Pablo Picasso Studio with plaster head 1925
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 13, 2025
REPORTER: Why are you calling a special session of the legislature now instead of later to help Trump's deportations?
DESANTIS: Because he is going to sign orders as soon as he takes office. Why would we twiddle our thumbs when we know this is coming? We need to be ready. pic.twitter.com/px7rSOQotj
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 13, 2025
BREAKING: First Lady Melania Trump just revealed that she is cutting down the size of the First Lady's office to save money.
"I don't want to hire too many people on my team, spending too much taxpayer money. I want to make sure that every position, they are talented, they have… pic.twitter.com/ebhXUooyDR
— George (@BehizyTweets) January 13, 2025
https://twitter.com/i/status/1878637134762152275
https://twitter.com/i/status/1878822562345459907
O’Leary
I just got back from Mar-a-Lago, where Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and I sat down with Donald Trump. We tackled tariffs, pipelines, and why a strong Canada-U.S. partnership matters now more than ever.
I told Trump straight: the Trudeau policies have been a disaster, but… pic.twitter.com/Khh3FY6LuK
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) January 13, 2025
Tucker Shell
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2025
DC broke Tulsi?
Last week, Lavrov, for a reason, said Trump envoy Keith Kellogg needed to ‘dive into’ the relevant material. Trump et al must realize that Crimea and the 4 territories are not up for negotiation; they are part of Russia now. 3 years ago, before the SMO, Russia suggested leaving them be part of Ukraine. That’s no longer a option, Putin’s suggestions then were rejected by Zelensky and NATO.
There will be an argument that being too easy on Putin will mean a loss of face for US and NATO. Trump can put that on its head by saying it’s a loss of face for Biden, Blinken and the Democrats, plus a whole slew of wildly unpopular European leaders like Starmer, Macron and Scholz.
Trump wants the killing to stop. Easy. He and Putin can pick a date (Jan 21?) for a ceasefire, in a way that no-one will dare break. After that, it’s no nukes, no nazis, no NATO.
Oh, and the Gaza ceasefire? Yeah, that’s Trump.
• Trump To Meet Putin ‘Very Quickly’ After Inauguration (RT)
US President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very quickly” after being sworn in on January 20. During an interview on Monday, Newsmax host Rob Schmitt asked Trump about his strategy to end the Ukraine conflict, to which Trump said “there is only one strategy, and it’s up to Putin.” He added: “I can’t imagine he’s too thrilled with the way it’s gone, because it hasn’t gone exactly well for him either.” “I know he [Putin] wants to meet, and I’m going to meet very quickly,” the incoming US leader said. “I would have done it sooner, but … you have to get into the office.” During his campaign, Trump promised to end the Ukraine conflict and multibillion-dollar US funding of the government in Kiev. He claimed he could stop the hostilities “in 24 hours” by making several phone calls.
Since his election as president, Trump and members of his transition team have moderated expectations, acknowledging that a resolution will probably take several months at least. In the interview with Newsmax, Trump blamed the outgoing President Joe Biden for allowing the conflict to escalate on his watch. The fighting has had devastating consequences for both Ukraine and Russia, he said. ”This was gross incompetence. That’s the only reason this war has taken place,” he stated. Biden, speaking at the Department of State on Monday, defended his handling of the crisis, claiming it was one of his administration’s foreign policy achievements. ”I had two jobs – one to rally the world to defend Ukraine, and the other is to avoid war between two nuclear powers. We did both those things,” he said.
”Ukraine is still free, independent country, with a potential, a potential for a bright future,” Biden said, adding that it was up to the Trump administration to “protect the bright future of the Ukrainian people”. The Kremlin has responded positively to Trump’s declared intention to engage with Russia, but stressed that the Ukraine conflict needs to be resolved in a way that addresses its core causes. Those, according to Moscow, include NATO’s expansion in Europe and Ukraine’s discrimination against its ethnic Russian citizens. Russian officials have accused the Biden administration of intentionally escalating tensions to justify a proxy war against their country, which is how the conflict is viewed in Moscow.
“US House Republicans have introduced a ‘Make Greenland Great Again Act’”.
• Trump Allies Prepare Bill To Let Him Buy Greenland (RT)
President-elect Donald Trump’s Republican allies in the US House of Representatives have introduced draft legislation aiming to authorize negotiations for the United States to buy Greenland from Denmark. The island’s pro-independence leader has said he is “ready to talk,” after Trump refused to rule out a military takeover. The bill, circulated on Monday by Representative Andy Ogles and backed by ten co-sponsors, would allow Trump to begin talks with Denmark immediately upon his inauguration. “Congress hereby authorizes the President, beginning at 12:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 20, 2025, to seek to enter into negotiations with the Kingdom of Denmark for the purchase of Greenland,” the bill states. The proposal follows Trump’s renewed interest in making Greenland part of the US, calling it an “absolute necessity” for national security and refusing to rule out the use of military or economic pressure to achieve this goal.
“People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to [Greenland], but if they do, they should give it up because we need it,” Trump said last week. Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede reiterated the island’s ambition to gain independence from Denmark last week, emphasizing that the Greenlandic people do not want to be either Danish or American. Egede also expressed readiness to “talk” with Trump, acknowledging that his refusal to rule out the use of force to acquire Greenland was “serious.” Greenland is the world’s largest island, with shores on the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. From the early 19th century to the 1950s, it was a territory under the full control of Denmark. During WWII, it was occupied by the US after Denmark was captured by Nazi Germany. Currently, the island hosts a US military base and an early warning system for ballistic missiles.
The island has grown increasingly autonomous, and was granted home rule in 1979, ultimately gaining the right in 2009 to declare independence if a referendum passes. “The desire for independence, the wish to be in one’s own house, is probably understood by all people in the world,” Egede stressed, adding that an independence vote “will come soon.” Greenland is home to fewer than 57,000 people and is 80% covered with ice, but it is rich in gold, silver, copper, and uranium deposits and is believed to have vast oil reserves in its territorial waters. According to a recent survey by US research firm Patriot Polling, approximately 57% of Greenland’s population supports Trump’s proposal. The poll involved 416 respondents and was conducted earlier this month while Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, was visiting the island on a “personal day trip.”
