Germany Archives - The Automatic Earth

The real reason for the recent CDC resignations is that the ACIP Subcommittee on COVID 19 vaccines got approval to investigate the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines, and they knew the gig was up, the truth was about to come out, and they would have to account for their…

— Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) August 31, 2025

Gates

A major purge is underway at the White House, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. firing dozens of Bill Gates-connected officials from CDC, HHS, and NIH to dismantle a corrupt biomedical regime influenced by Gates. CDC Director Susan Monarez was dismissed for insubordination after… pic.twitter.com/qxmuTsezcL

— ꪻꫝể ꪻꫝể (@TheThe1776) August 30, 2025

Ladapo

Dr. Ladapo is brilliantly articulate – as usual. https://t.co/6UN7d3wXuh

— Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) August 30, 2025

A bit over the top, perhaps?

• Are the End Times Upon Us? (Paul Craig Robets)

A 23 year old transgender freak fired into a church killing two children and wounding many. The concern expressed by Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis? “The shooting should not be an excuse for people to direct hate at our trans community.” The unexamined question is why did random shootings of strangers appear for the first time in 1966? There was no such thing in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. At Georgia Tech students had guns in their dorm rooms and fraternity houses. At UVa students had guns and whiskey in their dorm rooms. No one was shot. Today guns are prohibited on campuses, and there are constant shootings that have spread to work places, shopping malls, and churches.

Clearly, something has changed to cause behavior, which my generation never would have considered, to become increasingly common. What is the cause? Is it the endless number of vaccinations? The antidepressants needed? My generation did not have the vaccinations and antidepressants and did not need them. Is it the distancing from God caused by endless liberal attacks on Christianity? Is it the milieu of hatred created by endless denunciations? Is it the lack of restraint and self-control that modern child raising produces? It doesn’t help to understand what has happened to blame guns. Karl Marx would scoff at the reification of inanimate objects by liberals. As long as causes, such as gun control, use the shootings for their agenda, we will not obtain insight into what has produced a 23 year old person who can fire away at children in a church.

The replacement of moral and responsible behavior with irrational murder for no visible purpose desperately needs explanation. Has Satan taken over, thereby removing morality as a constraint on imperfect humans? This is an interesting question. Is it a question of pills, vaccinations, broken homes, the 2nd Amendment, or any other stock explanation, or are we, weakened as we are by the decline in religious belief, faced with the triumph of evil over good? Watching the world’s indifference to the Israeli extermination of the Palestinian people, has Satan decided that now is his time? Has Satan made a good decision? Is there any moral strength anywhere in the world capable of resisting Evil? Where is the effort to abolish nuclear weapons which can abolish Earth? Is the traditional alliance of Israel with Satan taking us into The End Times?

“The replacement fertility rate is generally set at 2.1 children per woman [..] ..this level may be insufficient, pointing to a long-term survival threshold closer to 2.7 children per woman.

• Europe Could ‘Die Out’ – Musk (RT)

Europe could “die out” unless it fixes its demographic problems by boosting birth rates, tech billionaire Elon Musk has warned. In a post on X on Saturday, Musk was responding to statistics from Scotland showing 34% more deaths than births in the first half of 2025. “Unless the birth rate at least gets back to replacement rate, Europe will die out,” he wrote, referring to the average number of children needed per couple for a population to replace itself. The replacement fertility rate is generally set at 2.1 children per woman, accounting for child mortality and near-equal gender ratios at birth. Recent studies, however, suggest that this level may be insufficient, pointing to a long-term survival threshold closer to 2.7 children per woman.

Unless the birth rate at least gets back to replacement rate, Europe will die out https://t.co/0COU5Zj9QM

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2025

According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, the fertility rate in England and Wales fell to 1.4 in 2024, while Scotland’s stood at 1.3 – both far below replacement levels. In the EU, fertility has been declining for years, reaching a record low of 1.4 live births per woman in 2023. Musk, a vocal advocate for higher birth rates who has fathered at least 14 children and donated millions to fertility research, has often raised the alarm over the demographic decline in Europe. His warnings, however, extend beyond Europe. Musk has cited global demographic data, claiming that civilization “is going to crumble” unless birth rates rise. He previously argued that population collapse due to low fertility “is a much bigger risk to civilization” than climate change.

Either Europe starts having large families or it will keep dying https://t.co/UNX72ZRn98

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2025

Worldwide, fertility has been falling for over 50 years. UN data shows it stood at around 2.2 births per woman in 2024, down from 5 in the 1970s and 3.3 in the 1990s. Only 45% of countries and areas – home to roughly a third of the global population – reported fertility levels at or above 2.1 last year. Just 13% had fertility rates of 4.0 or higher, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Yemen. Falling birth rates and population decline have also become a pressing issue for Russia, with Rosstat recording just 1.2 million births in 2024 – the lowest since 1999 – reflecting a fertility rate of 1.4.

“Ukraine has long turned into a testing ground for Western weapons. There are more than enough examples.”

• Zelensky Threatens ‘New Deep Strikes’ Into Russia (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has threatened new strikes into Russia, days after claiming that Kiev possessed a brand-new long-range missile capable of reaching Moscow. Zelensky wrote on Telegram that he had been briefed by Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, on the current battlefield situation. “We will continue our active actions exactly as needed to protect Ukraine. Forces and means are prepared. New deep strikes have also been planned,” he said on Sunday, without providing further details. Earlier this month, Zelensky claimed Ukraine had developed the long-range Flamingo missile with a reported range of 3,000 kilometers – which would be enough to reach not only Moscow but also Russian cities beyond the Ural mountains. The Ukrainian leader, however, said that mass production is not expected for the next several months.

British media outlets cast doubts on whether the Flamingo was developed in Ukraine, noting similarities with the FP-5 cruise missile produced by the UK-based Milanion Group and unveiled at an arms expo in Abu Dhabi this year. The UK has also been supportive of Kiev’s long-range strikes, having provided it with Storm Shadow missiles in the past. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that there is “nothing surprising” in the similarities, adding that “Ukraine has long turned into a testing ground for Western weapons. There are more than enough examples.” On Friday, the Kyiv Independent also reported that Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched an investigation into Fire Point, the defense firm linked to the development of the Flamingo missile, after reports it misled the government on pricing and deliveries.

Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that the US had blocked Ukraine from carrying out strikes deep inside Russian territory. Throughout the conflict, some of Kiev’s Western backers have been wary of authorizing unrestricted strikes into Russia using Western-supplied weapons, citing concerns over escalation with Moscow. Ukraine has regularly carried out long-range attacks inside Russia, which Moscow says frequently hit civilian areas and critical infrastructure. Russia has retaliated with strikes on Ukrainian military-related facilities and defense enterprises but maintains that it never targets civilians.

“..in stark contrast to the approach pursued” by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

• European ‘War Party’ Hindering Ukraine Peace Process – Kremlin (RT)

The European “war party” is trying to sabotage the diplomatic process launched by the US and Russia to end the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He added that this approach contradicts the efforts of US President Donald Trump. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have for months floated the idea of sending a joint military contingent to Ukraine in a so-called peacekeeping capacity if Kiev and Moscow reach a truce or peace deal. Moscow has strongly opposed the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine in any role. On Sunday, Peskov said the stance of the “European war party” is “in stark contrast to the approach pursued” by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Europeans are hindering the [peace] efforts,” as part of their strategy to “contain” Russia, the Kremlin spokesperson told journalists. He added that certain NATO member states have been encouraging Ukraine to refuse to negotiate with Russia in good faith – a strategy that “will do no good to the Kiev regime.” “Russia is still ready to settle the [conflict] by political-diplomatic means,” Peskov said, but Kiev has to show reciprocity for the hostilities to end. Last weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that European nations “don’t want peace” in Ukraine, citing their reaction to the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska earlier this month.

Last week, speaking to reporters after a follow-up meeting between the US president and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, as well as several European leaders at the White House, Macron insisted that Europe “will need to help Ukraine with boots on the ground.” Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Romania, and Croatia have ruled out taking part in the mission. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a significant proportion of the EU population is “opposed to any deployment that places troops in harm’s way.”

“..Trump’s stance put a halt to Berlin’s discussions about deployment “until further notice.”

• Germany Gives Up On Idea Of Sending Troops To Ukraine – Bild (RT)

Berlin has shelved plans to possibly deploy German soldiers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, Bild reported on Sunday, citing government sources. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had earlier signaled openness to Berlin joining a possible peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. The idea had been floated by the so-called “coalition of the willing” – a group of Western states pushing for continued aid to Kiev. The group has proposed deploying NATO troops to monitor a potential future ceasefire with Russia as part of security guarantees for Ukraine, despite Moscow’s consistent rejection of any Western military presence in Ukraine under any guise. Trump, however, said last week that American troops would not be deployed to Ukraine, insisting that the EU should “front load” security guarantees for Kiev, not the US, including with regard to peacekeepers.

According to Bild, Trump’s stance put a halt to Berlin’s discussions about deployment “until further notice.” Sources told the outlet the idea could return “should Trump take action” or once Moscow and Kiev reach a settlement. In an interview with ZDF on Sunday, Merz confirmed the U-turn, saying “nobody is talking about ground troops at this point” and indicating discussions could resume once a ceasefire is in place. Instead, Germany reportedly plans to provide financial security guarantees to Ukraine. Sources claimed Berlin intends for the Bundeswehr to continue training Ukrainian soldiers, expand weapons production in Ukraine with German arms firms, and potentially cover part of Ukrainian soldiers’ salaries after a ceasefire to ensure Kiev maintains sufficient forces.

Kiev has demanded security guarantees from Western backers as a precondition for a peace deal. Moscow has not ruled out such guarantees in principle but rejects efforts made without its participation. It has also opposed any Western troop presence in Ukraine, stressing that NATO’s expansion toward its borders was one of the key causes of the conflict. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that guarantees must be the result of a settlement, not a precondition, and must take into account Russia’s security. She added that any deal should ensure Ukraine’s demilitarization, denazification, neutral and non-nuclear status, and recognition of territorial realities.

“He knew the true sponsors and curators. He knew which political figures, which structures, which financial backers prepared and paid for the bloody upheaval.”

• The Assassination of One of The Founders Of Zelensky’s Ukraine (Romanenko)

All of Ukraine’s political elite will loudly point to Moscow as the hand behind the murder of former parliamentary speaker Andrey Parubiy. They will cry out in public that Russia is to blame, repeating the same narrative of the “Russian trace.” But in private, they all know the truth: it was his own people that came for him.

The idea that Parubiy was eliminated by the authorities themselves, while sounding outrageous to some, is a version that carries weight, even if many prefer not to believe it. Why? Because Parubiy was one of the few men in Ukraine who truly knew how to build a Maidan. He had organized the barricades in 2014, commanded the Maidan “self-defense,” and knew every method of bringing people into the streets and holding them there against state power. His reputation came from exactly this talent. And in today’s Ukraine, the possibility of another Maidan is very real. For those in power, such a possibility is dangerous, and removing the man who could light the match makes a grim kind of sense.

But there is another explanation, one far darker and one in which almost everyone believes, even if few Ukrainians will say so out loud. Parubiy carried too many secrets – and in Ukraine, secrets can be fatal. He knew far too much about the real shooters on the Maidan in February 2014. As “commandant,” he oversaw the units who guarded the square, and he was positioned to see what others could not. He knew what really happened when the snipers opened fire, when the bloodbath claimed lives and forced Yanukovich to flee. He knew names, structures, and the chain of command. That knowledge made him dangerous.

He also knew the truth about Odessa, May 2, 2014 – the day the Trade Union House went up in flames and dozens of anti-Maidan activists died. International monitors called it a massacre, but the state buried accountability. Parubiy, as head of the National Security and Defense Council at the time, was in the middle of it all. He saw who gave the orders, who turned away, who allowed the fire to consume the building. Those responsible never faced justice, and Parubiy carried the story inside his head. He knew the full picture of the early days in Donbass, when provocations, manipulations, and engineered violence pushed Ukraine into a war against its own people. He knew the true sponsors and curators. He knew which political figures, which structures, which financial backers prepared and paid for the bloody upheaval. All of this knowledge made him a threat not to Russia, but to those much closer: the networks who had built their power in those years and who now sit on fragile foundations.

For them, Parubiy, – a close ally of former President Pyotr Poroshenko, beaten by Vladimir Zelensky in 2019 – was no longer an asset. He was a liability. And in the brutal logic of power, liabilities are erased. This is why his assassination looks less like an act of foreign aggression and more like an act of internal housecleaning. It was a calculated decision to tidy up loose ends, to remove a man who could, at any moment, destabilize the whole system by speaking truths that were never meant to surface. His silence was demanded, and silence was achieved.

“Andriy Parubiy knew a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine. Andriy Parubiy is dead now. Volodymyr Zelenskyy knows a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine.”

• Someone Killed Victoria Nulands’ Former 2014 Maidan Point of Contact (CTH)

Previously Chairman, now serving as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Andriy Parubiy was shot several times with a short-barreled firearm, police said. Parubiy died on the spot. The perpetrator, who fled the scene and has not yet been identified, was “thoroughly prepared” according to local authorities. Andriy Parubiy was the primary Ukrainian political activist during Victoria Nuland’s organized Maidan revolution. In common parlance, this assassination might be considered throwing a bag over a potential risk. Remember, CNN is to the State Dept as the Washington Post is to the CIA.

(VIA CNN) – […] Parubiy participated in 2004’s Orange Revolution, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians joined in peaceful protest following disputed elections. He was also a prominent figure in the Maidan Revolution, a movement which began in November 2013 after then-President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign a trade pact with the European Union that had been years in the making, opting instead for closer ties with neighboring Russia. During the revolution, which lasted three months, Parubiy was the head of an enormous tent city established by thousands of protesters in Kyiv’s central Independence Square, known as the Maidan.

He was later the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council during 2014. In 2019, Parubiy signed a bill to make the use of the Ukrainian language mandatory in certain public sectors, calling it a “historic day.” Long ago, the opposition elements in eastern Ukraine labeled Parubiy a ‘nazi’ and accused him of working in collaboration with U.S. intelligence (CIA).

Andriy Parubiy knew a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine. Andriy Parubiy is dead now. Volodymyr Zelenskyy knows a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine.

“..it was the Moldovan diaspora in Western Europe that tipped the balance. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia were effectively sidelined..”

• EU Elites Hijacked Moldova’s Independence (Ibragimov)

On August 27, Chisinau turned into a stage for a geopolitical spectacle. To mark the country’s 34th Independence Day, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, and Donald Tusk flew in for the celebrations. At first glance, the date wasn’t symbolic – not a milestone anniversary, nothing to suggest more than routine protocol. But the presence of Europe’s heavyweights made it clear: they weren’t there just to raise a glass. Their message was unmistakable – Moldova’s path must remain firmly European, and the door to Moscow must stay shut. The timing was no accident either. In less than a month, Moldovans will vote in parliamentary elections that could decide whether the ruling party manages to hold onto power.

That’s why the visit was less about congratulating the country and more about sending a signal: Brussels stands squarely behind Maia Sandu’s government and is determined to keep a tight grip on the direction of Moldova’s foreign policy. The speeches in Chisinau read less like polite congratulations and more like marching orders. Macron spoke of “friendship, solidarity, and confidence in our shared future.” Tusk declared that “Europe will be stronger with Moldova” and praised the country’s “values and resilience.” Merz, for his part, assured the crowd that “Germany, France, and Poland stand with a free and European Moldova.” Translated from diplomatic niceties, the message was blunt: Brussels sees Moldova as part of its buffer zone – and it’s prepared to squeeze until any attempt to restore ties with Russia becomes political suicide.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of a decisive vote. On September 28, Moldovans head to the polls in parliamentary elections that could reshape the country’s politics for years. The ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) is at real risk of losing its majority. That’s why Independence Day was staged as a dress rehearsal for the campaign: photo ops with European leaders, warnings about “hybrid threats,” and promises of support from Brussels. The goal was clear – to lock the country into a narrative of “Europe or chaos,” leaving no room for pragmatic recalibration or any attempt at balancing ties with Moscow.

Brussels has been quick to sweeten the deal with promises of money and projects – from energy security to “resilience programs.” The sums and instruments are already being touted publicly. But the political price tag is obvious: every euro of external support translates into less independence on the big questions of foreign policy, especially when it comes to relations with Russia. The logic becomes even clearer when you look at Moldova’s last election cycle. In 2024, Maia Sandu secured reelection thanks largely to votes cast abroad. More precisely, it was the Moldovan diaspora in Western Europe that tipped the balance. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia were effectively sidelined – their access to polling stations and ballots was severely restricted.

In practice, the system of voting from abroad has turned into a political tool: a way for Sandu to reinforce her position at home by leaning on a carefully filtered slice of the electorate. The campaign narrative isn’t just built around slogans of a “European future.” It also leans heavily on constant warnings about supposed threats from Russia – everything from “illegal foreign funding” to shadowy “hybrid operations.” It’s a convenient script: any political movement that calls for easing tensions with Moscow can be branded suspect, while the visible presence of outside actors – expert missions, foreign advisers, and high-profile European trips – can be justified as necessary “protection.” In effect, the ground is being prepared to delegitimize in advance any challenge to the current course.

He’s up for a confidence vote in a week. That works like a truth serum.

• French PM Admits Debt Will Devastate Next Generation (RT)

France has saddled the younger generations with debts they’ll be paying off their entire lives, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has said. Paris continuously borrows in the interest of “boomers” and “certain political parties,” he added. On Monday, Bayrou said he urged President Emmanuel Macron to reconvene parliament by September 8 for a confidence vote to gauge support for his €43.8 billion ($50.9 billion) austerity measures plan. The prime minister has long sounded the alarm over the country’s spiraling budget deficit, which hit 5.8% of GDP last year – almost double the EU 3% ceiling. The primary victims of the government debt will be the “youngest French people,” Bayrou said in an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday.

“They’re the victims; they’re the ones who will have to pay the debt for the rest of their lives,” he said, adding that Paris is trying to convince them that more borrowing is needed. “All this for the comfort of certain political parties and for the comfort of the so-called boomers.” His proposals to battle France’s $3.98 billion government debt have included scrapping public holidays, slashing public sector jobs, as well as welfare and pensions cuts. The program has been criticized by left-wing parties, who have accused Paris of prioritizing military spending over social welfare. Macron has promised to increase France’s military budget to €64 billion by 2027, citing external threats.

Paris has warned of a potential war scenario within the next five years, naming Russia as one of the principal threats – claims which Moscow has dismissed. Bayrou’s proposed budget has not been well received by the French public, polls suggest. While most French people agree with the prime minister’s alarmism about the national debt, 76% believe his budget will not help, and 82% see it as socially unfair, according to an Elabe survey from Tuesday. Around 81% want a new prime minister to be elected, and 67% called for Macron’s resignation, according to Elabe’s poll. Nearly three-quarters say they want Bayrou to fail in the vote on September 8, which is to be his ninth no-confidence motion.

“.. the bloc has not imposed “a single measure” against Israel, contrasting it with the bloc’s unity in sanctioning Russia..”

• Germany Blocks EU Sanctions On Israel (RT)

Germany has blocked the European Commission’s latest proposal to sanction Israel over the war in Gaza, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said. Israel has faced growing backlash over its conduct in the conflict, accused of allowing almost no aid into the enclave. Several Western states have announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state, and in some cases, scale back military and trade cooperation with Israel. The European Commission last week proposed suspending Israel’s participation in the Horizon Europe research program, cutting off funding for Israeli start-ups in drone technology, cybersecurity, and AI. This was intended to pressure Israel to improve humanitarian aid deliveries, according to a draft resolution.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday, Wadephul said Germany rejected the plan, as it was “not convinced” that curbing Israel’s access to EU research funds would influence its military action. Instead, he noted that Berlin has already restricted the delivery of weapons that can be used in Gaza, suggesting Brussels should focus on similar steps. “I believe this is a very targeted measure, one that is very important and very necessary,” he said. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged on Saturday that the bloc is divided on the issue, and that she is “not very optimistic” that ministers will reach an agreement soon, even though it does not require full unanimity. She added that some states want stronger economic pressure.

Denmark, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, recently signaled support for tougher sanctions, such as suspending trade with Israel. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and his Slovenian counterpart, Tanja Fajon, have condemned the EU’s inaction over Gaza. Fajon told Bloomberg this week that the bloc has not imposed “a single measure” against Israel, contrasting it with the bloc’s unity in sanctioning Russia over the Ukraine conflict. The Gaza conflict began in 2023 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 61,000 people in the enclave. A UN-backed panel earlier this month declared that there is a famine in northern Gaza, with over half a million people on the brink of starvation.

We know in advance.

• Germany Reveals Most Popular Names Among Welfare Recipients (RT)

‘Mohammed’ and ‘Ahmad’ are among the most common names of welfare recipients in Germany, according to newly revised figures released by the federal government. ‘Olena’, a Ukrainian variant of Helen, is the only female name in the top ten. Germany’s unemployment rate reached 6.4% in August, with the total number of jobless people exceeding 3 million for the first time in a decade. According to Federal Employment Agency data, 5.42 million people were receiving welfare benefits at the end of 2024 – of which 48% were foreigners, compared to 19.6% in 2010. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had requested information on the most common first names of recipients to support its argument about the failure of integration.

In June, the Labor Ministry replied that the leading names were ‘Michael’, ‘Andreas’, and ‘Thomas’, followed by ‘Daniel’, ‘Olena’, and ‘Alexander’ – prompting media ridicule of the AfD. However, the initial list did not combine different spellings of names, such as ‘Thomas’ and ‘Tomas’, ‘Mohammed’ and ‘Mohamed’, listing them separately. The revised data placed ‘Mohammed’ – spread across 19 spellings – in first place with nearly 40,000 entries, followed by ‘Michael’ with around 24,600 and ‘Ahmad’ with more than 20,600. ‘Olena’ remained the only female name among the top ten, with around 14,200 entries. Germany is the EU’s top migrant destination and the world’s third-largest refugee-hosting country, according to UN data.

Under former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-border policies, more than a million people arrived from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq during the 2015 migrant influx. In recent years, the country has granted temporary protection to 1.2 million Ukrainians and received 334,000 asylum applications in 2023, nearly a third of the EU total. The migrant crisis has strained housing, public services and finances, contributing to the rise of the AfD, which has recently led national polls as Germany’s most popular political party. The AfD came in second in February’s federal election with 152 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag, but was excluded from coalition talks. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) has designated the AfD a “confirmed extremist entity.” While that classification was temporarily suspended, senior officials have continued to seek legal grounds to pursue a formal ban of the party.

“Go back a few years to her messy confirmation battle and you will see how Cook is anything but apolitical.”

• Lisa Cook and the Fed’s Mission Creep Into Wokeness (Gasparino)

Fed Governor Lisa Cook is standing up to Donald Trump, suing to keep her job because she says the president is trumping up a scandal and she’s fighting for Fed independence. Trump has called for Cook’s head for allegedly committing mortgage fraud by signing documents that she had two primary residences. We should let the courts decide that one. But Cook’s notion that she’s standing up for the sanctity of the Fed should be taken with a grain of salt. The Fed has long been distracted by side hustles to its “dual mandate” of price stability within the context of maximum employment. It’s far from an apolitical agency. Even more, Cook’s own appointment by Joe Biden in 2022 is an example of how politics, particularly of the left-wing variety, has been infused into the Fed’s plumbing. In getting rid of Cook, you can make the case that Trump — in his own messy way — is righting the ship.

The markets may be signaling this — despite media talking heads and those of some Fed watchers exploding over Trump’s latest alleged apostasy. The establishment commentariat is arguing that not being able to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell or even Cook except for some on-the-job crime, aka cause — is why people keep buying our debt. The nation’s central bank created by Congress to manage the money supply doesn’t report to the president. It’s not subject to his political whims to juice economic growth at the expense of “King Dollar.” OK, all good points. But stocks and bond yields have barely budged. The stated reasons in a recent Wall Street Journal piece: Traders believe Trump will appoint seasoned pros to fill the jobs of both Cook and his main Fed nemesis, Powell. Yes, but my sources provide a more prescient analysis of the market’s insouciance: Trump is merely putting his MAGA stamp on the independence charade.

Many big investors are unfazed by Trump’s power grab because for years the Fed has been straying from its mandate — constantly intervening in the economy by playing with the money supply when it isn’t needed and most recently becoming woke. Lisa Cook’s nomination in 2022, subsequent confirmation by the then Democrat-controlled and woke-obsessed Senate is part of the proof. Don’t believe me? Here’s what Larry Summers, Bill Clinton s former treasury secretary, former Harvard president and one of the most important economic minds on monetary policy said in 2021 about the Fed’s mission-creep: “We have a generation of central bankers who are defining themselves by their wokeness. They’re defining themselves by how socially concerned they are. They re defining themselves how concerned they are about the environment… business ethics.

In 2022, the Fed developed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan to reflect the Federal Reserve Boar’s strategic initiative on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is a shared responsibility of all Board employees. Now tell me exactly how DEI, which the Supreme Court says is discriminatory and common sense tells you erodes the nation’s meritocracy, helps the Fed figure out if it’s stoking inflation as it did just a few years ago during Joe Biden’s reign of error? Or maybe I should be directing that question to Lisa Cook. Her lawyer argued Friday before a federal judge that her firing by Trump is “unprecedented and illegal” in that it exceeds the president’s authority over an independent, nonpolitical agency. Go back a few years to her messy confirmation battle and you will see how Cook is anything but apolitical.

Yes, she has a Ph.D. in econ, from Berkeley no less, and was a longtime academic. She is the first African-American woman to serve as a Fed governor, which should be celebrated. But during the hearings we discovered that her areas of interest in economics, based on her publishing record, are dominated by stuff like how lynchings hindered the economic growth of black Americans. There is a place for such research at the university — though you gotta ask yourself why we need an economist to explain something so fundamentally obvious. Look into Cook’s résumé and you see this is an economist who seems more obsessed with being a social-justice warrior than weighing the vicissitudes of M2 and how it impacts price stability.

“..he’s put the funk into dysfunction.”

• Gavin Newsom Comes for Sen. Kennedy in Crime Debate (RS)

One of the tactics Gavin Newsom has used over the last several weeks to try and get the upper hand in the crime debate is using misleading and, in some cases, false crime data impressions in an attempt to make the case that red states have bigger crime issues than California, while proclaiming crime in California’s biggest blue cities is allegedly down by double digits. A frequent target for Newsom and his Baghdad Bob School of Communications graduates has been Louisiana, not just because it’s a red state but also because it’s home to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). In a recent interview with left-wing YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, for instance, Newsom said, “I think [President Trump] should start with Shreveport, Louisiana, and Speaker Johnson’s district, that has six-plus times the per capita murder rate of Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco. What about the carnage, Mr. President, in Shreveport? Why aren’t you protecting the folks there?”

As usual, however, Newsom – and his handlers – were way off the mark. The vast majority of Shreveport is in Rep. Cleo Fields’ district. He’s a Democrat. As we’ve also reported, Sen John Kennedy (R-LA) has had a lot to say about Newsom’s seeming “conversion” to crimefighter, something Kennedy instinctively understands has everything to do with the Trump Effect, where Newsom has been shamed at the national level by the POTUS into taking action. “Now you don’t have to be a senior at Caltech to know that [Newsom’s law enforcement surge is] in response to the Trump administration’s threat to send in federal law enforcement officials,” Kennedy stated Friday during a Fox News segment. “But look, I’ll take it, if that’s what it takes to get Gov. Newsom to stop being a princess, I’ll take that, too.”

Sen John Kennedy: Newsom Put The Funk Into Dysfunction

"I've watched Governor Newsom for years and to quote one of my favorite columnists, he's put the funk into dysfunction. Every year that he's been governor, crime and violence has gotten worse in California. Why? Because… pic.twitter.com/pUFbamtRcd

— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) August 29, 2025

Newsom, in turn, filed a hurt feelings report over being called a princess, responding to a tweet from Kennedy by claiming without evidence that, “We’ve been doing this work for years. Perhaps you should take a page out of our book. Your state’s homicide rate is 380% higher than California’s.” Naturally, Kennedy – who has previously referred to Newsom as a “weenie” – has responded accordingly to Newsom’s attacks on his state as only he can: ‘I welcome help. I welcome federal help. I welcome more state help. I welcome local help. Come on down. Look, I’ve watched Gov. Newsom for years, and to quote one of my favorite columnists, he’s put the funk into dysfunction. Every year that he’s been governor, crime and violence has gotten worse in California. Why? Because Gov. Newsom is a member of the socialist wing of his party. Because Gov. Newsom has refused to get up off his ice-cold, lazy butt and do something about it.

Because Gov. Newsom thinks that talking about crime – he’s only doing it under pressure – is racist, because he thinks that cops are a bigger problem than criminals. But I wanna give him credit, maybe he’s had a conversion, but he’s doing the right thing by sending in California state police. And, you know, even a blind chicken finds a mealworm now and then.”

“..he’s thrown at least $24 billion at homelessness programs with nothing to show for it..”

• Newsom Is Copying Trump So He Can Run for President (Margolis)

California Governor Gavin Newsom clearly has his eye on a 2028 presidential run, and apparently he thinks the way to get there is by copying former President Donald Trump’s tough-on-crime playbook. His latest move? Deploying California Highway Patrol crime-suppression teams across major cities including Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego, as well as the Bay Area. These teams are meant to back up local law enforcement in high-crime neighborhoods, targeting repeat offenders, illegal guns, and narcotics. Last year, similar teams racked up over 9,000 arrests, recovered nearly 6,000 stolen vehicles, and seized hundreds of firearms—so on paper, it looks like results. At the same time, Newsom is trying to sell himself as the more “people-focused” alternative to Trump, whom he is accusing of “militarizing American cities” by sending in National Guard troops without state approval.

He’s ridiculed Trump’s so-called “authoritarian tendencies,” and even challenged him to deploy troops in Republican-led states such as Louisiana and Mississippi, where, Newsom claims, homicide rates are far higher than in California. The hypocrisy is obvious, and the White House didn’t let Newsom off easy, mocking him for copying Trump’s crime agenda after previously blasting similar tactics. Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called it “making crime a partisan issue,” but added, “the more Democrats follow Trump’s lead on cracking down on crime, the better it is for Americans”. Democrats are soft on crime by instinct. It’s their default mode—coddling criminals, ignoring law-abiding citizens, and pretending the problem doesn’t exist. But when political ambition requires it, suddenly they’re “tough on crime,” putting on a performance to save their own skin, rather than actually protecting communities.

That’s what Newsom is doing now. He’s trying to clean up his own backyard before his planned presidential run. I guess we’re just supposed to ignore the fact that he’s done nothing to reduce crime or fix the homeless problem in his state. In fact, he’s thrown at least $24 billion at homelessness programs with nothing to show for it, and violent crime remains stubbornly high in cities such as Oakland and San Bernardino. Poverty, drugs, and understaffed police departments continue to plague the state, yet Newsom points to flashy statistics and temporary crackdowns as proof he’s taking action on behalf of his constituents; in reality, he’s just trying to position himself better to seek higher office. The crime-suppression teams are reactive, not strategic. They’re an attempt to mimic Trump’s methods without actually addressing California’s systemic failures.

And while Newsom lectures Trump on federal troops, his own record shows massive public funds disappearing into bureaucratic black holes without fixing the underlying problems. Meanwhile, he clings to political theater—highlighting crime in GOP-led states to distract from California’s own mess and painting Trump as an overbearing authoritarian. It’s a tough sell when your own state’s cities are in trouble and your solutions are superficial, and meant to help himself, not his state. Newsom wants to run on law and order, but his tenure is marked by fiscal recklessness and half-measures. If he were serious about fighting crime, he would have acted sooner and smarter. At the end of the day, Newsom’s crime teams are just a showpiece, a way to borrow Trump’s playbook while pretending to oppose him. For voters paying attention, the question is simple: can a governor who can’t account for billions spent on homelessness—or fix his state’s crime problems—seriously claim he’s ready to lead the country? The stunt is in motion, but Newsom can’t cover up California’s failures with a gimmick.

“I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t want the, you know, the wife of a president, to go to jail, but she was stone cold guilty of things..,”

• Intel Chiefs Behind Russiagate Should Be Arrested – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said he would not mind seeing ex-FBI Director James Comey and ex-CIA Director John Brennan handcuffed and arrested live on TV due to their alleged role in the Russiagate hoax. Trump made the remarks in an interview with the Daily Caller published on Saturday, stating that it would “not bother [him] at all” if the two former intel chiefs end up in custody. “What they did is a disgrace. They cheated, they lied, they did so many bad things, evil things that were so bad for the country, and because they did something to me that should have never been done, nobody thought they’d ever do that,” Trump stated. “They should be [arrested] because they’re crooked and they got caught,” he added.

The situation with Brennan and Comey is different from what the US administration had on its hands with Hillary Clinton, Trump suggested, apparently referring to the email controversy dating back to her tenure as the US secretary of state. “Hillary’s a good example. We had Hillary cold. I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t want the, you know, the wife of a president, to go to jail, but she was stone cold guilty of things,” Trump stated. The Trump administration launched a probe into the Russiagate hoax shortly after the US president assumed the post for the second time early this year. The investigation has been spearheaded by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has repeatedly pledged to get to the bottom of what she described as a “treasonous conspiracy” to delegitimize Trump’s 2016 election victory and a “years-long coup.”

Since mid-July, Gabbard has released multiple documents that allegedly expose a coordinated effort by senior Obama-era officials, as well as structures linked to billionaire George Soros, to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia. Moscow has consistently denied any interference in the 2016 election, with Russian officials describing the allegations as a product of partisan infighting. The Russiagate scandal heavily damaged relations between Moscow and Washington, resulting in sanctions, asset seizures, and a further erosion of diplomatic engagement.

“The Executive has interpreted the law for centuries—this is nothing new, and certainly nothing constitutionally objectionable.”

