be Attorney General? Perhaps Gaetz is a stalking horse whose rejection by the Senate would make it difficult for the Senate to reject Trump’s second nomination. Who should that be? The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is, like Gaetz, strong, and he has years of experience as an attorney general. Moreover, he has filed 100 lawsuits against the federal government, and he knows how corrupt the FBI is from the interference and harassment he has experienced from this corrupt federal agency. Of all of Trump’s appointments Bobby Kennedy will be the most difficult to be confirmed.

Kennedy has the goods on the adverse health effects we suffer from Big Pharma and from the adulterated foods agri-business feeds us. Both Big Pharma and the corporate food business make profits by destroying our health. How can Trump get Kennedy confirmed given the enormous power campaign contributions give Big Pharma and agri-business over US Senators? Recently, Trump has been giving a series of short speeches that put malefactors on the spot. He can do the same to Big Pharma and agri-business. Prior to inauguration, Trump can say that Big Pharma and agri-business will try to stop me from providing you with safe medicines and safe food. You must write to your senators and demand that they confirm Bobby Kennedy. Any senator who votes against Kennedy, Trump should identify for all to see and brand him a corrupt hireling of Big Pharma and agri-business and ask the electorate why they put him in office.

On the war front the corrupt Biden regime has tried to prevent Trump from peacefully resolving the conflict in Ukraine by giving the go-ahead to the US and NATO launching missiles into Russia. The initial attempt failed, but there will be others. One possible target is the nuclear power station in Kursk, an area permissible to be targeted. A hit on the nuclear facility would release nuclear fallout into Russia. Putin could not rationalize away such a disaster and would, finally, be deprived of an excuse to do nothing in response. What might his response be? Given the extreme superiority of Russian nuclear forces over those of the US, Putin could knock out all US nuclear weapon sites and Washington, and dictate the peace terms to the Americans and Europeans. Would he do this? Not unless he has no other alternative. Putin wants peace, not war. Thinking of the dangerous situation into which Putin has got himself with his limited military operation reminded me of a passage I recently read in Louis L’Amour’s short story, ”West of the Tularosas”:

“Of late she had refused to admit there might be occasions when fighting could not be avoided. She had yet to learn that in order to have peace both sides must want it equally. One side cannot make peace; they can only surrender.” I wonder if Putin understands that neither Washington nor Israel desire peace. Their intention is hegemony. Putin has done nothing to make Washington desire peace. Neither has China. Neither has Iran. It is the American Neoconservatives who have dominated American foreign policy since the Soviet collapse who want war. Trump needs to disempower these dangerous warmongers with one of his short speeches.

On the Middle Eastern war front my confidence in Trump fades. He is in Israel’s pocket, as is the entirety of his war cabinet. Russia and China cannot permit a US/Israeli attack on Iran. China, perhaps, is useless, as China, which has survived for 5,000 years, relies on time, not war, to dispose of enemies. For Russia, the situation is different. If Iran falls, the CIA has an entrance through which to send anti-Russian Muslim activists to disrupt the Russian Federation. Attacked from the West and East and also perhaps from a Maidan Revolution in Georgia, Putin might realize that he has waited far too long to fight, and all hell could break loose. To handle these challenges, Trump is going to need intelligent cool hands to keep enthusiasm focused on where it is needed, so that hot heads don’t rush us into wider war. Does Trump have such people? Who are they? What authority do they have? His war cabinet are people lined up with Israel against Iran. Where is the promise in this?

“..a normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia – a key priority for the incoming Trump administration..”

• Trump Opposes Israel Annexation Of West Bank, Republican Sources Say (MEMO)

Newly-elected United States’ President, Donald Trump, is in opposition to Israel’s reported plans to annex the Occupied West Bank, sources from his Republican Party have revealed. According to Israeli outlet, Ynet News, a senior Republican Senator close to the President-elect has said that “Trump will not approve annexation” of the West Bank. Such a move is reportedly seen by the new President as one that would be “a mistake for Israel” which would worsen its international standing – already severely damaged after over a year of the Occupation’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Trump is also apparently primarily concerned that any official annexation could further disrupt and severely derail efforts to finally reach a normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia – a key priority for the incoming Trump administration, with Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, particularly working on that goal. The reported comments by the unnamed sources follow increased speculation in recent weeks over Trump’s appointments of controversial figures in his incoming administration, with many of the relevant roles being filled by radically pro-Israel figures who favour annexation of the West Bank.

EU countries have said they will arrest them.

• ICC Issues Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Gallant (Sobczak)

On Thursday the International Court of Justice (ICC) issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a member of Hamas leadership. The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were for charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court unanimously agreed that the prime minister and former defense minister “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.” “The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024,” the court detailed in its allegations.

The ICC also charged Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, including rape and hostage taking. A plan suggested by former IDF general, Giora Eiland, called for the explicit emptying out of northern Gaza and the labeling of all remaining civilians as military targets, as well as the purposeful blockage of humanitarian aid. Netanyahu reportedly did not agree to the plan, but evidence points to aspects of the plan being enacted. “The ICC decision shows once more how out of sync Biden’s Gaza policy is with both American and international law,” says the Quincy Institute’s Executive Vice President Trita Parsi. “Biden has sacrificed America’s international standing to arm and protect leaders who the international courts have deemed to be war criminals.” The ICC’s move comes just one day after unprecedented votes in the U.S. Senate to end the sale of certain offensive weapons to Israel. The measures ultimately failed, with the White House telling senators that they would be supporting Iran and Hamas should they vote to curb weapons sales to Israel.

Because of the ICC warrants, Netanyahu or Gallant could be arrested upon entering a nation that has recognized the ICC and its rulings. However, Israel is among dozens of other countries, including the United States, that do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. After warrants were requested in October, Israel reacted by challenging the jurisdiction of the ICC in the matter, but that challenge has been rejected. “Israel’s reaction — that no other democracy has been treated this way by the ICC — is indicative of how perverted certain approaches to international law have become,” said Parsi. “Israel essentially argues that because it defines itself as a democracy, it should be above the law. That war-crimes, apartheid, and genocide are ok as long as the perpetrator identifies as democratic. This approach — creating different sets of laws and standards for different countries — is a recipe for global instability and a threat to American security.”

“..if they turn loose Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 on cartels and pedophiles, we could just kind of like erase the problem in about two years. It’d be gone..”