“..no one dares to underestimate Trump any longer. His willpower is a force of nature, and if he says he wants Greenland, don’t count him out.”
• Crazy Like a Fox: Trump’s Greenland Pitch (Miele)
It was back in August 2019, just about the time Democrats were wasting everyone’s time with the first fake impeachment scandal, when Donald Trump originally introduced the idea of buying Greenland from Denmark. At the time, the notion was dismissed by the pointy-headed arbiters of right and wrong known as the mainstream media, who concluded that Trump must see his presidency as an extended season of “The Apprentice.” In this episode, the modern-day land baron outsmarts the Scandihoovian rubes who didn’t know the “green” in Greenland was cold hard cash. Like almost every other preconception of Trump in his first term, that take was nonsensical. There was considerable historical and geo-political justification for Trump’s proposal to rescue Greenland from European colonialism, and perhaps if his enemies had not sprung the Ukraine phone call impeachment hoax shortly after the Greenland gambit was proposed, it might have become a major accomplishment of Trump’s first term.
I wrote about the original proposal on Aug. 26, 2019, for RealClearPolitics in an article that declared “Trump’s No Safe Bet; He’s a Leader.” The premise was that unlike the feckless, washed-out, safety-in-numbers politicians who lead by following polls, Trump used common sense and intuition to find solutions to problems no one else even liked to think about. Building a wall to keep out illegal immigrants might seem like an obvious idea now, but before Trump, no one would have dared to say it. The same is true of his wish to reclaim Greenland as North American territory. Few if any of Trump’s contemporaries had considered the idea, but it was not without precedent. Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward had sought to purchase Greenland for the United States in 1867, the same year he famously acquired Alaska from Russia.
These days, it may seem jarring to talk about buying large chunks of real estate for the purpose of national aggrandizement, but it wasn’t always so. In addition to Seward’s purchase of Alaska, the United States also can be grateful for Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled the size of the country, as well as for the largely free acquisition of Florida from Spain. Land deals are not just in Trump’s blood; they are part of our national heritage. They can also be vital to national security. Certainly everyone can agree we were infinitely better off during the era of the Soviet Union because Alaska was no longer in the hands of the Russian oligarchs. And President-elect Trump alluded to a similar benefit on Truth Social when he appointed his ambassador to Denmark in December: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
Trump elaborated on that sentiment last week during his impromptu press conference at Mar-a-Lago. “We need Greenland for national security purposes. … People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world. You don’t even need binoculars. You look outside, you have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen. We’re not letting it happen.” So again, we have the Russian threat, but this time added on top of the perhaps even greater Chinese threat. As I pointed out five years ago, China has its own eyes on Greenland, not just for the strategic importance but because it is a repository of rare earth minerals and other resources:
“President Trump was well aware that the Chinese had already expressed their own interest in Greenland, offering to fund millions of dollars of infrastructure improvements on the island as part of the plan for global economic domination known as the ‘Belt and Road Initiative.’” Fortunately, pressure on Denmark largely thwarted China’s Greenland ambitions, but meanwhile Trump’s appetite for American expansionism was whetted. It is perhaps significant that the play for Greenland has been paired with Trump’s threat to take back the Panama Canal, which was turned over to the nation of Panama by Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. The canal zone, after all, has proven to be a lucrative foothold for China in the New World, and provides a chilling warning of what might happen if someone of Trump’s stature did not step forward to hold the communist state out of Greenland.
And one thing is certain. No one is laughing at Trump this time around for his pitch to Denmark. Far-fetched? Maybe, but no one dares to underestimate Trump any longer. His willpower is a force of nature, and if he says he wants Greenland, don’t count him out. Trump has already become the dominant force on the world stage weeks before he takes office. His attendance at the reopening of Notre Dame caused ripples throughout Europe. Mexico and Canada were put on notice that there was no more free ride once Trump took office, as he threatened them both with tariffs. Trump’s jest about making Canada the 51st state deserves a lot of the credit for (Governor?) Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister. And that’s just the beginning.
With all of 416 respondents, it’s not much of a poll. But this is even before Trump has offered to make every Greenlander a millionaire, and split proceeds of any resource exploitation 50-50.
• More Than Half of Greenlanders Want To Join US – Poll (RT)
Some 57.3% of Greenland’s population supports US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to make the island an American territory, a new survey has suggested. The number of those rejecting Trump’s proposal stands at 37.4%, with 5.3% undecided, US research firm Patriot Polling said on Monday. “Our survey finds that a substantial majority of Greenlandic residents support joining the US,” the pollster’s statement read. According to Patriot Polling, the survey involved 416 respondents in Greenland, and was conducted between January 6 and 11, while Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, was visiting the Danish autonomous territory. The little-known company had never previously conducted a poll outside the US.
Trump, who had offered to buy Greenland from Copenhagen during his first term in office, has returned to the issue in recent weeks. At a press conference last Tuesday, he refused to rule out using force to bring the world’s largest island under Washington’s control, saying: “It might be that you will have to do something… We need Greenland for national security purposes.” Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede stressed on Friday that the island “…is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American.” The islanders’ desire is to be an independent nation, the prime minister said, promising that a vote on the issue “will come soon.”
However, Egede stressed that he was “ready to talk” to Trump, and expressed eagerness to keep cooperating with the US in the future. In 2008, Greenland held a non-binding referendum on increased autonomy from Denmark, resulting in 75% voter approval and a 72% turnout. This led to the 2009 Self-Government Act, granting the island greater control over its internal affairs. Spanning an area of 2.2 million sq km (about six times the size of Germany), Greenland is home to fewer than 57,000 people, and is 80% covered with ice. The island is rich in gold, silver, copper and uranium deposits, and is believed to have vast oil reserves in its territorial waters.