• Trump Says He Will Issue Executive Order to Require Voter ID (ET)

President Donald Trump said on Aug. 30 that he has decided to issue an executive order to request that federal elections require the presentation of voter ID in order to cast a ballot. “Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. No exceptions!” Trump wrote on a post on Truth Social. “I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!” The president did not give a timeline for his order. The midterm elections will be held on Nov. 3, 2026. States have authority over how to hold their elections as long as they comply with federal prohibitions. The president also repeated his opposition to the widespread adoption of mail-in ballots and the use of electronic voting systems, although this time he didn’t say they would be the subject of any executive action. “Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. Use paper ballots only!!!” he said.

Earlier this month, Trump had pledged to issue an executive order ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to end the use of mail-in ballots and return to the use of paper ballots instead of voting machines. In March, Trump issued an executive order to require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for registering to vote in federal elections. The order was to enforce that states meet the citizenship requirement for federal elections for requiring government-issued ID in their voter registration forms. The order also sought to overhaul election rules related to other aspects of election law enforcement, such as voting deadlines, electronic voting machine security, and foreign interference in U.S. elections. The president said the changes were intended to safeguard the vote against what he describes as “fraud, errors, or suspicion.”

Legal groups filed suit, claiming that the order exceeded presidential authority, and a federal judge agreed in part with the plaintiffs, blocking implementation of much of the executive order while allowing a directive to tighten mail-in ballot deadlines around the country to remain in forceAfter the Supreme Court issued a judgment in late June in an unrelated case, limiting the judicial branch from granting nationwide injunctions, the federal judge in the elections case amended her injunction in mid-July in the case to apply only to the 19 Democratic-led states that filed the complaint. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, arguing that the enforcement sought in the executive order doesn’t alter existing federal statutes or violate the Constitution. “The Executive has interpreted the law for centuries—this is nothing new, and certainly nothing constitutionally objectionable.”

But, in any event, the President’s interpretation of those laws accords with their text, purpose, and history, and he has the authority to interpret for the Executive Branch what they require,” government lawyers argued. Trump also pushed for the passage of the SAVE Act, a major overhaul of federal election law that was passed by the House but floundered in the Senate, where it would have required support from Democratic lawmakers to pass. At the state level, Texas Republicans, at Trump’s urging, recently passed legislation to redraw their state’s congressional maps to increase Republicans’ hold on the U.S. House delegation by five seats. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on Aug. 29. California lawmakers have responded with a push to increase Democrats’ hold over California’s U.S. House delegation.

Inosculation

‘The thinner tree was cut years ago and the big one has been holding and feeding it since then. They "wake up" together in the spring and "go to sleep" together in the autumn’

Inosculation is a natural phenomenon in which parts of two different trees, commonly but not… pic.twitter.com/eB1lv7GGcT

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 31, 2025

Cinema
https://twitter.com/DudespostingWs/status/1962010458795508091

Time

The Paradox of Time according to Aristotlepic.twitter.com/u8IBV77izo

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 31, 2025

Michelangelo

Michelangelo was 33 years old when he started painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1508

It took him 4 years to complete

pic.twitter.com/IjSz8drm9F

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 31, 2025

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Debt Rattle August 29 2025

Aug 292025

August 29, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: Anschluss, Ashli Babbitt, Bolton, DNC, frozen assets, Germany, hypersonic, Kinzhal, trans violence 43 Responses »

Tomb of the diver, Paestum c480 BCE

• Moscow Confirms Hypersonic Missile Strikes On Ukraine (RT)

• US Outlines Stance On Frozen Russian Assets (RT)

• Hungary Sues EU Over Frozen Russian Assets Sent To Ukraine (RT)

• Ukraine Conflict Is ‘Modi’s War’ – Navarro (RT)

• EU Public Skeptical Of Sending Troops To Ukraine – WSJ (RT)

• NATO’s Anschluss (Dmitry Medvedev)

• Bolton Investigation Began During Biden Admin (CTH)

• Pulte Drops New Criminal Referral On Lisa Cook As Mortgage Scandal Widens (ZH)

• DNC Moves to Sell Crazy to an Over-Stocked Nation (Turley)

• Western Governments Only Serve Private Interests (Paul Craig Roberts)

• The Camp of the Saints (Paul Craig Roberts)

• With German Economy Shrinking, Military Expands (CTH)

• The German Leader’s Checklist To Success (RT)

• This Truth Bomb on Trans Violence Is a Must Watch (Margolis)

• Air Force Reverses Biden Admin Decision on Ashli Babbitt (TH)

• Melania Trump ‘Laughed’ At Vanity Fair Offer (Miranda Devine)

Hegseth
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1960832613830070324

CDC
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1960828013547065657

RFK
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1961068582277648676

48%
https://twitter.com/arianammasters/status/1960737606255214964

Flag
https://twitter.com/benonwine/status/1960721809633923503

Memory

Cognitive neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge, Ph.D, says these memories from the future could mean the notion of time might not be as linear as we imagine. pic.twitter.com/vUe3wJYlmN

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 28, 2025

Show of force or escalation, next step in the fight? Putin vetoed an attack with Oreshnik (there’d be nothing left), but okays Kinzhal.

• Moscow Confirms Hypersonic Missile Strikes On Ukraine (RT)

Russia launched long-range strikes on Ukrainian military targets using a variety of weapons, including hypersonic air-launched Kinzhal missiles, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported Thursday. The operation hit several weapons plants and airfields, the MOS claimed, confirming earlier reports of an attack from Kiev. Ukraine’s military claimed it intercepted most of the incoming drones and missiles but acknowledged successful Russian strikes at 13 locations, as additional damage caused by debris from downed weapons. One of the attacks was apparently captured on CCTV, with footage circulating online showing two missiles hitting the same location in central Kiev. Some reports identified the site as the office of defense company Ukrspecsystems on Zhilyanskaya Street, which police cordoned off Thursday.

Founded in 2014, Ukrspecsystems manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles, including the long-range PD-2, which has reportedly been used in kamikaze drone attacks deep inside Russian territory, including Moscow. Igor Zinkevich, a Lviv city council member, claimed that Russia also hit a plant in Kiev operated by the Turkish military firm Bayraktar, adding that the attack was the fourth of its kind in six months. Last week, Ukrainian media reported the production launch of a cruise missile dubbed Flamingo, with an estimated range of 3,000 kilometers and a payload of up to 1,000 kilograms. Images of the weapon showed close resemblance to the FP-5, a system unveiled earlier this year by the British-UAE defense firm Milanion Group at an arms expo in Abu Dhabi.

Earlier in August, Russia’s Federal Security Service said it carried out an operation with the military that targeted Ukraine’s Sapsan ballistic missile program, claiming to have infiltrated the project and caused “colossal” damage through subsequent strikes. Moscow has repeatedly accused Western nations of turning Ukraine into a proxy force by supplying weapons and funds, while arguing that Kiev’s war effort is unsustainable and serves foreign rather than Ukrainian interests.

Cautious.

• US Outlines Stance On Frozen Russian Assets (RT)

The US intends to use frozen Russian assets as a bargaining chip in negotiations over Ukraine, rather than seizing them outright and handing them over to Kiev, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said. Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Bessent explained the US stance on the more than $300 billion in Russian assets immobilized across Western financial institutions since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The bulk of the funds is within EU jurisdiction, while the US reportedly holds around $5 billion. Moscow has repeatedly denounced the freezing as a “theft.” Bessent suggested that the frozen assets are “part of the negotiation with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” adding that “I don’t think we should seize them immediately.”

“It is a chip on the table during this big negotiating process. And we will see whether part of that goes, part or all goes to the Ukraine rebuild,” he added. There has been heated debate across the West about confiscating Russian assets and transferring them to Ukraine as fast as possible – something Kiev has insisted on. Some EU leaders and experts have cautioned against outright seizure, warning it could violate international law, undermine investor confidence, and destabilize financial markets. The EU has instead opted to transfer profits and interest generated by the assets to Ukraine, with the windfall proceeds estimated at more than $3 billion annually.

Last year, the US Congress passed legislation granting the administration legal authority to confiscate Russian sovereign assets, although Washington has not yet exercised this option, citing legal and financial risks. Instead, the US joined other G7 members in supporting a $50 billion loan to Ukraine backed by interest earnings from frozen Russian assets. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia will never renounce its rights to the frozen assets and will not give up defending them. He also warned of “very serious judicial and legal consequences” if the West attempts to seize the funds outright and transfer them to Ukraine.

The EU is not cautious. They will end up having to pay Russia $300 billion. Well, not the EU, but the member countries.

• Hungary Sues EU Over Frozen Russian Assets Sent To Ukraine (RT)

Hungary has sued the EU over its decision to use frozen Russian assets to fund military aid for Ukraine, a move adopted despite Budapest’s opposition. Western nations froze an estimated $300 billion in Russian assets after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 – some €200 billion of which is held by Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear. The funds have accrued billions in interest, and the West has explored ways to use the revenue to finance Ukraine. The lawsuit challenges the European Council’s decision last year to channel military aid to Ukraine through the European Peace Facility (EPF), which reimburses countries that send weapons to Kiev. Implemented in February, the measure directs 99.7% of interest generated from frozen Russian central bank assets to Ukraine, providing an estimated €3-5 billion ($3.5-5.8 billion) annually.

In a case first filed with the EU Court of Justice and later transferred to the General Court, Hungary is demanding to “annul the decision… on allocating funds to assistance measures for supplying military support to the Ukrainian Armed Forces” and to “order the defendants to cover the costs.” Budapest contends that the EPF acted unlawfully by bypassing its veto, arguing that Hungary is not a “contributing member state.” “As a result, the principle of equality between Member States and the principle of the democratic functioning of the European Union were infringed because a Member State was deprived, unjustifiably and without a legal basis, of its right to vote,” the filing says.

Hungary opposes the bloc’s unconditional support for Kiev and prefers peace talks to continued fighting. Budapest has repeatedly used its veto to block EU financial and military aid, including a disputed €50 billion package at the end of 2023. The standoff has pushed other EU members to seek ways to sidestep Budapest’s resistance. Moscow has denounced the asset freeze as “robbery” and a breach of international law, warning it would backfire on the West. Senior Kremlin official Maksim Oreshkin said the freeze had already undermined trust in Western finance, while Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned that seizing the assets would accelerate a global shift toward alternative payment systems.

What a dumb thing to say. He also said Indians are too arrogant.

• Ukraine Conflict Is ‘Modi’s War’ – Navarro (RT)

A senior trade adviser to US President Donald Trump has claimed the Ukraine conflict is effectively Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “war,” alleging that New Delhi’s discounted oil purchases from Moscow are helping Russia’s armed forces. Speaking to Bloomberg TV on Wednesday, Peter Navarro said India would immediately have 50% US tariffs reduced to 25% if it stopped buying Russian oil. “I mean, it is essentially Modi’s war because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi,” he said. Navarro’s remarks coincided with the implementation Trump’s 50% tariffs on Indian goods, one of the highest in global trade.

Last week, Navarro made a similar accusation that India’s discounted purchases of Russian oil are indirectly supporting Moscow’s troops, and even branded the South Asian nation a “laundromat for the Kremlin.” Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar responded that nobody is “forced” to buy oil products from his country. “Europe buys [Russian energy products], America buys, so you don’t like it, don’t buy it,” he said. New Delhi has strongly condemned the US tariffs as “unfair and unreasonable,” arguing that Western nations themselves do even more business with Moscow. India insists that its imports from Russia serve the national interest and help ensure affordable energy for its consumers.

Don’t you know they’re gonna kill, kill your sons…

• EU Public Skeptical Of Sending Troops To Ukraine – WSJ (RT)

A significant proportion of the EU population is unhappy about the prospect of sending troops to Ukraine after any ceasefire or peace deal due to the absence of firm US “security guarantees” and fears of being drawn into a conflict with Russia, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Tuesday. While some Western European leaders are contemplating the idea of dispatching thousands of soldiers to the country if the hostilities were to end, they have to “contend… with the inconvenient fact that many voters are opposed to any deployment that places troops in harm’s way,” the report says. Unnamed European officials also told the WSJ that “it is difficult to secure public support without a clear US commitment to backstop any deployment.” US President Donald Trump has ruled out sending ground troops to Ukraine, but said Washington could provide other kinds of support.

Eastern European countries are generally cautious about shifting forces from their own borders, the WSJ noted, adding that opposition to troop deployment is particularly strong in Germany and Italy, where the historical memory of World War II still shapes public opinion. In Germany, domestic opposition runs deep, spanning both right and left-wing parties; a recent Insa poll suggested that 56% there are opposed to sending troops to Ukraine. France, one of the more vocal supporters of a potential European military force, has seen public opinion hinge on conditions. A March survey by Elabe found 67% supported sending troops if a peace accord is reached, but 68% opposed a deployment without one.

Meanwhile, the British public generally supports possible deployment, but several polls have indicated that it “wouldn’t want to provoke a direct confrontation with Russia,” the report says. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also stressed the need for a US security backstop if UK forces were deployed – something Washington has not committed to. Russia has consistently opposed the idea of NATO countries sending in troops. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the prospect of the bloc shifting its military infrastructure into Ukraine was “one of the root causes” of the conflict and has reiterated that Moscow views current discussions about deployments negatively.

The ‘original’ use of the term Anschluss goes back to the 1870s. Today, it mostly refers to March 12, 1938, when Austria joined nazi Germany. Austria had a neutral status ever since WWII ended.

• NATO’s Anschluss (Dmitry Medvedev)

The countries of the Old World are intoxicated by militaristic frenzy. Like spellbound moths, they flock to the destructive flame of the North Atlantic Alliance. Until recently, Europe still had states that understood: security could be ensured without joining military blocs. Now reason is giving way to herd instinct. Following Finland and Sweden, Austria’s establishment – egged on by bloodthirsty Brussels – is fueling public debate about abandoning its constitutionally enshrined neutrality in favor of NATO membership. Austrian society is far from enthusiastic about the idea. The New Austria liberal party, led by Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger and eager to embrace the bloc, won less than 10% of the vote in the last election. By contrast, the opposition Freedom Party of Austria, which firmly opposes blindly copying Brussels’ militaristic agenda, received support from 37% of citizens. But in today’s Europe, when has the will of the people truly stood in the way?

Efforts to erode Austria’s neutrality have been underway for quite some time. As far back as the 1990s, local revisionists began building military ties under the guise of “participation in the EU’s common security and defense policy.” Until 2009, when the Treaty of Lisbon came into force, it was mostly empty talk – about coordinating military development among EU member states, but without binding obligations. Afterward, the argument shifted: the treaty didn’t specify the scope or timing of the assistance that “united Europe” was obligated to provide in the event of an attack. And, in any case, the EU was officially regarded as an economic union. The fact that most of its members already belonged to NATO was conveniently left unsaid. At the same time, Austria was expanding its military presence beyond Europe, taking part in EU training missions – thereby raising its profile in Brussels.

And it was generously rewarded: from 2022 to 2025, the chair of the EU Military Committee was held by Austrian General Robert Brieger. The Austrians hadn’t shone so “brightly” on Europe’s military stage since World War 2 – when Wehrmacht colonel generals Lothar Rendulic and Erhard Raus, and Luftwaffe commander Alexander Löhr, “distinguished themselves.” As the EU was expanding its defense capabilities, Austria was quietly undergoing militarization and NATO-ization. Vienna participated in the Alliance’s “Partnership for Peace” while the country was already de-facto a component of the bloc’s logic. Austria, despite not actually being a NATO member, has become a key transit territory for the bloc. In 2024 alone, it was traversed by more than 3,000 NATO military vehicles, and its airspace accommodated over 5,000 NATO flights.

Against this backdrop, opinions were voiced in Vienna that a “faltering pacifist consensus” and the “Russian threat” offer a historic opportunity to break free from the “shackles of the past” – namely, to scrap neutrality. Yet neutrality is woven into the very fabric of Austria’s statehood, re-engineered by the Allied powers after World War 2. It is enshrined in the three binding 1955 documents: the Moscow Memorandum, the State Treaty for the Re-establishment of an Independent and Democratic Austria, and Austria’s own Federal Constitutional Act on Permanent Neutrality. These documents are the country’s legal foundation. Should they be removed, the entire edifice of the Austrian statehood is bound to collapse. What is there to do for Moscow, which was, in essence, one of the architects of modern Austria? The answer is to give enthusiasts of war hysteria a slap on the wrist within the framework of international law. The answers to two key questions – whether Austria has the right to unilaterally renounce its legislatively enshrined neutrality, and whether it can independently decide to join NATO – are both unequivocally negative.

Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states explicitly that no provisions of a country’s internal law may serve as justification for violating an international treaty. Also, NATO cannot be considered a regional organization of collective defense, and therefore joining the alliance won’t grant a permanently neutral state the same benefits as its guaranteed neutrality. These provisions are recognized by respected figures deeply versed in the issue. For example, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, now head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University, stresses that altering the status quo of neutrality requires the consent of all the Allied powers that signed the 1955 treaty, including Russia as the legal successor of the USSR. Moscow retains the right to veto Vienna’s move down the NATO path.

The hawkish faction of Austria’s elite must grasp the full scale of foreign-policy losses that would follow from abandoning neutrality and joining NATO. Today, Vienna is a hub for multilateral diplomacy, hosting around 20 intergovernmental organizations. This ensures its engagement in global processes and the development of legal frameworks to address emerging challenges and threats. The decision to establish offices of the UN, IAEA, OSCE and OPEC in Vienna was largely predicated on its non-aligned status, which provides an effective platform for dialogue and regional cooperation.

Replacing neutrality with a bloc mentality undermines the very “spirit of Vienna” and makes it impossible for Austria to maintain balanced relations with its diverse international partners. As a result, the country is losing its unique role as a mediator and a hub for major international institutions. This leads to an obvious conclusion: it is time to consider relocating international organizations’ headquarters to countries in the Global South and East that can provide the necessary conditions for their work. Adding to all this, Austria’s militaristic turn is shattering its peacemaker image, sharply curtailing its sovereign room for maneuver. Instead, it significantly increases the risk that Austria’s Bundesheer units may find themselves included in the Russian Armed Forces’ long-range mission plans. A package of countermeasures was adopted against Sweden and Finland after their NATO accession, and Austria should not expect any exceptions here.

“Selling information is the currency of affluence in Washington DC. That’s why the removal of security clearances is looked upon as devastating within the beltway..”

• Bolton Investigation Began During Biden Admin (CTH)

[..] the New York Times now outlines how the investigation into John Bolton began during the Biden administration and picked up speed after they received access to his email information from an “adversarial country’s spy service.” Apparently, John Bolton used an unclassified email system to send information to his friends and allies. The emails were intercepted. Bolton was discussing information that appears to have been the outcome of his access to classified information as National Security Advisor. CTH has previously outlined how John Bolton’s business model was essentially selling information and influence. This common DC business model seems to have formed the baseline for him to share sensitive, possibly classified information, of greater value. This does not come as a surprise. Selling information is the currency of affluence in Washington DC. That’s why the removal of security clearances is looked upon as devastating within the beltway. New York Times story below:

NEW YORK TIMES – The investigation into President Trump’s former national security adviser, John R. Bolton, began to pick up momentum during the Biden administration, when U.S. intelligence officials collected information that appeared to show that he had mishandled classified information, according to people familiar with the inquiry. The United States gathered data from an adversarial country’s spy service, including emails with sensitive information that Mr. Bolton, while still working in the first Trump administration, appeared to have sent to people close to him on an unclassified system, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive case that remains open.

The emails in question, according to the people, were sent by Mr. Bolton and included information that appeared to derive from classified documents he had seen while he was national security adviser. Mr. Bolton apparently sent the messages to people close to him who were helping him gather material that he would ultimately use in his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” In a sign of the stakes for Mr. Bolton, he is in talks to retain the high-profile criminal defense lawyer Abbe Lowell. Mr. Lowell, who has represented Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Mr. Biden’s son Hunter, is defending two other prominent perceived enemies of Mr. Trump who are now under scrutiny: the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board.

At the time of the raid, we noted the activity of Bolton mirrors that of former Senator John McCain (now dead). “An FBI investigation under the auspices of potential violations of the Espionage Act, where Bolton would have leveraged current or prior classified intelligence information as part of his influence business. Almost identically to former Senator John McCain, John Bolton was well known to intersect with the nation of Qatar as part of his operation. Qatar has deep pockets and a long-identified influence operation throughout the Middle East, sometimes playing both sides. Qatar is also the playground for the CIA. While it is yet unknown which nation and which activity Bolton was likely engaged in, the highest probability centers around the deepest pockets, which would also put Bolton on the CIA radar. Since initially writing that outline, someone noticed this video from John McCain’s funeral.

looks like he made one of those deals right here on camera at John McCain's funeral. isn't that Mouaz Moustafa, Syrian ETF handing Bolton gold bar or something wrapped in a handkerchief? pic.twitter.com/qXwtre73eL

— The Rubber Duck ™ (@TheRubberDuck79) August 25, 2025

Something is being given to John Bolton in that video. Something from Mouaz Moustafa, Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) and Senator John McCain’s intermediary to the Muslim Brotherhood. If I had to guess, from the position of Moustafa and those behind him (Muslim Brotherhood/Qatar), John Bolton became the replacement for John McCain after the senator’s death. We wait to find out the details of the predicate for the FBI raid.

Letitia James as NY prosecutor, Ketanji Jackson at the Supreme Court, Lisa Cook at the Fed. Three black women that fit the DEI profile, but not the profiles required for their positions.

• Pulte Drops New Criminal Referral On Lisa Cook As Mortgage Scandal Widens (ZH)

On Thursday night, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte dropped a second criminal referral against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook based on evidence that she entered into a 15-year mortgage on a third property which she listed as her “Second Home.” On an ethics form signed with the government, however, Cook noted it as an “investment/rental property.” Why is this bad and not simply a ‘clerical error’? As Pulte notes, “Representing the property as a second home may have allowed Cook to secure a lower “Second Home” mortgage down payment and rates, as investment properties typically carry higher down payments and higher rates due to increased risk.”

3 strikes and you’re out.

Today, U.S. Federal Housing sent a 2nd Criminal Referral in the matter of Lisa D. Cook, related to a mortgage on a 3rd property and alleged misrepresentations about her properties to the United States Government during her time as Governor of the… pic.twitter.com/TAH68Mia23

— Pulte (@pulte) August 29, 2025

This new criminal referral follows an initial referral Pulte made after Cook listed two properties as her ‘primary residence’ in 2021 – ostensibly reaping manifold benefits on tax treatment and interest rates, which Cook hasn’t denied. [..] Earlier Thursday, Cook filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after President Donald Trump fired her on Monday ‘for cause.’ Among the excuses contained in the lawsuit for listing two properties as her primary residence was a possible clerical error. Except, Cook described herself in her 2023 nomination hearing as having “significant experience in banking and finance, as is evidenced by my service on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and of a Community Development Financial Institution in Michigan, in addition to my employment at an investment bank and a large commercial bank.”

"Clerical error" pic.twitter.com/ThnHKeRFS9

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 29, 2025

So she claims to be a banking expert, while anyone in the industry who’s done all the mandatory mind-numbing ‘continuing education’ has had these exact types of scenarios pounded into their heads ad nauseam, for years.

(Update: 1532ET): A Biden-appointed federal judge who defied a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month has been ‘randomly’ assigned to the (Biden-appointed) Lisa Cook case, after the Federal Reserve Governor filed a lawsuit challenging her Monday firing by President Trump. Her complaint doesn’t deny the underlying allegations of mortgage fraud – and instead argues that she couldn’t have been fired ‘for cause’ over something that happened before she was confirmed to the Fed. Cook also argues that claiming two houses as her ‘primary residence’ at the same time may have been a simple ‘clerical error.’

“Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.”

• DNC Moves to Sell Crazy to an Over-Stocked Nation (Turley)

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) appears to be doubling down on crazy in Minneapolis this week with calls to pack the Supreme Court and other extremist priorities. For voters who have repeatedly shown that they want to move to a more moderate center, you are left like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets when his character, Melvin Udall, who declared, “Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.” As many know, I was raised in a politically active, liberal, Democratic family in Chicago and worked much of my life for Democratic candidates and campaigns. This week again reminded many of us how far the party has moved from its more centrist history. That includes another call to pack the Supreme Court with liberals to force or ratify sweeping political and social changes. The meeting started in a signature fashion.

Lindy Sowmick, treasurer of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) spoke to the delegates after DNC Chairman Ken Martin asked her to recite the land acknowledgment. Sowmick asked the delegates to think about her works: “As Democrats, I ask of every one of you to not allow land acknowledgments like these to simply be the checking of a box – be curious, ask questions, ensure our native neighbors are heard and work in partnership with your Indigenous communities.” Sowmick then declared: “The DNC acknowledges and honors the Dakota Oyate – the Dakota people – who are the original stewards of the lands and waters of Minneapolis. The Dakota cared for the lands, lakes and the Wakpa Tanka – the ‘Great River,’ the Mississippi River – for thousands of years before colonization. This land was not claimed, or traded – it’s a part of a history of broken treaties and promises. And, in many ways, we still live in a system built to suppress Indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual history.”

From there, it was a free-for-all, including a fierce fight over a resolution to condemn Israel. Martin strangely forced a divisive debate, where he and others pushed through a resolution that only called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, which was denounced by others. After passing the resolution, he then moved to rescind it as an act of unity. It left many wondering what the purpose of the exercise was in forcing a debate and then withdrawing the passed resolution. Delegates continued to show how out of touch the party has become, including one assuring delegates that the public really does not care about carjackings and migrant crimes despite the polls. Another insisted that today the nation is worse to live in than during the pandemic.

Laurence S. Zakson is a DNC member from California and a partner at Reich Adell & Cvitan in Beverly Hills. He and others called for Congress to act on changing the size of the Supreme Court due to the alleged partisan agenda of the majority and the failure to reach correct decisions. It is the same playbook that Democrats have used in the last two elections to pack the Court with liberals. Some on the left have even called for the Supreme Court to be “dissolved.” That rhetoric has been matched by Democratic leaders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer previously declared in front of the Supreme Court, “I want to tell you, [Neil] Gorsuch, I want to tell you, [Brett] Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stated that she wants to impeach all six of the conservative justices. She was immediately joined by other Democratic members. Previously, she admitted that she does not understand why we even have a Supreme Court. She asked, “How much does the current structure benefit us? And I don’t think it does.” Other members, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have called for packing the Court with additional members to immediately secure a liberal majority to rule as she desires. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., RI) has assured voters that Vice President Kamala Harris will support the packing of the Court with a liberal majority. Polls show the public understands that such moves are madness. Some of us have discussed the expansion of the Supreme Court for years, but there is a difference between expanding and packing. This is court packing in its rawest and most dangerous form. It is one last pitch for crazy in an already over-stocked nation.

“Once upon a time in America it was understood that enough money could buy integrity, turn lies into truth, and justify evil as public good.”

• Western Governments Only Serve Private Interests (Paul Craig Roberts)

Despite Robert F. Kennedy being Secretary of Health, Pfizer still has its hold on the FDA, which reports to Kennedy. The FDA has removed emergency use authorization for Covid “vaccines,” but the death shot is still authorized for those older adults and children as young as 5 who have even one health problem that puts them at high risk from the Covid virus, essentially an unknown risk that can be declared by any doctor on Big Pharma’s payroll.

This ruling is medically nonsensical for two reasons. One is that the alleged “vaccine” is known to be ineffective in preventing Covid. In other words it is not a successful vaccine under any conditions. This has been admitted by the vaccine makers themselves and by Bill Gates, a heavy pusher of the “vaccines.” The British “vaccine” maker even pulled the vaccine off the market. The second reason is that the alleged “vaccines” have been proven unsafe. Indeed, the “vaccines” are more dangerous than Covid. Far more people have been killed and injured by the “vaccines” than by Covid. I have provided many links to scientific articles in medical journals demonstrating the extreme danger of the “vaccine.” Big Pharma has brought RFK, Jr., to heel.

Although the “vaccine” is no longer mandated, Kennedy says the Covid vaccines “are available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors.” But as Kennedy knows, the majority of American doctors are nothing but the brainwashed tools of Big Pharma. Big Pharma grants to medical schools gives them influence over the curriculum taught to doctors. Big Pharma grants to medical scientists gives them control over what is published in peer-reviewed medical journals. In my website’s archive is an article reporting that the editors of the two most prestigious medical journals, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet, both said that they had no confidence in the articles they published because 70% of them were written with grants from the pharmaceutical industry. Big Pharma even pays “medical scientists” to write against the natural supplements that do help us.

Once upon a time in America it was understood that enough money could buy integrity, turn lies into truth, and justify evil as public good. This realization on the part of the public could not prevent money from purchasing integrity, from turning lies into truth, and from disguising evil, but it limited it so honest truthful moral life could continue, at least partially. But today all limits to the corrupting power of money have been removed. Everything can be bought. We even have the spectacle of young American women selling their pussy on the Internet. And evangelical churches sell out Christ for Israeli money and turn themselves into Zionists.

Thomas Jefferson was always in opposition to power centralized in the federal government. He knew that the power would be privatized to serve the interest of the ruling clique. When he returned from France he was astonished by the extent to which his colleagues had privatized the government. Historians speak of corruption, which is their euphemism for the privatization of government to serve private interests.

The military budgets, which President Trump insists must increase in the European Union, threats of war and preparation for war are a huge profit-maker not only for the armaments manufacturers but also from the bribes to politicians that go hand in hand with arms sales. A more polite word is commissions. For the US, President Trump has requested a 13.4% increase in military spending. The US Senate has proposed a larger increase. Why? We only have enemies of our own choosing. Russia, China, and Iran have no interest in war. The reason is that they do not have the military/security complex that President Eisenhower warned us against as long ago as 1961. This is America’s problem. So far the US military-security complex has forced Washington to violate the George H. W. Bush administration’s promise not to move NATO to the Russian border.

The US military/security complex funds neoconservatives, their think tanks, university departments, and publications and, thereby, funds their foreign policy objective of Washington’s hegemony over the world. Such a foreign policy means war and nothing but war. All of the meetings, talk, and commentary about Ukrainian peace negotiations is cover for continuing a war that Washington’s puppet state is losing. There is still the prospect of European soldiers being sent to Ukraine’s defense with US weapons purchased by Europe. The US military/security complex is salivating. The way Trump hopes to get out of the war is to turn it over to the EU with contracts to purchase American weapons. Recently Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov, who has been extremely dense until now, realized and said that Russia was at war with an empire and that it would be a long war. The long war will be the product of Putin’s blunder in not quickly taking the conflict in Ukraine to victory.

“..a lot of money will be made from bribes to purchase military weapons, money that will allow the ruling elite to escape from Britain as the country descends into its grave.”

• The Camp of the Saints (Paul Craig Roberts)

The English people have turned to Elon Musk for protection against immigrant-invader rape gangs that the UK government enables and encourages by non-enforcement to terrorize and rape English girls. The headline reads: “Musk vows to fund lawsuits against UK officials over grooming gangs.” [..] Over the decades Oxford and Cambridge have infused the “colonialist, racist” British ruling class with so much racial guilt that the UK government is incapable of defending its white citizens. Over these years, the illegal immigrant-invaders have learned that they enjoy immunity from “racist” law and have the de facto right to sexually use white English females in addition to public support from the white taxpayers. The situation has deteriorated so much that there are 85 areas in England where white women are unsafe.

England is being erased. In out of the way places there are still some picturesque villages with thatched and slate roofed cottages and a friendly local pub. There are still castles and manorial estates where descendants of an aristocratic warrior class, which formed England out of chaos and protected the English from immigrant-invaders such as the Vikings, lived a civilized life. These estates, now properties of the National Trust, are designations for bus tours that bring tourists who wander through the former residences of earls and viscounts. But the cities are lost. In 2021 only 36 percent of London’s population was white British. The percentage is lower today. Clearly, the British ruling elite made the decision to replace the ethnic British, although some say that it is a Zionist plot to rid Jews of white gentiles.

“Multiculturalism” is the tool for replacing whites with massive unhindered third world immigration. The function of the rape gangs is to use white females to breed more white replacements. The same thing is happening in Europe and North America. In England things are so unfavorable for white British that a social media post shows a video of a blond white female pub owner or manager refusing entry to a white British citizen because he has a Union Jack (British) flag. The flag might offend an immigrant-invader. The pub owner or manager is so indoctrinated that it does not occur to her to wonder why immigrant-invaders are in England if they are offended by the English flag. An Israeli flag might well offend a Muslim immigrant-invader, but if the pub’s spokeswoman refused entry to the Star of David she would be arrested for anti-semitism.

Another video shows two pre-teen white English girls warding off a gang-banger with a knife and a hatchet. The police arrested the girls for threatening violence with prohibited weapons. Nothing was done about the immigrant-invader who provoked their defense. Looking at England we see a country with a destroyed belief system leaving it unable to protect itself and its white ethnic citizens. Most certainly the British are incapable of going to war with Russia. But in the meantime a lot of money will be made from bribes to purchase military weapons, money that will allow the ruling elite to escape from Britain as the country descends into its grave.

Hide economic collapse behind the army. Sounds just like the 1930s.

• With German Economy Shrinking, Military Expands (CTH)

History rhyming is likely just a coincidence. Then again, if it were a coincidence, it wouldn’t be so predictable would it. Simultaneous with the German economy contracting and Chancellor Fredrich Merz saying the expansive entitlement programs are no longer sustainable, as if on cue the German Bundestag is now promoting conscription to make their military much bigger.The compulsory military service plan is being decided amid two options. Option #1 is compulsory service reinstated only if the Bundestag vote for it. Option #2 is mandated military service becomes automatically law if voluntary conscription targets are missed.This new military service requirement is coming on the heels of Germany pledging to lead the coalition of the willing on NATO spending. Remember, CIA operations in Ukraine are based out of Germany.

“GERMANY – […] Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a sweeping reform of military service, requiring 18-year-old men to register in a new selection system while keeping actual service voluntary.Those who choose to sign up — typically for a half-year stint, with the option to extend up to 23 months — will be offered more generous pay and training options.[…] The party aims to introduce changes when the bill comes before parliament for its first reading between Oct. 8 and 10, according to Thomas Erndl, MP and spokesperson for defense policy in Merz’s Christian Democratic bloc.“We cannot risk a situation where targets are missed and nothing happens — there has to be a mechanism that guarantees the numbers we need,” said Erndl. “That’s why the law needs to be changed.” Under the government’s draft law, agreed Wednesday, compulsory service could only be reinstated if the Bundestag voted for it. Conservatives want to go further: Their proposal would create an automatic trigger — if recruitment targets are missed, conscription would return without another parliamentary decision.”