• Former Green Beret: Trump Can “Turn Loose Delta Force” On The Cartels (MN)

During a discussion with Joe Rogan, former Green Beret Evan Hafer, noted that if president-elect Trump decides to go to war with the cartels he could opt to use US Special Forces to destroy them. Hafer noted “if we declare war on the cartel, these dudes are not going to understand what the fuck is going on,” “They are in for a world of ultra violence they’ve never actually felt before because you know, obviously this is a very capable violent organization,” Hafer added. He continued, “They have fucking no clue if we organize these tier one units against them this is gonna be — what I would be doing if I was down there… I’d be getting ready to retire right now,” “That’s what I would be doing. Because if Delta Force is hunting me bro, I would be so terrified,” Hafer further urged.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1858851449725153571

“I thought about this for a long time where I’m like if they turn loose Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 on cartels and pedophiles, we could just kind of like erase the problem in about two years. It’d be gone,” Hafer, the founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company, emphasised. Trump has repeatedly said that this option is on the table. His incoming border czar Tom Homan also recently stated that Trump intends to “use the full might of the United States Special Operations to take ’em out,” and “ take ’em off the face of Earth.”

“I think there is a real possibility that the virus’s birthplace was Chapel Hill.”

• US Played ‘Substantial’ Role In Causing Covid Pandemic – ex-CDC Chief (RT)

Robert Redfield, a former director of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has claimed that Covid-19 was artificially developed, and that the US played a “substantial” role in starting the pandemic. Redfield, who led the agency under the administration of US President Donald Trump, made the claim in an interview that was released on November 14, but only drew media attention this week. Speaking to author and podcaster Dana Parish, he suggested that the virus was “intentionally engineered as a part of a biodefense program.” “When you look at the accountability for China, their accountability is not in the lab work and the creation of the virus,” but in their failure to quickly report the incident to health authorities worldwide including the CDC, when they realized the virus was on the loose, he said.

However, the US “role was substantial,” he added. “They funded the research, both from NIH [National Institutes of Health], the State Department’s USAID and the Defense Department.” According to the former CDC chief, the “scientific mastermind behind the research” was Dr. Ralph Baric, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on coronaviruses. Redfield suggested that the professor, who works at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was “very involved in this research.” “I think he probably helped create some of the original viral line”, Redfield said, admitting he did not have any proof. “I think there is a real possibility that the virus’s birthplace was Chapel Hill.”

Redfield previously said the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than seven million people worldwide and caused a global economic downturn, most likely started with a lab leak in Wuhan, China, and suggested that the debate on the virus’s origins was “squashed.” He has also criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for failing to hold Beijing accountable. One of the prevailing theories of the origin of the Covid pandemic is that the virus was transmitted to humans from an animal, possibly a bat, at a food market. China has maintained that the virus is of natural origin, and has dismissed the laboratory leak theory as an attempt to smear the country for political reasons.

“Millions of letters must pour into the Senate promising to drive the senators from office if they continue to protect Big Pharma’s assault on Americans’ lives and health..”

• US Government Funded Creation of the Coronavirus (Paul Craig Roberts)

Robert Redfield, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control, has revealed that US government agencies funded the creation of the Coronavirus. “They funded the research, both from NIH [National Institutes of Health], the State Department’s USAID and the Defense Department.” According to the former CDC chief, the “scientific mastermind behind the research” was Dr. Ralph Baric, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on coronaviruses. Redfield said that the virus was “intentionally engineered as a part of a biodefense program.” I am convinced that the “vaccine” was intentionally designed to reduce the world’s population via early death and infertility. This was the agenda behind the pressure to vaccinate the Earth’s entire population. The vile despicable American media and the corrupt Big Pharma-dominated US medical system continue to deceive Americans with their lies that Covid came from bats and the Covid “vaccine,” which is not a vaccine, is safe and effective.

Big Pharma uses campaign contributions to keep the US Congress silent. Murder and injury larger in scale than Israel’s genocide of Palestine has been covered up by the whore American media and cowardly US Congress. How can Trump make rot this huge great again? If Trump is to get Bobby Kennedy confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he must begin his speeches now putting the Senate and the American people on notice that Big Pharma will purchase from the Senate a non-confirmation vote. Millions of letters must pour into the Senate promising to drive the senators from office if they continue to protect Big Pharma’s assault on Americans’ lives and health. Can Trump do this when his chief of staff is a former Big Pharma lobbyist? The great danger of the Trump presidency is that he will achieve nothing, and the disappointment will demoralize the American people who have put their faith in him. Once Americans give up, tyranny will have its way with them.

Gone. Hopeless.

• UK School Removes All Christmas References to Make Children Feel “Safe” (MN)

A school in the UK announced to parents that it was removing all Christmas references from a panto in order to make children feel “safe”. Yes, really. The head teacher of Wherwell Primary School in Andover, Hampshire, banned any reference to the festive season from a Jack and The Beanstalk show so as not to offend any non-Christians who were attending. Mandy Ovenden said the embargo was necessary in order to make children feel “safe” and “valued”. “When we chose to invite the travelling pantomime to Wherwell, our request was a practical step to ensure all children at the school would be able to attend and enjoy the show,” said the school. “Our aim, as always, is to foster inclusivity in our school community, and be a place where children and their families feel safe, welcomed and valued.”

Ovenden said the school had requested the company putting on the play “that the show contain no reference to Christmas.” According to a report by the Telegraph, parents were outraged, asserting that the decision “shouldn’t be allowed” in order to merely ensure that “a few people will not be offended.” In order to ensure a “fully inclusive event,” the head teacher asked that all Christmas references be eradicated because, “We have a number of families who either do not celebrate Christmas or do so in a different way.” Chaplins, the company behind the Jack and The Beanstalk play, said it normally included references to Christmas at this time of year. Because God forbid children in a supposedly Christian country be exposed to anything related in any way to Christmas during Christmastime.

“..prosecutors were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president in 2027. “I understood that well,” she said.”

• French Establishment Desperate To Stop Rise Of Conservatives (ZH)

EU elites and globalists with extensive political influence have been on the war-path the past several years as it has become increasingly evident that the European populace is shifting more conservative with each new election. In Germany, leftist officials are attempting an outright ban of the conservative AFD Party, primarily because they stand against mass immigration (a position which progressives claim is “xenophobic”). The AFD is currently the second most popular political party in Germany and is expected to gain substantial influence in the 2025 federal elections, unless their candidates are blocked from participation. In Austria, the conservative Freedom Party won a parliamentary election victory in September, though left wing and centrist parties are seeking to cement a coalition to nullify the FP’s ability to govern.