“..Starmer has not been invited to Trump’s January 20 inauguration..”
• UK PM ‘Sent Operatives’ To Undermine US Elections – Musk (RT)
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of meddling in American elections. The tech billionaire has been tapped by US President-elect Donald Trump to head DOGE, a special advisory body tasked with identifying government inefficiency. On Sunday, Musk commented on an X user’s post that Starmer has not been invited to Trump’s January 20 inauguration, despite the UK being among the closest allies of the US. The tech billionaire made it clear that the UK prime minister’s absence from the ceremony’s guest list is no surprise, given that “he sent operatives to America to undermine the US elections.” Musk’s claim apparently stems from the accusations of “blatant foreign interference” made by Trump’s campaign against Starmer’s Labour Party in October.
At the time, the US president-elect’s team filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over reports of the British activists campaigning in the US for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Musk has been increasingly critical of Starmer on his X platform in recent weeks, saying that he runs a “tyrannical government,” from which the US might need to “liberate the people” in the UK. Among other things, he branded the British prime minister “evil” and accused him of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” over Starmer’s purported role in the cover up of the grooming gangs scandal while head of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013.
Those gangs, mostly made up of Pakistani males, targeted white British girls for some two decades. The UK authorities failed to act against them due to political correctness concerns, multiple government and media reports have alleged. Last week, Starmer hit back at Musk, calling his claims “lies and misinformation” and blaming the tech billionaire for spreading the “poison of the far-right.” On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that Musk is allegedly considering a campaign to force the British prime minister out of office by undermining his approval ratings. The outlet’s sources claimed that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO had privately discussed such plans with his allies, acting out of the belief “that Western civilization itself is threatened.”
Breton now denies his own words. But they’re on video.
• Musk Calls Out ‘Tyrant Of Europe’ (RT)
X owner Elon Musk has denounced former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton as “the tyrant of Europe” over an interview that appeared to endorse the cancelation of Romania’s presidential elections. Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the vote last month, citing since-debunked claims by intelligence services that front-runner Calin Georgescu had been boosted by a Russian campaign on TikTok. It has since emerged that the campaign had been the work of a rival Romanian party, but the court has refused to reverse its ruling. In an interview with the French outlet BFMTV/RMC last week, Breton appeared to warn that the upcoming German elections could suffer the same fate should the Musk-endorsed Alternative for Germany (AfD) party emerge triumphant.
“Let’s stay calm and enforce the laws in Europe, when they risk being circumvented and if not enforced, could lead to interference,” Breton said. “It was done in Romania and obviously, it will have to be done, if necessary, in Germany as well.” The minute-long video, in French, was shared by the Polish-based account ‘Visegrad24’, prompting Musk to reply, deriding “the staggering absurdity of Thierry Breton as the tyrant of Europe.” Breton objected to the label on Saturday, however, arguing that he was only referring to online censorship through the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and that the EU “has NO mechanism to nullify any election” in the bloc. “Lost in translation… or another fake news?” he wondered on X. Breton’s clarification did not address the fact that the alleged “interference” in Romanian democracy came from inside the country, undermining the basis for the Constitutional Court’s annulment.
Breton’s initial remarks came in response to Musk’s interview on X with Alice Weidel, AfD’s candidate for chancellor in the upcoming German election. Musk has endorsed her party and urged German voters to oust sitting Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which some EU officials have denounced as unacceptable foreign meddling. The Frenchman was the EU commissioner for Digital Affairs and Internal Markets in August, when he threatened Musk with penalties over an upcoming X interview with Donald Trump, then the Republican candidate for US president. When Musk threatened to expose “secret deals” the EU offered in exchange for censorship on X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed the French commissioner had acted on his own. Breton resigned in September, accusing the Brussels leadership of “questionable governance.”
FRENCH TAUNTER DENIES EU TOLD ROMANIA TO CANCEL ELECTION RESULTS
Thierry Breton, the former EU Commissioner who tried to interfere with Elon’s interview with Trump, claimed his recent comments were taken out of context.
His statement comes after he said EU laws were enforced in… https://t.co/yvcGEdLH8H pic.twitter.com/NwXIdDEbwr
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 11, 2025
“We are protesting against the coup d’état that took place on Dec. 6. We are sorry to discover so late that we were living in a lie and that we were led by people who claimed to be democrats, but are not at all.”
“At this rate we won’t be voting anymore, they will impose a leader like in the old days.”
• Romanians Rail Against Do-Over Election Targeting Populist NATO Skeptic (ZH)
Upwards of 100,000 Romanians of various political stripes took to the streets on Sunday to express outrage over the voiding of a presidential election that seemed poised to put a NATO and Ukraine War skeptic in power. George Simion, leader of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, summed up the intent of the demonstrations his party organized: “We are protesting against the coup d’état that took place on Dec. 6. We are sorry to discover so late that we were living in a lie and that we were led by people who claimed to be democrats, but are not at all. We demand a return to democracy through the resumption of elections, starting with the second round.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1878429301638316513
In November, Romania held the first balloting in its two-round election. It resulted in Europe’s latest instance in which a populist, nationalist, right-wing candidate posted a result that far exceeded what polls indicated he was capable of. In a 13-contender field, that candidate, Calin Georgescu, led the pack with 23%, setting him up to advance to the second and final round against reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party. However, just two days before that second round was to take place on Dec. 8, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election, and ordered a complete do-over of both rounds. Their justification: Supposed Russian meddling manifested in manipulated votes, campaign irregularities and secret spending. The ruling came after incumbent President Klaus Iohannis reportedly shared intelligence claiming Russia organized thousands of social media accounts to boost Georgescu’s campaign.