Interesting timing.

He will spend Germany straight into a depression. 1930s.

• The German Leader’s Checklist To Success (RT)

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has made a moderate media splash and ruffled some feathers in his own ruling coalition with the Centrist Social Democrats (SPD). Using the platform of a regional party congress of his CDU Conservatives in Niedersachsen, Merz has delivered a speech that immediately attracted national attention and will be remembered for one phrase. “The social [welfare] state, as we have it today,” the chancellor declared with appropriately dour mien, “can no longer be financed by what we are achieving economically.” Put differently, severe budget cuts on social issues are coming. And since that is a policy operative since, at the latest, 2003, there really isn’t so much left to cut. Merz is promising his people more of a bad time. His people. Not, however, the ultra-corrupt political anti-elite of Ukraine.

Just before Merz’s claim that Germany cannot afford what it used to offer to Germans who pay for it, his government promised €9 billion ($10.4 bn) per year for Ukraine in 2025 and 2026, for now. That is on top of the €44 billion already sent that way. Germany is the “second-largest backer” of the Kiev regime in the world, as its obviously thoroughly detached finance minister Lars Klingbeil emphasizes with a perverse pride that must sound like a bad joke to many of his compatriots. Speaking of Klingbeil, in his Niedersachsen speech Merz also announced that he would “deliberately not make it easy” for his government colleagues from the SPD, who include, of course, Klingbeil. The SPD, of course, is well-known for being against harsh reductions in what Germans can expect from, in essence, old-age pensions, public health care, and the basic form of unemployment insurance now known as “Bürgergeld” (literally, “citizens’ money”).

There is no reason to underestimate Merz’s genuine ideological commitment. It is true that, in general, he is unusually brutal about being dishonest even for a politician: Germany’s current leader has already proven that he is capable of breathtaking flipflops, staggering electoral bad faith, and underhanded maneuvering that violates the spirit of democracy if not the letter of the constitution. In the spring, his U-turn on public debt, to finance Germany’s new militarism on – exuberant – credit, was not only a massive breach of trust regarding especially his own conservative voters. Shamelessly exploiting a legal loophole, Merz also executed this radical reversal – many in his own party called it betrayal – by relying on parliamentary majorities that had already been cancelled by an election.

Likewise, Merz’s coalition then proceeded to break promises regarding an energy tax relief as well as benefits for mothers. Germans are angry, but there is no sign that Merz and his government care. Consequently, according to a fresh poll by the reputable INSA institute, 62 percent of Germans are dissatisfied with their government. And yet, there is a hard core of authentic Merz, shaped by his own wealth, a very privileged life without material worries, and his long career as an overpaid member of the supervisory-board network nobility, at BlackRock and elsewhere: if there is one thing Germany’s leader is sincere about, it is his iron will to make the less well-off bleed more and work even harder, while making sure that those as materially comfortable and safe as himself get even richer. Call it neoliberalism with an unsmiling German face.

Merz, of course, is also a very ordinary man, incapable of much self-reflection. He cannot honestly face any of the above. Instead he misunderstands himself as a savior of the fatherland, which he sees in need of much tough love and plenty of wholesome kicks up the backside to rediscover discipline, hard work, and competitiveness. [..] What was much more interesting was Merz’s reasoning. In his own words, the central political challenge is to prove that Germany “can be governed successfully from the center.” Or to be concrete, to keep down and out of power Germany’s two “populist” insurgent parties: from the right the very successful Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which tends to lead German opinion polls now, and, from the left, the currently marginalized – probably by foul play in the manner of, say, Romania or Moldova – but still threatening Bündnis Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW).

“When someone has an illness, we should treat it instead of affirm it. We don’t celebrate schizophrenia. We don’t encourage depression.”

• This Truth Bomb on Trans Violence Is a Must Watch (Margolis)

The nation was left reeling Wednesday after a tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, where a gunman killed two young children and injured several others. Authorities later identified the shooter as a transgender-identifying male with radical left-wing views—a detail the media was quick to downplay. Sadly, this has become an all-too-familiar pattern. Just as we saw after the 2023 Covenant school massacre in Nashville, the press is once again bending over backwards to bury the shooter’s transgender identity. On his Fox News program Wednesday night, Jesse Watters blasted the media for their blatant double standard. In his monologue, Watters detailed cases of shootings, firebombings, and ideological extremism, and accused politicians of placing ideology over child safety.

Watters began with an unapologetic charge, linking a recent Catholic school shooting to a broader trend. “So a suicidal transgender who hates Trump’s Christians and Jews shoots up kids at a Catholic school, and the media wants to take away your handgun. So how are we supposed to protect ourselves from trans shooters?” he asked, before accusing the press of deliberately ignoring what he sees as an undeniable pattern. According to Watters, this is not an isolated phenomenon. “The media’s bad at pattern recognition. We aren’t. Just two years ago, another trans 20-something walked into a Christian school in Nashville with a rifle and shot three kids and three adults. They buried the manifesto and locked down the case. We’ve seen trans shootings in Colorado and in Maryland. They even shot up an ICE facility in Texas. And it seems like half of Antifa’s trans. A couple of they-thems just got popped for firebombing Teslas.”

But when Watters raised this concern, he noted that officials like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey jumped to shut it down. He played a clip of Frey at a press conference earlier in the day when he said, “Anybody who is using this … as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity…. We should not be operating out of a place of hate for anyone…. We should be operating from a place of love for our kids.” Watters pushed back again Frey’s statement. “I don’t hate anyone who thinks they’re trans. I feel sorry for them. But statistically, the trans population has been prone to violence. That’s not villainizing, that’s reality, and if you can’t recognize reality, you’re in danger.

“We love the American people, especially American children, and if they’re troubled and believe they’re somehow a girl trapped in a boy’s body, we wanna get ’em help. We don’t wanna give ’em hormones and operate on them. Society shouldn’t be trying to produce more trans kids.” Watters continued, “We shouldn’t be encouraging an emotional disorder, or whatever this is, and doctors should stop profiting from it. Great Britain ended child sex change surgeries. They said it’s barbaric, and they’re right. And politicians should stop elevating the trans issue like it’s the civil rights struggle of the 21st century.” Still, leftist leaders doubled down on proud declarations of sanctuary for the trans community. Watters dismissed such rhetoric as absurd. “So when your nine-year-old tells you he’s a horse, do you let him sleep out in the barn and eat hay? What are we doing here?

“Just a few years ago, the psychiatric community classified transgenderism as a mental illness. Then doctors went woke and removed it as a condition, and now millions of young Americans are identifying themselves as trans and getting high fives. When someone has an illness, we should treat it instead of affirm it. We don’t celebrate schizophrenia. We don’t encourage depression.” Watters then accused the Left of weaponizing children for political aims. “Teenagers are confused…. But the Left’s weaponizing trans kids and turning them into culture warriors, and they’ve been turned loose against the Church, schools, and Trump. You see it, I see it. The trans clan has a militant wing, and it’s out for blood. They’re taking lives, defiling churches, and freaking everybody out.”

Watters got it exactly right. America’s ruling class knows there’s a disturbing connection between trans ideology and violence, yet they insist on burying the evidence under hollow slogans and woke talking points. The brutal reality is that a disturbing pattern has emerged — one that the Left dares not acknowledge because it undermines their sacred narrative. Instead, the media and politicians run interference, excusing and silencing the truth, while innocent Americans — especially our children — are left exposed as potential victims of an agenda they never asked for.

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1960858413195231453

“Ashli, age 35, was unarmed when she was fatally shot. She stood 5’3’ tall and weighed 115 pounds. Her hands were up in the air, empty…”

• Air Force Reverses Biden Admin Decision on Ashli Babbitt (TH)

The U.S. Air Force will provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran fatally shot inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd. The development comes after Judicial Watch wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urging him to “make a new determination granting military funeral honors” for Babbitt, which had been denied by the Biden administration. Senior counsel Robert Sticht asked Hegseth to consider two recent updates related to the case.

First, on January 20, 2025, President Trump granted clemency for certain offenses relating to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Presidential proclamation states, “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.” President Trump (a) commuted the sentences of certain individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021; (b) granted a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of [similar] offenses….

Second … on July 2, 2025, the United States of America paid a damage award of nearly five million dollars to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that Judicial Watch and I brought forward on behalf of the Estate of Ashli Babbitt and her husband Aaron Babbitt to ensure justice and accountability for the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt on January 6, 2021. Once again, Gen. Kelly’s denial of military funeral honors for Ashli’s funeral cannot be reconciled with this landmark legal settlement. Many well-documented facts now clearly show that the fatal shooting was not justified.

For example, Ashli was the only official homicide on January 6, 2021. Ashli, age 35, was unarmed when she was fatally shot. She stood 5’3’ tall and weighed 115 pounds. Her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and four armed officers behind him. Seven additional armed officers were behind Ashli, including four Containment and Emergency Response Team officers. Ashli posed no threat to the safety of any officer nor any Member of Congress who stayed after Member evacuation. Ashli was begging officers to call for backup before she was shot. Officers ignored Ashli.

The only shot fired that day was the one Lt. Byrd fired to kill Ashli. Lt. Byrd was not in uniform. Lt. Byrd did not identify himself as a police officer or otherwise make his presence known to Ashli. Lt. Byrd also did not give Ashli any warnings or commands before firing the shot that killed her. Ashli never saw Lt. Byrd because he was hidden from her view. She was ambushed and defenseless. Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, “you just murdered her.” Lt. Byrd later told the world on NBC Nightly News that he “had no clue” about the individual he shot. “I didn’t even know it was a female until hours, way later … that night,” he said. (Judicial Watch)

Persuaded by developments since the initial request was denied in 2021 and the circumstances of her death, Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew L. Lohmeier wrote to Babbitt’s husband and mother telling them he believe the “previous determination was incorrect.” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton praised the decision.

BREAKING: The US Air Force has RESTORED funeral honors to veteran Ashli Babbitt — reversing a vicious, political decision by the Biden regime to deny them to her and her grieving family. Thank you @RealDonaldTrump, @SecDef @PeteHegseth and @usairforce Under Sec @matthewlohmeier!… https://t.co/kdSCWkelUg

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) August 27, 2025

“Ashli Babbitt’s family is grateful to President Trump, Secretary Hegseth and Under Secretary Lohmeier for reversing the Biden Defense Department’s cruel decision to deny Ashli funeral honors as a distinguished veteran of the Air Force,” said Fitton. “Judicial Watch’s team spent years investigating, litigating, and exposing the truth about Ashli’s homicide. Judicial Watch is proud to have done its part in bringing her family a measure of justice and accountability for Ashli’s outrageous killing. And our battle for justice will continue.”

“She’s way above doing Vanity Fair..”

• Melania Trump ‘Laughed’ At Vanity Fair Offer (Miranda Devine)

Vanity Fair staffers flipping out at the prospect of First Lady Melania Trump gracing the cover can rest easy. She’s not the slightest bit interested. A fashion source familiar with the First Lady’s thinking says she “laughed” at the Vanity Fair request in July and rejected it immediately. “She doesn’t have time to be sitting in a photo shoot. Her priorities as First Lady are far more important… These people don’t deserve her anyway.” The magazine’s new global editorial director Mark Guiducci tried to woo Mrs. Trump back in July but when his employees found out this week they threatened to quit their jobs. “’If [Guiducci] puts Melania on the cover, half of the editorial staff will walk out, I guarantee it.” a mid–level editor told the Daily Mail on Monday. “I will walk out the motherf***ing door, and half my staff will follow me… If I have to work bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, I’ll do it… It sickens me.”

The snobbish staffer would probably make more money at Trader Joe’s than the slave wages paid by Conde Nast, an ailing publishing company which has been nothing but “Conde Nasty” to Mrs. Trump and her family since she first entered the East Wing in 2017. Haughty Anna Wintour famously snubbed the former model for the cover of Vogue while plastering less elegant First Ladies all over the magazine multiple times. But Mrs. Trump has no need for such low-rent validation. She is her own fashion-plate every day. In any case, she is busy with multiple projects, including “Fostering the Future” to support children in foster care, and her “Be Best” initiative from the first term, which aims to combat cyberbullying and opioid abuse. She also successfully championed the “Take It Down” Act, which requires social media platforms to remove non-consensual intimate images.

This week saw her take on a new role leading the Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge to inspire children to embrace AI technology. With her multilingual European background and geopolitical nous, she is also a valuable sounding board for her husband in foreign affairs. During recent peace talks with Russia and Ukraine, she penned a heartfelt personal letter to Vladimir Putin, which President Trump hand-delivered to the Russian leader before their summit in Alaska. Addressing him as “Dear President Putin”, she wrote: “It is time” to protect children and future generations around the globe. “In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself.” Meanwhile, she has been working on a documentary for Amazon, as well as writing a best-selling memoir and an accompanying AI-powered audiobook. “She’s way above doing Vanity Fair,” laughed the source.

Plimer

Geologist Prof. Ian Plimer: "Carbon dioxide in the past has been much, much higher than now. We're currently at 0.04%. For most of geological time, it was about 20%."

"And during that geological time when we had high carbon dioxide, we had three of the six great ice ages. So… pic.twitter.com/Y6RwC0tGA9

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) August 27, 2025

Autism
https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1961029824819994756

Cooking

The greatest cooking show ever. pic.twitter.com/cMSaubYnFc

— The Figen (@TheFigen_) August 27, 2025

Sand
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1960980678255727090

Penguin
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1960970296376045603

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Debt Rattle August 17 2025

Aug 172025

August 17, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 10:26 am Finance Tagged with: Alaska, altruistic, CCCP, DOGE, France, Germany, legacy media, Oval Office, Putin, retro, Schwarzenegger, summit, Trump, Zelensky 56 Responses »

Edward Hopper Night in the park 1921

• Putin & Trump Rewrite the Rules of Great Power Politics in Alaska (Sp.)

• Trump-Zelensky Call ‘Wasn’t Easy’ – Axios (RT)

• The Alaska Summit Was A Success. The Challenge Is To Make It Last (Amar)

• Trump Plans White House Meeting With Zelensky and European Leaders – NYT (RT)

• Trump Wants Summit With Putin And Zelensky Next Friday – Media (RT)

• President Trump Outlines a Remarkably Altruistic Intention (CTH)

• The Putin-Trump Meeting (Paul Craig Roberts)

• Visit to Alaska Was Timely and Very Useful – Putin (Sp.)

• The Legacy Media Won’t Touch These mRNA Vaccine Study Findings (Margolis)

• Who Has Been Busy Destroying Democracy? (Victor Davis Hanson)

• Merz’s Germany: 100 Days Of Economic Deep Freeze (Kolbe)

• France’s Debt Time Bomb Is Ticking Beneath The Summer Calm (Kolbe)

• Meta Faces US Probe Over AI Flirting With Kids (RT)

• DOGE’s AI Tool ‘SweetREX’ Set To Take Buzzsaw To Federal Regulations (ZH)

• Schwarzenegger Taunts Newsom With Message Targeting Dem Redistricting Push (Fox)

• Lavrov Prompts USSR Sweatshirt Craze (RT)

https://twitter.com/atensnut/status/1956538006787223966

Change

No one is more angered by this picture than: The CIA, NATO, U.K intel, GBHQ, EU, WEF, Blackrock, Globalists and Communists.

Form a strategic alliance despite this opposition, and the world changes. pic.twitter.com/oPdOPtU1eK

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) August 15, 2025

.@POTUS: "We were together almost 3 hours, and it was very extensive… a lot of points we agreed on… Now, it's really up to President Zelensky to get it done… and if they'd like, I'll be at that next meeting." pic.twitter.com/h7XbP76uIu

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 16, 2025

3am
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1956616187431047666

POSOBIEC: “It is 3am Saturday morning … President Trump did not stop working the entire time — 20 hour trip … President Trump spent the entire flight back on the phone with NATO leaders, including an extensive phone call with Zelensky.” pic.twitter.com/PPPR6HWLpm

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 16, 2025

Maher
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1956550733471289752

ActBlue
https://twitter.com/TRUMP_ARMY_/status/1956022193495634217

“On Friday, Trump said Ukraine’s security won’t come “in the form of NATO.”

I’m starting to think Trump wants a more comprehensive deal than what we’ve seen so far. And that deal, with Russia, is very important to him: it’s the way to peace. Sometime in the past few days Putin has said that talks are no use if Zelensky and Europe insist on the narrative that Russia’s Special Military Operation came out of nowhere, unprovoked. It was Ukraine that started killing Russian-speakers in the Donbass. Trump appears to agree. He had Zelensky come to the Oval Office anyway on Monday, now he invited Europe as well. So he doesn’t have to tell the same story twice. When that story is gone, what is left?

• Putin & Trump Rewrite the Rules of Great Power Politics in Alaska (Sp.)

The Putin-Trump summit was an unqualified success that could pave the way for peace in Ukraine, and the normalization of Russia-US relations for years to come. Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of research at the Russian Council on Foreign & Defense Policy, explains why. Three key reasons:

1. The summit “gave impetus” to Russia-US normalization on all fronts – from Ukraine and arms control to economic cooperation

2. Trump’s calls to Zelensky and European leaders in the meeting’s immediate aftermath signals that “negotiations were conducted on specific conditions for a final peace settlement,” not the ‘ceasefire as a prerequisite’ long demanded by Brussels and Kiev. This is “fundamentally important,” Suslov says

3. The summit was “historic” in the sense that it “made a great contribution to…laying the foundations of the future world order, a post-war world order. Because the Ukrainian conflict is, first and foremost, the largest and most severe military conflict in the world in the last few decades, and a concentrated expression of the hybrid war waged by the West against Russia.”

“The summit in Alaska was dedicated to ending this hybrid war,” demonstrating that the foundations for a future world order will be based on dialogue between great powers, on equal terms.

Now, Suslov says, it’s up to the Europeans and Zelensky to decide whether they accept the terms outlined by Putin and Trump. If they do, preparations for future meetings can begin. “If they categorically refuse, the United States will most likely completely suspend the transfer of US intelligence and stop deliveries and sales of weapons and military equipment to the Europeans for Ukraine,” which would “fundamentally and radically weaken Ukraine’s position on the battlefield and bring a Russian military victory much closer.” Suslov expects the ‘war party’ in Washington and Brussels to try to convince Trump to abandon whatever agreements were reached with Putin in Anchorage, but doesn’t expect Trump to “succumb to such provocations,” because he is much stronger politically than he was in his first term.

The second Trump administration is not on the defensive, but on the offensive, regarding the Russiagate hoax, and is in a position to accuse the Democrats of collusion and falsification in 2016, not the other way around. “Accordingly, Trump can withstand the pressure that will now be exerted upon him from Europe, from the American deep state, and from the American war party, including the terrorist extremist Senator Graham and so on,” Suslov says. Last but not least is the minutia of the summit, from the way Trump greeted Putin on the airport runway, to the flyover of US aviation, to the fact that Putin and Trump rode together in one car to the summit venue.

There was a visible “demonstration of personal affection between Putin and Trump for each other in a situation where the United States has been waging a hybrid war against Russia…and trying to inflict a strategic defeat on it” over the course of the past three years as a result of the policies of Trump’s predecessor. The overall tone, and demonstration of respect and personal sympathy, mark a “striking contrast” to the tone under the Biden administration, Suslov emphasized.

At the end of a very long day, Trump had another hours-long talk with Zelensky and Europe whining on the other end of the line.

• Trump-Zelensky Call ‘Wasn’t Easy’ – Axios (RT)

The phone call between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky after the Alaska summit on Friday “wasn’t easy,” Axios correspondent Barak Ravid claimed on Saturday, citing a source with direct knowledge. Key European leaders later joined the call as well. Trump spoke with Zelensky for about an hour, according to Ravid. Also on the line were Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, both of whom had earlier taken part in the talks with the Russian delegation. The leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Poland, as well as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, later joined the call, which lasted another 30 minutes, according to the journalist.

Ravid described the call as “not easy,” though he did not elaborate on this, adding only that Trump insisted that “a fast peace deal is better than a ceasefire.” The US president later confirmed the sentiment, writing: “It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.” Zelensky said that during the phone call with Trump the two agreed that he would come on Monday to Washington to discuss in person the outcome of the summit.

Ukraine and its Western backers have for months been pushing for a temporary ceasefire. While Russia has never ruled out the idea, it has argued that such a step would allow Kiev to receive more Western weapons, continue forced mobilization, and recover its losses at a time when Russian troops are pressing their advantage on the battlefield. Meanwhile, both Putin and Trump praised the Alaska talks as productive. The US president said that they moved closer to resolving the conflict while urging Zelensky to “make a deal.”

“..they and the mainstream media aligned with them cannot stop trying to lecture Trump on, in essence, how gullible they consider him..”

• The Alaska Summit Was A Success. The Challenge Is To Make It Last (Amar)

Do not expect Western mainstream media, NATO-EU Europe’s politicians, or the Zelensky regime and its surrogates to admit it, but there is no doubt that the Alaska summit between the Russian and American presidents was a success. Not a breakthrough either, but clearly also more than an “it’s-good-they’re-at-least-talking” event. This was not comparable to the Geneva meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then US President Joe Biden in 2021, which was doomed to fail due to the Biden administration’s hubristic intransigence. Fundamentally, both sides – no, not only one – have scored what Western pundits love to call “wins”: The US has shown the EU-NATO Europeans that it and it alone decides when and how it talks to Russia and with what aims.

The European vassals find this hard to grasp because it’s an application of genuine sovereignty, something they don’t have or want anymore. Russia, for its part, has shown that it can negotiate while the fighting continues and that it is under no legal or moral obligation – or any practical pressure – to stop fighting before negotiations show results it finds satisfying. The fact that we know so little – at this point at least – about the specific, detailed content of the summit talks and their outcomes is, actually, a sign of seriousness. That is how diplomacy worth the name works: calmly, confidentially, and patiently taking the time to achieve a decent, robust result. In that context, US President Donald Trump’s explicit refusal to make public what points of disagreement remain and have prevented a breakthrough for now is a very good sign: Clearly, he believes that they can be cleared up in the near future and, thus, deserve discretion.

Yet we do have a few hints allowing for some plausible guessing about the summit’s vibe: Not surprisingly, both leaders made no secret of their respect and even guarded sympathy for each other. That is – and has always been – a good thing, too. But in and of itself that cannot carry an agreement about Ukraine or a broader policy of normalization (or perhaps even a new détente, if we are all very lucky). For that, both Trump and Putin are too serious about adhering to national interests. More tellingly, immediately after the meeting, Trump used a Fox News interview to state three important things. He confirmed that there was “much progress,” acknowledged that the Russian president wants peace, and told Zelensky “to make a deal.” When Putin, at a short press conference, warned Brussels and Kiev not to try to sabotage the talks, Trump did not contradict the Russian leader.

The commemorative events accompanying the summit carried more than one message. Publicly honoring the American-Russian (then Soviet) alliance of World War Two obviously implied that the two countries then cooperated intensely across a deep ideological divide, which, today, does not even exist anymore. But arguably, there was a second, subtle message here: Another – if often unjustly “forgotten” (in the words of historian Rana Mitter) – ally of World War Two was, after all, China. In that sense, Putin’s deliberate and repeated invocations of the memory of Washington-Moscow cooperation was also yet another signal that Russia would not be available for any “reverse Kissinger” fantasies of splitting the Moscow-Beijing partnership. By now, Trump has had phone conversations with Kiev, as well as EU capitals. There, too, we know little.

Yet it is interesting to note that nothing we have heard about these conversations indicates another change of mind on Trump’s side. For now at least, the American president seems to leave little hope to European bellicists and the regime in Kiev that he will turn against Moscow again. There are reports that Trump may have shifted his position toward that of Russia, preferring talks about peace to the Ukrainian demand to focus on only a ceasefire first. This makes sense, especially since they and the mainstream media aligned with them cannot stop trying to lecture Trump on, in essence, how gullible they consider him. It is to be hoped that the US president has had enough of Zelensky, Bolton, the New York Times and co. telling him publicly that he is a fool about to be duped by the big bad Russians. The adequate punishment for these offensive inanities is to make triple sure their authors find themselves entirely irrelevant.

I doubt they will like what he has to say.

• Trump Plans White House Meeting With Zelensky and European Leaders – NYT (RT)

US President Donald Trump has invited European leaders to join Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky at a meeting at the White House on Monday, the New York Times has claimed, citing anonymous European officials. On Friday, Trump met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Anchorage, Alaska, in what marked the first face-to-face talks between Russian and American leaders since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The US president described the encounter as “warm,” while Putin characterized it as “frank” and “substantive.” Both men expressed tentative hopes that the summit could bring a resolution of the Ukraine conflict closer.

On Saturday, the NYT quoted its sources as saying that Trump would receive Zelensky and that “European leaders are invited to come along” as well. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian leader announced in a post on X that he would travel to the US capital on Monday. Trump later confirmed the visit. Trump will propose a plan under which Kiev would be required to cede the parts of the new Russian territories in Donbass still under Ukrainian control, according to the newspaper. In return, the Kremlin would agree to cease hostilities along the current front line elsewhere, the publication claimed. Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Moscow.

In the wake of the Alaska summit, the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Poland, and the EU issued a joint statement expressing their readiness to “work with President Trump and President Zelenskyy towards a trilateral summit with European support.” Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov earlier noted that Russia and the US have yet to discuss a potential meeting between Putin, Trump and Zelensky. Speaking to Fox Business on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that Kiev’s European backers should “put up or shut up” and stop making demands on Washington while it tries to negotiate with Moscow a way out of the Ukraine conflict.

Putin won’t negotiate with Zelensky. He’ll only turn up to sign documents.

• Trump Wants Summit With Putin And Zelensky Next Friday – Media (RT)

US President Donald Trump is seeking a trilateral summit with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as next week, Axios and CNN have reported. The meeting could take place if Trump’s Oval Office talks with Zelensky on Monday are successful, according to the outlets. On Friday, Trump met Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, in their first face to face encounter since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Trump described the talks as “warm”, while the Russian president called them “frank” and “substantive.” After the Alaska summit, Trump and Zelensky held a phone call described by the media as “not easy.” European leaders also joined the conversation, during which the US president told them “he wants to arrange a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelensky as soon as next Friday,” according to Axios.

CNN later confirmed this, adding that at least one European leader is expected to take part in the Washington talks with Zelensky, although it is not yet clear who. Later on Saturday, Trump confirmed Zelensky’s Oval Office meeting on his Truth Social network, touting a follow-up meeting with Putin that could potentially take place afterwards. He added that the goal should be a peace agreement rather than a temporary ceasefire, “which often times do not hold up.”= Moscow has insisted that a lasting settlement requires Kiev to renounce its ambitions for NATO membership, demilitarize, and recognize current territorial realities. This includes Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye as part of Russia – regions that voted to join the country in referendums held in 2014 and 2022.

Zelensky has consistently rejected any territorial concessions. Trump later told Fox News that Zelensky should “make the deal,” stressing that Putin “wants to see it done” and urging Europe to “get involved a little bit.” Putin has not ruled out direct talks with Zelensky but stressed they must be preceded by progress on a wider settlement. Moscow has also questioned Zelensky’s authority to sign binding agreements, noting that his presidential term expired last year and that no new elections have been held under martial law.

Sundance: better relations with Russia requires crushing the Russiagate hoax. That is more important to Trump than locking up Comey, Brennan et al. MAGA take notice.

• President Trump Outlines a Remarkably Altruistic Intention (CTH)

Fox News host Bret Baier was given exclusive access to President Trump during the much-anticipated summit in Alaska. Baier interviewed President Trump on Airforce One going to Anchorage and during the day’s events. In this interview, Baier asked President Trump what his expectations were going in. Trump noted it is not his place to negotiate the terms of a ceasefire on behalf of Ukraine; however, he is willing to be an intermediary in a focused effort to stop the conflict.

Stopping the killing is President Trump’s main priority and peace is the elusive prize. In the background, as previously noted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the administration accepts the conflict in Ukraine is essentially a proxy war between the former Biden administration officials, NATO warmongers, international banking interests and Russia. In a moment of genuine sunlight upon the backstory, President Trump notes he told President Putin, “There’s no way we are going to make a deal” … “impossible” … “because I have wise guys who created a phony deal,” the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, “and until those things are settled up” a reset in the relationship with Russia is impossible.

This framework essentially validates what a small group of deep weeds walkers, including myself, have suspected. From the perspective of Trump and his big picture objectives, the recent Russiagate releases and declassifications are not so much to get accountability upon the perpetrators, but rather to make the backstory so well known that a strategic reset with Russia is no longer impeded by manufactured domestic issues inside the USA. The value in Russiagate declassification and information releases, is more about laying the groundwork for a reset – and stopping the political opposition therein. That’s the Big Picture value to President Trump.

That is quite a big and significantly magnanimous position to take by President Trump. Hopefully, the MAGA base will eventually come around to this understanding, because right now they are intensely expecting criminal accountability. That’s not President Trump’s goal, he’s thinking much bigger and more consequential that holding the irrelevant gnats accountable. Apparently, Hillary Clinton can see that. It’s such a big altruistic position her tribe appears genuinely stunned. Hopefully, the base of MAGA will also accept this strategic purpose.

“Putin said that the meeting marked the transition from confrontation and threats to dialogue. This prospect alone made the meeting worthwhile. These are good results.”

• The Putin-Trump Meeting (Paul Craig Roberts)

What do we make of it? A good result came of it. Trump moved away from his demand for a ceasefire and said that it was more important to work toward a permanent peace than a ceasefire which is seldom kept. This would seem to commit Trump to addressing the root cause of the conflict, which is Russia’s insecurity with NATO all over her borders. Putin said that the meeting marked the transition from confrontation and threats to dialogue. This prospect alone made the meeting worthwhile. These are good results. In a world of nuclear weapons the level of tension had become untenable. For hopes to be realized two barriers must be recognized and overcome. One is the neoconservative doctrine of American hegemony. The other is the interest of the US military/security complex. The doctrine of hegemony requires overcoming Russia in order to achieve Washington’s unilateralism.

Is this doctrine too institutionalized to be repudiated? The budget, influence over Congress, and power of the military/security complex requires a major enemy. Russia fills that role. Peace on equal terms with Russia takes away the enemy, and the budget and influence of the military/security complex declines. There are military bases or weapon manufacturers in almost every state, which means this interest is also institutionalized as President Eisenhower warned us it would be. Therefore, the question before us is: how likely is it that Trump can get NATO and missile bases off of Russia’s border? It is not at all likely if attention cannot be directed to the basic problem. How helpful will media be? It is the wrong focus to emphasize that Putin wanted the meeting in order to show that he was not isolated and could meet with the American president like Zelensky and Netanyahu do.

The meeting was fortuitous. Trump had trapped himself. His threatened secondary sanctions or tariffs against India and other BRICS members backfired. Faced with his own 10-day deadline, he had to find a way out. He found it in an immediate meeting with Putin. For Trump the meeting was a way of getting himself off of the spot. The opportunity to wind down a confrontation that would likely end in nuclear war is based on luck. Can this lucky outcome be turned into a mutual security agreement? That depends on the strength of the neoconservatives’ doctrine of hegemony and the willingness of the military/security complex to accept declining sales and profits. Until it is realized that these two interests are the barriers to peace that must be overcome, there will be no peace process.

“We haven’t had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time. I repeat, it was an opportunity to calmly and thoroughly outline our position once again…”

• Visit to Alaska Was Timely and Very Useful – Putin (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday described his trip to Alaska to meet with US President Donald Trump as “timely and very useful.” “I want to immediately note that the visit was timely and very useful,” Putin said during a meeting following the Russia-US summit. Eliminating the root causes of the crisis in Ukraine should be the foundation of its resolution, Vladimir Putin said. “Eliminating these root causes should be the basis for the resolution,” said the president during a meeting following the Russia-US summit. Putin mentioned that during his talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska, they discussed a possible resolution to the Ukrainian crisis based on fairness. He noted that the summit provided an opportunity to calmly and thoroughly present Russia’s position.

“We haven’t had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time. I repeat, it was an opportunity to calmly and thoroughly outline our position once again,” Putin said during the meeting. The conversation in Alaska brings us closer to the necessary solutions, Putin added. He described his discussion with US President Donald Trump at the Alaska meeting as frank. “The conversation was very open and substantive, and in my opinion, it brings us closer to the necessary decisions,” Putin said. Russia would like to resolve all issues concerning Ukraine through peaceful means, President Putin stated. He also mentioned that he would provide detailed information about the conversation with President Trump during the meeting following the negotiations.

“We discussed practically all areas of interaction with US President Donald Trump,” Putin said. “I will now give you a detailed account of the entire conversation, and if there are any questions, I will gladly answer them,” he added. Russia respects the US administration’s position on the urgent need to end hostilities in Ukraine, Putin stated on Saturday. “Of course, we respect the position of the US administration, which sees the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities. And we also want this, we would like to move towards resolving all issues through peaceful means,” he concluded during the meeting. On Friday, Putin and Trump met in Anchorage, Alaska for a three-on-three format talks that lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes. In addition to the presidents, Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yury Ushakov, and the United States by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

“..”association of increased risk of COVID-19 with higher numbers of prior [mRNA] vaccine doses.”

• The Legacy Media Won’t Touch These mRNA Vaccine Study Findings (Margolis)

Earlier this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. canceled nearly $500 million worth of grants and contracts tied to mRNA vaccine development, and announced the creation of a vaccine safety task force—an effort to address decades of alleged violations of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The legacy media immediately went on the offensive, slamming the move. But now, stronger evidence has emerged showing that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines actually raise the risk of respiratory infections with each additional dose, leaving the defenders of these shots looking obstinate and unwilling to face reality. Real-world data out of Switzerland has vindicated what many of us have been warning all along: the risk-benefit equation for mRNA shots no longer makes sense for most healthy people. Just the News breaks down the new Swiss study, and its conclusions aren’t merely inconvenient—they’re downright explosive.

