The Automatic Earth

Andy Warhol Judy Garland 1978

Macgregor

FACTS: NATO Members are now openly discussing war plans against Russia.

Poland has indicated they are going to enter Ukraine regardless of what the NATO alliance says.

We are on the path to war and we are in the hands of a man, [Joe Biden] who is not entirely stable. pic.twitter.com/e29SQ17Ezd

— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) July 28, 2023

Hannity

Rep. James Comer highlights Hunter Biden laundering millions of dollars through 20 shell companies while operating as an unregistered foreign agent and 6 banks filing over 170 suspicious activity reports with the Treasury, accusing him of money laundering and human trafficking.… pic.twitter.com/925hGc0oOD

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) July 27, 2023

Comer Cruz

BREAKING REPORT: 6 banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, submitted more than 170 suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Department alleging BIDEN FAMILY INVOLVEMENT in money laundering, human trafficking, and tax fraud..

pic.twitter.com/bVGqMU4eQW

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) July 27, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

A stalemate is when both parties can’t move…

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

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

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

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

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

Putin

President Putin said that the West did not allow fertilizers blocked in Europe to be sent free of charge from the Russian Federation to the poorest countries, called their “concern” about Africa on their part empty talk

“Well, someone does not want Russia, as some say, to get… pic.twitter.com/aIHq5Ug3vW

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) July 27, 2023

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

They all like this as opaque as can be.

• Ukrainian Corruption Threatens US Assistance (RT)

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

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

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

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

Read more …

Fits the EU.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

Jesse Watters contends that those who deny the evidence of Joe Biden's involvement in Hunter's unregistered foreign lobbying, money laundering, and influence peddling scheme are intentionally avoiding reviewing the laptop, listening to whistleblowers, reading the FBI informant… pic.twitter.com/Ajc76ALhoh

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) July 28, 2023

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

FARA.

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

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

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

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

Read more …

The cleaning lady?

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

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

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

Read more …

Meanwhile, Putin is building.

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

Kings

The Kingspic.twitter.com/jVTDZgMmn2

— Figen (@TheFigen_) July 27, 2023

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

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