“You petty politicians, with your ungrateful and immature games, you won’t even know what hit you in this global storm,” said Georgescue in a social media post in which he promoted the protest and compared Romanian leaders and judges with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who’s on trial on corruption charges. “You are so small that you aren’t even able to understand anything. Nothing you do will make a difference anymore. The inevitable, is inevitable.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1876584350898413985
On Sunday, crowds — estimated in size from tens of thousands to more than 100,000 — marched through the streets of Bucharest, with Reuters reporting that many left-wingers joined the protest. The slogans on their signs included “We Want Free Elections,” “Bring Back The Second Round,” “Freedom,” and “Democracy Is Not Optional.” In a country that is among the most religiously observant in Europe, many carried Christian Orthodox icons. According to video posted to social media, protesters also vented their aggravation with establishment media: Social media was the principal catalyst of 62-year-old Georgescu’s success. He didn’t run as a member of any political party, but his TikTok account racked up 1.6 million likes for content showing him going to church, running, practicing judo, and being interviewed by podcasters.
Iohannis’ term was supposed to end on Dec. 21, but he’s now slated to remain in power until the do-over election is complete. The dates are not yet official, but, last week, leaders of the ruling coalition government said they’d agreed on holding the two rounds on May 4 and May 18. Georgescu’s views are anathema to the European establishment. He’s pledged to restore Romanian sovereignty and put an end to what he characterizes as subservience to NATO and the EU. He has taken a hard line against the presence of NATO’s missile defense system that’s based in Deveselu, southern Romania, calling it a “shame of diplomacy” that is more confrontational than peace-promoting.
Romania shares a 400-mile border with Ukraine and hosts a NATO missile defense system in the country’s south (via Britannica)
He’s also pushed for Romania to pursue a non-interventionist policy in the Ukraine war, and said US arms-makers were manipulating the conflict. Since Russia’s invasion, Romania has facilitated Ukrainian grain exports and furnished military assistance including the donation of a Patriot missile battery. In addition to his broad theme of restoring Romanian sovereignty, Georgescu also ran on countering price inflation, addressing Romania’s worst-in-EU poverty rate, supporting farmers and decreasing the country’s reliance on imports. However, now it is the sovereignty of the Romanian people themselves that is in peril. As a flag-wrapped economist named Cornelia told Reuters on Sunday: “At this rate we won’t be voting anymore, they will impose a leader like in the old days.”
“Ritter voiced hope that Blinken would be “investigated, charged, and found guilty of betraying” his country.”
• Blinken Exploited Biden’s Senility – Scott Ritter (Sp.)
Scott Ritter pointed out that Antony Blinken has facilitated the Ukraine conflict because “peace with Russia was never an option, only war.” Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is “a war criminal in every sense of the word,” former American Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter wrote on X, commenting on Blinken’s video, in which he praised the Biden administration’s work. Ritter accused Blinken of being “singularly responsible for the deaths of more than a million people” as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. “You took advantage of a mentally diminished president to take our nation to the brink of nuclear war with Russia, violating the Constitution’s due process,” the ex-intelligence officer wrote, referring to the outgoing US President Joe Biden.
Ritter voiced hope that Blinken would be “investigated, charged, and found guilty of betraying” his country. “And I hope you are given the justice you so richly deserve,” the ex-intelligence officer concluded. Blinken earlier told the New York Times that when it comes to the Biden administration, there’s allegedly “a very strong record of achievement, historic in many ways.” These claims are clearly out of sync with Biden’s plummeting approval rating, which hit a new low in December, when just 34% of respondents ok’d his job as POTUS, according to a Marquette Law School national poll.
Yes, Jack Smith spent over $50 million on this.
• Judge Allows Release of Vol. 1, Blocks Vol. 2 of Jack Smith’s Report (ET)
A federal judge has cleared the way for the public release of volume one of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on investigations involving President-elect Donald Trump while opting to keep volume two of the report restricted. Volume one pertains to Smith’s election interference case against Trump, while volume two relates to the classified documents case. In a Jan. 13 order, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon partially denied an emergency motion by two Trump co-defendants—Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira—to block the public release of the report. Nauta and De Oliveira had filed an emergency motion seeking to prevent the release of both volumes of Smith’s report, citing concerns that it would prejudice their pretrial rights.
Cannon upheld their request to restrict volume two, which pertains to a classified documents probe involving Trump in which Nauta and De Oliveira are co-defendants. The judge noted that the release of volume two would be “inconsistent” with the defendants’ right to a fair trial. The Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the selective release of volume two to congressional leaders was in the public interest but stopped short of advocating broader dissemination. Nauta and De Oliveira argued that releasing the volume, even in a limited capacity, could irreparably damage their legal position. Cannon scheduled a hearing for Jan. 17 to address the DOJ’s request for limited disclosure of volume two to congressional leaders while withholding it from the public.
“Release of Volume II, even on a limited basis as promised by the United States, risks irreversibly and substantially impairing the legal rights of Defendants in this criminal proceeding,” Cannon wrote. “The Court is not willing to make that gamble on the basis of generalized interest by members of Congress, at least not without full briefing and a hearing on the subject.” The judge noted that a portion of the hearing may need to be conducted under seal to prevent parts of volume two from being disseminated to the public. However, Cannon agreed with the DOJ’s position that volume one contained no substantive references to the defendants or the classified documents case. Noting that there was “insufficient basis” to restrict the public release of volume one, Cannon cleared the way for its public release.
After Trump won the presidential election, Smith moved to dismiss the classified documents case and the election interference case against Trump, citing DOJ rules regarding not prosecuting presidents. The motions to dismiss were made “without prejudice,” meaning that charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term as president. However, the statute of limitations and the prospect that Trump pardons himself stand in the way of potential re-prosecution.
I don’t think his case against Trump was so easy even at the start.