“The study of 1,745 Swiss healthcare workers over several months in 2023 and 2024, published this month in the peer-reviewed Nature publication Communications Medicine, adds support to Cleveland Clinic research from 2022 on 51,000 employees that unexpectedly found “association of increased risk of COVID-19 with higher numbers of prior [mRNA] vaccine doses.” Those who recently got a COVID booster “were more likely to report symptoms” of influenza-like illnesses and take sick leave, while those who got seasonal flu vaccines were less likely to do so, according to the SURPRISE+ Study Group, a research collaborative that studies health outcomes in healthcare workers. (COVID testing had been phased out by then.)”

The study concluded that “COVID-19 boosters may not offer clear short-term benefits in a post-pandemic setting, and may even increase short-term illness risk.” It further warned that routinely boosting “young to middle-aged, healthy individuals” may not meet the basic risk-benefit threshold. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. The same experts who demanded we blindly trust mRNA technology were also the ones insisting it made sense to vaccinate children against COVID—a claim that never held water. But I digress.

“The Swiss study improves on prior research that found an association between doses and reinfection by virtue of its highly granular data, including by matching comorbidities in the jabbed with the unvaccinated and nailing down inoculation dates, according to former New York Times drug industry reporter Alex Berenson. While the predominantly Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen researchers found the heightened risk of infection ebbs over time, that provides “further evidence the shots themselves, not some hidden statistical factor, are increasing it,” Berenson wrote in his newsletter.” We really need to think about the implications of this, and about how and why mRNA vaccines were suddenly thrust upon us. Though we kind of already know why. About a year before COVID hit, Dr. Anthony Fauci joined a panel at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit to discuss moving from traditional vaccines to mRNA technology.

New Yorker writer Michael Specter suggested “blowing up the system,” since vaccines were still being made largely the same way they were in the 1940s. Fauci acknowledged the potential, but stressed that approval of new vaccines required lengthy trials—phase one through three—followed by years of data, which he said could take a decade even under ideal conditions. Rick Bright, then head of HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), added that a disruptive event might be needed to bypass bureaucracy. He floated the idea that an outbreak of a novel avian virus in China could spur such change, with the RNA sequence shared quickly to produce vaccines—potentially even printed at home on patches for self-administration. Enter the COVID pandemic mere months later.

“Who ordered the FBI to connive and partner with social media conglomerates to censor accurate news deemed unhelpful to the 2020 Biden campaign?

• Who Has Been Busy Destroying Democracy? (Victor Davis Hanson)

“Destroying democracy” — the latest theme of the left — can be defined in many different ways. How about attempting to destroy constitutional, ancient, and hallowed institutions simply to suit short-term political gains? So, who in 2020, and now once again, has boasted about packing the 156-year-old, nine-justice Supreme Court? Who talks frequently about destroying the 187-year-old Senate filibuster–though only when they hold a Senate majority? Who wants to bring in an insolvent left-wing Puerto Rico and redefine the 235-year-old District of Columbia — by altering the Constitution — as two new states solely to obtain four additional liberal senators? Who is trying to destroy the constitutionally mandated 235-year Electoral College by circumventing it with the surrogate “The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact?”

Does destroying democracy also entail weaponizing federal bureaucracies, turning them into rogue partisan arms of a president? So who ordered the CIA to concoct bogus charges of “collusion” to sabotage Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, the 2016-2017 transition, and the first 22 months of Trump’s first term? Who prompted a cabal of “51 former intelligence officials” to lie to the American people on the eve of the last debate of the 2020 election that the FBI-authenticated Hunter Biden laptop was instead the work of a “Russian intelligence operation?” Who ordered the FBI to connive and partner with social media conglomerates to censor accurate news deemed unhelpful to the 2020 Biden campaign?

Who pulled off the greatest presidential coup in history by using surrogates in the shadows to run the cognitively debilitated Biden presidency, then by fiat canceled his reelection effort, and finally anointed as his replacement the new nominee Kamala Harris, who had never won a single primary delegate? Who ordered FBI SWAT teams to invade the home of a former president because of a classification dispute over 102 files out of some 13,000 stored there? Who tried to remove an ex-president and leader of his party from at least 25 state ballots to deprive millions of Americans of the opportunity to vote for or against him? Who coordinated four local, state, and federal prosecutors to destroy a former and future president by charging him with fantasy crimes that were never before, and will never again be, lodged against anyone else?

Who appointed a federal prosecutor to go after the ex-president, who arranged for a high-ranking Justice Department official to step down to join a New York prosecutor’s efforts to destroy an ex-president, and who met in the White House with a Georgia county prosecutor seeking to destroy an ex-president — all on the same day — a mere 72 hours after Trump announced his 2024 reelection bid? Who but the current Democrats ever impeached a president twice? Has any party ever tried an ex-president in the Senate when he was out of office and a mere private citizen?

“Fear-Driven Shock Paralysis.”

“Merz would need to break the ideological wall of his structurally leftist coalition, cancel the Green Deal with Brussels, and restore diplomatic relations with Moscow to turn the tide. Germany is light-years from such a paradigm shift..”

• Merz’s Germany: 100 Days Of Economic Deep Freeze (Kolbe)

The extreme imbalances in Germany’s social system – resulting from the recession, demographic aging, and uncontrolled migration – cannot be blamed on Merz any more than the hyperstate-like public sector, now managing half of all economic output through its channels. The energy crisis is also a fact the new government must confront, layered atop a complex mix of structural deficits that have rendered Germany nearly untouchable in the global competitive landscape. The question must be: Has Merz at least recognized the severity of the country’s economic crisis? And if so, what measures does his government plan to reverse it? In the third year of recession and with a loss of 700,000 jobs since 2019, it is clear Berlin knows the political course leads Germany toward catastrophe.

On the plus side, Merz can claim his so-called “investment booster,” mainly composed of two measures: the temporary reintroduction of declining balance depreciation until 2029 and a corporate tax cut from 15% to 10% starting 2028. These measures would relieve the economy by €11.3 billion, roughly 0.23% of GDP—laughably small given the economy already carries €146 billion in unnecessary bureaucracy costs. Merz should have wielded the chainsaw here, but no German politician dares challenge a bureaucracy that has grown into a state within a state, adding half a million employees in the last six years. Merz’s original promise to cut electricity taxes for business and consumers also signals, unspoken, that the green transition is seen as the root of the energy crisis, driving energy-intensive firms out of the country. Last year alone, €64.5 billion in direct investments left Germany, a long-standing trend now accelerating.

Consequently, Germany is losing its economic foundation, on the verge of becoming Europe’s Rust Belt, much like parts of the US. Yet Berlin does nothing: no electricity tax cut, no return to nuclear, no scrapping of the burdensome heating law. Merz refuses any reforms in the green transition. We are witnessing the continuation of Habeck’s deindustrialization agenda. Merz avoids all conflict with Brussels’ Green Deal. The core of centralist policy, the key to Germany’s economic liberation, remains untouched, regardless of how sharply the recession bites. An orderly withdrawal of the state from the frozen energy sector, weighed down by subsidies and regulations, is nowhere in sight. Talks with Moscow over gas imports are unthinkable—Brussels stubbornly polishes the 19th sanctions package. Merz watches as a policy takes root that delivers Germany a fatal economic blow.

Even social fund problems, the scandalous citizen’s allowance, now promoted globally as aid for migrants, fall under economic policy. Like a rabbit before a snake, the government freezes amid widening deficits, attempting to fix health and pension insurance with new debt and supplementary transfers. Only an effective migration policy shift and painful reforms to social benefits could reverse the downward spiral. Merz allows Germany to head toward French-style conditions—his historically and legally dubious €1 trillion debt program will push Germany into the middle ranks of European debt states, raising the debt-to-GDP ratio to 95%, turning the federal budget into an unbearable weight. Infrastructure spending is nice, but with social funds in crisis and defense commitments rising, resources will barely suffice to maintain existing assets.

Unless Germany’s economic course turns 180 degrees, this government will go down as a temporary continuation of the red-green agenda and a footnote in the country’s history. With a coalition backed by the Left, Merz lacks the political capital and personal reform drive to pull Germany out of crisis. In Argentina today, one can observe the recipe for political turnaround: drastic state downsizing and deregulation should guide policy. The state’s share must shrink enough that private markets regain control of investment allocation. Merz would need to break the ideological wall of his structurally leftist coalition, cancel the Green Deal with Brussels, and restore diplomatic relations with Moscow to turn the tide. Germany is light-years from such a paradigm shift. Until then, the economic substance left by two postwar generations will be politically squandered.

If only they had a printer…

• France’s Debt Time Bomb Is Ticking Beneath The Summer Calm (Kolbe)

France remains a politically immovable monolith. A toxic mix of a ballooning budget deficit, an overgrown welfare state, and a persistent recession makes the country a prime candidate for a full-blown sovereign debt crisis. If the government fails to pass its budget, Europe could be in for a heated autumn. Cuts to social benefits, pension freezes, or reductions in health coverage have historically ended in general strikes, highway blockades, or suburban riots. The media tends to romanticize this as “character strength” — a people resisting the stingy state and fighting for their rights. What’s left unsaid is that France operates with a staggering government spending ratio of 57% of GDP — the largest welfare state in the EU, possibly even the democratic world champion of redistribution. This deeply socialist policy mix has driven the country into a fiscal and economic dead end.

Public debt stands at around 114% of GDP, with Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government planning fresh borrowing of 5.4% of GDP this year — figures so far removed from the defunct Maastricht criteria they make you dizzy. In July, Bayrou managed to trim the projected deficit from 5.8% to 5.4%, a €5 billion reduction. But in the face of a €3 trillion debt mountain, this is less than a drop in the bucket — a faint pulse from a policy in terminal decline. Bond markets have taken notice: yields on 10-year French debt have climbed 30 basis points over the past year to 3.3%. That means at least €67 billion in interest costs this year — €16 billion more than last year — squeezing government room to maneuver like ice melting on the Côte d’Azur.

For now, the summer news drought has swallowed the debt crisis narrative. Since Bayrou’s mid-July reform package, the media has gone silent. In truth, budgets like France’s, Spain’s, or Italy’s have only been kept afloat thanks to the ECB’s willingness to crush bond market unrest with massive interventions — a habit developed since the last debt crisis 15 years ago. Short of Luxembourg, no major EU state could fend off a sovereign debt crisis alone. At this point, real reforms may already be too late: any drastic cuts would collapse economies hooked on subsidies, cheap credit, and state interventionism, triggering mass unemployment and social unrest.

Still, Paris seems to have recognized the urgency. Three weeks ago, Bayrou unveiled the next consolidation package: €44 billion in spending cuts for next year (about 1.5% of GDP). The plan includes a hiring freeze for civil servants, merging inefficient agencies, and freezing welfare and pensions in 2026 at 2025 levels — a “blank year” for the welfare state. Only the defense budget will rise, in line with NATO demands. Wealthy taxpayers will lose certain breaks, the healthcare system will be trimmed, and sick leave will be monitored more strictly. If the economy holds, the deficit could drop to 4.6% next year, with the government aiming for Maastricht’s 3% cap by 2029. But given France’s track record, few expect the numbers to hold once the social peace bill comes due.

Excuse me? Not on my bingo card.

• Meta Faces US Probe Over AI Flirting With Kids (RT)

US Senators will probe Facebook’s parent company Meta after revelations that its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots could engage children in conversations of a romantic or sensual nature. The investigation was announced Friday by Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo), who chairs a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism, with backing from fellow panel member Marsha Blackburn. Congress must determine whether “Meta’s generative-AI products enable exploitation, deception, or other criminal harms to children, and whether Meta misled the public or regulators about its safeguards,” Hawley said.

He demanded that the company immediately hand over internal documents. The scrutiny follows a Reuters investigation that revealed Meta’s internal AI policies allowed chatbots on its platforms to flirt with minors. One guideline cited by Reuters permitted bots to describe a child as having a “youthful form [that] is a work of art,” even as the rules technically barred describing under-13s as sexually desirable. It would be acceptable for a bot to tell a shirtless eight-year-old that “every inch of you is a masterpiece – a treasure I cherish deeply,” the document states.

Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity to Reuters, said it is being revised, and acknowledged such conversations “never should have been allowed.” The case marks the latest in a string of controversies for Meta, which faces mounting legal and regulatory scrutiny in the US and Europe over privacy, antitrust, and data practices. Critics have argued that in its drive for rapid growth and profits, the company fostered online harm, whether by amplifying hate speech and misinformation to boost engagement or by failing to safeguard user data. More recently, the US tech giant has invested billions to position itself as a leader in artificial intelligence.

“DOGE is likely to use the AI tool to eliminate up to 50% of 200,000 federal regulations by January 2026.”

“On Tuesday, a federal appeals court cleared a key hurdle for DOGE, rejecting a labor union effort to restrict the agency’s access to sensitive U.S. user data from government agencies.”

• DOGE’s AI Tool ‘SweetREX’ Set To Take Buzzsaw To Federal Regulations (ZH)

Following Elon Musk’s exit from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Democrats and mainstream media have largely turned their attention elsewhere. Yet, DOGE is quietly making steady progress on an ambitious plan to overhaul federal regulations, according to a report. Central to the effort is an AI tool under development, the SweetREX Deregulation AI Plan Builder (SweetREX DAIP), designed to “promote prudent financial management and alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.” The little-known project is being spearheaded by Christopher Sweet, a DOGE staffer initially presented as a “special assistant,” who was, until recently, a third-year student at the University of Chicago. WIRED reports:

“SweetREX was developed by associates of DOGE operating out of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The plan is to roll it out to other US agencies. Members of the call included staffers from across the government, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among others. Leading Wednesday’s call alongside Sweet was Scott Langmack, a DOGE-affiliated senior adviser at HUD and, according to his LinkedIn profile, the COO of technology company Kukun. (WIRED previously reported that he had application-level access to critical HUD systems; Kukun is a proptech firm that is, according to its website, “on a long-term mission to aggregate the hardest to find data.”) While Sweet led the development side of SweetREX, Langmack said he was taking point on demoing the tool for different agencies and pitching them on its benefits.”

DOGE is likely to use the AI tool to eliminate up to 50% of 200,000 federal regulations by January 2026. A DOGE PowerPoint presentation, titled the “DOGE Deregulation Opportunity,” projects that the effort could yield $3.3 trillion annually in economic benefits. “The DOGE experts creating these plans are the best and brightest in the business and are embarking on a never-before-attempted transformation of government systems and operations to enhance efficiency and effectiveness,” an administration spokesperson told the Washington Post, which first reported on the DOGE presentation.

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court cleared a key hurdle for DOGE, rejecting a labor union effort to restrict the agency’s access to sensitive U.S. user data from government agencies. In a 2-1 decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court’s injunction that had blocked DOGE from accessing data held by the U.S. Department of Education, Treasury Department, and Office of Personnel Management, citing potential violations of federal privacy laws, according to Fox News.

“He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people..”

• Schwarzenegger Taunts Newsom With Message Targeting Dem Redistricting Push (Fox)

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pumping up for a new fight. The longtime Hollywood action star, the last Republican governor in Democrat-dominated California, says he’s mobilizing to oppose the push by current Gov. Gavin Newsom to temporarily scrap the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission. “I’m getting ready for the gerrymandering battle,” Schwarzenegger wrote in a social media post Friday, which included a photo of the former professional bodybuilding champion lifting weights. Schwarzenegger, who rose to worldwide fame as the star of the film “The Terminator” four decades ago, wore a T-shirt in the photo that said “terminate gerrymandering.” The social media post by Schwarzenegger comes as Democratic leaders in the Democrat- dominated California legislature are moving forward with new proposed congressional district maps that would create up to five more blue-leaning US House seats in the nation’s most populous state.

Newsom on Thursday teamed up in Los Angeles with congressional Democrats and legislative leaders in the heavily blue state to unveil their redistricting playbook. Newsom and the Democrats are aiming to counter the ongoing effort by President Donald Trump and Republicans to create up to five GOP-friendly congressional districts in red state Texas at the expense of Democrat-controlled seats. “Today is liberation day in the state of California,” Newsom said. “Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back.” Newsom vowed to “meet fire with fire” with his push for a rare — but not unheard of — mid-decade redistricting. The Republican push in Texas, which comes at Trump’s urging, is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to pad its razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the 2018 midterms. While the Republican push in Texas to upend the current congressional maps doesn’t face constitutional constraints, Newsom’s path in California is much more complicated. The governor is pushing to hold a special election this year to get voter approval to undo the constitutional amendments that created the nonpartisan redistricting commission. A two-thirds majority vote in the Democrat-dominated California legislature as early as next week would be needed to hold the referendum. Democratic Party leaders are confident they’ll have the votes to push the constitutional amendment and the new proposed congressional maps through the legislature.

“Here we are in open and plain sight before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm election, and here [Trump] is once again trying to rig the system,” Newsom charged. Newsom said his plan is “not complicated. We’re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor in the state of Texas and said, ‘Find me five seats.’ We’re doing it in reaction to that act.” The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said “Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s Constitution and trample over democracy — running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought, and power is the only priority.” But Newsom defended his actions, saying “we’re working through a very transparent, temporary and public process. We’re putting the maps on the ballot and putting the power to the people.”

Thursday’s appearance by Newsom, considered a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, also served as a fundraising kickoff to raise massive amounts of campaign cash needed to sell the redistricting push statewide in California. The nonpartisan redistricting commission, created over 15 years ago, remains popular among most Californians, according to public opinion polling. That’s why Newsom and California Democratic lawmakers are promising not to scrap the commission entirely, but rather replace it temporarily by the legislature for the next three election cycles. “We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census, but we are asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting,” Newsom said. Their efforts are opposed by a number of people supportive of the nonpartisan commission.

Among the most visible members is likely to be Schwarzenegger. “He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people,” Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell told Politico earlier this month. “He’s opposed to what Texas is doing, and he’s opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing.” Schwarzenegger, during his tenure as governor, had a starring role in the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that took the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and placed it in the hands of an independent commission.

“Most people don’t really think about an independent commission much, one way or another. And that’s both an opportunity and a challenge for Newsom,” Jack Pitney, an American politics professor at California’s Claremont McKenna College, told Fox News. “It’s going to take a lot of effort and money to energize Democrats and motivate them to show up at the polls,” Pitney said, adding Newsom’s effort “is all about motivating people who don’t like Trump.”

If Russia does retro, it must be an evil plan.

• Lavrov Prompts USSR Sweatshirt Craze (RT)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has sparked a shopping frenzy after he was seen arriving in Alaska in a white sweater with bold black letters spelling “USSR” across the chest. The item sold out overnight, according to its maker. Lavrov was part of the Russian delegation accompanying President Vladimir Putin for talks with US President Donald Trump on Friday. The nearly three-hour summit in Anchorage included senior officials from both sides and focused on ending the Ukraine conflict. Lavrov drew attention as he stepped out of his car in a white long-sleeved sweater marked with “CCCP” – the Russian letters for USSR – across the chest, layered under a black padded vest.

https://twitter.com/NinaByzantina/status/1956665145633251661

The sweater featured black stripes on the cuffs, giving it a retro Soviet look. Yekaterina Varlakova, owner of SelSovet – the Chelyabinsk-based label that produced the sweater – said demand spiked as soon as Lavrov was seen wearing it. “The photo caused a sensation. All available pieces were gone by yesterday morning. Customers can now only pre-order, with delivery expected in one to one and a half months,” she told TASS on Saturday. SelSovet, founded in 2017, rose to prominence by 2021 through social media with the brand mixing retro design with Soviet imagery.

Some media outlets suggested Lavrov’s choice of sweater was a deliberate reminder of Ukraine’s past status as part of the Soviet Union, though Lavrov himself has made no comment on his attire. In recent years, Soviet-themed culture has enjoyed renewed popularity in Russia, with retro cafés, bars, and clothing lines embracing the style. Designers describe these items as part of the country’s identity, noting that Soviet imagery is increasingly seen as shared history and cultural pride.

Covid is no threat to children. But mRNA is.

A report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that a staggering 120,000 American children “DIED SUDDENLY” following the rollout of the mRNA Covid jabs. pic.twitter.com/MGGtfNx8Jw

— healthbot (@thehealthb0t) August 16, 2025

https://twitter.com/realDaveReilly/status/1956502954229522582

Theotokos
https://twitter.com/NinaByzantina/status/1956503381243204087

RFK

The CDC held Secret Meetings about the rise of autism

"They looked at one vaccine, which is the hepatitis B vaccine.

They looked at kids who had gotten it in the first 30 days and there was a 10,000% increase." pic.twitter.com/3UlMoHYAXx

— healthbot (@thehealthb0t) August 16, 2025

CO2
https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1956637394238672970

72,000

Meet Romulus & Remus—the world’s first de-extinct animals brought back from extinction using DNA from 72,000-year-old fossils.

Follow to watch these dire wolves grow and to discover the next species we’re working to bring back.

— Colossal Biosciences® (@colossal) August 13, 2025

Raw milk

Mark McAfee: "The reason people drink raw milk is so their immune systems are adaptive to threats. The studies in Europe are very clear about that. The kids that drink raw milk don't get the flu and don't get the cold. Those are viruses. Every year, they don't get that for 10… pic.twitter.com/rh6UFkR528

— Camus (@newstart_2024) August 15, 2025

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

Debt Rattle June 29 2025

Jun 292025

June 29, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:32 am Finance Tagged with: CO2, Digital Services Tax, Gaza, Germany, IDF, JK Rowling, jurisprudence, Planned Parenthood, Red Sea, Trump tax bill 43 Responses »

Paul Gauguin Palm trees on Martinique 1887

• Trump’s Iran Strike: Executive Leadership Versus Autopen Presidency (Stepman)

• A War, Three Victories, And The Usual Loser (Dionísio)

• Understanding The War On The Southern Front Against Russia (Helmer)

• Senate Republicans Revise Trump Tax Bill To Win Over Holdouts (ZH)

• Senate Advances Trump Tax & Spending Bill In Saturday Night Vote (ZH)

• Zelensky Is ‘Politically Dead’ – Russia’s Top UN Diplomat (RT)

• Scott Bessent Explains Response to Canada’s Digital Services Tax (CTH)

• The Chilling Jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (Turley)

• Ukraine In NATO Would Mean WWIII – Orban (RT)

• IDF Soldiers Confirm Lethal Weapons Routinely Used On Crowds In Gaza (ZH)

• Red Sea Ships Faking Links To Russia And China To Dodge Attacks – Reuters (RT)

• 12,000 German Companies Went Bust In Six Months (RT)

• Supreme Court Decision Allows States To Defund Planned Parenthood (ZH)

• J.K. Rowling Destroyed Trans Ideology With One Savage Tweet (Margolis)

• 1900 Scientists Say ‘Climate Change Not Caused By CO2’ (Keenan)

I have an infection in my left eye (cornea). I see nothing with it. But because anti-biotics eyedrops seem to work (I don’t see the difference), doctors have so far decided against surgery. It will be a long term healing process. In the meantime, i am stuck at home. Can’t drive. The hospital visits have already cost me a fortune in cabs (50 euros each way, 4x a week). If you see typos, now you know why.

BTW: donations to TAE via Paypal and Patreon have fallen off a cliff over the past year. We can’t keep going like this. We should have a serious conversation about that. I’ve said it before: if our 5,000-strong core group of readers would all pay just $1 per month, we would be fine. It is easy.

BANNON: The smear that someone is anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic is done. People are tired of it. We’re Americans. We can talk about this stuff. Call us any name you want. The America First movement doesn’t care. That’s why Trump won in 16, 20, and came back in 24. Now his agenda is… pic.twitter.com/YC2tlxzK0b

— Grace Chong, MBI (@gc22gc) June 28, 2025

RICKARDS: The idea that this had to be within days is not true. Not saying there’s no danger. I’m saying it was not imminent.

BANNON: What our “ally” did was a bald-faced lie. We’re going to shut it all down, bc it’s out of control. We could have gotten sucked into a major war. pic.twitter.com/G8PRrlpul2

— Grace Chong, MBI (@gc22gc) June 27, 2025

BANNON: What Netanyahu said was a bald-faced lie. Just like the weapons of mass destruction lie. No evidence has been presented to support what he said. What our “ally” did was a lie. That’s not what allies do. This almost dragged us into a major war. pic.twitter.com/53iVpY08n8

— Grace Chong, MBI (@gc22gc) June 27, 2025

BANNON: We don’t have the luxury of being distracted from America’s real crises.

Radicals are taking over New York, LA, and Chicago while sanctuary policies cripple law enforcement.

If we don’t act now, we lose this republic. Full stop. pic.twitter.com/kHrRGBKEEh

— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) June 27, 2025

Thiel
https://twitter.com/upholdreality/status/1938609364274729106

https://twitter.com/RussiaIsntEnemy/status/1938622902808563915

Iran Releases New Epstein Tape Proving Israel is Threatening to Assassinate Trump

According to verified intelligence out of Tehran, Israel is threatening to assassinate Donald Trump – just as they did with JFK – unless he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors and falls in… pic.twitter.com/H55SXJORPL

— TPV Sean (@tpvsean) June 27, 2025

I recommend leaving any city that can have this conversation out loud. https://t.co/3xYoBlzMm1

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) June 28, 2025

“Whatever one can say about the wisdom of striking Iran or of the president’s larger foreign policy strategy, it’s hard to say this is anything other than a success..”

• Trump’s Iran Strike: Executive Leadership Versus Autopen Presidency (Stepman)

“This wasn’t a Pentagon operation. This was a Donald Trump operation. He came up with the PR. He chose the plans. He chose the day.” That’s a quote from news site Axios of a reportedly senior administration official about President Donald Trump’s role in conducting the operation to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on Sunday. Lost in debates about what American policy should be toward Iran, Israel, and the Middle East was a reminder about the need for executive leadership in handling foreign policy crises. It’s a demonstration of the danger the previous White House put the country in by not having a commander in chief with his wits about him. Not only was this episode a demonstration of Trump’s individual abilities as a president, but it’s also a lesson in the difference between a presidency directed by individual initiative and accountability versus a presidency by committee.

While plenty of commentators on the Left and seemingly as much on the Right were critical of Trump’s decisions from moment to moment, what seemed clear is that Trump had a larger strategic plan and executed on it. Trump has been, even before his political career began, consistent about his belief that Iran should not get a nuclear weapon. A document released in February practically telegraphed his position of applying “maximum pressure” on the government of Iran to get it to abandon its nuclear ambitions and stop supporting terrorism. He then went on a major “commerce, not chaos” campaign in the Middle East to ensure friendly, cooperative relations with Iran’s neighbors. Trump gave Iran a 60-day window to change its ways.

When that didn’t happen, he was happy to let a regional ally strike the country while at the last minute of a short and decisive campaign, the U.S. military dropped some very big bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Now, despite a few initial hiccups, it appears we have a ceasefire and hopefully the end of Iran’s nuclear program for a while. There were a lot of ways this timeline could have gone very badly. But Trump not only managed the difficult diplomacy of the strikes, he also staved off many concerns about the possibility of another American “forever war” in the Middle East that the American people have rightfully become deeply weary with and wary of. Not to mention, after some drastic changes at the Pentagon in the first days of his second term, he trusted the U.S. military to get a limited but challenging job done.

Whatever one can say about the wisdom of striking Iran or of the president’s larger foreign policy strategy, it’s hard to say this is anything other than a success. Trump’s style of leadership couldn’t be more different from Joe Biden’s, well, “leadership.” The contrast between Trump’s “12-day war” and the previous administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is a good place to start. Both Trump and Biden had publicly expressed the desire to leave Afghanistan for years leading up to the withdrawal. America’s continual presence in that country two decades after 9/11 had become deeply unpopular.

“This time, we witness an empire already stripped of its rings, now forced to sacrifice its fingers.”

• A War, Three Victories, And The Usual Loser (Dionísio)

Will there no longer be wars like in the past, where the victorious side was easily identified? The truth is, considering the statements and propaganda from the three main contenders involved in the conflict sparked by Israel, something unusual has happened: all parties have declared themselves winners! Before analyzing the relative positions of each contender, we must establish the following preliminary points: This ambiguity in how we classify the outcome of the dispute for each party is typical of the intermediate moment we find ourselves in. Consequently, each party’s assessments suffer from the partial way they analyze the event, focusing on the relationship between their starting point and their self-defined endpoint.

The problem is that the “endpoint” not only differs for each party but also the outcome—the dialectical synthesis of the Israel-US/Iran-Islam-BRICS contradiction—remains unpredictable at this stage. None of the parties can claim to have reached or know the final result. In this sense, everyone settles for tactical advantages, more or less significant. In this context, all can claim victory because we are still in that intermediate phase where advances, retreats, losses, and gains are not only mutual but can also be overvalued by some at the expense of others. When the final reckoning comes, this ambiguity will disappear—only to resurface later.

Let us remember that even in the embryonic phase of the Ukraine war, the entire West claimed victory. On the other side, the Russian Federation did the same. As the conflict evolved and its fundamental components became clearer, it became increasingly difficult for the parties to ambiguously classify their positions. Today, it is undeniable that the Russian Federation holds a significant advantage, and the West is beginning to admit defeat. The warmongering and militaristic paranoia gripping the European Union stems from this desperation caused by the looming sense of defeat, now impossible to hide. No matter how much the conflict between Iran and the US/Israel is frozen, no matter how much the final escalation is avoided, there will come a moment of reckoning. Until then, everyone will claim victory—until they can no longer do so.

A conflict that did not begin now, but 78 years ago.This conflict took decisive shape—became inevitable—with the Nakba in 1948 and continued with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The shockwaves from the occupation of Palestinian territories and over a century of Western intervention in the region inevitably led to events like the Islamic Revolution, secretly supported by the US and UK at the time. In 1979, the most powerful contender the West and Israel would face in their hegemonic dominance of the Middle East was born. A contender hardened by decades of sanctions, regime change attempts, a brutal war waged by the US and Saddam Hussein, and constant sabotage, boycotts, and corruption on its soil. As the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Sherman Narwani of The Cradle aptly notes that this US intervention marks a new moment in Western Asia, signaling the end of “proxy wars.” In her assessment, in a conventional war, with boots on the ground and considering geographical advantages, Iran is a peer to the US. This time, we witness an empire already stripped of its rings, now forced to sacrifice its fingers. Lacking a suicidal country whose elite would throw itself against Iran in the name of “democracy and human rights”—as others did, like Iraq, always with disastrous results for themselves—and with the Arab emirs paying in oil and petrodollars to be left alone, the US oligarchy had to turn to its prodigal son and its resources to attack Iran.

This was done under the assumption that if things went badly for Israel, the outpost could always count on the big brother (literally, figuratively, and in the Orwellian sense). In Ukraine, NATO and the US also found it necessary to get directly involved in the conflict, even if masking—with Russian consent—this intervention with “contractors,” “technicians,” “consultants,” and the like. The example of Georgia, among others, shows that the Ukrainian example is being studied in the region, just as the Syrian, Libyan, and Iraqi ones were. With the rings gone, it’s time for the empire to use its fingers.

“Putin wishes better but knows – especially now – that the good Germans are outnumbered and outgunned, and the bad Germans are planning for worse..”

• Understanding The War On The Southern Front Against Russia (Helmer)

In warfighting against Russia’s enemies, President Vladimir Putin makes mistakes. He admits as much. Unequalled among the current leaders of the enemy states, he has the capability to correct his mistakes quickly. That’s one of the reasons for his unequalled domestic voter support. Also, Putin is an attentive listener; he brooks criticism on condition it is not intended in a plan for regime change. Every ten years or so, Putin knows that Russia’s main enemies – the US, Germany, the UK – have come up with, will always come up with regime-changing schemes employing Trojan horses, Fifth Columns and quislings inside Russia. These started for Putin with the Chechen secession. After he had defeated that, they were followed by the plotting of the oligarchs around Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky and ended with Alexei Navalny.

Putin is well enough educated in the methods of analysis of Marxism-Leninism to understand that for Russia, regime change and warfighting, also class struggle, race war and imperialism, are constant and inevitable. Because of what the Germans did to the Russian people at the time of his father, mother, brother, and uncles, Putin knows there is only the deterrence of superior force to stop the Germans repeating themselves; killing Germans is a generational necessity for Russia’s survival. Putin wishes better but knows – especially now – that the good Germans are outnumbered and outgunned, and the bad Germans are planning for worse with US encouragement and armament, as before.

With the British and the Americans, Putin has tried a combination of traditional economic inducements, regular espionage, and manipulation in the manner of Felix Dzerzhinsky’s Trust.* In the calculus of the force required for divide-and-rule and warfighting against the Anglo-American empires, Putin has also understood that time is needed to rebuild Russia’s capacities, economic and military, from the level of destruction which Washington inflicted through the time of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin capitulations. In correcting his predecessors’ mistakes and their misjudgements of the Americans, Putin has been a quick study but a slow learner. Then there is Putin’s philosemitism in dealing with the Jewish state.

Joseph Stalin believed Israel to be an anti-imperial ally, but it has turned into a battleship for the empire in destroying all of Russia’s traditional Arab allies, and now Iran — the last holdout before Putin must fight a war on the southern front. There, Putin’s policy towards Iran combines two hundred years of Russian trial-and-error, some of the errors fatal ones. In the tradition of male loyalties in the Russian tusovka – mishpocha is the Jewish concept – Putin is both comfortable with and dutiful towards the Jewish men he shared his Leningrad boyhood with. Such loyalty is lifelong. No Russian can forget – even if Americans, Germans and British make a point and policy of forgetting – that they survived the war but not their grandparents, fathers, brothers and womenfolk.

Putin has been persuaded that the 15% of Israel’s population who are Russian by language, history, and habit are an extension of the tusovka to which he should show the loyalty which survivors must show each other. There has been nothing comparable towards the Iranian side; towards the Arab world, genuine Russian sympathy and cultural orientalism died with Yevgeny Primakov (1929-2015). Ties of trade, investment, and military cooperation are a poor substitute, as unpredictable and as fraudulent as the spot and future markets in commodities, including money itself.

Too big, too beautiful?!