The European media has consistently compared the success of the Freedom Party to the rise of the Third Reich – The only fallback of failing leftists is to claim their opponents are “literally Hitler.” A similar coalition coup was exploited in France under Emmanuel Macron in order to stop Marine Le Pen’s National Rally Party. The coalition is a fragmented mess but it served its purpose of disrupting the will of French voters seeking smaller government and secure borders. Keep in mind, the same people that constantly howl about “threats to democracy” are now trying to silence some of the largest political parties in Europe because they won’t submit to progressive ideologies. For example, if the AFD is banned, who is going to represent the will of millions of conservative German voters? The leftist establishment does not care about those voters or their concerns, nor do they care about fair elections. Their vision of democracy is a sham.

There is, in fact, a coordinated effort by the leftist regime in Europe to shut down any and all public dissent, starting with opposition movements and their access to the ballot box. Recent news from France highlights this reality, as efforts are now underway under the French government to pursue legal actions against Marine Le Pen. Le Pen has been accused by Paris prosecutors of using money intended for EU parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2009 and 2016. One problem is that the law Le Pen is being charged with was not created until 2016. Furthermore, Le Pen argues that National Rally employees can also work within the EU parliament and that the two roles often overlap. She assert that no laws were broken and no one received EU funds that were not already owed to them.

If convicted Le Pen could receive up to 5 years in prison (3 suspended) and extensive fines of €300,000, but the real kicker is that she could also be banned from participating in elections for five years even if she files an appeal. Government officials admit that Le Pen might not spend any time in jail (she might become a conservative martyr if that happened), but her inability to run for office would effectively end the chances of the National Rally in the 2027 elections. It’s an election which many analysts suggest could catapult the NR to power in France. “It’s no surprise,” Le Pen told reporters after the prosecution’s closing arguments. “I note that the prosecutors’ claims are extremely outrageous.” Le Pen said she felt prosecutors were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president in 2027. “I understood that well,” she said. The case is set to conclude in early 2025.

Establishment media outlets accuse Le Pen of using “Trump-style rhetoric” to distract from her charges. The Guardian claims: “Yet just as January 6 did not stop Trump from being able to move back into the White House, Le Pen’s strategy may well work in her favour. The longer her claims of a political trial get airtime without proper contextualisation, the more likely the French public may think there is some truth to it – it chimes with the widespread anti-elite sentiment among French voters…” This constitutes considerable gaslighting on the part of The Guardian. The “contextualization” is that Le Pen is innocent until proven guilty, and there has been a clear and observable pattern of persecution of right-leaning political figures across the western world in order to stop their constituents from having a say in the governmental process. Trump is just one example of lawfare being used to create accusations of criminality from the thinnest of threads. The American public was savvy enough to see through the smoke and noise.

Friedman pencil

pic.twitter.com/nshV5KJ7sI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2024

Rome

pic.twitter.com/byYWtOsnUA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2024

YMCA

As WW3 Looms Public Captivated By Viral YMCA Trump Dance.

WAKE UP! And Share The Live Stream!https://t.co/e60j44YPjH pic.twitter.com/2eCiaRhzkU

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) November 21, 2024

Linda
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859583936201994524

Elephants

A family of elephants see a lion and form a circle to protect their children

pic.twitter.com/N6NWIou2iH

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) November 22, 2024

Only girls
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859616060061737365

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Debt Rattle July 18 2024

Jul 182024

July 18, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:00 am Finance Tagged with: assassination, Biden, COVID, EU, FBI, Orban, rooftop, Schumer, Secret Service, security failures, Trump, virtual nomination 53 Responses »

Salvador Dali Elephants 1948

• Assassination Attempt Changed My Father – Donald Trump Jr. (RT)

• Iwo Jima 2.0: What Story Is This Picture Telling? (Pepe Escobar)

• The Assassination Attempt (Paul Craig Roberts)

• Secret Service Explains Why It Didn’t Secure Roof Used By Trump Sniper (RT)

• Secret Service Explanations For Security Failures Not Adding Up (ZH)

• US Republicans Subpoena Secret Service Director (RT)

• The Near Miss Assassination Hit the Mark with Press and Pundits (Turley)

• Schumer Says “Best For -Positive For COVID- Biden To Drop Out Of Race” (ZH)

• Anti-Biden Dems Rush To Block DNC’s ‘Virtual Nomination’ Scheme (ZH)

• Biden Losing Support in 14 Key States Ahead of November Election (Sp.)

• EU Parliament Condemns Orban’s Peace Efforts (RT)

• EU’s Rebuke Of Orban’s Peace Mission Speaks For Itself – Kremlin (RT)

• Russia Empowered by ‘Naive and Ignorant’ Western Aggression – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

https://twitter.com/i/status/1813224984749482247

WOW! Van Jones just spoke the truth for the first time:

“A bullet couldn't stop Trump. A virus just stopped Biden.”

“The Democrats are coming apart. The Republicans are coming together. pic.twitter.com/qJ4WGtjQ7Z

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 18, 2024

Campaign ad

Trump releases 1st major campaign ad after picking JD Vance for VP

It will give you chills pic.twitter.com/3AumTJiVGc

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) July 17, 2024

Bongino

NEW: Dan Bongino says an "unimpeachable source" tells him that someone was supposed to be on the roof where Thomas Crooks shot from but "didn't show up."

Bongino also claimed that the Biden admin is telling the USSS director to keep her mouth shut if she wants to keep her… pic.twitter.com/1ZZL1cWaG1

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 17, 2024

Mike Benz

"The FBI is where evidence goes to die. Never believe something until the FBI officially denies it. They made a formal determination it was a lone gunman before the night was even over. They made their conclusion before they started their investigation." w/ @Nefertari_25 pic.twitter.com/pRL7KiadCk

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) July 18, 2024

Eric Trump Vivek
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813366330323599778

Tucker

Tucker Carlson: "If you think this is a spiritual war and you're not saying prayers every day then you don't really think it's a spiritual war…I really do think it's a spiritual war, I really do believe that and these are physical manifestations of an age-old conflict,… pic.twitter.com/fwCKpj9Lhm

— Camus (@newstart_2024) July 17, 2024

JD Vance

This 3 minutes and 14 seconds from @JDVance1 is everything that America First means.

America is not just an idea. It is a nation.