• How Jack Smith Destroyed His Own Case Against Trump (Turley)
The expected release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report will occur as early as this weekend, albeit without those sections dealing with the Florida documents case. (Other defendants are still facing prosecution in that case.) However, the most glaring omission will be arguably an explanation of how Smith lost this war without firing a single shot in a trial. After more than two years, two separate cases and countless appeals (not to mention more than $50 million spent), Smith left without presenting a single witness, let alone charge, at trial. It is an example of how a general can have the largest army and unlimited resources and yet defeat himself with a series of miscalculations. History probably won’t be kind to Smith, whose record bespeaks a “parade general” — a prosecutor who offered more pretense than progress in the prosecution of an American president.
Indeed, this report will be one of Smith’s last chances to display a case that notably never got close to an actual trial. One-sided and unfiltered, it will have all of the thrill of a Sousa march of a regiment in full dress. We know because we have seen much of this before. At every juncture, Smith has taken his case out on parade in the court of public opinion. The Smith report will reportedly concern only the Washington case alleging crimes related to Jan. 6 and the 2020 election — a case that was always a bridge too far for Smith. When first appointed, Smith had a straightforward and relatively easy case to make against Trump over his removal and retention of presidential materials. The case was not without controversy. Some of us questioned the selective nature of the prosecution given past violations by other presidents, particularly as shown by the violations of President Biden going back decades found by another special counsel.
However, the case originally focused on the conspiracy and false statements during the federal investigation into the documents at Mar-a-Lago. Those are well-established crimes that Smith could have brought to trial quickly with a solid shot for conviction. But Smith’s undoing has always been his appetite. That was evident when he was unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court in his case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R). In Florida, Smith was in signature form. He took a simple case and loaded it up with press-grabbing charges regarding the retention of classified material. In so doing, he slowed the case to a crawl. As a defense lawyer who has handled classified documents cases, I said at the outset that I did not believe he could get this case to a jury before the 2024 election, and that after that election, Smith might not have a case to present. Smith had outmaneuvered himself.
Then came the Washington filing, the subject of this forthcoming report. It was another vintage Smith moment. Smith played to the public in a case that pushed both the Constitution and statutory provisions beyond the breaking point. He simply could not resist, and he was only encouraged after the assignment of Judge Tanya Chutkan, a judge viewed by many as predisposed against Trump. In a sentencing hearing of a Jan. 6 rioter in 2022, Chutkan had said that the rioters “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.” She added then, “[i]t’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.” That “one person” was then brought to her for trial by Smith. nThe D.C. case was doomed from the outset by both a prosecutor and judge who, in their zeal to bag Trump, yielded to every temptation. As time ticked away, Smith became almost apoplectic in demanding an expedited path to trial, including cutting short appeals.
After refusing to recuse herself, Chutkan seemed to indulge Smith at every turn. But the Supreme Court failed to agree that speed should trump substance in such reviews. With both cases slipping out of his grasp, Smith then threw a final Hail Mary. He asked Chutkan to let him file what was basically a 165-page summary of this report against Trump before the election. There was no apparent reason for the public release of the filing, except to influence the election — a motivation long barred by Justice Department rules. Chutkan, of course, allowed it anyway, despite admitting that the request was “procedurally irregular.” It did not work. Although the press and pundits eagerly repeated the allegations in the filing, the public had long ago reached its own conclusion and rendered its own verdict in November.
Britain badly needs a new voice, but the Heritage Party??
• ‘Let’s Buy Good, Cheap Gas From Our Friends In Russia’ – UK Politician (RT)
British Eurosceptic politician David Kurten has called for a partial relaunch of the Nord Stream pipeline system – which previously pumped Russian natural gas to the EU – amid freezing weather and supply fears. In a statement on X on Sunday, the politician, who leads the Heritage Party, advocated purchasing gas from Russia to address a potential energy shortage. “One of the four Nord Stream pipelines is undamaged and could be turned on again very quickly. Let’s buy good, cheap gas from our friends in Russia once again,” Kurten wrote. British gas supplier Centrica warned last week that “plunging temperatures… have reduced UK winter gas storage to concerningly low levels.” “Stubbornly high” gas prices have made it “more difficult to top up storage,” the company added. The network operator National Gas has since downplayed the concerns, stating that the storage level “remains healthy.”
The Nord Stream system, operated by Russia’s Gazprom and designed to pump gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, consists of two parts – Nord Stream 1 and 2. The first was launched in 2011, becoming a key energy source for the EU. Nord Stream 2, completed in 2021, was intended to double the system’s capacity, but never went online due to certification issues in Germany – which were exacerbated by the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict the following year. Both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 were ruptured in September 2022 in what EU officials described as an act of sabotage. Explosions rendered three of the four conduits inoperable. Russia has repeatedly called for an impartial international investigation, while criticizing the transparency of European-led probes. Moscow has suggested that the United States may have been behind the explosions, in an attempt to reduce Russia’s energy leverage.
The Nord Stream shut-down has sent energy prices soaring in Germany, which previously bought over 50% of its natural gas from Russia. In 2023, the EU’s largest economy recorded a recession, according to official statistics. Other countries, including Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Slovakia, have also experienced disruptions, which have been further exacerbated the suspension of Russian gas transit via Ukraine, after Kiev refused to extend a transit deal. German opposition politician and candidate for chancellor Alice Weidel pledged last week to put Nord Stream back into operation if her party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), wins next month’s general election.
The UK, unlike many European nations, historically imported only a small percentage of its gas from Russia. Before 2022, Russian imports accounted for less than 4% of the UK’s total supply, trailing behind domestic production in the North Sea, and imports from Norway, Qatar, and the United States. The Heritage Party was founded by Kurten in 2020. It claims to defend traditional family values and national sovereignty, while seeking to scale back UK ties with the European Union. In the UK general election last July, it contested several constituencies but did not secure any seats in parliament.
“It is true that an end to the fighting would save many Ukrainians from dying in a hopeless, unnecessary war for literally less than nothing, namely an even worse outcome for their country.”