• Senate Republicans Revise Trump Tax Bill To Win Over Holdouts (ZH)

Senate Republicans unveiled a revised version of President Trump’s $4.2 trillion tax package early Saturday morning, making targeted concessions on state tax deductions, Medicaid policy, and renewable energy provisions in an effort to unite their caucus ahead of a July 4 deadline set by the White House. The updated draft reflects compromises among Senate GOP factions that have sparred for weeks over how aggressively to cut social safety net programs and whether to roll back clean energy incentives enacted under the Biden administration. The legislation, if passed, would serve as the centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s second-term economic agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced that voting on the bill would begin Saturday afternoon, with a final vote potentially coming as soon as Sunday.

If it does pass the Senate, Republican leaders have indicated they will call House members back to Washington early next week in hopes of sending the legislation to the president’s desk before Independence Day. However, it remains uncertain whether all 50 Republican senators are prepared to back the measure. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said Saturday on Fox News that he would oppose beginning debate on the bill immediately, citing the need for more time. “This is an important bill,” Johnson said. “There’s no need to rush it.” To address concerns from House Republicans representing high-tax states, the new draft raises the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction from $10,000 to $40,000 for five years. The cap would snap back to its original level thereafter, with a modest 1% annual increase during the interim period. The deduction would begin phasing out for taxpayers earning more than $500,000 annually.

A House provision aimed at curbing SALT workarounds used by pass-through businesses was stripped from the text. While fiscal conservatives have criticized the SALT compromise as overly generous, the deal is expected to secure the support of swing-district Republicans and has been endorsed by the White House. Senate Republicans also removed a controversial Section 899 “revenge tax” on foreign companies and investors following concerns from Wall Street and a request from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The legislation makes permanent the individual and corporate tax cuts first enacted in 2017 and introduces new temporary breaks for tipped workers, seniors, and car buyers. In a nod to moderate Republicans, the revised bill creates a $25 billion rural hospital fund intended to mitigate the effects of Medicaid spending reductions that critics warn could threaten services in underserved areas.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine had pressed for a $100 billion allocation but has not yet commented on whether the smaller fund will earn her support. The new version delays the full impact of a 3.5% cap on state Medicaid provider taxes from 2031 to 2032. The cap, which would begin phasing in by 2028, applies only to states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, the bill imposes new work requirements for Medicaid recipients and would require ACA-expansion beneficiaries to contribute to their care through co-pays or deductibles. Republicans accelerated the phaseout of tax credits for wind and solar energy projects, now requiring such projects to be fully operational by the end of 2027 to qualify. That change, reportedly supported by Mr. Trump, could impact companies like NextEra Energy, the nation’s largest renewable developer.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the change, warning on social media that the rollback would “jack up your electric bills and jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs.” The bill also ends the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit sooner than earlier versions proposed, cutting it off after September 30, 2025, including for used and commercial EVs. A separate provision reinstated in the draft would authorize the sale of up to 1.2 million acres of federal land across 11 western states for housing and community development, a measure pushed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah. The plan could raise up to $6 billion but faces resistance from GOP senators in affected states. Tax credits for hydrogen production, originally slated to end this year, would now continue through 2028 for projects started by then.

The legislation includes steep cuts to funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and federal food assistance programs, while increasing allocations for the U.S.-Mexico border wall. It preserves $15 million in funding for a task force to study alternatives to the IRS Direct File program, though it drops language that would have terminated the free filing service entirely — a defeat for tax software providers like Intuit. A proposed tax on money transfers by non-citizens was scaled back from 3.5% to 1%, a win for companies like Western Union and MoneyGram. Finally, the bill would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, a move intended to avert a potential federal default projected for as early as August. With internal GOP divisions still simmering, the path to final passage remains uncertain. Yet with Independence Day looming, Senate Republicans are betting that the new concessions will be enough to unify their ranks — and deliver a long-sought legislative victory for the president.

Elon Musk [..], calling it “utterly insane and destructive,” and that it will “destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

• Senate Advances Trump Tax & Spending Bill In Saturday Night Vote (ZH)

Update (2335ET): Senate Republicans narrowly advanced President Trump’s tax and spending package, as GOP lawmakers in both chambers are hoping to pass the legislation by the 4th of July. Now that the bill has advanced, it will be followed by a Democrat-demand to read the entire 1,000-page bill on the floor (total children) before a maximum 20 hours of debate on the legislation and a multi-hour vote-o-rama, putting it on course for final passage from Sunday into Monday. Two Republicans voted against the bill; Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) – who opposed raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, and Thom Tillis (R-NC), who says the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ could cost his state heavily when it comes to Medicaid funding. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) flipped his vote from “no” to “aye,” while Sens. Mike Lee (UT), Rick Scott (FL) and Cynthia Lummis (WY) also voted yes.

There was drama into the home stretch… less than an hour after the vote opened up, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Lee, and Scott, hadn’t made an appearance on the Senate floor. Paul and Tillis had previously announced that they would oppose the motion to proceed, and could not support the bill in its current form. When Murkowski finally sauntered onto the floor, Thune quickly approached her along with Sens. Barrasso, Graham, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID), who peppered her with demands – as one does when it comes to Lisa Murkowski…

Update (1718ET): Elon Musk has weighed in on the Senate’s latest iteration of President Trump’s tax and spending bill, calling it “utterly insane and destructive,” and that it will “destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!

Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. https://t.co/TZ9w1g7zHF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025

Musk also called it ‘political suicide.’

Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party pic.twitter.com/HJwKZ9g4tu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025

“Ukrainians are our brothers, no doubt about it. But the clique that came to rule them – it is a regime, it is not a government.”

“..The Ukrainian leader failed to deliver on his promises and stole billions in aid..”

• Zelensky Is ‘Politically Dead’ – Russia’s Top UN Diplomat (RT)

Ukraine’s “expired” leader Vladimir Zelensky is “politically dead” and refuses to step down to avoid accountability for his actions, Russian UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia has told RT’s Rick Sanchez. In an interview on Sanchez Effect aired on Friday, Nebenzia accused Zelensky of betraying the promises that brought him to power and dragging Ukraine into a wider conflict. He referenced Zelensky’s campaign pledge to end the fighting in Donbass, which the Kiev regime and its Western backers derailed by violating the 2014-15 Minsk agreements. “Zelensky came to power on the promise to end the war in Donbass… He promised one thing, but he turned 180 degrees… Politically, Zelensky is already dead,” Nebenzia stated.

Nebenzia said Zelensky is holding on to power to avoid the consequences of prolonging the conflict with Russia and misusing Western funds provided as aid. “The end of his presidency may entail something for him that he is trying to avoid at all costs: Reporting on the money stolen and the loss of the people whom he failed miserably,” Nebenzia stated. “So he has all the reasons… to cling to power and not to hold elections.” Ukrainians are our brothers, no doubt about it. But the clique that came to rule them – it is a regime, it is not a government. “They stole billions of dollars out of the aid they were receiving. That’s an open secret,” he said, adding that Kiev has already been asked to report on the aid but has failed to do so. “I think that when finally it comes to it, the revelations will be very dire.”

Zelensky has remained in office since his term expired in May, suspending elections due to martial law. He insists that he has the right to remain in office, though the constitution stipulates that presidential duties should pass to the parliament speaker. Russia has said it is open to talks with Ukraine but questions the legality of any deals made with the current government in Kiev. President Vladimir Putin recently said he would meet with Zelensky but called into question his authority to sign a treaty, as “the signature must come from legitimate authorities, otherwise, whoever comes after [Zelensky] will toss it to the dumpster.”

“..the EU doesn’t have a digital services tax, but some European countries do. President Trump is factoring in those targeted tariffs against our tech industry..”

• Scott Bessent Explains Response to Canada’s Digital Services Tax (CTH)

I was unaware until this interview the July 1st digital services tax that Canada is going to apply to U.S. tech companies is retroactive in application. Over a billion dollars will be due on Monday as a result of Canada’s targeting. Duplicitous Snow Mexicans. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines the details of what Canada did and why President Trump is responding so forcefully. Bessent also explains that the EU doesn’t have a digital services tax, but some European countries do. President Trump is factoring in those targeted tariffs against our tech industry as he seeks to execute new trade agreements with the EU.

Supreme Court catfight?!

• The Chilling Jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (Turley)

For most citizens, the release of Supreme Court opinions is about as exciting as watching paint dry, particularly in a case dealing with the limits of district courts in issuing universal injunctions. Yet Friday’s Trump v. CASA case included a virtual slugfest between Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. The decision was one of the biggest of the term. The Court moved to free the Administration from an onslaught of orders from district judges seeking to block the President in areas ranging from the downsizing of government to immigration. However, it was the departure of the normally staid court analysis that attracted the most attention. The tenor of Jackson’s language shocked not just many court watchers, but her colleagues. It seemed ripped from the signs carried just a couple of weeks earlier in the “No Kings” protests.

The Court often deals with issues that deeply divide the nation. Yet it tends to calm the waters by engaging in measured, reasoned analysis — showing the nation that these are matters upon which people can have good-faith disagreements. But that culture of civility and mutual respect has been under attack in recent years. Not long ago, the Court was rocked by the leaking of the draft of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. That was followed by furious protests against conservative justices at their homes and an attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“This Was A Blowtorch” Julie Kelly On Amy Coney Barrett’s Slam Of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Dissent In Birthright Case @julie_kelly2 pic.twitter.com/REfL8UVJf0

— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) June 27, 2025

There was also a change in the tenor of the exchanges in oral argument and opinions between the justices. Recently, during the argument over the use of national injunctions in May, Chief Justice John Roberts was clearly fed up with Justice Sotomayor interrupting government counsel with pointed questions and commentary, finally asking Sotomayor, “Will you please let us hear his answer?” This hyperbole seemed to border on hysteria in the Jackson dissent. The most junior justice effectively accused her colleagues of being toadies for tyranny. It proved too much for the majority, which pushed back on the overwrought rhetoric. While the language may seem understated in comparison to what we regularly hear in Congress, it was the equivalent of a virtual cage match for the Court.

Some of us have argued that our system is working just as designed, particularly as these issues work through the courts. The courts have ruled for and against this Administration as they struggle with the difficult lines of authority between the branches. Liberals who claim “democracy is dying” seem to view democracy as getting what you want when you want it. It was, therefore, distressing to see Jackson picking up on the “No Kings” theme, warning about drifting toward “a rule-of-kings governing system” She said that limiting the power of individual judges to freeze the entire federal government was “enabling our collective demise. At the very least, I lament that the majority is so caught up in minutiae of the Government’s self-serving, finger-pointing arguments that it misses the plot.”

The “minutiae” dismissed by Jackson happen to be the statutory and constitutional authority of federal courts. It is the minutiae that distinguish the rule of law from mere judicial impulse. Justice Barrett clearly had had enough with the self-aggrandizing rhetoric. She delivered a haymaker in writing that “JUSTICE JACKSON would do well to heed her own admonition: “[E]veryone, from the President on down, is bound by law.” Ibid. That goes for judges too.” She added, “We will not dwell on JUSTICE JACKSON’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself. We observe only this: JUSTICE JACKSON decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.” In other words, the danger to democracy is found in judges acting like kings. Barrett explained to her three liberal colleagues that “when a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.”

The last term has laid bare some of the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Jackson, including a certain exasperation with having to closely follow the text of laws. (In an earlier dissent this term, Jackson lashed out against the limits of textualism and argued for courts to free themselves from the confines — or shall we say the “minutiae” — of statutory language). In this opinion, Barrett slams Jackson for pursuing other diversions “because analyzing the governing statute involves boring ‘legalese.’” Again, what Jackson refers to as “legalese” is the heart of the judicial function in constraining courts under Article III. Untethered by statutory or constitutional text, it allows the courts to float free from the limits of the Constitution. For many, that is not an escape into minutiae but madness without clear lines for judicial power.

“We do not want to die for Ukraine. We don’t want our sons to come back in a coffin. We don’t want an Afghanistan next door..”

• Ukraine In NATO Would Mean WWIII – Orban (RT)

Ukrainian accession to NATO would lead to an immediate all-out war with Russia and World War III, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He has also cautioned against hastily admitting Ukraine into the EU. Budapest has long opposed Brussels’ policies on the Ukraine conflict, including weapons deliveries and sanctions on Russia. It has also urged against integrating Ukraine into NATO and the EU. In a post on X on Saturday, Orban wrote that Ukrainian membership in NATO “would mean war with Russia, and World War 3 the very next day.” He added that the “EU’s reckless rush to admit Ukraine would pull the frontlines into the heart of Europe.” The Hungarian prime minister described the EU leadership’s approach as “insanity,” vowing not to “let them turn Europe into a battlefield.

Orban’s X post came after an interview with Hungarian media on Friday, in which he argued that the admission of Ukraine into the EU would ruin the entire bloc, including Hungary’s economy. He previously outlined his concerns over cheap Ukrainian produce undercutting Hungarian farmers. He added that Ukraine’s borders and population will remain fluid for as long as the conflict with Russia lasts, making EU membership untenable.] On Thursday, Budapest vetoed a joint EU statement on Ukraine at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, effectively blocking Kiev’s accession talks. Under EU rules, unanimous approval from all 27 member states is required to initiate the process. According to a communique issued by the bloc, the issue is expected to be brought up again at the council’s next meeting in October.

Commenting on his country’s stance earlier this week, Orban cited the results of a consultative vote in Hungary that ran from mid-April to June 20, which asked: “Do you support Ukraine’s European Union membership?” According to the prime minister, 95% of more than 2 million participants rejected Ukraine’s EU aspirations. Earlier this month, Orban insisted that even though the Ukraine conflict is “unwinnable… war-hungry politicians want us to believe that we must continue the war.” “We do not want to die for Ukraine. We don’t want our sons to come back in a coffin. We don’t want an Afghanistan next door,” he said, calling for a diplomatic solution instead.

He went on to criticize the increasing militarization of the EU, for which the European Council formally approved a €150 billion ($171 billion) borrowing mechanism last month. Moscow has long opposed Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, but had until recently maintained a neutral stance regarding its EU ambitions. However, in light of the EU’s “rabid” militarization, senior Russian officials have recently expressed reservations regarding EU membership as well.

Yes, this is how bad it is.

• IDF Soldiers Confirm Lethal Weapons Routinely Used On Crowds In Gaza (ZH)

Soon after the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing aid to war-torn Gaza in May, disturbing reports emerged of Israeli soldiers killing unarmed Palestinians approaching aid points for food. As the world’s eyes turned from Gaza to Israel attack on Iran, the pace of these reported killings increased — with multiple incidents claiming more than 50 lives each. Now, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper has dropped a bombshell report, with Israeli soldiers and officers confirming the routine use of deadly force on unarmed Palestinians as a barbaric form of crowd control — with the practice carried out under orders from superior officers.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health authority says 529 Palestinians have been killed at humanitarian aid sites or while waiting for food trucks just since late May, when the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took on the task of distributing food in the strip. While Israel’s defenders invariably discredit Gaza casualty counts, US Army Colonel Nathan McCormack, who previously headed up the Joint Chiefs’ Levant and Egypt branch, has said, “We (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable.” A shadowy organization, GHF is led by an evangelical Christian leader with close ties to Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump.

Employing a rhetorical device frequently used when Israel is accused of lethal wrongdoing, Netanyahu dismissed the newspaper’s report as a “blood libel” against the IDF The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) called the soldiers’ and officers’ accounts “vicious lies designed to discredit…the most moral army in the world.” However, perhaps bowing to the sheer breadth of the report by Haaretz, the IDF says it’s investigating the allegations. According to the enlisted soldiers and officers who spoke to Haaretz, a variety of deadly weapons have been routinely used as a means of communicating whether Palestinians have permission to approach the aid stations.

“The distribution centers typically open for just one hour each morning. According to officers and soldiers who served in their areas, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centers close, to disperse them. Since some of the shooting incidents occurred at night – ahead of the opening – it’s possible that some civilians couldn’t see the boundaries of the designated area.” – Haaretz.

Today's news from the World's Most Moral Army, all paid for and armed by American workers forced to send billions to Israel every year: https://t.co/08GfT3FQ2T pic.twitter.com/XhZxWE03NA

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 27, 2025

“Windward said 55 vessels sent a total of 101 atypical ID messages, such as “China owned” or “Russian crude..”

• Red Sea Ships Faking Links To Russia And China To Dodge Attacks – Reuters (RT)

Ships traveling near the Red Sea and Persian Gulf have begun transmitting false Russian and Chinese affiliations to avoid potential attacks, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing maritime risk analytics firm Windward and vessel tracking data.= Tehran, which controls the Strait of Hormuz – a key route for global oil – threatened to close it if the US joined Israeli strikes on its nuclear sites. Iran’s parliament reportedly approved the move on Sunday, though the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council. Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea since late 2023, citing solidarity with the Palestinians during the Gaza conflict.

While US President Donald Trump brokered a deal in May to halt the attacks in exchange for a pause in Western airstrikes, the group has since warned that it would target US ships if Washington backed Israeli attacks on Iran. Although a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Iran earlier this week, Ami Daniel, the CEO of Windward, said shipping companies remain skeptical about vessel safety in the area. “The perception among shipowners is that due to the convoluted nature of shipping it’s hard to know or ascertain clearly a chain of ownership to nationalities which may be under higher threat in shipping, namely the UK, US and Israel,” Daniel told Reuters.

Windward said 55 vessels sent a total of 101 atypical ID messages, such as “China owned” or “Russian crude,” between June 12 and 24 in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. The firm said these were likely used to reduce the risk of being mistaken for Western or Israel-linked ships. A Panama-flagged ship en route to Pakistan signaled “PKKHI all Chinese,” while a Singapore-flagged vessel transmitted “Vsl no link Israel.” Daniel added that under normal circumstances vessels transmit destinations or neutral terms such as “For Orders,” while some use “Armed Guards on Board” in high-risk zones. But after Israel’s strikes on Iran, the use of non-standard messages spiked and spread from the Red Sea into the Persian Gulf.

News of ships disguising vessel identities comes as the West continues to sanction what it sees as Russian-linked maritime activity. The EU and US have accused Moscow and its trade partners of using a “shadow fleet” of tankers operating outside Western insurance rules to bypass sanctions. In May, the EU blacklisted 189 additional vessels – many flying the flags of other countries – bringing the total under restriction to 342. Brussels is currently discussing another package that would add another 77 ships to the list. Russia has repeatedly denounced the sanctions against its shipping sector as illegal. Presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev earlier warned that Western efforts to hinder Russian maritime transit through international straits were “de facto acts of piracy,” adding that such moves increasingly resemble a “naval blockade.” He said Russia is prepared to deploy its navy to safeguard navigation.

By now unstoppable. What will be left?

• 12,000 German Companies Went Bust In Six Months (RT)

Germany endured the highest wave of corporate bankruptcies in a decade in the first half of this year, a study by economic tracking agency Creditreform has suggested. The first six months of this year saw some 11,900 German companies go bust, the study released on Thursday indicates. The figure represented a 9.4% increase over the same period last year, according to the agency. Some 141,000 employees worked at the companies affected. “Despite some signs of hope, Germany remains mired in a deep economic and structural crisis. Companies are struggling with weak demand, rising costs, and persistent uncertainty,” Creditreform chief economist Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch said. The situation is expected to remain difficult as Germany continues to struggle with a recession that has dragged on for two years already.

The wave of bankruptcies might ultimately increase in the next six months, given that the “persistently high level of insolvencies is increasingly triggering chain reactions,” Hantzsch warned.= While German GDP grew by a slight 0.2% in the first quarter of 2025, weak global demand and uncertainty in trade policies continue to take a toll on its economy. According to a new survey conducted by the Ifo economic institute released this week, expectations have worsened among German exporters this month over uncertainty regarding a potential trade war with Washington. The US was Germany’s top trading partner in 2024, with bilateral trade in goods totaling €253 billion (around $280 billion), according to official data.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump imposed 20% tariffs on all EU goods, with 25% on steel, aluminum, and cars. When Brussels signaled its readiness to retaliate, most of the levies were put on hold for 90 days to allow for negotiations. A 10% base tariff and the 25% targeted duties remained unchanged. “The tariff threats from the US are still on the table. An agreement between the EU and the US has yet to be reached,” Klaus Wohlrabe, head of Ifo surveys, said, adding that the uncertainty has lowered exporters’ expectations, with the respective index falling to -7.4 points in June from -5.0 in May. The index measures how optimistic or pessimistic German manufacturing companies are about their prospects for selling abroad over the next three month.

“The Hyde Amendment, a long-standing piece of legislation, prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life.”

• Supreme Court Decision Allows States To Defund Planned Parenthood (ZH)

A recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of South Carolina allows states to deny Medicaid funds to NGO Planned Parenthood in a move that sets a precedent for conservative states across the country to block tax dollars going to abortion providers. Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centers on whether low-income Medicaid patients can sue under what is known as Section 1983 – part of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 – in order to choose their own qualified healthcare provider. The case involves South Carolina’s blocking of Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which the organization argued violated federal law. bIn a 6-3 decision, the Court noted that the typical redress for such a violation would be for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to withhold Medicaid funding from the state, not for an individual to sue the state.

The decision upends the long running problem of taxpayers being forced to indirectly fund abortion clinics and procedures which they morally oppose. According to 2022 data, Planned Parenthood receives at least $600 million annually through state Medicaid reimbursments (taxpayer dollars), which is around 30% of the organization’s total revenue. Though not all of this money goes towards abortions, Planned Parenthood’s primary political lobby efforts focus on increasing abortion access. The Hyde Amendment, a long-standing piece of legislation, prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life.

However, while federal funds cannot be used for abortions (except in the limited circumstances mentioned), the Hyde Amendment does not apply to state funding and some states may choose to use their own Medicaid cash to cover abortions. State Medicaid access has long been dictated by the ability of patients to choose their specific healthcare provider, meaning Planned Parenthood found a way around restrictions on federal money. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has been pushing to block public health dollars from going to Planned Parenthood, but a resident and patient at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic argues that doing so violates her rights under the Medicaid Act.

The key provision in the 1965 Medicaid Act guarantees patients a “free choice of provider” that is willing and qualified. Much of the conflict deals with whether Planned Parenthood is a “qualified provider” under the Medicaid law, and whether individual patients have an unambiguous “right” to sue to see their provider of choice, under its specific language. Furthermore, just because an individual or small group of people view Planned Parenthood as their provider of choice, does this mean everyone else is then required to pay into an NGO that offers services like abortion which they oppose? In other words, do voters in a particular state have the right to opt out of participation in abortion funding?

“In an era when most public figures wilt under pressure, she’s become a symbol of courage for women everywhere who are tired of being silenced. She’s not just defending herself; she’s defending reality..”

• J.K. Rowling Destroyed Trans Ideology With One Savage Tweet (Margolis)

Famed “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling became a vocal critic of transgender ideology back in 2019, when she supported a woman who lost her job for saying that biological sex is immutable. In 2020, Rowling’s tweets and essay argued that prioritizing “gender identity” over biological sex threatens women’s rights and safety, drawing from her experience as an abuse survivor. She faced fierce backlash, was branded a “TERF” by activists, and even endured death threats, but stood firm. Rowling’s stance has only grown more defiant as she continues to call out the bullying tactics of trans activism and the erasure of women. Despite relentless attacks from activists, media outlets, and even cast members from “Harry Potter,” her unapologetic wit and unwavering resolve have made her a leading voice of resistance against a radical ideology that silences dissent.

Attention all men telling me I look like a trans woman: I’m sensing that this isn’t meant as a compliment. In fact, the implication seems to be that trans women look male, or odd, or ugly. This is appallingly transphobic and I’ll thank you to take your bigotry off my timeline.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 24, 2025

This week, she once again proved why she remains a formidable force in the culture war over gender, giving courage to countless women who’ve been too afraid to speak out. Apparently some people have been attacking Rowling by saying she looks like a “trans woman.” Her response to such attacks says it all: Talk about a masterclass in rhetorical jiu-jitsu. She takes the intended insult of her critics and flips it right back on them, exposing the hypocrisy at the heart of so much of the pro-trans activist rhetoric. Rowling’s critics, who claim to be the champions of tolerance and inclusion, routinely stoop to personal attacks and misogynistic insults whenever a woman dares to challenge their orthodoxy. The latest trend is to hurl accusations that Rowling “looks like a trans woman,” a jab that is supposed to be both an insult to her and a defense of trans women. But Rowling, with her trademark wit and clarity, called their bluff.

She pointed out the obvious: If you’re accusing someone of looking like “trans woman” in the pejorative sense, you’re essentially admitting what most people already know: that “trans women” don’t look like real women. Let’s face it, men can grow out their hair, get breast implants, and take whatever drugs they want, but everyone knows what they really are. Calling Richard “Rachel” Levine a woman doesn’t make him a woman. Using female pronouns to refer to Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner doesn’t change the fact that he is a man. Letting Will “Lia” Thomas compete against real women doesn’t erase what he is. Rowling refuses to apologize, refuses to play by the ever-changing rules of the woke mob, and instead shines a spotlight on the contradictions baked into their rhetoric, like how calling someone a “trans woman” is supposedly empowering until it’s used as a slur. Her wit, clarity, and refusal to back down force her critics to confront the ugliness of their tactics.

Through years of smears, threats, and public pressure campaigns, Rowling has stood firm, using every attack as an opportunity to expose the movement’s double standards and moral incoherence. In an era when most public figures wilt under pressure, she’s become a symbol of courage for women everywhere who are tired of being silenced. She’s not just defending herself; she’s defending reality, and doing it with a fearlessness that leaves her critics sputtering. Just because trans activists demand that we all pretend that men who grow their hair out and play dress up are women doesn’t mean that the rest of us have to play along. And when those same activists who have spent years lobbing insults and even death threats at Rowling try to mock her by saying she “looks like a trans woman,” they don’t expose her bigotry; they expose their own hypocrisy. If comparing her to a “trans woman” is meant as an insult, then it’s not Rowling degrading “trans women”; it’s the so-called allies who use the comparison as a punchline.

It’s become the science In the same way that Fauci did.

• 1900 Scientists Say ‘Climate Change Not Caused By CO2’ (Keenan)

Millions of people worldwide are concerned about climate change and believe there is a climate emergency. For decades we have been told by the United Nations that Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from human activity are causing disastrous climate change. In 2018, a UN IPCC report even warned that ‘we have 12 years to save the Earth’, thus sending millions of people worldwide into a frenzy. Thirty-five years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the (World Meteorological Organization) WMO established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide scientific advice on the complex topic of climate change. The panel was asked to prepare, based on available scientific information, a report on all aspects relevant to climate change and its impacts and to formulate realistic response strategies.

The first assessment report of the IPCC served as the basis for negotiating the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Governments worldwide have signed this convention, thereby, significantly impacting the lives of the people of the world. However, many scientists dispute with the UN-promoted man-made climate change theory, and many people worldwide are confused by the subject, or are unaware of the full facts. Please allow me to provide some information you may not be aware of.

1. Very few people actually dig into the data, they simply accept the UN IPPC reports. Yet many highly respectable and distinguished scientists have done exactly that and found that the UN-promoted manmade climate change theory is seriously flawed. Are you aware that almost 2,000 of the world’s leading climate scientists and professionals in over 30 countries have signed a declaration that there is no climate emergency and have refuted the United Nations claims in relation to man-made climate change? See https://clintel.org/world-climate-declaration/

2. I have also signed this declaration. How can I make such an assertion? I have experience in the field as a former scientist at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, UK Government; and as former staff member at United Nations Environment, where I was responsible for servicing the Pollution Release and Transfer Register Protocol, a Multinational Environmental Agreement, involving the monitoring of pollutants to land, air, and water worldwide. Real pollution exists, but the problem is not CO2. Industrial globalisation has produced many substances that are registered as pollutants, including thousands of new man-made chemical compounds, toxins, nano-particles and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that are in violation of the scientific pre-cautionary principle. [..]

3. Next, I will mention the Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF) website, a valuable resource founded by Jim O’Brien. I am grateful to the ICSF for their excellent work in highlighting the scientific flaws in the UN climate narrative. The ICSF provides a comprehensive lecture series from renowned international scientists providing much evidence, analysis, and data that contradicts the UN assertions. The lectures are available at: https://www.icsf.ie/lecture-series The ICSF scientific view coincides with those of the Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) foundation that operates in the fields of climate change and climate policy. CLINTEL was founded in 2019 by emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and science journalist Marcel Crok. Based on this common conviction, 20 Irish scientists and several ICSF members have co-signed the CLINTEL World Climate Declaration “There is No Climate Emergency” (see https://clintel.org/ireland/).

4. The reality is that the climate has always been changing, the climate changes naturally and slowly in its own cycle, and CO2 emissions (and methane from livestock, such as cows) are not dominant factors in climate change. In essence, therefore, the incessant UN, government, and corporate-media-produced climate hysteria in relation to CO2 emissions (and also methane from cows) has no scientific basis. It appears to me the UN narrative is yet another example of fake science being used to drive an ulterior agenda, see also the book Godless Fake Science. In truth I am against ‘real’ pollution, and the reality is that the CO2 component is not a pollutant. Unfortunately, many misinformed environmentalists are driving around in electric cars, the battery production for which has caused vast amounts of ‘real’ pollution via the industrial mining and processing of rare earth metals, and the consequent pollution to land, air and water systems. See also this article. Note that the UN does not focus on the thousands of real pollutants that corporate industrial globalisation creates.

5. The conclusions of the Climate Intelligence foundation include the following:
• Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming: The geological archive reveals that Earth’s climate has varied as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age ended as recently as 1850. Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming.
• Warming is far slower than predicted: The world has warmed significantly less than predicted by IPCC on the basis of modeled anthropogenic forcing. The gap between the real world and the modeled world tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.
• Climate policy relies on inadequate models: Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as global policy tools. They blow up the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.
• CO2 is plant food, the basis of all life on Earth: CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.
• Global warming has not increased natural disasters: There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent.

https://t.co/q1SxCYJDPr pic.twitter.com/j2dOCMKd6m

— Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) (@DoctorVive) June 28, 2025

Mercury

HOLLAND: “Mercury Has FINALLY Been Taken Out Of All Childhood Vaccines, This Has Been A 30 Year Battle”@ChildrensHD pic.twitter.com/NkwQHATcoC

— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) June 27, 2025

Neuralink

Detailed update on @neuralink
pic.twitter.com/eyPWB87CC5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 27, 2025

Elephants

A large elephant herd.

In the year 1500, there were over 25 million elephants in Africa.

By 1900 this had fallen to 10 million, and by 1979 down to 1.3 million. By the mid-1990s they were below 300,000.

This is a photo from 1976. pic.twitter.com/zlTFJA4VaA

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 27, 2025

🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/nYj2Y2Bgwc

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) June 28, 2025

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Debt Rattle June 12 2025

Jun 122025

June 12, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:53 am Finance Tagged with: CDC, China, Germany, ICE, industrial jobs, Iran, Klayman, LA, Musk, Orban, riots, Trump 58 Responses »

Balthus Girl at the window 1955

• US On High Alert In Anticipation Of Potential Israeli Strike On Iran (ZH)

• LA More Than Insurrection, It’s Bolshevik Revolution – Larry Klayman (USAW)

• The PR War Over the Riots (Pinsker)

• Gavin Newsom Humiliated Himself, and It Was Awesome (Margolis)

• The Anti-ICE Riots Are Electoral Suicide for the Dems (Margolis)

• Medinsky Slams NATO’s Rutte, Suggests History Book to Clarify Ukraine’s Past (Sp.)

• Zelensky’s Refusal To Compromise Will Lead To More Territorial Losses: Medinsky (ZH)

• Donald Trump Responds To Elon Musk’s Late-Night Apology (NYP)

• Trump Claims Deal With China ‘Is Done’ (RT)

• Vaccine Expert and Covid Shot Critic Robert Malone to Advise CDC (PJM)

• Hungary Sues European Commission Over €1 million-a-day Migrant Fine (RMX)

• Germany Hemorrhaging Industrial Jobs (RT)

Trump comments on trade negotiations pic.twitter.com/2EqGvpO1mc

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 11, 2025

Rogan
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1932494036314595509

Tucker Carlson Interviews Jeffrey Sachs

Where exacttly is the US interest in this?

• US On High Alert In Anticipation Of Potential Israeli Strike On Iran (ZH)

Is something brewing amid US-Iran tensions, given the stalled nuclear negotiations and ratcheting accusations, demands, and counter-demands? The State Department has ordered all embassies within striking distance of Iranian assets – including missions in the Middle East but also Eastern Europe and Northern Africa – to convene emergency action committees (EACs) and send cables back to Washington about measures to mitigate risks. The Associated Press also adds that the US Embassy in Baghdad is preparing to order all nonessential personnel to leave due to potential regional unrest. “We are constantly assessing the appropriate personnel posture at all our embassies,” said a State Department official who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matter.

“Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our Mission in Iraq.”Meanwhile the WaPo – a conduit for the deep state – writes that “the United States is on high alert in anticipation of a potential Israeli strike on Iran, with the State Department authorizing the evacuation of some personnel in Iraq and the Pentagon green-lighting the departure of military family members across the Middle East.”The heightened security environment comes as President Donald Trump expresses dimming hopes of achieving a deal with Iran that would restrict its nuclear program and forestall a potentially cataclysmal new military confrontation in the Middle East.“I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made,” Trump told the New York Post.

In recent months, U.S. intelligence officials have grown increasingly concerned that Israel may choose to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities without the consent of the United States. Such a move would almost certainly scuttle the Trump administration’s delicate nuclear negotiations and prompt an Iranian retaliation on U.S. assets in the region.

As GMI summarizes the latest situation: “The IDF have elevated their operational readiness. In response, the United States has mirrored this posture, anticipating potential Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. A senior diplomat, speaking to the Washington Post, stated: “We think it’s more serious than any other time in the past.” The U.S. State Department has directed all embassies within Iranian strike range—including several in Europe, to immediately convene Emergency Action Committees and transmit updated risk assessments to Washington.The Trump imposed deadline on Iranian nuclear negotiations expires tomorrow, June 12th. U.S. officials speaking to Axios now assess it is increasingly unlikely the sixth round of talks in Oman will proceed as scheduled on Sunday.