"People will not fight for abstractions but they will fight for their home." pic.twitter.com/BOreOAaVkz

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 18, 2024

.@JDVance1: "When I was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico. When I was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade… pic.twitter.com/YIYPxnrEHQ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 18, 2024

Brame
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813404218553737447

One hour
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813685098790940804

“I think there will be something. I think these are momentous occasions that change people permanently.” [..] “..a lot changes once you’ve got shot in the face.”

I love how much he loves his granddaughter.

• Assassination Attempt Changed My Father – Donald Trump Jr. (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump was “changed permanently” by the attempt on his life over the weekend, and will be a more moderate figure going forward, his son, Donald Jr., has told Axios. Trump narrowly avoided death at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when an assassin’s bullet clipped his ear as it whizzed past his head. Firing from a rooftop around 500 feet (150 meters) from the stage, the gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. Speaking to Axios on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Trump Jr. said that he was fishing with his family when his fiancee told him his father had been shot. “Kim calls me [and said], ‘Your father was shot,’” Trump Jr. recalled, adding that “It was 90 minutes before I even knew he was alive.”

Trump returned to his feet almost immediately after the shooting, pumping his fist in the air and telling his supporters to “fight!” before he was ushered away by Secret Service agents. However, Trump’s defiance has apparently given way to a more conciliatory approach to politics. Speaking to the New York Post on Sunday, the Republican presidential candidate said that he had written “an extremely tough speech… all about the corrupt, horrible administration” for delivery at the RNC on Thursday, but “threw it away” and began working on a speech to “unite our country” following the assassination attempt. “You know, I think it lasts,” Trump Jr. said of his father’s apparent mellowing. “There are events that change you for a couple minutes and there’s events that change you permanently.” “Now again it’s Trump so [he’s] still going to be reactionary,” Trump Jr. added. “[Trump will] always be a fighter, that’s never gonna change, but he’s gonna do, I think, his best to moderate that where it needs to be.”

“He’s going to be tough when he has to be,” he continued. “We’ve seen that, he’s never gonna change. But I think there will be something. I think these are momentous occasions that change people permanently.” Trump Jr. told Axios that he worked with his father on the original speech, which he described as “hot.” “And by the way, I think it probably should have been at that time,” he said. “But again, a lot changes once you’ve got shot in the face.” Trump made his first public appearance after the shooting at the RNC on Monday, looking visibly emotional as he entered the event to thunderous applause. He was officially confirmed on Monday as his party’s nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in this November’s election, and is set to address the convention on Thursday.

Kai
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813767878354903546

“..Joe Biden was expressly chosen for what he is: a crude, corrupt, easily-manipulated lackey, and head of a crime family..”

• Iwo Jima 2.0: What Story Is This Picture Telling? (Pepe Escobar)

The Iwo Jima 2.0 pic, immortalizing the Trump fist surviving an assassination attempt, has taken the world by storm – generating everything from a meme tsunami on China’s Weibo to fresh anime in Japan. Not to mention the deluge of hats and T-shirts. This carefully composed pic changes everything – in more ways than one. So let’s engage in a first attempt to deconstruct it. We start with the major losers. The combo running Crash Test Dummy’s teleprompter/earpiece set up is essentially composed by Mike Donilon, Steve Richetti, Bruce Reed and Ted Kaufman. Government functionaries like Jake Sullivan and Little Blinkie, for their part, are placed at the heart of what is known in Washington as the “inter-agency” racket, better described as The Blob. The inestimable Alastair Crooke has explained how Sullivan and Little Blinkie’s deliberations are “spread through a matrix of interlocking ‘clusters’ that includes the Military Industrial Complex, Congressional leaders, Big Donors, Wall Street, the Treasury, the CIA, the FBI, a few cosmopolitan oligarchs and the princelings of the security-intelligence world.”

Yet the key – invisible – point is who (italics mine) tells Sullivan and Blinkie what to do. These are the people who really (italics mine) run the show: the Big Families, and the Big Donors – old money and especially new money (as in invisible Vanguard shareholders). They are all stunned. They never thought it would come to this debacle – even if Joe Biden was expressly chosen for what he is: a crude, corrupt, easily-manipulated lackey, and head of a crime family. Everyone in a position of real power in the Blob knew he was becoming a zombie ages ago. There’s fierce debate across the Beltway over how many factions are at war with each other inside the Dem blob. There are at least three:

1.The Biden crime family – on which tens of thousands of people with cushy jobs and fat salaries depend. 2.The down-ballot Dem machine – an “extended family” of other tens of thousands who will lose badly, in elections or re-elections, in the event of a Trump 2.0. These are the ones who want to throw Crash Test Dummy under the – retirement home – bus and replace him with a Dem they hope and pray might win (the number one candidate is the uber-incompetent Kamala Harris). Needless to add, these two factions not only are at vicious Hot War against each other but also at war with… 3.The ones who really matter: the actual Deep State – from the “intelligence community” to webs woven inside the CIA and the FBI. This is the infernal machine that actually gave the White House on a platter to Biden in 2020. Dem Chuck Schumer once famously proclaimed: if you cross this faction, they have “Six Ways from Sunday” to get to you, destroy you, or whack you. With total impunity.

Good point: “..the official narrative might have been prepared to cover a successful assassination, not a failed one..”

• The Assassination Attempt (Paul Craig Roberts)

Some say that it is too early to know what explains Trump’s near assassination. However, a good case can be made that we already know all we will ever know. The passage of time simply allows official narratives to be constructed, and they are used to muddy the waters. I support the calls for an official investigation, but government investigations are always coverups. Think the Warren Commission Report, the 9/11 Commission Report, the NISH Report. If there is an investigation, nothing will come of it, and if by chance it does the presstitutes won’t report it. We have all the information we need to form an opinion. Earlier I wrote that we have three choices of explanation for which there is evidence. But two of the explanations merge into one. The withholding by the foreign-born director of the Department of Homeland Security of adequate Secret Service resources from the Trump campaign can be merged into the incompetence explanation. So we have two choices, both supported by evidence or circumstantial evidence: Secret Service incompetence and a pose of incompetence to coverup an organized assassination.