• No Western Training Can Save Ukrainian Troops From Their Own Commanders (Amar)
“President-elect” Trump is about to turn into simply “president.” Signs are multiplying that, once he is in the White House again, Trump will at least try to actually end the insanity of the Ukraine War. He as well as his man for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, have distanced themselves from the obviously rhetorical campaign promise to end the war in one day. Now they are suggesting more realistic but still short – between 100 days (Kellogg) and six months or less (Trump) – deadlines. That is, actually, a sign of being serious. More important again is the fact that Trump has now publicly signaled understanding for Moscow’s refusal to accept Ukraine joining NATO. Since this has always been the single most important reason Russia went to war, Trump showing a new – if terribly belated – American readiness to finally acknowledge the issue’s make-or-break importance is essential for establishing a basis for meaningful talks.
These talks are now as good as certain to happen fairly soon and at the highest level: Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both made it clear that they are ready to meet without fussy pre-conditions. Again, another sign that we are not dealing with mere PR moves but a genuine attempt to find a compromise. That does not mean that it will succeed. But it does mark a key change from the past, when all serious negotiations were blocked by the West’s obstinate refusal to face reality. If Russia and America should manage to mend fences comparatively quickly, not everyone will be happy, of course. It is true that an end to the fighting would save many Ukrainians from dying in a hopeless, unnecessary war for literally less than nothing, namely an even worse outcome for their country.
But that does not seem to interest the Kiev regime under president-beyond-best-by-date Vladimir Zelensky. A recent meeting at the Ramstein base in Germany has shown that at least publicly Kiev keeps beating the war drums and insisting on even more Western support, while preparing its own population for further mobilizations down to the age of 18. Zelensky’s old, devastatingly failing recipe abides: “You, West, give us the money, arms, and ammunitions, and we feed our people into the meatgrinder.” And then there are Washington’s European clients and vassals. They are also still putting on a brave face. For instance, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron – both, as it happens, abysmally unpopular at home – have dreamy dinners fantasizing about “supporting Ukraine as long as it takes.”
True, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – another EU-NATO placeholder greatly not beloved by his people – has crashed his government and is facing an election and is therefore downplaying further support for Ukraine. Yet his foreign minister, the indefatigable Annalena “360 Degrees” Baerbock and his defense minister, Boris “Panzer” Pistorius, want more, as always. As so often, it is hard to tell how serious they are, but, on the whole, the official party line among Western European leaders still is that, even with Trump in the White House and the Russians steadily advancing in Ukraine – strapped for money, equipment, and troops as well as politically unstable and psychologically gloomy – will stay the moronic course of prolonging the great Western proxy war. Even if it has to do so on its own. That will not work, of course, one way or the other. But it is a policy with the potential to get even more people unnecessarily killed and make everything worse all around for everyone – including Ukraine but not, actually, Russia and the US – before it finally crashes and burns.
“Donald Trump is going to have to put it out. But he’s good at doing that.”
• Vance Blasts “Dumpster Fire” Left For Trump By Biden/Harris (MN)
Soon to be Vice President JD Vance has slammed the outgoing regime for leaving “an absolute dumpster fire” in its wake on multiple issues. During a Fox News interview Sunday, Vance spoke about the economy, the California fires and the Southern border, and urged that there has been a “serious lack of competent governance.” “I will always be an optimist about our country, but I think that optimism has to start with a bit of realism. And the real truth is that Joe Biden has left us a dumpster fire,” Vance asserted. He added that “Donald Trump is going to have to put it out. But he’s good at doing that.” Vance emphasized, “we’re excited to get to work. But we need to be open and honest about the fact that President Biden has not left the next administration in a good place, right?
JD Vance: "If you want to fix the overall border crisis, you have to engage in law enforcement." pic.twitter.com/edw5YqaIs1
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 12, 2025
“FEMA’s funds are depleted. We have a wide open southern border. Oil is going through the roof. Bond yields went from 4.1 percent to 4.8 percent in a month. And that’s on top of the fact that President Biden has been running the largest peacetime deficits in the history of this country.” “So we’ve got a lot of debt, a lot of problems, and a wide open southern border. And thank God that Donald Trump takes office in a week-and-a-half because we need somebody to actually govern this country effectively,” Vance further declared. On the border, Vance promised “dozens of executive orders” immediately to allow Customs and Border Patrol “to do your job again.” “To illegal immigrants all over the world, you are not welcome in this country illegally,” Vance further outlined, adding “if you came into this country illegally, you need to go back home. You need to have basic law enforcement.”
Vance explained that Democrats have been hiding behind having “compassion” for families and not wanting to separate families, using it as an excuse not to crack down on illegal immigration. “It is not compassion to allow the drug cartels to traffic small children,” Vance urged, adding “It is not compassionate to allow the worst people in the world to send minor children, some of them victims of sex trafficking, into our country. That is the real humanitarian crisis at the border. You’re not going to exacerbate it through law enforcement. You’re going to fix it through law enforcement. And that’s what Donald Trump is going to do.” On the economy, Vance emphasised that Biden “has added trillions and trillions of dollars to the federal debt during a time of peace. He has left us with bond yields, meaning how we’re going to finance that debt, we have to sell treasury bonds. And the treasury bonds have gotten more expensive because of Joe Biden’s policies.”
Vice President-elect @JDVance: “I wish Joe Biden all the best but the fact is, he has left us a dumpster fire.” pic.twitter.com/rQHDQjwhb5
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 12, 2025
On the California fires, Vance stated “There is a serious lack of competent governance in California, and I think it’s part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad. We need to do a better job at both the state and federal level.” “President Trump has committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief,” Vance continued, adding “We need competent, good governance. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t criticize the governor of California for I think some very bad decisions over a very long period of time.” “I mean, some of these reservoirs have been dry for 15, 20 years. The fire hydrants are being reported as going dry while the firefighters are trying to put out these fires,” Vance further stated.
British politicians can no longer be trusted to probe themselves. That is a problem. Who are you going to bring in? Maybe Elon Musk has a suggestion. Insert smiley.