General Kurilla, Commander of U.S. Central Command, has postponed his scheduled testimony before Congress due to mounting tensions across the Middle East. U.S. Central Command, the military headquarters overseeing the region, is working in close coordination with State Department counterparts and allies to maintain a constant state of readiness to support numerous missions at any time, the official added.“We are watching and worried,” said one senior diplomat in the region. “We think it’s more serious than any other time in the past.” Both oil and gold prices spiked on the alarming headlines which suggest new regional conflict could be imminent, with Israel poised to act…[..]Meanwhile, Iran has urged the United States to prioritize a negotiated solution, with its mission to the United Nations saying that “diplomacy — not militarism — is the only path forward.”

“Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and U.S. militarism only fuels instability,” the Iranian mission warned in a social media statement. President Trump has definitely expressed his preference for negotiated solution, but Iran insists that it be able to keep enriching uranium, at least at low levels, as a matter of national sovereignty. Iran and the United States are tentatively scheduled to hold a sixth round of direct talks in Oman on Sunday between U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with discussions between their technical teams. But people familiar with the planning said Wednesday that it is possible that talks may not happen.

Trump has described the negotiations, which began in April, as heading in a positive direction and has said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on any military plans. But on Wednesday, Trump said he was “less confident” that Iran would agree to U.S. demands that it completely shut down its nuclear enrichment program. “They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame,” he said. He has frequently said that Iran would never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and threatened military action if an agreement is not reached.

Klayman sounds extreme, but at the same time he’s no idiot.

• LA More Than Insurrection, It’s Bolshevik Revolution – Larry Klayman (USAW)

Renowned attorney Larry Klayman predicted on USAWatchdog months ago that there would be full-blown, legal civil war happening in the court system. With 272 cases and counting filed against the Trump Administration, that prediction has proven spot-on. Klayman also predicted months ago that violence from the “rabid Left” would not only increase but “explode.” The LA riots prove another bullseye for Klayman. What Klayman is seeing is far more than some violent protests on the West Coast. Klayman warns, “This is a very dire period. We knew this was coming. This is more than an insurrection, this is a Bolshevik style revolution. It’s not just Bolsheviks, but it’s every conceivable leftist radical group.

This is financed, undoubtedly, by people like George Soros. . .. Karen Bass is a DEI affirmative action mayor in Los Angeles. She was going to be Biden’s second choice to be vice president, God forbid. . .. They are using her. The Left is using her, and they are using Newsom and others. They want there to be some kind of tragedy in LA. They want there to be some kind of Kent State where someone gets killed. They want one of these protesters to be killed by the National Guard or by the military. This will be a flash point to carry forth this Bolshevik revolution. They want to take this county down to ground zero. This is what they are trying to do. They want to destabilize the country and bring these radicals out.”

Klayman goes on to say, “There is, undoubtedly, foreign money involved probably from communist China, Iran and North Korea. There is probably money coming from the Left with Soros and others. They want this country at a point that is destroyed, and then they take control. That is their motivation. That is what happened in Russia when they had the Bolshevik Revolution. That’s what happened in China with Mao. This is a plan. This is a playbook. This is why we need to push back, and that is why President Trump needs to crush this right now to make an example of this. Frankly, he should have Governor Newsom arrested, and he should have Karen Bass arrested. They are inciting violence, and they are fomenting revolution. . .. We are under attack, and President Trump needs to declare martial law.”

Klayman says the riots in LA are not a sign of Trumps failure as a President, but it is a sign of his success. Klaman explains, “They are making their move. We predicted this several months ago. It was just a matter of time, and it built and built and built, and now they see Trump, regardless of these judges . . . and they see Trump is at the point of possibly succeeding. So, they are going to do a number on the President of the United States. . .. Iran is not going to give way, and they are going to continue to enrich uranium. They know, ultimately, we will be backed into a corner, and we are going to have to attack them. This is a last-ditch effort to try to eliminate President Trump and try to weaken our country before that occurs.”

Klayman says the so-called autopen scandal of the Biden Administration will reveal that pardons were sold by staff. Klayman contends this is something Trump did not do in office the first term or this term. Klayman says, “The whole system is corrupt. It is a pay-to-play system. . .. The American people were sold out. I doubt there was not much of anything that was approved by Joe Biden.” In closing, Klayman says, “This is a do or die life experience. Today it’s LA, tomorrow it’s going to be coming to your hometown and your neighborhood.”

Americans don’t need another George Floyd. Been there done that.

• The PR War Over the Riots (Pinsker)

It’s a PR war, boys and girls: Strap on a helmet and report to duty. Our first battlefield is the People’s Republic of Los Angeles. (Alas, beautiful, glamorous Tinseltown has gone from swimming pools and movie stars to foreign flags and public defecation. Pro Tip: If you see any “bubblin’ crude” on the streets of L.A., for God’s sake, please don’t touch it.) But Los Angeles won’t be the last battlefield. These protests are gonna be like acne on a teenager’s face: They’ll be poppin’ up all over the place. And that part of the news cycle is (largely) out of our hands. Whenever you’re dealing with mass protests, mob violence, and nationalized vigilantism, there’s an element of unpredictability.

All it takes is the “right” martyr — on the right platform — and the storyline will morph into something we cannot anticipate. It could happen at any moment. That’s dangerous, because PR experts are MUCH better day two, day three, and day four thinkers. Nine times out of 10, the quality of our thoughts dramatically improves when we have more time to consider all the angles. (It’s something I’ve told clients repeatedly: If you wanna know my thoughts on day one, I’ll certainly tell you — but the more time I have to think about something, the more likely it’ll be that I’ll come up with something better.) This means that if the dominoes start falling in rapid succession, neither side will wait for a thoughtful, measured PR response. Instead, emotions will take over. The loudest, most passionate voices will prevail. That exponentially increases the probability of unforced PR errors.

This is a high-risk, high-reward gamble for both sides. It’s blackjack at the Bellagio with cranberries. For Gov. Gavin Newsom, the well-coifed Californian with presidential aspirations, the L.A. riots are his audition tape. He has the most to lose — but also the most to gain. Finally, after patiently awaiting his turn, he’s exactly where he wanted to be: At the tip of the political spear. There’s a leadership vacuum in the Democratic Party, and I’m not just talking about that cute little catfight at the DNC. Too many bigwigs blew their credibility over Joe Biden’s now-obvious mental decline. Guys like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) can’t lead the masses because the masses no longer believe them. The closer you were to Biden, the worse it was for your credibility. It’s why Kamala Harris is adrift in the wilderness.

But Newsom was all the way in California. He’s ideally suited to close the (coloring) book on Biden, rebrand the Democratic Party, and slap a coat of fresh paint on American liberalism. At least, that’s his sales pitch. Even before the riots, Newsom was selling himself as the solution to the Democratic Party’s “manhood problem.” As we noted about his podcast strategy: Typically, when a Democrat has presidential aspirations, you’d expect him to book podcast guests with liberal thought leaders — people such as Obama, Oprah, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, or Rachel Maddow. That would be the smartest, fastest way to not only communicate to your base that you’re “one of them,” but to also let them know that all the top thought-leaders believe in you, too.

But that’s not at all what Newsom is doing. Instead, his first three guests were Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage, and Steve Bannon! And in the process, he’s making a novel argument to the Democratic base: we can’t beat MAGA unless we have a candidate who can talk to their side, and I’m the only MAN who can do it. He’s not running on representation; he’s running on persuasion. He’s not saying he “looks like America”; he’s saying he can persuade the rest of America. Most specifically, the Americans that the Democrats have left behind: men.

It’s time for law and order. What do you think got Trump elected?

• Gavin Newsom Humiliated Himself, and It Was Awesome (Margolis)

Let’s talk about a day that California Governor Gavin Newsom would probably like to erase from memory. Tuesday was an absolute trainwreck for the Golden State’s fearless leader, marked by technical blunders, shameless begging, and a string of outright lies that would make even the most seasoned politician blush. If you thought Newsom’s leadership couldn’t sink any lower, buckle up, because this was a masterclass in humiliation. Riots are tearing through the city over federal immigration enforcement, yet Newsom can’t even bring himself to condemn the violence. Instead, he’s pointing fingers at President Trump while dodging accountability for the mayhem on his watch. He thinks this is going to be his ticket to the Democratic nomination for president in 2028, and potentially the White House.

The real disaster unfolded when Newsom decided to play big shot with a televised address to bash Trump. Desperate for airtime, he stooped to groveling at the feet of Fox News’ Sean Hannity, practically begging for coverage. Hannity even aired the pathetic plea on live TV. “Governor Newsom just texted me and was asking me whether or not we will be taking some of his press conference at the bottom of the hour…” Talk about embarrassing—California’s governor reduced to texting a conservative host for a spotlight. Sad! But the humiliation didn’t stop there. When the moment finally arrived for Newsom to spew his anti-Trump tirade, the audio feed spectacularly failed. That’s right—his grand speech, meant to be a scathing takedown, was reduced to garbled nonsense that no one could hear.

Even when the audio situation was fixed, Newsom sounded hoarse and unhinged, like a man on the verge of a meltdown. If this was his attempt to look like a leader, it was a catastrophic flop. The technical difficulties turned his address into a punchline, ensuring his message—whatever it was—fell on deaf ears. And what about the content of that ill-fated speech? Pure fiction. Newsom ranted about federal agents allegedly jumping out of unmarked vans to “grab people” in a “heavily Latino suburb” and raiding businesses, claiming a pregnant U.S. citizen and a 4-year-old were detained. “Families separated, friends, quite literally, disappearing,” he croaked, painting a dystopian picture straight out of a Hollywood script. Conveniently, he offered zero evidence for these wild claims, and couldn’t explain how any of these allegations justify burning up cars, assaulting police officers, and looting businesses.

And let’s not forget his attempt to rewrite history by claiming California handles unrest “regularly” with its own law enforcement—until, of course, Trump supposedly swooped in to ruin everything with tear gas, rubber bullets, and National Guard deployments. Newsom even had the audacity to call the deployment of 2,000 Guard members “illegal” and a “brazen abuse of power,” accusing Trump of inflaming the situation “on purpose.” As we’ve explained before, the power of the president to federalize the National Guard has been long established. This wasn’t just a speech—it was a flailing performance packed with lies, tech glitches, and the pathetic spectacle of Newsom groveling for airtime from a network he usually sneers at. He tried to cast himself as California’s last line of defense, but what the country saw was a dishonest, unsteady politician who can’t even handle a live broadcast, let alone a crisis. And if Newsom thinks he can ride these anti-ICE riots into a successful presidential campaign, he’s got another thing coming.

Support for the Trump administration’s deportation efforts is also strong. A Napolitan News Service poll conducted by RMG Research, Inc. shows that 58% of registered voters back the effort to remove illegal immigrants, while opposition has dropped to just 37%. Even more telling: just weeks ago, 40% said the administration’s actions had gone too far; now it’s down to 36%. The longer this issue stays in the headlines, the worse it gets for the left. Meanwhile, the attempt to rebrand the Los Angeles riots as a noble protest is falling flat. A recent YouGov poll shows that only 36% of Americans support the anti-ICE demonstrations, compared to 45% who oppose them. Even more damning is the partisan breakdown: 58% of Democrats back the protests, but just 34% of independents and a paltry 15% of Republicans do. On the other side, 73% of Republicans and 41% of independents disapprove. That’s a landslide rejection outside the far-left bubble.

And just when you think it couldn’t get worse for Democrats, it does. Even legacy media outlets like CBS News and CNN are reporting that key voting blocs are breaking with the left and embracing Trump’s immigration agenda. What’s more, a once-reliable Democrat constituency is now shifting dramatically in the other direction, dealing the party a blow that it never saw coming. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings from one of the most accurate pollsters of the 2024 election show that Trump’s approval ratings over the past few days remain in positive territory.

“73% of Republicans and 41% of independents disapprove. That’s a landslide rejection outside the far-left bubble.”

• The Anti-ICE Riots Are Electoral Suicide for the Dems (Margolis)

Democrats are committing electoral suicide. By rushing to defend the violent anti-ICE riots that erupted in Los Angeles and are now spreading across the country, they’ve staked their political fortuneson the side of lawlessness and chaos. Instead of condemning the violence, Democrat leaders have tried to spin it as a noble act of protest. But the public isn’t fooled. A flood of new polling shows just how badly this gamble is backfiring and exposes a party that is completely detached from the values of everyday Americans. The numbers don’t lie. A majority of likely voters are siding with President Donald Trump and his decision to deploy the National Guard and federal military to restore order in Los Angeles. According to a new InsiderAdvantage national poll, 59% of voters approve of the move, while just 39% disapprove — a striking +20 approval margin that makes clear where the country stands.

While the media wrings its hands and Democrats clutch their pearls, the American people are siding with law and order. Voters aren’t clamoring for more chaos, criminality, and attacks on federal officers; they want safe streets, laws that are enforced, and illegal immigrants sent home. They’re demanding order, not excuses. Support for the Trump administration’s deportation efforts is also strong. A Napolitan News Service poll conducted by RMG Research, Inc. shows that 58% of registered voters back the effort to remove illegal immigrants, while opposition has dropped to just 37%. Even more telling: just weeks ago, 40% said the administration’s actions had gone too far; now it’s down to 36%. The longer this issue stays in the headlines, the worse it gets for the left.

Meanwhile, the attempt to rebrand the Los Angeles riots as a noble protest is falling flat. A recent YouGov poll shows that only 36% of Americans support the anti-ICE demonstrations, compared to 45% who oppose them. Even more damning is the partisan breakdown: 58% of Democrats back the protests, but just 34% of independents and a paltry 15% of Republicans do. On the other side, 73% of Republicans and 41% of independents disapprove. That’s a landslide rejection outside the far-left bubble.

And just when you think it couldn’t get worse for Democrats, it does. Even legacy media outlets like CBS News and CNN are reporting that key voting blocs are breaking with the left and embracing Trump’s immigration agenda. What’s more, a once-reliable Democrat constituency is now shifting dramatically in the other direction, dealing the party a blow that it never saw coming. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings from one of the most accurate pollsters of the 2024 election show that Trump’s approval ratings over the past few days remain in positive territory.

They’re trying to invent a Ukrainian past.

• Medinsky Slams NATO’s Rutte, Suggests History Book to Clarify Ukraine’s Past (Sp.)

A top aide to Vladimir Putin has told the NATO general secretary to read a history book after he claimed Ukraine had independence 900 years ago. Vladimir Medinsky, Russian presidential aide and head of the Russian delegation to peace negotiations with Kiev in Istanbul, ridiculed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s comments about Ukraine in the 12th century.mIronically, Rutte used the same speech to demand that Putin come to the talks, “not this historian who now appears twice in Istanbul and tells us again about the history of Russia and Ukraine since the 12th century.”The chief negotiator retorted that he was ready to send Rutte a textbook to help him understand that Ukraine did not exist in back then.

“He spoke about the need for Russia to change its negotiating team on Ukraine, claiming that ‘some historian’ is lecturing about 12th-century Ukraine,” Medinsky told the Third International Forum of Education Ministers.”I know that Mr Rutte studied history at university, but I would definitely send him a medieval history textbook, because he would certainly learn from it that Ukraine didn’t exist in the 12th century,” he added.The third International Forum of Education Ministers, “Shaping the Future,” is taking place in Kazan from June 11 to 12. The forum is organized by the Ministry of Education of Russia, the government of Tatarstan and the “My History” Foundation for the Support of Humanities.

Forum participants will discuss global trends and challenges in education, digital transformation and innovation, the role of AI and online learning, inclusive education, the role of educators and the quality of education, the development of national education systems and international cooperation.One of the topics of discussion will be Russia’s experience in running children’s centers. Education ministers will hold a teleconference with participants of the Artek international summer camp which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

“With Russia, it’s impossible to fight a long war,” Medinsky said..”

• Zelensky’s Refusal To Compromise Will Lead To More Territorial Losses: Medinsky (ZH)

While this should come as no surprise to observers of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Kremlin has put Kiev on notice that its continued unwillingness to compromise at the negotiating table will only lead to more and permanent territorial losses. This was the latest warning conveyed by Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, who has been leading the Russian delegation in Istanbul talks. He actually spoke to The Wall Street Journal, conveying the warning, while making clear that Russia will never relent until Putin’s war aims are achieved, and defense of Russia’s sovereignty and stability can be assured.

The WSJ interview began as follows: “Now, Vladimir Medinsky is drawing on his view of history again as he tries to convince Ukraine that it would be better off unwinding its integration with the West and embracing Moscow’s terms for peace. “With Russia, it’s impossible to fight a long war,” Medinsky said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, citing Russia’s 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century as evidence that the country prevails in protracted fights. “We want peace,” he continued. “But if Ukraine keeps being driven by the national interests of others, then we will be simply forced to respond,” he added. That’s when Medinsky also “warned that a lack of compromise from Kiev would only lead to more territorial losses,” WSJ wrote.

As yet, Ukraine’s President Zelensky hasn’t so much as offered recognition of Crimea as Russian territory, and certainly he’s far away from saying the same of the annexed territories in the Donbass, where some fighting still exists. This week it’s become clear that Russian forces are advancing into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, which is a first in the three-year-plus long war, marking a significant territorial escalation amid stalled peace talks. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the advance serves as a warning to the Zelensky government to accept “realities on the ground.” Medinsky’s words given to a major American publication are clearly another major warning along the same lines.

Soon best buds again, but Trump is the clear boss.

• Donald Trump Responds To Elon Musk’s Late-Night Apology (NYP)

President Trump is feeling good about Elon Musk’s apology after the former “first buddy” admitted late Tuesday he had gone “too far” in his personal attacks on the commander-in-chief. “I thought it was very nice that he did that,” the president told The Post in a brief phone conversation Wednesday morning, but didn’t say whether he was willing to let bygones be bygones with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.Musk, 53, went off on Trump in a series of social media messages this past Thursday, at one point claiming the Republican would not have won the 2024 election without his help and suggesting the president was responsible for preventing the release of files on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein due to his past association with the late financier.

“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk wrote late Tuesday after previously deleting his post about the Epstein files. The president has expressed openness to potentially burying the hatchet with Musk — who he accused last week of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and being bitter about both leaving his special government employee position and the House GOP removing electric vehicle tax incentives from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Trump told CNN on Friday that Musk was “crazy” — and threatened on Truth Social to look into revoking his company’s federal government contracts.
But the president also told The Post on Friday that “nothing surprises him” — not even his onetime ally turning against him.

Trump told Post columnist Miranda Devine Monday that he doesn’t “blame” Musk for the blow-up that started with the former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) figure’s criticisms of the Big Beautiful Bill — but maintained that he’s “a little disappointed.”“Look, I have no hard feelings,” Trump said. “I was really surprised that that happened. He went after a bill that’s phenomenal. …He just — I think he feels very badly that he said that, actually.”When asked whether he would ever go back to a regular relationship with Musk, Trump told Devine’s “Pod Force One” podcast: “I guess I could, but we have to straighten out the country.” “And my sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it’s ever been. And I think we can do that.”

So who won?

• Trump Claims Deal With China ‘Is Done’ (RT)

Washington has finalized a long-sought trade deal with Beijing, US President Donald Trump announced on social media on Wednesday. The agreement is still awaiting his final approval and that of Chinese President Xi Jinping, he added. Tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated in April, when Trump imposed broad new tariffs targeting over 90 countries, including China, citing trade imbalances. Beijing retaliated, triggering a standoff that pushed tariffs up to 145% by the US and 125% by China. Following breakthrough negotiations in Geneva last month, both sides agreed to temporarily suspend most new tariffs, pending further talks. However, each side has since accused the other of violating the Geneva terms and stalling talks on key issues, such as export controls.

”Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. The full details remain unclear, although the US leader outlined some key points. ”We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. Relationship is excellent!” Trump wrote. “Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities.” Neither the White House nor Chinese authorities have commented on Trump’s announcement.

Commenting on Wednesday after two days of talks in London, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters a framework deal had been reached, calling it “meat on the bones” of the Geneva agreement. He cited China agreeing to lift restrictions on rare earth exports and Washington easing certain export bans “in a balanced way,” but offered no further details. China’s vice commerce minister, Li Chenggang, also confirmed a trade framework had been reached “in principle” pending approval from both leaders. The new round of talks followed a phone call between Trump and Xi last week, which the US president described as “very good.”

Chinese exports of rare earth minerals and magnets, critical for modern technology, were high on the London talks agenda. The US had previously criticized Beijing for delaying the removal of export controls on the resources, essential for manufacturing products such as smartphones and electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Washington limited China’s access to US semiconductors and other technologies linked to artificial intelligence. It remains unclear if the restrictions will be lifted under the new deal.The two sides face an August 10 deadline to finalize a broader trade deal or possibly see tariffs return to the triple-digit levels imposed in April.

Where he belongs.

• Vaccine Expert and Covid Shot Critic Robert Malone to Advise CDC (PJM)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. caused hysteria at Pharma-funded leftist media outlets and among Democrat politicians this week by canning all 17 Biden-appointed members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Malone is one of the eight replacements appointed so far.“Thank you for the honor of serving my country in this way, @SecKennedy. I will do my best to serve with unbiased objectivity and rigor,” Dr. Malone posted in response to RFK’s announcement. HHS and its excessive number of dependent agencies, including the CDC and NIH, are still undergoing major reforms since the Trump administration came into office and Kennedy took over. It became obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic that there was a lot of corruption and dishonesty going on in the top levels of federal healthcare agencies, and Kennedy’s desire to address that made him switch parties to support Donald Trump during the 2024 election campaign. Now the Make America Healthy Again effort is moving full speed ahead.

Kennedy’s new announcement explained that following his firing of the panel, he carefully selected eight replacements so far who he believes will help restore public trust in government vaccine policy: I’m now repopulating ACIP with the eight new members who will attend ACIP’s scheduled June 25 meeting. The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians. All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense. They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations. The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well. I’m proud to announce ACIP’s new members.

The new members, besides Malone, are Cody Meissner, MD; James Pagano, MD; Vicky Pebsworth, OP, PhD, RN; Michael A. Ross, MD; Retsef Levi, PhD; Martin Kulldorff, PhD, MD; and Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD. Kulldorff also garnered fame and became the target of leftist hate for vocally criticizing Covid lockdown policies as unnecessary and harmful responses to the virus. We haven’t forgotten the tyranny, extremely damaging policies, and injurious vaccines of the COVID-19 pandemic. This total replacement of the vaccine advisory panel is an excellent step in the right direction toward ensuring more honesty, objective science, and transparency at one of the most influential government entities.

The EU implodes itself.

• Hungary Sues European Commission Over €1 million-a-day Migrant Fine (RMX)

The Hungarian government has launched a legal challenge against the European Commission’s decision to impose a daily €1 million fine over the country’s refusal to accept illegal migrants. György Bakondi, the chief security advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, announced on Wednesday that Budapest will file a lawsuit with the European Court of Justice. Appearing on TV2’s “Mokka” program, Bakondi said Hungary will not comply with the European Union’s new Migration Pact, which he described as “a clear call for illegal immigrants to be allowed in.” He emphasized that Hungary remains committed to its sovereignty and national security, and refuses to be pressured into taking in individuals who entered the bloc unlawfully.

The lawsuit will be led by a team of lawyers with what Bakondi called “a serious reputation,” including two former members of the European Court of Justice. Hungary’s resistance to EU migration policy is not new. In 2015, the country faced a surge of more than 400,000 illegal border crossings within two months. In response, the government implemented border fences and legal restrictions to halt the flow. Officials credited these measures with preventing the emergence of terrorist threats, no-go zones, and the overburdening of public services.

In a national referendum in 2016, 98 percent of those who voted rejected the proposal to allow the European Union to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary without parliamentary approval. The referendum had a 44 percent turnout, under the 50 percent threshold required to be considered valid. The Orbán administration had already signaled its intent to take legal action against Brussels back in December, setting aside 600 million forints (approximately €1.5 million) to fund the court battle. Hungary has consistently pushed for a rethinking of the EU’s asylum policy, including relocating asylum processing to centers outside of EU territory. Orbán reiterated this stance on Monday during a speech at a Patriots for Europe rally in France.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1932108808765227049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1932108808765227049%7Ctwgr%5E5e8eafe6fad1143880641748c01bbba28062cb8a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fhungary-sues-european-commission-over-e1-million-a-day-migrant-fine%2F

Self-immolation. Curious to watch. Living next doors to them.

• Germany Hemorrhaging Industrial Jobs (RT)

Germany’s industrial sector has lost more than 100,000 jobs over the past year as the country’s economic downturn drags on, according to analysis shared by the German Press Agency (dpa). The report published last week, based on analysis by consultancy EY, shows the German auto sector accounted for around 45,400 net job losses, making it the hardest-hit segment of the economy. At the end of the first quarter, German industry employed 5.46 million people, down 1.8% or 101,000 jobs from a year earlier, according to the study based on data from the Federal Statistical Office.Since the pre-pandemic year 2019, the number of industrial employees has slumped by 217,000, a 3.8% decline. The sector had reached a record high of around 5.7 million jobs in 2018.

According to Jan Brorhilker, managing partner at EY, industrial companies are under enormous pressure. “Aggressive competitors, such as those from China, are pushing down prices, key sales markets are weakening, demand in Europe is stagnating at a low level, and the entire US market is a major question mark,” he said. “At the same time, companies are struggling with high costs – for example, for energy and personnel.”Brorhilker warned that at least 70,000 additional jobs could be lost by the end of the year. Companies, particularly in machinery and automotive manufacturing, have launched cost-cutting programs to cope with the challenging market conditions. In the automotive sector, which is grappling with declining sales, growing competition from China, and the shift to e-mobility, nearly 6% of jobs were cut over the past year, the report said.

By the end of March, employment in the industry had dropped to around 734,000. Significant job losses were also recorded in metal production and the textile industry, with employment in both sectors falling by more than 4%. The crisis in Germany’s industrial sector has reignited debate over the country’s attractiveness as a manufacturing base, with observers warning of creeping deindustrialization. According to experts, the decline reflects the economic fallout from severing ties with Russian energy. After the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and sanctions, European gas prices quadrupled year-on-year, placing severe strain on both industry and households. However, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has adopted a firm stance against Russia, vowing to “increase pressure” on Moscow and weaken its “war machine” through further sanctions. His government recently pledged an additional €5 billion ($5.6 billion) in military aid to Ukraine.

Malhotra
https://twitter.com/toobaffled/status/1932751502030090477

Lori

Lorikeet: you saved me, now here’s my entire contact list.pic.twitter.com/4e1wc6Fw50

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 11, 2025

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Debt Rattle May 20 2025

May 202025

May 20, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:47 am Finance Tagged with: Biden, cancer, Gaza, Germany, immigration, nuclear power, NWO, Putin, Scott Adams, SCOTUS, Trump 56 Responses »

Pablo Picasso Portrait of Maya 1939

• Trump Spoke with Putin, and Here’s What Happened (Margolis)

• US Should Never Have Intervened In Ukraine – Trump (RT)

• Trump Should Not Threaten New Sanctions When He Talks To Putin (Ian Proud)

• Peaceful Solutions Preferred For Ukraine Conflict Goals – Kremlin (RT)

• Swamp Fever (James Howard Kunstler)

• Biden’s Presidency Is a Scandal of Historic Proportion (Jarrett Stepman)

• This Is the Man Behind the Curtain of Biden’s Health Coverup (Margolis)

• Trump: Biden Allies ‘Not Telling The Facts’ After Cancer Diagnosis (NYP)

• CNN Struggles to Assign Blame for Not Reporting on Biden’s Decline (Turley)

• Germany Makes “Sea-Change Policy Shift” On Nuclear Power In Europe (ZH)

• Europe Admits JD Vance Was Right, Pivots On Mass Immigration (Whedon)

• Europe’s Embrace of Lawfare Threatens Its Alliance with the US (Mike Gonzalez)

• Romania’s Elections Were a Big Globalist Sham (Sp.)

• SCOTUS Allows Removal Of Protected Status From 300K Venezuelan Migrants (ZH)

• Transition To A New World Order Is Beyond Most In The West (Alastair Crooke)

• US Unveils Revised Gaza Truce Proposal – Axios (RT)

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1924524192491569297

King

When the King Moves, the Board Trembles

President Trump just posted a photo from the Oval Office—he and Obama side by side.
The caption: “All Roads Lead to Obama.”
This follows his chilling Clinton exposé and the decoded 8647 message from Comey.
These aren’t posts. They’re… pic.twitter.com/cgvqlPuzXS

— DeepFakeQuotes (@DeepFakeQuote) May 18, 2025

Everyone, please pray for @ScottAdamsSays.pic.twitter.com/TzJTMZC3h8

— George (@BehizyTweets) May 19, 2025

Wow. This one is heartbreaking.

Scott says he has stage 4 prostate cancer and doesn't expect to live past this summer.

I've listened to Scott most days since probably 2016. I've learned more from him than probably any other person in modern media.

Truly one of the greats. I… https://t.co/tKc4eDJiac

— Doc Anarchy | Renegade Health Mag (@DoctorAnarchist) May 19, 2025

Kamala
https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1924338698336039097

Kaja
https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1924211156341932284

Souza

Obama was a CIA asset. He was installed by the NWO.

Former FBI agent John D. Souza pic.twitter.com/Lj2ThMUs0I

— Redpill Drifter (@RedpillDrifter) May 19, 2025

Ursula
https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1924166680311480410

To know Mr. Comey is to dislike Mr. Comey

Senator John Kennedy talking about James Comey😎 pic.twitter.com/jRYWFlPI7U

— Steve (@willsmi1) May 19, 2025

Jim Rogers

Trump hangs up the phone on Putin and calls Zelenskyy, von der Leyen, Macron, Giorgia Meloni, Merz and Stubb. All of whom (Meloni?) want war, not peace. What use is this? You just give them the chance to undo what you’ve just achieved.

• Trump Spoke with Putin, and Here’s What Happened (Margolis)

In a remarkable development that could signal a turning point in the war in Eastern Europe, President Donald Trump revealed Monday that he held a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and what came out of it could reshape the future of the region. “Just completed my two hour call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump announced on Truth Social. “I believe it went very well.” According to Trump, the call wasn’t just diplomatic pleasantries — it led to a major breakthrough. “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump said. The groundwork has been laid for direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv, with Trump emphasizing that the two nations will handle the negotiations themselves. “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”

Trump described the tone of the conversation with Putin as highly constructive: “The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.” Looking beyond the war, Trump indicated that economic opportunities could be a major incentive for peace. “Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree,” he said. “There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED.” And Ukraine, he said, would benefit immensely from new trade opportunities in the aftermath of war. “Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country.”

Trump said the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would begin “immediately” and that key world leaders had been informed. “I have so informed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of Germany, and President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, during a call with me, immediately after the call with President Putin.” And in a notable twist, Trump said the Vatican has expressed a willingness to host the talks. “The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations.”

After years of escalating bloodshed, failed ceasefires, and ineffective diplomacy under previous administrations, President Trump may have just pulled off the first real breakthrough. “Let the process begin!” he concluded. If this peace initiative holds, it would be a watershed moment, not just in the war between Russia and Ukraine but in the full restoration of America’s credibility and leadership on the world stage. Trump ran on a clear promise to end the endless wars that have drained American influence and treasure, and now, just months into his second term, he’s already delivered more meaningful progress than Joe Biden managed in nearly three years of fumbling diplomacy, endless aid packages, and aimless rhetoric.

While Biden sent blank checks to Ukraine and pushed America to the brink of direct conflict, Trump picked up the phone and made actual diplomacy happen. He understands that peace comes through strength and negotiation — not virtue-signaling and proxy wars. The mere fact that Russia and Ukraine are now preparing to sit down at the table speaks volumes about who the world respects as a serious dealmaker. This isn’t just a step toward ending a catastrophic war; it’s proof that strong leadership in the White House can shift the entire geopolitical landscape. Trump once again proves that when America leads with clarity and resolve, the world listens.

“..we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off – and maybe the whole thing would have been better off – because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,”

• US Should Never Have Intervened In Ukraine – Trump (RT)

President Donald Trump has blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for funneling vast amounts of American taxpayer money into a foreign conflict that “should have remained a European situation.” Speaking to reporters at the White House following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Trump expressed frustration over the “crazy” scale of US involvement in the Ukraine conflict. He reiterated that it was “not our war” and emphasized that his administration is working to end the hostilities through diplomacy. “This is not our war. This is not my war… I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off – and maybe the whole thing would have been better off – because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,” Trump said.

The president stated that Washington has provided “massive” and “record-setting” levels of military and financial assistance to Kiev – far exceeding what the EU and other NATO countries have contributed. “We don’t have boots on the ground, we wouldn’t have boots on the ground. But we do have a big stake. The financial amount that was put up is just crazy,” he added. “Again, this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation. But we got involved – much more than Europe did – because the past administration felt very strongly that we should,” he said. “We gave massive amounts, I think record-setting amounts, both weaponry and money.”

Trump’s conversation with Putin was followed by calls with several European leaders, including the heads of Germany, Italy, and the UK, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky. “They have a big problem. It’s a terrible war. The amount of anger, the amount of hate, the amount of death,” Trump said, noting that the conflict has reached a point where “it’s very hard to extradite themselves away from what’s taken place over there.” Trump said he believes both Putin and Zelensky want peace, but only time will tell if it can be achieved. “There’s a good chance we can get this done. I believe Putin wants to do it… My whole life is like deals, one big deal. And if I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it because I’d just pull out.”

Pressed by reporters on whether he had a “red line” that would cause him to walk away from mediating the conflict or potentially escalate US involvement, Trump declined to elaborate. “Yeah, I would say I do have a certain line, but I don’t want to say what that line is because I think it makes the negotiation even more difficult than it is,” he said. Putin described the conversation with Trump as “frank” and “quite useful,” adding that Moscow is prepared to work with Kiev on drafting a memorandum aimed at achieving a future peace agreement. “In general, Russia’s position is clear. The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” the Russian president said.

It’s no use, and bad blood.

• Trump Should Not Threaten New Sanctions When He Talks To Putin (Ian Proud)

The U.S. side has made various signals that it might impose massive new sanctions on Russia unless the war ends soon. This would be a huge mistake that would lock in the fighting for the rest of the year and leave Europe on the hook for a massive bill and political disruption that it cannot afford. Trump should not threaten Putin with sanctions when they talk on Monday 19 May. In the run up to the Russia-Ukraine bilateral peace talks which finally took place in Istanbul last week, both the EU and the UK imposed new sanctions on Russia. On 9 May, as Russian commemorated victory Day, Britain imposed sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet and the EU followed suit with its 17th package of Russia sanctions on 14 May, the day before the Istanbul talks were due to start.