The most certain fact we have is that despite the protective presence of the Secret Service and local police, Donald Trump was nearly killed, one person was killed, and two were seriously injured. None of the shooting was prevented by the Secret Service and local police, who went into action only after Trump was down and presumably dead. So what we have is the total failure of the Secret Service. What can explain such total failure? Some say the sacrifice of professional competence to diversity and inclusion. And there is evidence for this. The Biden regime is yet to make a single appointment based on merit and ability. All appointments have been made on a race, gender, and sexual preference basis. Secret Service professionals have complained of these non-professional appointments and pointed out that the competence of the agency has been compromised by “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The reason aside, whether incompetence or complicity, clearly the Secret Service director failed.

She failed to protect Trump, and if it was an official assassination, she failed to eliminate the target. So, will she resign? Of course not. She will be promoted to some higher office exactly as all were who failed to prevent the 9/11 attack on the US. Let’s look at some of the indications that incompetence is a cover for a plot to assassinate Trump. The first thing that struck me was the unprotected roof tops of the buildings. As a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from the days when the Secret Service reported to Treasury Assistant Secretaries, this struck me as inconceivable. I also found it inconceivable that a person carrying a rifle could appear in a protected area and climb upon a building with a clear shot at an allegedly protected person and not be accosted. Initially, we were told that the buildings had, somehow, escaped the protected zone. But later we learned, for what it is worth, that the building with the assassin on top was occupied by police or Secret Service forces. How is it possible that the assassin was not seen and apprehended?

We do know that the Secret Service was complicit in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, thus depriving America of an educated and aware leadership. We do know from the civil case the Martin Luther King family won that the official account of Martin Luther King’s assassination is a cover up of what seems to have been a FBI operation. So many books have been written by insiders documenting the CIA’s assassination of foreign leaders who took a different line from the line that Washington insisted on imposing that we have hard evidence that Washington uses brute force to enforce Washington’s agenda.With the Disunited States–the blue and the red–more divided than the division caused by the North’s determination to impose a tariff regime at the expense of the South, Trump’s notion that he can achieve unity is a fantasy. There is no possibility of unity. Good and evil cannot be unified.

Trump’s responsibility, assuming a second and a third assassination attempt does not succeed, is to root out the evil in Democrat hands, in liberal-left hands, in intellectual hands, that has turned the United States of America into a Sodom and Gomorrah Tower of Babel. Trump cannot raise his fist and say “fight, fight, fight,” and then compromise with his and our enemies to unite Americans with evil. The one thing that keeps me from being convinced that the attempted assassination was a deep state plot to rid themselves of Trump is the absence of a pre-prepared narrative to be repeated endlessly by the presstitutes. However, the official narrative might have been prepared to cover a successful assassination, not a failed one. Therefore, there is no ready narrative. It will be interesting to see what narrative the ruling elites construct.

“The Secret Service director said, ‘don’t worry, we didn’t put someone on the roof because it could’ve created a dangerous situation.’ Like what? Someone getting shot in the head?”

• Secret Service Explains Why It Didn’t Secure Roof Used By Trump Sniper (RT)

Kimberly Cheatle, the head of the US Secret Service, has cited safety concerns as the reason why her agents were not deployed on the roof of the building from which the would-be assassin targeted presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump narrowly escaped death during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. His Secret Service detail reacted only after a bullet nicked his ear. One rallygoer was killed and two others seriously injured. “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” Cheatle told ABC News on Tuesday. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.” The shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to climb on top of the factory building and had a clear line of sight to Trump less than 120 meters away.

The roof in question was far less sloped than the one behind the rally stage, where Secret Service counter-snipers were positioned. Cheatle’s explanation was met with outrage and disbelief among experts. Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces officer now running for Congress, wondered why the Secret Service didn’t secure access points to the building. “The Secret Service director said, ‘don’t worry, we didn’t put someone on the roof because it could’ve created a dangerous situation.’ Like what? Someone getting shot in the head?” said Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent turned-conservative talk show host. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said Secret Service “failure” played a part in Saturday’s events, but that he has “100% confidence” in Cheatle.

The attempted assassination was “unacceptable” and “something that shouldn’t happen again,” the Secret Service director told ABC News, but added that she has no intention of resigning. Cheatle also did not address criticism that Trump’s protection detail included three women who were much smaller in stature than the Republican presidential candidate. The Secret Service chief, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, has previously said she would prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, such as hiring more women and minorities. “DEI is one thing, competence and effectiveness is another, and I saw DEI out there,” former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told the New York Post after the Butler shooting. When Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, his security detail was composed entirely of men close to him in height.

“..the “Secret Service was in charge,” and that “it was their responsibility to make sure that the venue and the surrounding area was secure.”

• Secret Service Explanations For Security Failures Not Adding Up (ZH)

In the wake of Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the #1 question is how the Secret Service could have failed to secure a rooftop a little over 400ft away – which former Army sniper Rep. Cory Mills called a “sniper’s paradise” that was so obvious he wondered aloud whether it was an “intentional” failure. And in typical government fashion, their excuses aren’t adding up. Sloped roof? According to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle – who has rejected calls to resign, there was no agent placed on the building because it had a “sloped roof.” “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point, and so there’s a safety factor that would be considered there, that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said in a Tuesday interview with ABC News. “So, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from inside.” This is obviously absurd. For starters, the counter-snipers near Trump were perched on a roof with a steeper slope.

Snipers had eyes-on the shooter before Trump went onstage: Conspicuously absent from the Secret Service’s explanation are reports that a local PD sniper stationed on the second floor inside the building saw the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, outside the building and looking up at the roof. He then walked away, returned, whipped out his phone, when one of the snipers took the first of two pictures of him. Crooks then took out a rangefinder – at which point the sniper radioed to a command post. Crooks then disappeared again and came back a third time with a backpack. The snipers called in once again with information that he had a backpack and that he (Crooks) was walking toward the back of the building. By the time other officers came for backup, he had climbed on top of the building and was positioned above and behind the snipers inside the building, the officer said. Two other officers who heard the sniper’s call tried to get onto the roof. State police started rushing to the scene, but by that time, a Secret Service sniper had already killed Crooks, the officer said. -CBS News.

So – law enforcement had eyes-on the shooter the entire time, took pictures of him, notified their command post – and nothing was done until Crooks shot Trump, at which point Secret Service snipers returned fire and killed him. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has said that local police officers radioed agents about a possible suspicious person before Mr. Trump came onstage. It’s unclear if the sniper teams were alerted. -NYT. What’s more, a Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told CNN that a Butler Township officer encountered Crooks on the roof of the building before the shooting, but retreated down a ladder after Crooks pointed his gun at him. According to Slupe, there was a security failure, but said “there is not just one entity responsible.” Three hours? Further complicating matters is a NYT report citing a law enforcement official who said that the local PD forces were in an adjacent building, not the one the shooter was firing from.