• Labour MPs Call For Britain-Wide Probe Into Rape Gangs (RT)
Only a nationwide inquiry into the grooming gangs and the authorities’ handling of the sex-abuse scandal can restore the public trust, a Labour MP for Rotheram and advocate for women and children’s rights, Sarah Champion, has said. The lawmaker, who represents one of Britain’s worst rape hotspots, made the call in a statement on Monday, saying Child sexual abuse has become an “endemic” problem for the UK and must be recognized as a “national priority.” “It is clear that the public distrusts governments and authorities when it comes to preventing and prosecuting child abuse, especially child sexual exploitation,” the MP said. The statement constituted a sharp change in Champion’s stance on a potential inquiry, as the MP appeared to reject the idea just a week ago.
During a debate in the Commons on a Conservative-proposed amendment to a child protection bill that would have set up a national inquiry into the grooming gangs, the MP called for immediate implementation of the recommendations outlined in the 2022 Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse instead. “With the best will in the world – you all know me; I am not making a party-political point – another inquiry will mean another ten years of waiting,” she reasoned at the time. The Tory amendment fell through, getting overwhelmingly rejected by the parliament by 364 votes to 111, with all 411 Labour MPs either voting against it or abstaining. Earlier in the day, Paul Waugh, a Labour MP for another grooming hotspot, Rochdale, had made similar remarks while speaking to BBC News. “I’m not against a national inquiry but it has got to have some key caveats,” the MP said, raising concerns about the victims of the abuse having “to re-experience their trauma every time they explain this” as well as suggesting the probe should “not cut across live police investigations.”
The notorious grooming gangs, primarily involving men of Pakistani origin, have been active in the UK for decades, engaging in the systematic rape torture of vulnerable girls. According to multiple independent inquiries, public authorities have shown a failure to properly investigate the crimes or to bring perpetrators to justice, opting to hide the incidents instead. The long-standing controversy has gained new attention in recent weeks due to criticism from US-based billionaire Elon Musk. Musk has publicly attacked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling for his resignation and prosecution. Starmer served as the head of the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013, during which Musk accused him of inadequately addressing the issue of grooming gangs. In response, Starmer condemned Musk’s statements as “lies and misinformation” and has rejected calls for a new inquiry into the matter.
What a surprise.
• Top Cops Shielded In UK Grooming Gangs Inquiry – Whistleblower (RT)
An inquiry into police failings during the Rotherham grooming scandal in the UK avoided investigating senior officers, focusing instead on junior ranks, despite systemic issues enabling the abuse of over 1,400 young girls, a whistleblower has told The Times newspaper. The ‘grooming gangs’ scandal involves groups of Asian men who, over the past two decades, have raped and abused thousands of underage girls in towns across northern England. Most of the perpetrators were Pakistani men, while the victims were predominantly white British girls. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) led Operation Linden, a seven-year probe into South Yorkshire Police’s handling of child sexual exploitation cases between 1997 and 2013.
The investigation revealed that police frequently failed to file crime reports for serious offenses like rape, neglected to question older men accompanying vulnerable young girls, and treated victims as troublesome rather than vulnerable. Despite this, some officers were cleared of misconduct by filing minimal intelligence reports. The investigation concluded in 2022, identifying leadership failures, lack of training, and cultural issues within the force. However, the whistleblower claims the inquiry was hindered by instructions to avoid examining senior officers’ roles in the scandal. “We were actively told not to pursue senior officers,” the whistleblower told The Times. “It was just largely incompetent. There was just no passion or desire within the IOPC to understand what went wrong in Rotherham and find out why those girls were let down.”
Operation Linden investigated 91 cases, reviewing 265 allegations from 51 complainants. Of 47 officers examined, eight were found to have committed misconduct and six faced charges of gross misconduct. Yet, the most severe punishments issued were written warnings or “management advice.” No officer lost their job, and the highest-ranked individual investigated was a detective inspector. The whistleblower criticized the limited scope of the inquiry, recalling that it was “very clear not only that there were force-wide systemic problems but problems in other parts of the country. I don’t think the failings have been truly properly investigated.” In response, the IOPC has defended its work, emphasizing the thoroughness of its investigations and the adoption of its recommendations by police. “Our priority was the welfare of survivors, who showed incredible bravery in coming forward,” an IOPC spokesperson said. The watchdog noted that its findings prompted measures to improve victim care and enhance officers’ capabilities to handle child sexual exploitation cases.
“How many of them lost absolutely everything, including the possibility of a future?”
• Climate Jeezus Taketh Away (Kunstler)
[..] you must wonder what is happening to those tens of thousands of displaced persons and families right now? How many of them are sleeping out on their smoldering properties, or in their cars, or just shivering on a sidewalk somewhere. It does not seem possible that they all found a place to go, certainly not at their neighbors’ houses, who were all burnt-out, too. . . and there are just so many hotel rooms not occupied by “the undocumented.” Anyway, how many families can stay in hotel rooms that go for $1,000-a-night, and for how many nights? How many of them lost absolutely everything, including the possibility of a future? Which gets you to the realization that we have barely begun to see the knock-on effects of this catastrophe. Those tens of thousands of the burnt-out will not be reporting to work anytime soon.
They will have all they can do to find a roof over their heads while they hassle with FEMA officials, State of California bureaucrats, insurance company claims agents, and other “helpers.” The rebuilding quandaries have already been rehearsed in the news. Even if politicians suspended all the building and zoning codes, and the tax issues, where will so many contractors come from in any reasonable time-frame? And where do you put all that melted plastic goop and toxic ash that remains on-the-ground where peoples’ lives used to be? If you lost a house valued at $5-million, it will cost you at least $10-million to replace it. Good luck, even if you were a mid-level movie star. Of course, if your insurance got cancelled lately — or you just didn’t have any because it cost too much — then there is zero chance you will get to even fantasize about living in the hills above Malibu ever again. And that job you’re not able to go to right now due to the pressing needs of sheer survival on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. . . you might never go to that job again. The business you worked for might not be there anymore, either.