Both the UK and EU have threatened further sanctions should Russia not agree a full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine and, with Zelensky, have actively urged the U.S. to follow suit, which it has not done, so far. However, the Americans have spoken increasingly about the possibility of massive new sanctions against Russia: this would be a huge mistake. Sanctioning a country before peace talks have already started, or while they are still going on, is already a bad look. Very clearly, the Ukrainians, Europeans and British hope that new sanctions will apply such pressure on Russia that it agrees to terms that are more favourable to the Ukrainian side. I.e. that Ukraine does not have to go back to the Istanbul 1 commitment to adopt permanently neutral status.

The western mainstream press has been carpet bombing their intellectually degraded readers with the latest press line that Ukraine should not have to go back to the Istanbul 1 text as a starting point for talks. But there’s a problem. For this strategy to be effective, the sanctions have to work. As I’ve pointed out before, sanctions against Russian energy have had limited impact, not just since 2022, but since 2014. Nothing about the glidepath of sanctions since February 2014 suggests that new sanctions will work now. This latest round of UK and EU sanctions aimed to apply more pressure on enforcement of the G7 oil price cap of $60 which was first imposed in December 2022. Since the war started, that policy has failed.

Between 2021 and 2024, total volumes of Russian oil exported fell by just 0.2 million barrels per day, or 2.6%. After a bumper year for tax receipts in 2022 caused by Russian tumbling rouble and skyrocketing energy prices, Russia pulled in current account surpluses of $49.4bn and $62.3bn in 2023 and 2024. This was on the back of still strong goods exports of $425bn and $433bn respectively. There are several reasons why the oil price cap didn’t work, the biggest being that Russia diverted 3 million barrels per day, around 39.5% of total oil exports to India (1.9 mbd), Türkiye (0.6 mbd) and China (0.5 mbd). Türkiye and India boosted exports of refined fuels to Europe providing a backdoor route for Russian oil to Europe.

The second reason the oil price cap didn’t work is the near ten month time lag between war starting and the limit being imposed, which gave Russia space to readjust before punitive measure had been imposed. During this period, oil prices also dropped sharply from the high of $120 in the summer of 2022, to around $80 when the measure was imposed: the G7 missed the boat to impose maximum damage; this reinforces the point I make all the time that coalitions cannot act with speed and decisiveness. Today, the Russian Urals oil price is below the $60 G7 cap meaning that any registered shipping company can transport it without penalty, which renders the British and European sanctions as pointless in any case.

Let’s be clear, western nations imposing sanctions against Russia that don’t work is not a new phenomena. As I have pointed out many times before, the vast majority (92%) of people that the UK has imposed assets freezes and travel bans upon have never held assets in the UK nor travelled here. For companies, the figure is just 23. The same, I am sure, is true of EU and U.S. sanctions, which cover largely the same cast list of characters and companies, as we all share and compare the same lists of possible designations. Financial sector sanctions prompted a massive readjustment of Russia’s financial sector. Energy and dual use sanctions drove self-sufficiency in technology production, through Rosnet, Gazprom and RosTec: i.e. these companies invested more in R&D on component production while sourcing components from alternative markets, in particular China.

“..eliminate the causes of this crisis, create conditions for long-term sustainable peace and ensure the security of the Russian state and the interests of our people..”

• Peaceful Solutions Preferred For Ukraine Conflict Goals – Kremlin (RT)

Russia remains open to achieving its goals in the Ukraine conflict through peaceful means, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. Peskov, speaking before President Vladimir Putin’s scheduled phone call with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, expressed appreciation for Washington’s mediation efforts, noting that “if it really helps us achieve our goals by peaceful means, that would certainly be preferable.” He also recalled that Putin’s 2021 proposal to address Russian security concerns over NATO expansion was rejected by the US-led alliance and then-President Joe Biden’s administration. Moscow’s stated objectives include keeping Ukraine out of NATO, ending Kiev’s policies that it considers discriminatory against ethnic Russians, and curbing the influence of extreme Ukrainian nationalist groups.

In a recent interview, Putin said Moscow wants to “eliminate the causes of this crisis, create conditions for long-term sustainable peace and ensure the security of the Russian state and the interests of our people” in former Ukrainian territories where people voted to join Russia following the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. Last week, Russian and Ukrainian representatives held their first direct talks since 2022, when Kiev backed out of a proposed peace deal that had been agreed in principle by both sides in Istanbul. The U-turn was influenced by the then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to Ukraine’s lead negotiator David Arakhamia.

The latest round of Istanbul negotiations has led to a proposal for the largest prisoner exchange between the two countries and a pledge to continue dialogue. Trump has claimed that he alone can broker peace between Russia and Ukraine and suggested that a breakthrough could come as early as this week, following his conversation with Putin.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I want Biden to get better and live many more years, so he can watch his family go broke from running out of influence to sell.” Oilfield Rando on X

• Swamp Fever (James Howard Kunstler)

If the slithering denizens of Okefenokee-on-the-Potomac were nervous about their fates before Sunday — and I’d say they’ve been rather jumped-up since Nov. 4 — then Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday morning session with FBI top dawgs Patel and Bongino must have been a near-death experience for them. Something Roto-rooterish this way comes, officialdom must be thinking, if you can call utter hysteria “thinking.” Washington is nervous because there have been zero leaks from the agency, a condition heretofore unknown in that haunted, pestiferous, reeking marsh. There’s plenty of the usual background noise, of course: the insectile hum, the croaking, trilling, buzzing, staccato peeps, chirps, and squeals of the squirming lesser creatures. . . the occasional roar of an ancient gator. . . the guttural cry of the night heron, the sharp yelp of some furry prey meeting its doom, the pulsating, primordial, chthonic cacophony of creatures suffering to mate in the frightful darkness. . . but that’s just the news media doing their thing.

We’ve remarked more than once here in recent weeks about the ominous silence emanating from the FBI leadership amidst all that other noise, and now you know: a mighty information dump is coming, bales of documents that Christopher Wray sat on for years will be publicly released un-redacted, spells will be broken, names will be named (with imputations of crimes committed), and abiding mysteries unraveled — like, what was the FBI actually doing around the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and much more. Prepare for some disappointment. Alas, most non-capital federal crimes (acts short of treason and murder) have a five-year statute of limitations (18 U.S.C. § 3282), so the multitudinous felonious misdeeds of RussiaGate will go unpunished.

Stzrok, McCabe, Rosenstein, Pientka, Ohr (and wife Nellie), Thibault, Baker, Atkinson, Halper, Horowitz, Lynch, Yates, et al., will skate off into the sunset, but not without lasting reputational damage. Mr. Obama’s presidential aura will surely lose a lot of its luster. But there is plenty to keep the DOJ busy with more recent turpitudes carried out with the election of “Joe Biden,” including perhaps the 2020 election itself in the months before November, 2025, when the statute of limitations kicks in for that caper. Mainly, what looms is a reckoning over “Joe Biden’s” fake presidency and the momentous question as to who was really running the executive branch of the government, most particularly who was using the devious “auto-pen” to sign off on executive orders and perhaps even on legislation.

It is a wonder of modern times that this affront to the public trust somehow remains an abiding mystery. But it shows just how fake Jake Tapper’s new book is — Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Jake blames the whole fiasco on “the White House” without ever stating who in that building was actually acting in “JB’s” place as shadow president. Tapper, allegedly a reporter, apparently never bothered to ask. But neither did anyone else at CNN, the other TV news networks, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and every other outpost of OG journalism. Nor does Jake conclude the obvious: that his entire profession sold out the country to act as the Democratic Party’s damage control agency — rather than its traditional duty to act as a powerful check on corrupt, runaway government.

Which is to say that the news media Jake represents is at least as corrupt as the government itself. It’s for certain now, anyway, that we are going to find out exactly who was behind the fabled auto-pen, and it will probably turn out to be a cabal composed of Chiefs-of-Staff, Ron Klain and Jeffrey Zients, Dr. Jill, NSA Jake Sullivan, Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, Domestic Affairs advisor Susan Rice, and ultimately to some degree former President Obama, holed-up a few blocks away in his Kalorama mansion those four years of “Joe Biden’s” term in the oval office. Why wouldn’t Mr. Obama, now a private citizen, be called to some official forum, say a courtroom or a congressional committee, to answer questions about that? He’s not any sort of God with God-like privileges.

“This was the first fully deep-state presidency.”

• Biden’s Presidency Is a Scandal of Historic Proportion (Jarrett Stepman)

The “presidency” of Joe Biden is one of the greatest scandals in American history. The legacy media is only now covering the mental incapacity of a president who apparently left the entire ship of state to the unaccountable bureaucracy. On Friday, Axios released Friday night news dump audio of Biden’s 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur. If you heard the tape and haven’t been in a coma for the past four years, then nothing here is truly surprising. The former president sounded senile and evasive when answering questions about his handling of top secret documents. Some of my colleagues went through the full tapes and found that Biden “forgot the names of President Barack Obama’s former secretary of defense and comedian Jay Leno; referred to Africa as a country, not a continent; and was unaware he had in his possession a notebook with war advice in it for Obama during his interview with special counsel Robert Hur and investigators in October 2023.”

Biden certainly did not sound like someone who could be trusted to make large-scale national decisions or even small-scale personal ones. This is entirely unsurprising unless you are a left-leaning corporate media journalist on the political beat. If you are, then I’m sure that the reports coming out about Biden in office are jaw-dropping, gob-smacking revelations to you. The media elite are shocked, shocked to discover that Biden may have been unfit for office. The release of these tapes was followed by a Sunday afternoon reveal that Biden has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. The cancer diagnosis is certainly a terrible thing. But the idea that this should end the story about what happened the last four years is a farce. It couldn’t be clearer now that due to mental and physical ailments, Biden was a diminished man from the moment he assumed the president’s office.

Despite some of the aforementioned elite journalists calling for a lid to be put on conversations about Biden’s presidency due to his health, the reality is the cancer diagnosis only raises more unsettling questions. Is this really a new diagnosis? Did Biden’s doctors really somehow miss the signs of treatable cancer. And that makes this situation entirely unprecedented. Yes, President Woodrow Wilson was at one point incapacitated during his final term in office, but that was at the tail end of his presidency. Wilson suffered a series of strokes after his highly energetic campaign to convince Americans to join the League of Nations. His wife and even some members of the media tried to cover it up, but ultimately the Democratic Party pulled the plug on his extremely brief flirtation with running for a third term.

There was no widespread attempt to fool the American people and ensure another term for an “almost catatonic” president, as one witness at George Clooney’s June fundraiser for Biden described the candidate.This situation with Biden was much, much worse, the cover-up far more extensive, and the consequences were far more potentially dire in the age of instant communication and weapons capable of quickly destroying all of human civilization. How shall we think of those years in which multiple crises developed around the globe, Americans were mass deprived of employment due to government-forced vaccinations, states were browbeaten to allow children to get life-altering hormones, and an ultimately victorious presidential candidate was nearly jailed? I’ve tried to think of some apt historical comparisons.

President John Tyler was known to some of his more cantankerous critics as “his accidency,” due to being the first vice president to assume the president’s office after the death of the commander in chief. The attitude was that nobody actually elected him to become president, and in the early days of the republic the Constitution was a bit murky about whether he could just assume office or a new election must be held. Regardless of the nickname, Tyler became an aggressive, active commander in chief—somewhat to the chagrin of many in his party. But Biden was in some way the mirror opposite. Despite being elected in a highly contested election, he seems to have never really assumed his responsibilities. Biden’s lethargy was only matched by his lack of transparency.

The better word for Biden would be “his irrelevancy.” While the 46th president’s handlers, most likely at the behest of former President Barack Obama, led him around in an extended real-world version of “Weekend at Bernie’s,” the federal apparatus operated on its own. This was rule by “experts,” or really rule by the managerial class that re-created the old spoils system but made it totally unaccountable to the American people. Decisions were carried out by vast, interlocking agencies at the behest of their Democratic Party allies whom they serve. This was the first fully deep-state presidency. Biden was awarded by the Democratic Party with the nominal career-capping title as president, but the functions and even the decisions demanded of his office were clearly distributed to his subordinates and the federal leviathan. The result was a complete disaster.

Americans rightly lost faith in their leaders and the elite institutions attached to this corrupted apparatus. U.S. foreign policy was at best strategically adrift. Our enemies around the globe went on the march. The people feared the government more than the government feared them. The upshot of these calamities is that we were delivered a national wake-up call at a time of crisis. A political counterrevolution is taking place that may have never happened had its depth not been revealed at least in part by the media’s cover-up of Biden’s obvious infirmity. But even though the first 100-plus days of President Donald Trump couldn’t be more different than the four years of his predecessor, we can’t forget how bad things got, how much the legacy media covered for a senile president’s obvious incapacity, and how deeply threatening the permanent bureaucratic state is to American liberty.

Call his personal doctor to the stand. Under oath.

• This Is the Man Behind the Curtain of Biden’s Health Coverup (Margolis)

For four years, Americans watched Joe Biden stumble—literally and figuratively—through his presidency, while his inner circle and media allies insisted everything was just fine. Any attempt to question his physical or mental decline was met with accusations of “ageism” or dismissed as wild conspiracy talk. This, from the same Democrats who once obsessed over Donald Trump’s mental fitness, but spent most of Biden’s term parroting absurd claims that he was “sharp as a tack,” “a beast,” or “running circles around his staff.” Videos of Biden looking lost on stage or mumbling were dismissed as “cheap fakes” by the Biden White House, and the media enthusiastically echoed that talking point. It took a humiliating debate meltdown to finally make it clear they could no longer cover up the obvious.

Only then did Democrats admit what everyone else had known for years: Joe Biden was neither physically capable nor mentally fit to serve as president. The charade is over—but the damage is done. But, now, in light of the revelation of Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis, Congress needs to subpoena Joe Biden’s White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to answer questions. In 2023, shortly before Biden announced his reelection campaign, O’Connor called Biden a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male” fit for the presidency. Everyone knew it was laughable. Biden was visibly deteriorating—stumbling through speeches, forgetting names, and needing direction just to exit a stage. The signs were there for anyone willing to look, and even then, some insiders were quietly admitting behind the scenes that there were serious concerns. Yet, a year later, O’Connor doubled down. In February 2024, he wrote, “The President feels well and this year’s physical identified no new concerns.”

These claims were lies. Biden’s mental and physical struggles were evident daily, and insiders were already leaking concerns. O’Connor’s medical authority made his deception worse than political spin. His health reports gave everyone cover. Without him, the deception couldn’t have happened. On Sunday, Biden’s office announced his diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer, with a Gleason score of 9 and bone metastasis, detected after urinary symptoms revealed a prostate nodule. This isn’t just conservative media raising red flags. Medical experts are saying the same thing. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a former Obama health advisor, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Biden likely had cancer for the entire duration of his presidency, saying, “He did not develop it in the last 100, 200 days. He had it while he was president… probably at the start of his presidency in 2021.”

Dr. David Shusterman, a leading urologist, echoed that assessment on NewsNation, explaining that Biden’s aggressive cancer usually develops over five to ten years and is unlikely to go unnoticed during routine checkups—especially with the top-tier care a sitting president receives. These revelations leave us with only two explanations: O’Connor either neglected screenings or hid Biden’s condition. O’Connor has long ties to the Biden family—serving as Biden’s doctor since 2009, supporting them through Beau Biden’s cancer, and joining family vacations—and this longtime connection raises questions about his objectivity. His business dealings with James Biden, introducing him to a medical team for a failed hospital venture, further suggest conflicts of interest. It’s quite clear that O’Connor wasn’t made White House physician because he was trusted to give the nation an honest assessment of the president’s health, but rather because the Biden family knew he’d cover up the truth.

And he did. He issued false reassurances that not only shattered public trust but put national security at risk. Biden’s physical and cognitive decline—now compounded by a serious cancer diagnosis—wasn’t just a health issue; it was a strategic liability that our enemies could exploit. Rather than face the press and answer tough questions, O’Connor hid behind written statements delivered by Karine Jean-Pierre, shielding the full truth from the American people. After Biden’s humiliating debate performance last year, House Oversight Chairman James Comer demanded O’Connor testify about the president’s condition and any connections to the Biden family’s dealings. Just two weeks later, Biden abruptly dropped out of the race. O’Connor never appeared. Last month, reports indicated O’Connor was on the short list of witnesses House Republicans want to question over his role in concealing the president’s cognitive decline. That testimony is long overdue—and more necessary now than ever.

‘Dangerous for our country’.

• Trump: Biden Allies ‘Not Telling The Facts’ After Cancer Diagnosis (NYP)

President Trump questioned Monday how doctors did not diagnose former President Joe Biden with advanced prostate cancer until after he had left office — accusing former White House staff of “not telling the facts.” “I’m surprised the public wasn’t notified a long time ago,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in his first on-camera statement about his predecessor’s diagnosis. “To get to stage nine, that’s a long time,” added the president of Biden’s cancer scoring a 9 on the Gleason scale, which indicates a “high-grade” cancer that can spread quickly. Trump, 78, noted that had undergone a full physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last month, and claimed that a prostate exam is “standard” for “pretty much anyone getting a good physical.” “When you take tests, as a male, that test is very standard.”

“This is dangerous for our country,” Trump added, noting that Biden contributed to the “mess” the country is in now. Trump called the diagnosis “very very sad,” but pointed out there were also doctors, including former White House physician Kevin O’Connor, who had claimed Biden was in top mental shape for years, before the public saw his diminished capabilities on full display at his June 27, 2024, debate against Trump. O’Connor gave Biden a nearly-clean bill of health during their last physical in late February 2024, writing that he “identified no new concerns” at the time. The president’s physical didn’t mention a prostate exam that year, though Biden did undergo a colonoscopy in 2021.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said that Biden, was deemed not to need a cognitive test — despite public outcry at the president’s many gaffes and verbal slip-ups, including asking “Where’s Jackie” and searching for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) at an event in September 2022. “The president doesn’t need a cognitive test. That is not my assessment, that is the assessment of the president’s doctor, that is also the assessment of his neurologist,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at the time. “If it’s the same doctor that said there’s nothing wrong there, and that’s being proven to be a very sad situation,” Trump said Monday, adding: “I think someone is going to have to speak to his doctor.” “Why wasn’t the cognitive ability — why wasn’t that discussed?”

“Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate.”

• CNN Struggles to Assign Blame for Not Reporting on Biden’s Decline (Turley)

In the wake of the leaked audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, the media is going through another round of spinning its own failure to pursue the question of Biden’s obvious mental and physical decline. That is no more evident than at CNN, which was one of the most hostile networks to such questions before Biden withdrew from the presidential race after his disastrous debate. The struggle was on full display on Friday. CNN’s host Jake Tapper has faced withering attacks over his publication of a book investigating Biden’s decline, long after the public learned the truth during the debate. While Tapper has admitted that he could have pushed harder on the question, he has been critical of the White House staff and others who hid the truth from the media despite the fact that many were attacked on CNN for raising the issue (including by Tapper).

On Friday’s CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Pérez raised the same rationale for the performance that the White House used after the debate: Biden was tired due to performing his duties as president. Just as the White House raised how Biden was coming off an international trip before the election, Pérez noted that the interview came after the October 7 attack when Biden “had spent that entire time, obviously, on the phone and working long hours.”

“look, one of the other things that I think is key to understanding this, during this interview, the context, right, is that, you remember, he sat down for these interviews in October of, when, right after the attack by Hamas in Israel. And so, he had spent that entire time, obviously, on the phone and working long hours. And so, the big question, of course, became, a president of his age, and given the stresses of what he was going through, should he have sat down, should that have been the time for him to sit down for several hours of interviews — and they do go over two days of interviews with prosecutors — with everything that they had on the line? Clearly, Joe Biden thought that it was fine to do that. But, clearly, you can see from some of his answers that he does not have a handle on some of this. And so you could say, was it because of fatigue, or is it because of the things that you write about in your book, Jake? And so, that’s the big — I think, the big takeaway or big question that people will take away from listening to this audio.”

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” host Abby Phillip blamed not Hamas but Democrats and Hur: “[I]f Democrats had taken seriously, which, by the way, in a way, Robert Hur kind of undersold this. He kind of threw Joe Biden a lifeline. It was an opportunity, actually, for Democrats to take it seriously, maybe change gears at that point, and maybe [give] a potential nominee more time.” CNN Political Commentator Maria Cardona piped in that you should not forget to blame the First Lady: “I think, at the end of the day, the accountability falls with Joe Biden, and, frankly, probably, with Jill Biden too, because –.” Phillip responded, “Yeah, that’s true, but it also falls on the Democratic Party that ostracized people who said anything about Joe Biden’s — attacking the media for even raising the issue of his age, when, clearly, it was an issue. There’s accountability there, too.”

The only lack of accountability has been for the media itself, which is again spinning its own role in dismissing these accounts. This effort continued right up to the debate itself. CNN’s Oliver Darcy wrote, “Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate.” As Joe Concha has pointed out, media outlets attacked Hur after the report to dismiss accounts of Biden’s diminishment when he was still the Democratic standard bearer. Media sources like the Atlantic followed the lead of the White House in attacking Hur for “misleading” the public on Biden’s memory.

Now, Hur is being attacked on CNN for “downplaying” the extent of the diminishment. What is striking about these accounts is that they suggest that the media was kept in the dark and omit the fact that it was ignoring or opposing those in the media who were raising the concerns. This was an active effort to swat down such concerns until it no longer mattered after the public saw the truth. The media then investigated a story that was impossible to deny or ignore. The public is obviously not buying it. Instead they are increasingly looking to new media and social media for their news.Blaming Hamas or Hur is not going to work. For most viewers, it is another “Let’s Go Brandon” moment.

On energy and immigration, Germany just turns 180º and sells that as bravery.

• Germany Makes “Sea-Change Policy Shift” On Nuclear Power In Europe (ZH)

Three weeks after widespread power grid failures across Portugal and Spain, triggered by unreliable solar and wind power, Germany appears to be sharply recalibrating its energy stance. In a notable policy shift, the new conservative government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reversed its longstanding opposition to nuclear power. The move reflects a growing understanding in Berlin that overreliance on unreliable solar and wind power generation poses serious risks to economic stability and energy security. The shift also signals a broader return to common-sense energy policymaking in Europe, with nuclear power increasingly viewed as critical in France in achieving reliable, low-carbon power generation.

The Financial Times reports that German officials have informed Paris they will no longer oppose French efforts to have nuclear energy recognized as equivalent to renewables in EU legislation. This marks a significant policy shift, considering former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had firmly opposed treating nuclear power on the same level as solar and wind in the EU’s framework for achieving net zero by 2050. “The Germans are telling us: we will be very pragmatic on the issue of nuclear power,” an anonymous French diplomat told the FT, which was involved in the talks with the Germans. The person said this means that “all the biases against nuclear power, which still remain here and there in EU legislation, will be removed.” “This will be a sea-change policy shift,” said a German official.

Guntram Wolff, a senior fellow at think-tank Bruegel, said, “It’s a welcome rapprochement that will make the topic of energy easier in the EU,” adding, “Politically, Merz is also thinking about the nuclear umbrella.” Berlin’s reversal on nuclear power comes three weeks after solar and wind collapsed the power grids across Portugal and Spain. Europe’s dangerous and radical shift to unreliable net-zero energy has been nothing short of a disaster and an embarrassment for the far-left liberals high in their castles in Brussels. Merz has clearly recognized the urgent need to reverse degrowth net-zero policies. He also understands the strategic urgency of revitalizing Franco-German cooperation—a prerequisite for unlocking stalled EU-level decision-making under former Chancellor Scholz.

“When France and Germany agree, it is much easier for Europe to move forward,” said Lars-Hendrik Röller, a professor at Berlin-based ESMT business school who was chief economic adviser to former Chancellor Angela Merkel, adding, “While several challenges remain, I believe this issue will be solved.” Last week, FT obtained a letter sent to the European Commission by ministers from 12 European member states explaining that it was “imperative” that Brussels acknowledge the “complementary nature of nuclear and renewable energy sources.” The new Franco-German policy shift on energy is critical for Europe to get its house in order, considering NatGas prices have surged since the Ukraine-Russia war, making manufacturing uncompetitive on global markets because inputs have driven up prices of end products (such as automobiles). Solar and wind trends have also created instability in the power grid, which is a national security threat.

“His series of proposals and high-profile speeches mark a complete reversal of the Labour Party’s longstanding support for mass immigration..”

• Europe Admits JD Vance Was Right, Pivots On Mass Immigration (Whedon)

Months after Vice President JD Vance excoriated the European elite for allowing unfettered mass immigration from the Third World to ravage the continent, the political winds appear to be shifting as European leaders, and even American Democrats, begin to walk back their permissive policies that enabled sizable demographic shifts in the EU. Perhaps the flagship for cultural terraforming via embracing third-world immigration, the UK has seen Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer launch a high-profile campaign to crack down on immigration and push assimilation in recent days. His series of proposals and high-profile speeches mark a complete reversal of the Labour Party’s longstanding support for mass immigration and comes as polling shows his government losing ground to an anti-immigration outsider party.

It’s not just the UK either, as other EU governments, notably Romania, appear poised to place immigration critics in power. Dark-blue California, meanwhile, has seen its governor, Gavin Newsom reading the political winds and abandoning his own long-standing policies of providing a wide range of state benefits to illegal aliens. In his February speech to European leaders, Vance warned Europeans that they risked weakening their alliance with the U.S. due to what he called “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.” He notably pointed to the large-scale censorship of mass immigration critics and the cancellation of the Romanian elections due to allegations of Russian interference. Though he faced a tough audience and earned their ire, recent moves in Europe appear to suggest a tacit admission that he was right.

The UK ranks among the nations facing the biggest backlash to mass immigration, with Nigel Farage’s Reform Party increasingly taking a dominant position in polling over the incumbent Labour Party and their traditional opponents, the Conservatives. Matters of cultural friction, crime and the growing presence of radical Islam in the nation have even led to the prevalence of the term “the Yookay” to refer to the country in a satirical manner. Starmer, in a major speech last week, warned that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” if it failed to crack down on immigration in which he promised to “take back control of our borders.” He subsequently announced that his government would raise English language proficiency requirements for immigrants, saying “If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English.”

“This is my promise to British people: Every area of our immigration system will be tightened up, so we have more control. And migration numbers will fall,” he promised. Starmer further announced that he would charge employers to recruit overseas and required British firms to show that they were investing in domestic labor. He also promised to cut migration, end asylum hotels, expand efforts to stop boat crossings of the English channel. “Settlement in the UK is a privilege that is earned, not a right,” he also said. Starmer also announced this week that he had “returned over 24,000 people with no right to be here.” Likely motivating the pivot on immigration were local elections that saw the Reform Party post considerable gains, leading to The Telegraph warning of a possible “extinction” event for Labour in the next election.

The Trump crowd recognize lawfare when they see it.

• Europe’s Embrace of Lawfare Threatens Its Alliance with the US (Mike Gonzalez)

President Donald Trump’s election was greeted in Europe with outright fear by parties of the Left and wary apprehension by the center-right but with open elation by a resurgent sovereigntist Right. Now the Left and the center are regrouping and coming up with a strategy to rein in the surging populists. It should surprise no one that this strategy is based on the twin pillars of lawfare and censorship. Yes, the American Left failed horribly when it used both to try to stop Trump in the 2024 elections. Yet in Europe, the defense of liberty is less entrenched in the mind of voters. We just saw the two approaches clash after Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Elon Musk expressed exasperation when a close ally, Germany, took an initial step in barring the country’s most popular party, the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland.

Germany’s week-old government—a living experiment in the new politics of circling the wagons at the center, being itself a strange-bedfellows coalition of the center-right Christian Democrats and the leftist Social Democrats—responded by warning the Trump administration to stay out of its domestic affairs. To be sure, the generalized statement that Europeans are less zealous of their freedom than Americans requires qualification. Eastern Europe, with a much more recent memory of living in tyranny, is largely more vigilant of losing liberty than is Western Europe, where decades of the welfare state have created constituencies more willing to engage in the illusory bargain of trading a bit of freedom for a bit of comfort. The parties on the Right, in both West and East, also want more sovereign independence and less interference from the European Union in such matters as freedom of expression.

They are the ones that welcomed Trump as the start of a tidal wave they hoped would reach the Old Continent. “Everybody understands that something has changed,” I quoted Marine Le Pen, leader of Rassemblement Nationale, France’s largest opposition party, as telling a crowd at a Patriots rally in Madrid less than a month after Trump’s inauguration. “The results of the American election will sound the awakening of the Old Continent.” Well, the center-right and Left have taken notice of the Trump tsunami, too, and they want to raise a few dams. In terms of lawfare, French courts have convicted Le Pen of embezzlement, a charge she strongly denies, and barred her from running for president in 2027. In Germany, the new government has just allowed the security services to classify AfD as “extremist,” a first step before banning the party outright.

And in Spain, the country’s fiscal court has fined Vox, the third-largest party, 862,000 euros for financial irregularities. All are test cases for how far the Left and center-right are willing to go using the courts to do what they can’t at the ballot box. Expressions of concern about deviating from democratic practices have multiplied. Rubio didn’t mince words, writing on X, “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes. Germany should reverse course.”

“George Simion won 41% in the May 4 first round. EU favorite Nicosur Dan got 21%. In round two, Simion took 46.4%, while Dan got 53.6% – a 155% boost..”

• Romania’s Elections Were a Big Globalist Sham (Sp.)

The results don’t make sense arithmetically and foreign interference has been confirmed. The country has officially completed its slide into EU protectorate status. Prolific Balkans expert Dr. George Szamuely helps unpack what just happened. Eurosceptic candidate George Simion won 41% in the May 4 first round. EU favorite Nicosur Dan got 21%. In round two, Simion took 46.4%, while Dan got 53.6% – a 155% boost. To do so, Dan needed the backing of 87% of the voters who backed neither him or Simion in the first round. Neither of the other major first round candidates (Crin Antonescu, 20%, Victor Ponta, 13%) threw their weight behind Dan in the second round. Where did his 30%+ surge in support come from? Unclear. Simion has alleged that 1.7 million dead people were on voter rolls, and urged voters to check if any deceased relatives or friends voted via a dedicated WhatsApp contact line.

Diaspora voters cast 1.64 million ballots in the second round of the vote, 660,000 more than round one (which Simion handily won, 61% to Dan’s 25.4%). Simion has alleged some polls were closed or not enough ballots were made available in some areas during the runoff, and manipulation of diaspora voting. Specifically, Simion has accused Moldova’s EU lapdog government of “immense fraud” amid reports of Romanian expats voting at 3X the rate they did in round one. He’s also charged France of meddling using “lots and lots of money and pressure through their ambassador here, and through foreign institutions in order to rob the Romanian people of their votes.” Telegram CEO Pavel Durov confirmed on Sunday that a request had been made by France to “silence conservative voices” in Romania ahead of the election.

“This election is a fraud, a giant absolute fraud. Because the proper election was held in December, and that election was canceled because the ‘wrong’ person [Calin Georgescu, ed.] was on the brink of winning,” Dr. George Szamuely told Sputnik. As for Sunday’s vote, the results simply “don’t make any sense” mathematically, the author and Global Policy Institute senior research fellow says. “Just think of that. [Dan] won 87% of all of the people who didn’t vote for either candidate in the first run…That arithmetically just absolutely makes no sense. It defies any logic, defies any experience of polling,” the observer emphasized. Listing off allegations of foreign meddling, particularly by France and Moldova, Szamuely said the “exuberant, delighted messages” out of Brussels after the vote show its sham nature.

“The EU obviously interfered very, very strongly by essentially threatening Romania with dire consequences if it voted the ‘wrong’ way,” he added. “Democracy is an anathema to the EU, it’s nothing but contempt for the will of the people and particularly for any kind of populist nationalist movements,” Szamuely said, highlighting the bloc’s rush to praise Dan, and overlook glaring violations in Sunday’s Romanian elections. “The EU despises democracy. It only celebrates democracy when it gets the election outcomes it wants. When it doesn’t, it immediately declares that this wasn’t a proper election, this wasn’t a proper democracy, this was a fraud,” the observer said, recalling the recent example of Georgia, where local elites successfully stood up to the EU, and the systematic cancellation and rejection of elections and referendums elsewhere until the “right” results are achieved.

Dan
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1924347966292168923

“I’ve been around since 1984 — and ‘temporary protected status’ is never temporary.”

• SCOTUS Allows Removal Of Protected Status From 300K Venezuelan Migrants (ZH)

The Supreme Court handed a major win to the Trump administration on Monday, granting its request to proceed with revoking legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants. In a brief order, the justices approved an emergency application from the administration, allowing officials to undo a Biden-era extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that shields Venezuelans from deportation and grants them work permits. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter, indicating she would have denied the request. The decision allows Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to move forward with a policy reversal that would strip protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelans who were granted TPS due to political and humanitarian crises in their home country.

TPS, created by Congress in 1990, offers safe harbor to nationals of countries suffering from war, natural disaster, or other emergencies. Individuals granted status can legally remain and work in the U.S. for renewable 18-month periods. At the center of the legal fight is a TPS designation made in October 2023 and extended again in January—just before Trump returned to office. The protections were originally set to expire in October 2026, but in February, Noem moved to unwind the designations early, triggering a legal challenge. In April, a federal judge in the Northern District of California blocked the rollback, citing potential racial bias behind the move. But the Trump administration fired back, arguing the judiciary had no business second-guessing decisions made under the executive branch’s immigration authority.

At the time, Trump border czar Tom Homan called the move “Another activist judge making a stupid ruling,” adding “I’ve been around since 1984 — and ‘temporary protected status’ is never temporary.””Bf you look at that decision, it’s based on opinion, not the rule of law.”

https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1907054421282001270

Solicitor General D. John Sauer, in the emergency application to the Supreme Court, said, “The court’s order contravenes fundamental executive branch prerogatives and indefinitely delays sensitive policy decisions in an area of immigration policy that Congress recognized must be flexible, fast-paced and discretionary.”The move was challenged by the National TPS Alliance and individual Venezuelans, who argued the administration was trying to dodge judicial oversight altogether. “It should be unremarkable that federal courts say what the law is,” their lawyers wrote.