Nothing from the Secret Service on this report – and not one mention of it in today’s breakdown in the Washington Post – which is now suggesting that the slope could have hindered counter-snipers’ view. [..] In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the Secret Service blamed local law enforcement for failing to secure the building, and vice-versa. “There was local police in that building – there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building,” Cheatle said during her interview with ABC News. Yet – according to Butler County DA Richard Goldlinger, the “Secret Service was in charge,” and that “it was their responsibility to make sure that the venue and the surrounding area was secure.” “For them to blame local law enforcement is them passing the blame when they hold the blame, in my opinion,” he told the Washington Post on Tuesday. One former Secret Service agent told CNN: “The Service is responsible for everything, not just the inner perimeter. They should make sure all of this is covered.”

She has DEI written all over her. She’s the embodiment of how dangerous that is.

• US Republicans Subpoena Secret Service Director (RT)

The Republican-run House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena compelling Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify on Capitol Hill about her agency’s “total failure” to prevent the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The committee first called Cheatle to testify on the day of the attack, and requested specific information related to the incident on Monday. While the Secret Service initially confirmed that Cheatle would sit down with the committee, House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed on Wednesday morning that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas forbade Cheatle from testifying. “The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the Committee on this pressing matter… further calls into question your ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the attached subpoena compelling your appearance,” committee chairman James Comer wrote in a letter to Cheatle on Wednesday.

Trump narrowly avoided death at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when a would-be assassin’s bullet clipped his ear as it whizzed past his head. Firing from a rooftop around 500 feet (150 meters) from the stage, the gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. The FBI named the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but has not released any information about his possible motive. Much about the events leading up to the shooting remains unclear, and Republican pundits have accused the Secret Service of negligence during the crucial hours and minutes before shots were fired.

Despite the building Crooks fired from having a clear line of sight to the stage, no Secret Service agents were positioned there. Local police officers stationed at the building reportedly observed Crooks circling the area, before returning and looking at the stage through a range-finder, typically used by snipers or hunters to gauge the distance to a target. However, CBS News said on Wednesday, that these officers’ reports evidently did not make it to the Secret Service.

Video footage captured by spectators at the rally purportedly showed Secret Service snipers pointing their weapons at Crooks, but hesitating to open fire until the 20-year-old fired first. While Cheatle has not testified before Congress, she has defended her agency’s actions in numerous television interviews since Saturday. In one widely-mocked appearance, she told ABC News that no agents were placed on the roof Crooks fired from as “we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.” The Oversight Committee’s hearing is scheduled for next Monday. In the meantime, Cheatle has told reporters that she has no intention of resigning.

“Can someone send me an example of a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad?” “Republican Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana replied dryly: “I can think of an example.” Scalise was severely wounded at the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball game practice by a Sanders supporter.”

• The Near Miss Assassination Hit the Mark with Press and Pundits (Turley)

Winston Churchill once famously said that “nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” For Donald Trump, the failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania could prove politically exhilarating. After rising with a fist pump and a call to fight on, Trump seems to have gone from being a movement to a mythological figure with his supporters. All he needs now is a big blue ox named Babe to return to the campaign trail. This assassination attempt should also concentrate the minds of everyone on the escalating rhetoric in this campaign, particularly the media in maintaining inflammatory narratives. Yet, the hateful and unhinged language has continued unabated from academics declaring that the assassination attempt was staged to those who complain that the only problem was that Thomas Matthew Crooks missed.

For years, Democrats have repeated analogies of Trump to Hitler and his followers to brownshirted neo-Nazis. Indeed, defeating Trump has been compared to stopping Hitler in 1933. The narrative began as soon as Trump was elected when the press and pundits uniformly and falsely claimed that Trump had praised neo-Nazis and Klansmen in 2017 as “fine people” in Charlottesville. Watching Trump’s statement at the time, it was clear to most of us that Trump condemned the neo-Nazis and that the statement about “fine people on both sides” was in reference to the debate over the removal of historic statues. It took six years for Snopes to finally have the courage to do a fact check and declare the common attack to be false. It did not matter. The press and politicians have hammered away at the notion that Trump is seeking to end democracy and that everyone from gay people to reporters will be “disappeared.”

After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, Rachel Maddow went on the air with a hysterical claim that “death squads” had just been green lighted by conservatives. Democratic strategist Jame Carville insists that Trump’s reelection will bring “the end of the Constitution.” It is all what I call “rage rhetoric” in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.” The book explores centuries of rage politics and political violence. This is not our first age of rage but it could well be the most dangerous. Two years before the assassination attempt, I appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on the expansion of domestic terrorism investigations. Democrats were seeking to pressure the FBI to focus on far-right groups as potential terrorist groups. The use of political views rather than conduct has been used historically to crackdown on groups from socialists to anarchists to feminists.

The narrative that the threat of violence is coming primarily from the Right is demonstrably false but consistently echoed in the media. We have seen a growing level of leftist violence in the last decade. That includes riots in cities like Portland and Seattle where billions of dollars of damage occurred, hundreds of officers injured, and many citizens killed. In 2020 alone, 25 people were killed in the protests. The Democrats often raise the Jan. 6th riot and it is important to acknowledge that the damage extended to an attack on our constitutional process. However, the preceding protest around the White House caused more injuries and more property damage. Then President Trump had to be removed to a safe location as Secret Service feared a breach of the White House.

There were a reported 150 officers injured (including at least 49 Park Police officers around the White House) in the Lafayette Park riot. Protesters caused extensive property damage including the torching of a historic structure and the attempted arson of St. John’s Church. Mass shootings by leftist gunmen have repeatedly occurred but those are treated as one offs while any conservative shooter is part of a pattern of right-wing violence. Keith Ellison, the Democratic attorney general of Minnesota, mocked the notion of liberal violence. In one tweet, he declared “I have never seen @BernieSanders supporters being unusually mean or rude. Can someone send me an example of a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad. Also, are we holding all candidates responsible for the behavior of some of their supporters? Waiting to hear.”

Republican Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana replied dryly: “I can think of an example.” Scalise was severely wounded at the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball game practice by a Sanders supporter.

“Only eight days ago, Schumer had a different opinion on Biden: “I’m with Joe.”