If there was ever a proverbial last-grain-of-sand-in-a-landslide, the Great 2025 Los Angeles Fire must be a sure thing vis-a-vis the US economy, especially the financial side of it. An awful lot of homeowners will not be paying their mortgages on a smoldering empty lot. The banks are not in super-fabulous condition these days. How many loans-gone-bad will it take to wreck already unstable banks? And, by the way, the collateral isn’t even there anymore. The re-po man is out of the picture. What happens to the insurance companies? And the re-insurance companies who theoretically stand behind the insurers? I’ll tell you what happens: they will be backstopped by the government, which doesn’t have the money to backstop them. . . but will create it out of pixels on screens. . . which means expect a considerable uptick in inflation (i.e., a downtick in the purchasing power of the dollar), which will be a black eye for the new Trump administration. How does all this thunder through the US economy as a whole?
Does it still have any value?
• Washington Post Web Traffic Plummets Nearly 90% (RT)
The Washington Post’s web traffic has cratered over the past four years, with daily active users dropping from a high of 22.5 million in January 2021 when outgoing President Joe Biden took office, to around 2.5-3 million by the middle of 2024, according to internal data shared with news website Semafor. Internal financial and editorial struggles are rampant at the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet, according to various reports, with the paper’s rivals poaching talent, ad revenue falling dramatically, and layoffs on the horizon. In April last year, the Washington City Paper reported that the nosedive in the Post’s traffic was so staggering that the paper stopped sharing its traffic information publicly. An ‘Audience & Traffic’ tag on the website, which had been regularly updated for years, has not been updated since January 2023.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Post’s advertising revenue fell from $190 million in 2023 to $174 million in 2024. Leaders at the paper are “struggling to convince staff that they have a clear editorial vision and continuing commitment to hard-hitting journalism” and rivals have poached top talent, with more exits on the way, the WSJ said, citing over a dozen insiders. The reader exodus gathered steam in October last year, when Bezos decided to withhold an expected endorsement of outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential election against now-President-elect Donald Trump. In an op-ed, Bezos argued that endorsements from newspapers “do nothing to tip the scales in an election,” and “create a perception of bias.”
The move backfired, however, resulting in a reported 250,000 canceled subscriptions just weeks before election day, or about 10% of the Post’s 2.5 million paid subscribers, according to NPR. Last week, the Post announced it was laying off around 4% of its staff. The cuts will affect nearly 100 workers in the paper’s business division, including sales and marketing, as well as its IT units, it said. The job cuts are “all in service of our greater goal to best position The Post for the future,” the paper’s statement said.
“Musk apologized on X for SoCal customers who won’t be taking their expected Cybertruck deliveries this week, but those trucks got drafted into service.”
• Ugly Trucks to the Rescue! (PJM)
You’re hot. You’re starving and thirsty. You’ve just lost everything to one of the number of wildfires sweeping through Los Angeles and you can’t even call for help or let your sister in Poughkeepsie know you’re OK because the cell service is down. You’re about as weary and frustrated as a human being can be. Just as you’re about to give up hope, like all ye who enter Los Angeles, a small fleet of the world’s ugliest truck comes into view, bearing gifts of food, drink, and internet connectivity. Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk ordered his company’s Cybertrucks into action, equipped with all the goodies they can carry — including SpaceX (another company he heads up) Starlink satellite internet transceivers. Musk apologized on X for SoCal customers who won’t be taking their expected Cybertruck deliveries this week, but those trucks got drafted into service.
Unbeknownst to me until I started gathering links, Tesla is also delivering Mobile Powerwall Units (MPUs) to parts of L.A. without power. Powerwalls are the giant batteries that come with Tesla solar home solar panels. The mobile versions can be loaded on trucks — fully charged, of course — to bring power wherever it’s needed. I don’t even like Tesla, but what it’s doing in L.A. makes that an increasingly untenable position. So you grab a protein bar and a bottle of water, plug your phone into the MPU, and borrow Starlink’s WiFi to let Little Sis in Poughkeepsie know you’re all right. “Some parts of America still work,” Glenn Reynolds likes to remind readers at Instapundit, and it would be shocking had it not become so routine how many of those parts are connected to Musk. But that’s only a part of what I want to discuss in this column.
[..] When it comes to natural disasters, there are three steps (broadly speaking) that competent leadership takes:
1) Prepare in advance to mitigate the potential effects of the disaster
2) React decisively and competently to mitigate the actual effects.
3) Get and stay the hell out of the way of people who would rebuild after the disaster.California generally and Los Angeles particularly failed spectacularly on Steps 1. and 2. [..] Gov. Gavin Newsom claims that he’s taken action on Step 3. but… well…he doesn’t exactly make your heart swell with hope, does he? Thank goodness then for private individuals with the basic competence that Newsom and Bass lack, even though a huge company like Tesla can’t come anywhere close to matching the resources Washington and California can muster. So let’s go back to Tesla’s relief effort. It’s said that scotch is an acquired taste and, if so, I acquired it the first time I tasted it. The same might be said about Tesla’s polarizing Cybertruck, which people seem to love or hate based largely on its looks. While I appreciate that Tesla thought outside the box — waaaaay outside the box — designing Cybertruck, I still wince every time I see one. But you know what? Cybertruck is growing on me with today’s news.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1878861254267486611
— Doglover (@puppiesDoglover) January 13, 2025
Leaves
— Doglover (@puppiesDoglover) January 12, 2025
Drive in
— Doglover (@puppiesDoglover) January 12, 2025
If it fits
If it fits it sits
pic.twitter.com/p2lxqeCndO— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) January 13, 2025
Fish
https://twitter.com/i/status/1878712173964492991
I wish I could swim
https://twitter.com/i/status/1878889565626450026
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