• Schumer Says “Best For -Positive For COVID- Biden To Drop Out Of Race” (ZH)

Update (1927ET): Moments ago, ABC News reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., advised President Biden to end his reelection for the greater good of the country and the Democratic Party. Only eight days ago, Schumer had a different opinion on Biden: “I’m with Joe.” Earlier, according to Fox News, citing multiple sources, Schumer pushed for the Democratic National Convention’s delay as questions soared about the president’s 2024 candidacy. According to Axios, the delay “signals that the congressional leaders sympathize with rank-and-file Democrats who want more time to address concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Trump.” Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination odds for the party now stand at 50, while Biden’s is at 38. Democratic lawmakers have been urging Biden to drop out since his disastrous debate with former President Trump last month.

Kash Patel

Kash Patel predicts Biden's next moves now that he has tested positive for COVID after saying he would step down if there were a 'medical emergency':

“Next he’s going to have some sort of malfunction and then he’s going to pardon his son, he’s going to pardon his brother, he’s… pic.twitter.com/GTC6O0ART0

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 17, 2024

https://twitter.com/i/status/1813703860386730445

Just hours after President Biden mentioned in an interview that he would consider dropping out of the presidential race if diagnosed with a “medical condition,” the elderly president tested positive for Covid-19 this afternoon. UnidosUS president Janet Murguía informed the audience at the organization’s national conference in Vegas about Biden’s diagnosis. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden was delivering speeches in Las Vegas when he “experienced mild symptoms.” KJP said the president “will be returning to Delaware, where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.” She noted, “The White House will provide regular updates on the President’s status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”

Biden’s doctor reported that the president developed a runny nose and a “non-productive cough” on Wednesday afternoon. “He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” the doctor wrote in a statement shared by the White House. The doctor said, “The President has received his first dose of Paxlovid,” adding that Biden’s symptoms “remain mild.” Biden boarded Air Force One in Vegas this evening, the White House pool reported. Where is the president’s mask??

“It could deeply undermine the morale and unity of Democrats — from delegates, volunteers, grassroots organisers and donors to ordinary voters — at the worst possible time.”

“Great idea. I want that hole in the Titanic as soon as possible.”

• Anti-Biden Dems Rush To Block DNC’s ‘Virtual Nomination’ Scheme (ZH)

Saturday’s near-assassination of Donald Trump likely boosted the former president’s chances of winning the November election — and also forced a pause in what had been a steadily-boiling controversy over President Biden’s fitness to finish the race and start a new term. While Biden’s mental deterioration was nudged out of media spotlight, his campaign was quietly scheming with the Democratic National Committee to orchestrate a “virtual nomination” held weeks before the party convention kicks off on August 19. Now, indignant anti-Biden Democrats on Capitol Hill are organizing a counter-strike. “I just think it’s a terrible idea for the DNC to do this. I just think people see right through it,” said progressive California Rep. Jared Huffman. “At a time when we have this huge enthusiasm gap with the Republicans, to do a stunt like this is just going to make it worse.” Separately, he told CNN, “If the election were held today, he would get crushed. We have got to do something about it.”

The DNC, which rigged the primary process for Biden by refusing to host debates and by rearranging the sequences of state balloting, is now working to hold a “virtual roll call” where delegates would vote online between July 29 and Aug. 5, Axios reports. However, the New York Times reported voting could start as early as Monday, July 22. Either way, the extraordinary advance vote would serve two DNC goals: icing the contest for Biden and avoiding a tumultuous, contested convention next month in Chicago. Democratic “insiders” told the Times that upwards of 80% of delegates would back Biden in a virtual vote. Congressional Democrats who see Biden as a doomed candidate — who threatens to carry down-ballot candidates with him — are now racing against the clock to keep their drive to replace him alive. At the moment, they’re channeling their energy into drafting and circulating a joint letter from House Democrats to the DNC, urging party headquarters to cancel its plan.

Here’s a passage from a draft obtained by the Financial Times: “Stifling debate and prematurely shutting down any possible change in the Democratic ticket through an unnecessary and unprecedented ‘virtual roll call’ in the days ahead is a terrible idea. It could deeply undermine the morale and unity of Democrats — from delegates, volunteers, grassroots organisers and donors to ordinary voters — at the worst possible time.” “People are back to being angry at Biden and a push to sign on to this letter is going around … the ‘replace Biden’ movement is back,” said an unnamed Democratic representative. Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the first congressional Democrat to urge Biden to quit the race, said the virtual-nomination scheme was inconsistent with Biden’s own comments: “Such misguided DNC action would be contrary to President Biden’s own recommendation that those seeking an alternative nominee come to the convention.”

A key milestone in the intrigue will come at 11am this Friday, when the convention’s rules committee conducts a video call. “A majority of its members have deep ties to Mr. Biden and were vetted for their loyalty to him,” reports the Times. Contrary to Axios, the Times reported that virtual nomination balloting could start as early as Monday, July 22. One House representative used creative imagery to describe dissidents’ view of the situation, telling CNN, “The disbelief that they’d expedite the nomination is as widespread as the recognition the DNC is leading Democrats into a house fire with water bottles.”

Word of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering comes as new polling by YouGov shows Trump leading in all seven battleground states. His lead is narrowest in Michigan (+2) and Pennsylvania (+3), and largest in Arizona (+7). Notably, the poll was taken after Biden’s alarmingly poor June 27 debate with Trump, but before Trump survived the assassination attempt at a rally in western Pennsylvania. Beyond the Biden camp, there’s another group that’s wildly enthusiastic about the idea of a virtual vote that locks in the failing, 81-year-old as the Democrats’ standard-bearer: Republicans. When asked what he thought of the DNC’s maneuvering, Citizens United president and Trump 2016 deputy campaign manager David Bossie said, “Great idea. I want that hole in the Titanic as soon as possible.”

It adds up.

• Biden Losing Support in 14 Key States Ahead of November Election (Sp.)

Incumbent US President Joe Biden is losing support in 14 key states, which are gradually turning to his predecessor and rival, Donald Trump, ahead of the November elections, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing poll data. The poll, conducted by the BlueLabs pollster, funded by the US Democratic Party, and obtained by CNN, found that Trump is outpacing Biden in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which the incumbent president managed to flip in his favor in the 2020 election. Besides that, people in Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine, New Mexico, Virginia, New Hampshire, and a part of Nebraska are also losing faith in Biden. The polling also indicated that almost all other Democrats included in the questionnaire are ahead of Biden in battleground states. The four most popular ones are Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

On June 27, Biden, 81, appeared confused and incoherent throughout his first debate with Trump, 78, reinforcing rather than alleviating ongoing concerns about his cognitive abilities. His poor performance has led some Democratic politicians and donors to call for his removal as a candidate. There have been growing calls among Democrats to nominate another candidate to replace Biden after his failure in the debate. Theoretically, the party will have such an opportunity at its convention in August, but in practice, it will be difficult to remove the primaries-winning candidate from the race if he does not refuse to participate. So far, Biden is saying he intends to stay in the race. The second Biden-Trump debate is scheduled for September 10. The US presidential election will take place on November 5.

“Lawmakers have demanded that Hungary be punished for the prime minister’s Russia trip..”

• EU Parliament Condemns Orban’s Peace Efforts (RT)

The European Parliament has strongly condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent visit to Russia and his Ukraine peace efforts, in the legislature’s first resolution since elections in June. In a press release detailing Wednesday’s resolution, the parliament described Orban’s trip to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy.” The statement went on to claim that the Hungarian leader’s “alleged peace efforts” were “irrelevant,” and that Budapest should face “repercussions” for Orban’s actions. The EU Parliament is holding its first plenary session in Strasbourg this week since elections to the law-making body were held in June.

Budapest currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Council. An adviser to Orban recently said that Hungary plans to use its six-month term to create the conditions for peace talks between Moscow and Kiev. The Hungarian prime minister traveled to Moscow earlier this month to discuss the “shortest way out” of the conflict with Russian President Putin. After the meeting, Orban admitted that there were major differences in how the warring parties viewed the potential resolution of hostilities, but pledged to continue to work to establish contact between them. On a prior visit to Kiev, the Hungarian leader proposed a “quick ceasefire” to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, something the latter rejected.

The EU leadership was outraged by Orban’s Moscow visit and has insisted that he did not represent the bloc. Orban, however, has claimed that he does not require a mandate from Brussels to promote peace, noting that his discussions cannot be considered official negotiations. The EU Parliament has stated that the bloc “must continue to support” Kiev “for as long as it takes until victory,” insisting that Ukraine is “on an irreversible path to NATO membership.” Legally binding guarantees that Kiev will not seek to join NATO are among Moscow’s conditions for the end of the hostilities.

MEP
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813832983003992143

Yes it does.

• EU’s Rebuke Of Orban’s Peace Mission Speaks For Itself – Kremlin (RT)

The EU’s criticism of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over his Ukraine peace initiative indicates that Brussels’ pro-war policies will not change, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. The Hungarian leader wants the EU leadership and fellow member states to adjust their policies from arming Kiev to seeking a negotiated resolution with Moscow. He traveled to Ukraine, Russia, China, and the US, before detailing his proposal in a letter sent to Brussels this week. Senior EU and national officials, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, have blasted Orban for engaging with Moscow. Brussels has reportedly rejected his proposal.

Peskov was asked during a daily press call whether Moscow received the text of Orban’s plan or the EU’s response to it. He said neither document was shared with the Russian government, but conclusions can be made based on the public condemnation of Orban. ”The Europeans have targeted Orban, have disavowed any authority he could claim regarding this issue. They have expressed resolve in supporting Ukraine militarily. I guess that is the answer,” the Kremlin spokesman said. Hungary is currently holding the rotating EU presidency. People unhappy with Orban’s diplomatic engagement with Russia have claimed that he was abusing his country’s role and undermining EU unity in backing Kiev with his action. A letter urging the EU leadership to strip Hungary’s voting rights in the EU was signed by scores of MEPs, according to media reports.

In its first legislative action on Wednesday, the newly elected parliament reaffirmed support for Ukraine and blasted Orban for going “rogue.” The prime minister did not claim that he was acting on the EU’s behalf. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RT that the reaction of “pro-war politicians of the EU” will not dissuade Budapest. The diplomat met with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on the sidelines of a UN ministerial meeting in New York on Tuesday. The Hungarian government has been advocating for peace talks since the beginning of the hostilities in 2022. Brussels’ response to the crisis is misguided and harmful for member states, Orban has argued, citing the economic impact of the sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, Western military aid has failed to produce a victory on the battlefield for Kiev and has simply exacerbated the costs of the conflict, according to him. Critics claim that Orban’s position is “pro-Russian.”

“Anti-Russia sanctions have provided Moscow the opportunity to both become more self-reliant and strengthen its alliances with other global powers.”

• Russia Empowered by ‘Naive and Ignorant’ Western Aggression – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

Two years after President Joe Biden claimed US sanctions and export controls were “crushing” Moscow, Russia continues to grow at a faster rate than that of the United States and all other advanced nations. The country’s resilience was confirmed earlier this year by the International Monetary Fund, which predicted Russia’s economy would expand at a rate of 3.2% in 2024. On the diplomatic front Russia is as influential as ever as a key player in the growing BRICS economic bloc, which was recently forced to turn away new members amid strong interest from the Global South. Internally, Russia remains politically stable and unified with President Vladimir Putin enjoying an overwhelming mandate and widespread support for the country’s military operation against Ukraine.

With Russia not only surviving, but thriving against the backdrop of US-led opposition, one can only conclude that Russophobic leaders are operating from a position of deep ignorance and naivete regarding the Eurasian world power. Such is the conclusion of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Wednesday to discuss the state of relations between Moscow and the West. “The West is under the impression that it can strategically defeat Russia,” claimed Ritter, a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer. “That means bringing about the existential end to the Russian Federation, as we now understand it. We heard the former Baltic leader turned European Union senior diplomat brag about how she envisioned breaking up Russia into tiny little component pieces,” he noted, referring to comments by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas suggesting Russia should be split into several “small nations.”

“What they don’t understand are two things,” said Ritter. “Such a desire is literally a suicide pill because Russia’s nuclear arsenal is tied to a doctrine that says if the survival of Russia is placed under existential threat, that Russia will use nuclear weapons to ensure that that threat no longer exists.” “But fortunately we don’t have to worry about that because Russia itself has shown a proclivity not only to be able to outmaneuver the West, turning sanctions against Russia back on the West – a devastating factor – but also turning the attempt to diplomatically isolate Russia back on the West.” Anti-Russia sanctions have provided Moscow the opportunity to both become more self-reliant and strengthen its alliances with other global powers. India has become a major buyer of Russian oil, as has China, which continues to carry on a robust trade relationship with Moscow.

Lavrov