Monday’s ruling comes just days after the high court dealt a blow to Trump’s immigration playbook in a separate case. In that decision, the court ruled that immigrants detained under the Alien Enemies Act must be given a real chance to contest deportation. While litigation over the TPS rollback continues in lower courts, the Supreme Court’s order clears the way for the Trump administration to begin rescinding protections while the legal fight plays out.

“..Trump has at least recognised the most important American reality – ie. that the pattern can’t go on indefinitely, and that debt-led consumerism is way past its sell-by date..”

• Transition To A New World Order Is Beyond Most In The West (Alastair Crooke)

Even the need for transition – just to be clear – has only just begun to be recognised in the U.S. For the European leadership however, and for the beneficiaries of financialisation who haughtily lament Trump’s ‘storm’ unwisely unleashed on the world, his base economic theses are ridiculed as bizarre notions completely divorced from economic ‘reality’. That is completely untrue. For, as Greek Economist Yanis Varoufakis points out, the reality of the western situation and the need for transition was clearly spelled out by Paul Volcker, former chair of the Federal Reserve, as long ago as 2005. The harsh ‘fact’ of the liberal globalist economic paradigm was evident even then:“What holds together the globalist system is a massive and growing flow of capital from abroad, running to more than $2 billion every working day – and growing. There is no sense of strain. As a nation we don’t consciously borrow or beg. We aren’t even offering attractive interest rates, nor do we have to offer our creditors protection against the risk of a declining dollar”.

“It’s all quite comfortable for us. We fill our shops and garages with goods from abroad, and the competition has been a powerful restraint on our internal prices. It’s surely helped keep interest rates exceptionally low despite our vanishing savings and rapid growth”. “And it’s [been] comfortable for our trading partners too, and for those supplying the capital. Some, such as China [and Europe, particularly Germany], have depended heavily on our expanding domestic markets. And for the most part, the central banks of the emerging world have been willing to hold more and more dollars, which are, after all, the closest thing that world has to a truly international currency”. “The difficulty is that this seemingly comfortable pattern can’t go on indefinitely”.

Precisely. And Trump is in the process of blowing up the world trading system so as to re-set it. Those western liberals, who today are gnashing teeth and lamenting the advent of ‘Trumpian economics’, are simply in denial that Trump has at least recognised the most important American reality – ie. that the pattern can’t go on indefinitely, and that debt-led consumerism is way past its sell-by date. Recall that most participants in the western financial system have known nothing other than Volcker’s ‘comfortable world’ their entire life. No wonder they have difficulty thinking outside their sealed retort. That does not mean, of course, that Trump’s solution to the problem will work. Possibly, Trump’s particular form of structural rebalancing could make matters actually worse.

Nonetheless, restructuring in some form clearly is inevitable. It comes down otherwise to a choice between bankruptcy slow, or fast and disorderly.The dollar-led globalist system worked well initially – at least from the U.S. perspective. The U.S. exported its post-WW2 manufacturing over-capacity to a newly dollarized Europe, who consumed the surplus. And Europe too, enjoyed the benefit of having its macroeconomic environment (export-led models, guaranteed by the U.S. market). The present crisis began however, when the paradigm inverted – when the U.S. entered on its era of unsustainable structural budget deficits, and when financialisation led Wall Street to build its inverted pyramid of derivative ‘assets’, resting upon a tiny pivot of real assets.

The raw fact of the structural imbalance crisis is bad enough. But the western geo-strategic crisis goes much deeper than just the structural contradiction of inward capital flows and a ‘strong’ dollar eating the heart out of the U.S. manufacturing sector. Because it is bound up, too, with the concomitant collapse of core ideologies underpinning liberal globalism.It is because of this western deep devotion to ideology (as well as to the Volker ‘comfort’ provided by the system) that has triggered such a torrent of anger and outright derision towards Trump’s ‘rebalancing’ plans. Barely a western economist has a good word to say – and yet no plausible alternative framework is offered. Their passion directed at Trump simply underlines that western economic theory is bankrupt, too.

While Bibi touts the final solution.

• US Unveils Revised Gaza Truce Proposal – Axios (RT)

White House envoy Steve Witkoff has presented Israel and Hamas with a new ceasefire proposal, Axios has reported, with Washington urging both sides to accept the deal. The push coincides with the Jewish state’s renewed assault on Gaza, which included a wave of weekend airstrikes and a major ground offensive – Operation Gideon’s Chariots. According to Axios, Witkoff’s proposal includes a 45- to 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of ten hostages and Palestinian prisoners. While similar to past plans, the latest version reportedly contains clearer language signaling that it could lead to a permanent ceasefire. It also includes guarantees aimed at preventing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from unilaterally ending the truce – an issue that derailed a previous agreement. Sources say Netanyahu has responded positively but with many conditions.

Hamas has not yet agreed and is reportedly seeking firm assurances that a temporary truce could pave the way for a lasting ceasefire. Negotiation teams from both sides are formally in Qatar, but an Israeli official told Axios that the real discussions are happening through other, less public channels. Talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US have so far failed to produce a breakthrough. Netanyahu maintains that the war will not end without Hamas’ total defeat, while the group continues to reject disarmament terms. The current escalation began in October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise cross-border attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250. An estimated 58 hostages remain in Gaza, including both living captives and those confirmed deceased whose remains have not yet been recovered. As of Monday, the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s offensive in Gaza has surpassed 53,400, according to the enclave’s health officials.

False

🚨 Two independent studies demolish the “millions saved” COVID-19 vaccine myth:

🔹 Dr. Raphael Lataster’s Meta-Critique
-Exposes the Watson et al study as a manufactured illusion—held together by statistical tricks, false efficacy claims, and pharma-driven agendas.

🔹 “The… https://t.co/r3IdjNhSIM pic.twitter.com/D9kaQ6S1ul

— Nicolas Hulscher, MPH (@NicHulscher) May 18, 2025

Kansas
https://twitter.com/Whiplash437/status/1924317891039559966

Sell
https://twitter.com/manly_mentor/status/1924138102269886497

Africa
https://twitter.com/JasperZiggle/status/1924183844187509116

The forbidden empire returnss

TARTARIA REVEALED: PUTIN UNLEASHES THE FORBIDDEN EMPIRE

The world just changed forever. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declassified explosive Tartaria archives, unearthing a colossal empire that was systematically ERASED from global memory. The moment this happened,… pic.twitter.com/K3HIEIiPYO

— Whiplash347 (@Whiplash437) May 19, 2025

Decline

“This is The UK, Canada & Australia, despite being across 3 continents, one alarming truth connects them all – they are all collapsing”

“This is called managed decline”

If it was just a rogue one off Government you might excuse it, the fact all Western Governments are working… pic.twitter.com/zERlTfGxZV

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) May 18, 2025

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Debt Rattle May 3 2025

May 032025

May 3, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:35 am Finance Tagged with: AfD, AI, Big Balls, DOGE, Germany, L3Harris, Odessa, RedSquare, Rubio, Russia, tariffs, tyranny, Vance 41 Responses »

Pablo Picasso Girl with a boat (Maya Picasso) 1938

• US Demands Direct Russia-Ukraine Talks (RT)

• Russia and Ukraine ‘Closer’ To Settlement – Rubio (RT)

• Ukraine Conflict ‘Not Going to End Any Time Soon’ – Vance (Sp.)

• Ukrainian MP Threatens Terror Attack On Red Square (RT)

• Brussels Floats Trade Solution To Trump – FT (RT)

• European Security Is Impossible Without Russia (Fetouri)

• Trump Claims US Did ‘More Than Any Other Country’ to Win World War II (Sp.)

• Ukraine Can’t Reclaim Lost Territory – Rubio (RT)

• The Hardest Working Man In The Trump Administration (Sarah Anderson)

• What’s Normal, Exactly? (James Howard Kunstler)

• We’re Gonna Lose the PR War Over Tariffs Until We Start Doing THIS (Pinsker)

• Germany’s AfD Party ‘Definitely Right-Wing Extremist’: Spy Agency (RMX)

• Germany ‘Has Rebuilt The Berlin Wall’ – Vance (RT)

• Germany Is Weaponizing WWII Memory Against Russia (Amar)

• Germany Is ‘Tyranny In Disguise’ – Rubio (RT)

• Odessa Massacre: Point of No Return Marked Ukraine’s Slide Into Nazism (Sp.)

• Trump Reportedly Turns To L3Harris For “Interim” Air Force One Jet (ZH)

• The Ghost in the Machine. AI and The Spectral Ontology of Value (Ruggeri)

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1917982262869582328

pic.twitter.com/IDaLzWW3H5

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2025

Miller

pic.twitter.com/wwzzuTjHD4

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 2, 2025

RFK

ARREST the Pandemic Planners. NOW.

“I've been able to find 22 of those ‘Pandemic Simulations’. Dr. Fauci and Bill Gates play key roles in them…as it was a way of drilling and practicing a coup d'état against American democracy…” -RFK Jr. HHS Secretary pic.twitter.com/ycqJudUOuY

— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) May 2, 2025

Wise words from POTUS: "If you want to change the world, you have to have the courage to be an outsider… Progress never comes from those satisfied with the failures of a broken system—it comes from those who want to fix the broken system."

pic.twitter.com/ma3PA8Gmqz

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) May 2, 2025

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1918101908889206911
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1918108357245751334

This is the only takeaway that matters from tonight’s DOGE interview.

Young patriots working 8am-2am 7 days a week to save their country.

This is why they will succeed. Because the typical government employee wants to work 32 hours a week.

They’ll never be able to keep up.… pic.twitter.com/bkIwUIBIBv

— Walter Curt (@WCdispatch_) May 2, 2025

DOGE member, Ethan, says he dropped out of Harvard to serve his country. Now most of campus hates him… pic.twitter.com/U1IAY9iA6W

— A Man Of Memes (@RickyDoggin) May 1, 2025

Full

FULL INTERVIEW: @JesseBWatters sits down with @elonmusk and DOGE staffers. pic.twitter.com/eCfQzOxa0e

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) May 2, 2025

As the week progresses, attention will increasingly shift to the consequences of the tariffs dispute. It’s been a month since Liberation day, and that’s the time Chinese goods need to arrive in the US – or not. The MSM will milk it not just for everything it is, but for everything they can make it appear to be.

As for Ukraine, the US needs to lose Zelensky and his Azov neo nazi support.

• US Demands Direct Russia-Ukraine Talks (RT)

The US will no longer serve as mediator in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce has said. Speaking at a regular press briefing on Thursday, she stated it was time for the two parties to propose their own solutions and engage in direct talks. Trump had previously pledged to end the Ukraine conflict “within 24 hours” if elected, though he later described the claim as an “exaggeration.” Since taking office in January, he has pressed both sides for a ceasefire but has expressed frustration over the slow progress in the talks. Trump has warned that the US may withdraw from the peace process if it continues to falter. Earlier, Moscow signaled it’s ready to start direct negotiations with Kiev “without preconditions,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to observe a short ceasefire during Victory Day celebrations next week.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has branded the Russian truce announcement a “manipulation.” “We will not be the mediators,” Bruce told reporters when asked about Washington’s future role. “We certainly are still committed to it and we’ll help and do what we can, but we are not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings.” “It’s time for both of the nations involved in this conflict to come up with concrete proposals about how this conflict ends. It’s going to be up to them,” Bruce added. Her remarks contrasted with comments by US Vice President J.D. Vance, who said earlier this week that Washington planned to dedicate another 100 days to mediating a peace deal.

Media reports have claimed the US peace proposal includes recognizing Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and its de-facto control over parts of four former Ukrainian regions that chose to join Russia. It also reportedly calls for “freezing” the conflict along current front lines. Commenting on Moscow’s decision to halt military operations next week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the pause should serve as “the start of direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.” Kiev, however, demanded an immediate, unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

“They’re closer, but they’re still far apart..”

• Russia and Ukraine ‘Closer’ To Settlement – Rubio (RT)

Russia and Ukraine are closer to a peace agreement than at any point in the past three years, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. He cautioned, however, that the sides still need to bridge numerous differences to end the conflict. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Rubio reflected on efforts by US President Donald Trump to settle the Ukraine conflict, a promise he had made while still on the campaign trail. “For a hundred days he has done efforts to bring about peace… Look, we’ve gotten closer. We – for the first time – we haven’t known this for three years – we kind of can see what it would take for Ukraine to stop. We can see what it would take for the Russians to stop,” Rubio said.

However, stark differences between Moscow and Kiev remain, the State Secretary noted. “They’re closer, but they’re still far apart. And it’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible… or I think the president is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this,” he added. His comments come as State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce affirmed that the US is committed to settling the conflict, but is “not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings.” Instead, she signaled that it is now up to Russia and Ukraine “to present and develop concrete ideas about how this conflict is going to end.” Last month, the Trump administration indicated that the US could withdraw from the peace process altogether if there is no clear indication of progress in the talks.

Earlier media reports suggested that the US had proposed a peace agreement that includes Washington’s recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, as well as “freezing” the conflict along the current front line and acknowledging Moscow’s control over large parts of the four former Ukrainian regions which voted to join Russia. The deal would also reportedly prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and initiate a phased removal of the sanctions imposed on Russia. Russia has maintained that any peace settlement must include recognition of the new territorial reality on the ground, Ukraine’s demilitarization and denazification, as well as assurances that Kiev will not join NATO. Ukraine, however, has consistently refused to acknowledge its former territories as part of Russia.

“..Ukraine ditched the 2015 Minsk Agreements and the 2022 Istanbul peace deal, and has repeatedly ignored Russia’s calls for talks — including President Vladimir Putin’s 2024 peace proposal..”

• Ukraine Conflict ‘Not Going to End Any Time Soon’ – Vance (Sp.)

US Vice President JD Vance said Russia and Ukraine know each other’s terms for peace, and it is up to Moscow and Kiev to reach a deal. “For three years, these sides have fought, and each of them has said, no peace, we’re going to fight until the other guys are basically knocked out. What we’ve seen now in the last couple of weeks is each side has put down. This is our peace proposal. The Ukrainians did it. The Russians did it. And now I think the question is to see whether we can actually find some middle ground here for these guys to bring this conflict to a close,” Vance boasted about a ‘deal’ that doesn’t exist. He said it would be up to Russia and Ukraine to decide. “It’s not going anywhere. It’s not going to end any time soon,” Vance emphasized.

“When I say this deal, I mean getting these guys to actually propose a peace settlement,” Vance said — blissfully unaware that Ukraine ditched the 2015 Minsk Agreements and the 2022 Istanbul peace deal, and has repeatedly ignored Russia’s calls for talks — including President Vladimir Putin’s 2024 peace proposal. Russia has been conducting its special military operation since February 24, 2022. President Vladimir Putin has said the operation aims to “protect people subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime.” According to the president, the ultimate goal of the operation is to completely liberate Donbass and create conditions that guarantee Russia’s security: Ukraine must undergo demilitarization and denazification.

Moscow says arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement and directly involve NATO countries in the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stressed that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine will be a legitimate target for Russia. The top diplomat has called the US and NATO out for not only supplying weapons to Kiev, but also training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries. The Kremlin has stated that Western arms supplies to Ukraine hinder peace talks.

“..the final decision rests with Ukraine’s military leadership, taking into account the presence of foreign dignitaries from neutral countries..”

• Ukrainian MP Threatens Terror Attack On Red Square (RT)

Kiev could target Moscow’s Red Square during next week’s Victory Day celebrations, a Ukrainian lawmaker has suggested, despite Russia’s offer of a three-day ceasefire. May 9 marks the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a 72-hour ceasefire from May 8 to 10, citing “humanitarian considerations.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later described the truce as a chance to begin “direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.” However, in an interview with Ukrainian media on Wednesday, Yury Pavlenko openly suggested that Ukraine could try to derail Victory Day, which is one of the most revered holidays in Russia, as well as many former Soviet republics.

”I think the time will come when we will strike Red Square – whether it happens this May 9 or sometime later, that time will come,” Pavlenko said, claiming that the Russian capital is full of “legitimate military targets… that have brought much grief to Ukrainian soil.” He noted that the final decision rests with Ukraine’s military leadership, taking into account the presence of foreign dignitaries from neutral countries. This year’s Victory Day parade is expected to be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, among others.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has branded the Russian truce proposal a “manipulation,” while calling for a longer ceasefire of 30 days. “They are now concerned that their parade is in jeopardy and rightly so,” Zelensky said. “What they should worry about is that this war continues.” In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that Kiev “is literally planning terrorist attacks on air,” which she said undermines the prospects for peace talks. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Kiev has conducted a number of drone attacks on Moscow. On May 3, 2023, Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Putin by targeting the Kremlin with two drones, which were shot down before they could cause significant damage.

US purchased $230 billion more from EU than vice versa. The European Trade Commissioner sees a $56 billion deficit problem.

• Brussels Floats Trade Solution To Trump – FT (RT)

The EU wants to substantially increase purchases of goods from the US, according to European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, as cited by Financial Times. The move could help the bloc secure the elimination of import tariffs proposed by US President Donald Trump, the official has said. As part of his sweeping ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on major trading partners, Trump sharply raised duties on US imports from the 27-nation bloc. The US president sees the tariff campaign, which targeted over 90 countries, as a solution to what he calls unfair trade imbalances. If what we are looking at as a problem in the deficit is €50 billion ($56 billion), I believe that we can really … solve this problem very quickly through LNG purchases, through some agricultural products like soybeans, or other areas, Sefcovic said on Thursday in an interview with the newspaper.

He emphasized that the bloc would not accept the 10% tariffs on its goods being kept in place as a fair resolution. He also warned that it would be “very difficult” to strike a deal that is “clearly good and acceptable for our member states and our European parliament.” Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced a sweeping 20% tariff on all EU goods and a 25% tariff on all car imports in an effort to eliminate the trade deficit with the bloc. Brussels was set to introduce 25% retaliatory tariffs on US imports before Trump announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs to allow for talks. However, the 10% baseline tariff and 25% tariff on certain goods remain in place.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has offered Washington a deal whereby tariffs on all industrial goods would be removed. However, Trump has rejected the zero-for-zero tariffs proposal, saying that it doesn’t solve the problem of the trade imbalance. Trade volumes between the US and the EU amounted to $975.9 billion in 2024, according to official data tracked by the Office of US Trade Representative. The US purchased $605.8 billion worth of EU goods, while the bloc’s imports from the US amounted to $370.2 billion.

Because it is a European country.

• European Security Is Impossible Without Russia (Fetouri)

The narrative around Russia’s role in European security has become increasingly distorted in recent decades. Once a central player in European geopolitics, Russia is now considered an outsider at best and an outright enemy at worst. Looking at Moscow through this narrowed prism has become the norm not the exception. It makes the focused observer wonder if European leaders really believe that much can be done without Russia, particularly security-wise. To say such a European view of Moscow is both unfair and short-sighted may be an understatement. It is only 80 years since the Soviet Union, of which Russia was the center, led the liberation of Europe from what was essentially the European evil of Nazism, which is coming back to haunt the old continent.

Do current European leaders really forget such recent history or do they, intentionally, want to rewrite it to suit their current agendas and future Europe, in another generation or two? There is an irony here: while some European leaders are intentionally casting Russia as a “non-European” entity, the historical and practical reality paints a starkly different picture – where Russia is not only a European country but an essential player in ensuring the continent’s stability and prosperity. What cannot be changed is this: Russia is and will always be as European as France or Germany. Any serious debate about security in Europe is meritless and factitious without acknowledging Russia’s pivotal role. Throughout history Europe needed some kind of balancing powers between its internal powers (such as France and Germany), and Russia has been key in maintaining the balance of power on the continent.

A case in point: had it not been for the Soviet Union defeating Nazi Germany, who knows what kind of Europe would have emerged from World War II? The Soviets sacrificed more than 27 million human lives – soldiers and civilians – to rid the world of Nazi Germany and help create a new Germany, even though Germany has never been fully denazified. The United States played a part in liberating Europe and some 190,000 of its soldiers were killed, but that does not make the US a natural ally of Europe more than Russia. After the war, Western Europe accepted US hegemony, but that does not change the fact that Russia is a European and neighborly country and should be part of any European context discussions.

After the Cold War ended, Russia became even more important to be considered European than even the United Kingdom. The UK, eventually, chose to be an extension of America geopolitically and ended up threatening the EU had it not left the superficially harmonic union. Even the claim that shared values unite Europe and America and Europe within NATO is more of a justification for excluding Moscow than a reality. What are the noble values the UK shared with America in invading Iraq or Afghanistan? Where are such shared values within the NATO alliance, led by the US, that compelled it to destroy Libya in 2011? In both cases Moscow was out of the calculation except as a potential adversary.

This negative image of Moscow across much of Europe has been on the rise, becoming what the Russians rightly describe as “Russophobia,” taking a life of its own after the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. Today many European leaders have reinforced this binary view of Russia as a threat, despite its historical and cultural ties to Europe. It seems that, in modern European politics, the question of Russia’s European identity is too often answered with a resounding “no.” Portraying Russia as a non-European country is an unfair characterization loaded with adversarial connotations. Who can deny the simple geographical fact that the Russian Federation is part of Europe and that Moscow lies firmly within Europe? Yet European school textbooks hardly count Moscow as a European capital city. Commonly, Russia in this context is described as the “other,” implying exclusion.

And WW! too.

• Trump Claims US Did ‘More Than Any Other Country’ to Win World War II (Sp.)

US President Donald Trump declared May 8 Victory Day, saying that the United States did “more than any other country” to win World War II. The Soviet Union bore the brunt of defeating Nazi Germany and its European allies — destroying the vast majority of German forces on the Eastern Front. With over 27 million dead, it was the Red Army’s relentless push from Stalingrad to Berlin that shattered Hitler’s war machine. The USSR also played a crucial role in Japan’s defeat, crushing the Kwantung Army in August 1945 — a key factor in Tokyo’s surrender.

“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country … I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I. We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything — That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!” Trump said on Truth Social on Friday. As for America’s so-called “military brilliance”? The US became the only country in history to use nuclear weapons — killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War I wasn’t much different: the US talked big, joined late, and still claimed victory. So much for all that “bravery.”

“Should Kiev abandon plans to join the US-led military bloc and withdraw its troops from the four new territories, Moscow is ready to institute an immediate ceasefire..”

• Ukraine Can’t Reclaim Lost Territory – Rubio (RT)

Ukraine will not be able to reclaim its 2014 borders from Russia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has publicly stated he will never recognize the lost territories, including Crimea, as Russian. The peninsula voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in 2014, shortly after the US-backed armed coup in Kiev. Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Lugansk regions held their own referendums in 2022 to become part of Russia. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox News that Kiev has expressed a willingness to cede land de facto, if not de jure, as part of a peace deal. “Ukraine can’t push the Russians all the way back to where they were in 2014,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.

After months of US-brokered peace efforts, Washington has a pretty clear idea of what both sides want, the top US diplomat noted. “We kind of can see what it would take for Ukraine to stop. We can see what it would take for the Russians to stop,” he said, adding that Moscow’s and Kiev’s settlement demands are still “far apart.” “It’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible, or I think the President is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this,” Rubio said. Both Trump and Rubio have previously warned that the US could walk away from being a peace broker in the Ukraine conflict, if there is no progress soon.

“Not that a war in Ukraine is not important, but I would say what’s happening with China is more important,” Rubio said, adding that Iran is another US concern. Moscow has repeatedly stated that its peace terms include Ukraine’s neutrality, demilitarization and denazification, as well as for Kiev to give up its ambitions to join NATO. Also, ceding the new Russian regions of Kherson, Zaporozhye and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics is not up for discussion, Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year. Should Kiev abandon plans to join the US-led military bloc and withdraw its troops from the four new territories, Moscow is ready to institute an immediate ceasefire, he added.

“In recent years, it often seemed like he was the only adult in the room when it came to recognizing just how big of a problem China is for us..”

• The Hardest Working Man In The Trump Administration (Sarah Anderson)

I’ve heard various members of Donald Trump’s administration say that it’s hard to keep up with the president at the pace he’s been going since Jan. 20. But there may be one man in the cabinet who can do it. Marco Rubio. In case you missed the news on Thursday, Trump shook his administration up a bit by announcing that Mike Waltz would no longer be his national security advisor. A little while later, the president surprised pretty much everyone — including State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, who was mid-briefing — when he posted on Truth Social that he’d be nominating Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations instead. In the same post, he announced that he would be appointing Rubio as acting national security advisor. If you’re keeping track at home, Rubio now serves four — four! — roles in the Trump administration.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1918032465219776901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1918032465219776901%7Ctwgr%5E131b83389bf4f01796a60ebe103fda880dc04efd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2025%2F05%2F02%2Fthe-hardest-working-man-in-the-trump-administration-n4939427

Of course, Trump nominated Rubio for Secretary of State almost immediately after he was elected in November, and he was confirmed hours after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20. On Feb. 3, which seems like years ago now, the president announced that Rubio would become Acting Administrator of USAID, and that the State Department would absorb the agency. Since then, we’ve learned what a mess USAID was, and Rubio announced that about 83% of its programs would be canceled. Shortly after that, on Feb. 7, Trump fired the Archivist of the United States, Colleen Joy Shogan, and on Feb. 16, he announced that Rubio would take her place. And now he can add national security advisor to his resume. Not bad for the guy Trump once called “Little Marco.” Rubio’s new workload has become a major talking point online and throughout the media ever since Trump made the announcement.

The Guardian points out that Rubio is the “first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the national security adviser and secretary of state positions at the same time. In the article “Marco Rubio, Secretary of Everything,” the New York Times also writes, “The former senator from Florida is now the head of four government bodies. He has outdone Henry Kissinger and even Xi Jinping, China’s leader, who has only three titles.” (Pretty sure the Jinping reference was meant to be some sort of dig after skimming the article, but I didn’t read the whole thing carefully, but it’s the New York Times, so the odds are…) Heck, even People magazine wrote an entire article based on the fact that Rubio has four jobs now. nRubio himself appeared on “Hannity” on Fox News tonight and spoke briefly about it, and he posted, “I’m honored to serve under the leadership of @POTUS” on X.

I'm honored to serve under the leadership of @POTUS.

Great talking to @seanhannity about how we're working to end the Russia-Ukraine war, stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and combat China's unfair trade practices. pic.twitter.com/POCEKCOSnU

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 2, 2025

And here I am, sitting in my bed with my laptop after midnight on Thursday, writing about it for PJ Media, even though I told a couple of our editors earlier that I wasn’t going to. Why am I doing that? Well…If you come here regularly, you might notice that I write about Rubio and the State Department often. There are a few reasons for that. First, I’ve been a huge Rubio fan since he became a senator. He’s a bit older than me, but I always felt like he understood my generation more than any other politician in my lifetime, and he spoke to us about topics that mattered to us. (I could dig a little deeper into this and maybe one day I will, but not tonight.) I always felt like he understood things in ways that most other people who supposedly represent the country never did. Not only was he book smart, as they say, but he possessed a lot of common sense. It’s hard to find that, well, anywhere, much less in Washington, D.C.

I know many of you are Rubio fans now, too. Every single time I write one of those articles, I see dozens of comments about how impressed most of you are with him so far. Back during the 2016 primary, he became the only presidential candidate whose campaign I’ve ever supported financially. I’ve defended him both privately and professionally at times when many conservatives turned on him, and when I hopped back on the Trump train last summer, I hoped the president would choose him for, if not vice president (which I know was an issue because of Florida), Secretary of State. One reason for that is China. In recent years, it often seemed like he was the only adult in the room when it came to recognizing just how big of a problem China is for us. You could hear that loud and clear during his Senate confirmation hearing in January.

“The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology.” — Harmeet Dhillon, US Assistant AG for the Civil Rights Division

• What’s Normal, Exactly? (James Howard Kunstler)

When a claque of deep state shills such as Norm Eisen, Chuck Schumer, Bill Kristol, David Brooks, and Larry Summers holler about Mr. Trump’s attempt to reform a depraved political culture as “an assault on norms,” are you not prompted to wonder what, exactly, those norms might be? Looks like they are describing a colossal matrix of racketeering operations in concert with an epic program of crypto-Marxist mind-fuckery, mountains of money purloined under color-of-law, swindles galore of practically every public enterprise, the capital city of a so-called republic fogged in gaslight to conceal a Satyricon of pedophilia, sodomy, and sado-masochism in every closet, cabinet, and pigeon-hole of the political class. So, along comes Mr. Trump for the second round, with a supernaturally able clean-up crew this time, and the monsters feeding off that depraved normality commence to shriek in mortal panic as the scaffold of their crimes gets methodically disassembled and secrets are revealed.

Many of you have been pouting over the lack of criminal prosecutions these first hundred days. Why is AG Ms. Bondi preening on Fox News when she should be banging-out subpoenas and arrest warrants, you ask? And what broom-closet is Dan Bongino hiding in over at the Hoover Building? How is Hillary Clinton still at-large in the land? Does Alejandro Mayorkas still make his Saturday excursions to the boutiques along M Street? Looks like the months of May and June are setting up to be the season of shocks and consequence. Item: James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas (he was cancelled from it) and now running O’Keefe Media Group, put out a mighty strange eighteen-second video this week. Looks like it was filmed in a basement somewhere. “I’m going dark, he says ruefully. “I’m not suicidal. Pray for me. This one scares me, guys.”

T-minus seven days. pic.twitter.com/wcU4tJvHLF

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) April 30, 2025

A week earlier, O’Keefe announced that he had bombshell recordings of public figures breaking the law, involving billions of dollars, which he expected would lead to indictments. What spooked him in the week since then? I guess we’ll have to stand by to find out, or see if JO’K was bluffing. Meanwhile Virginia Guiffre, a former Jeffrey Epstein teen sex slave, likewise said just over a week ago: “I am making it publicly known that in no way, shape, or form am I suicidal. If something happens to me, for the sake of my family do not let this go away and help me to protect them. Too many evil people want to see me quieted.” This was a month after she was injured in a traffic accident with a school bus in Western Australia. On April 24, she reportedly committed suicide at home, after release from the hospital. What do you suppose changed her mind?

An ominous silence surrounds the promised release of the Epstein case material, whatever it consists of: depositions, flight logs, photographs, video recordings of prominent people in compromising situations. Remember, not long after inauguration day, the FBI’s New York field office was found to be sitting on a huge trove of previously hidden Epstein case evidence. The DOJ swiftly “retired” the chief agent of the office, James Dennehy, who additionally had failed to cooperate with requests to disclose the names of agents involved in the Jan-6 investigations. Supposedly, since the discovery of the Epstein trove, a thousand agents were assigned to “process” it, redact the names of the innocent victims, so they say. Are they close to finishing?

Speaking of the J-6, 2021 matter, pressure is building for the Republican majority Congress to hold hearings on exactly what went on that fateful day. FBI Director Patel has yet to disclose how many government agents (not just FBI), and how many “confidential human sources” (i.e., provocateurs), were in the crowd around and inside the US Capitol. It’s getting to be past time to ask Mr. Patel for a straight answer on that in an official proceeding, and continue from there to related business, such as Nancy Pelosi’s failure to reinforce the Capitol Police with National Guard troops that day, and the strange doings around the DNC pipe bomb ploy few blocks away. Personally, I doubt that Mr. Patel is inclined to lie or dissemble about all that. But the natives are getting a little restless.

Mr. Kennedy at HHS is already pretty frisky in his role supervising the enormous cluster of agencies that have done so much to wreck the nation’s health in recent years. Goodbye fluoride in the drinking water. Hello to placebo testing for new drugs and vaccines. Welcome to a vigorous six-month campaign to determine a likely cause of the autism epidemic. RFK is even asking what exactly is in those aviation contrails that folks have been observing and complaining about for so many years. And then there was the bomb he dropped during this week’s cabinet meeting: that under Joe Biden, HHS acted as a major vector for the trafficking of children. Say, what??? Lotta people wondered, did Bobby really say that? And does he know exactly who in HHS is responsible. . . like, names attached? I guess we’ll find out.

“As of today, Americans are thinking about tariffs though the lens of the mainstream media outlets..”

• We’re Gonna Lose the PR War Over Tariffs Until We Start Doing THIS (Pinsker)

I’ll begin with the counterargument: If everything goes according to plan, the PR war over tariffs will be irrelevant, because the ultimate “spin” is a complete and total victory. And there’s a clear path to the finish line, which we outlined a month ago:

“Trump’s best PR path forward is to do exactly what he just did: On day one, impose painful tariffs on everyone. This way, you frontload the bad news. And then, after a few weeks of economic turmoil, the other countries will (hopefully) come begging to renegotiate — their hat in hand — because the possibility of losing the rich, rewarding, ultra-lucrative U.S. marketplace makes ‘em panic. After a few weeks of horrible, devastating economic news (which, alas, we’re seeing now), the headlines will then change in a hurry: Every other day, Trump would have a new, positive tariff treaty to announce! After the first few countries cave, it will incentivize all the other nations to get their [tushies] in gear and get a deal done fast — lest they wait too long and are frozen out of the U.S. marketplace. Done right, it creates a win-win domino effect: The new American gold rush!”
However, there was a caveat:
“But it’s still a high-risk strategy for Trump, because there’s no guarantee the other top countries will quickly fold. Sure, we expect places like France to live up to their white-flag-waving reputations (“Je suis un lâche!”), but national pride is tricky to predict. In the foreign countries that viscerally loathe Trump, the politicians can score points by “standing up the American bully.”

We’re now one month removed from Liberation Day, and MAGA Nation certainly frontloaded the bad news. There was a lot of it. And the latest polls reflect it. Here’s a hodgepodge of headlines over the last seven days:
• Fox News: Trump poll numbers on economy fall during trade fight, survey finds
• Gallup News: Most Americans Skeptical About Benefits of Tariffs
• CNN: CNN Poll: A growing majority says Trump has made the economy worse, with most skeptical of his tariff plans
• ABC News: Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Trump tariffs
• The Hill: Almost 6 in 10 say Trump policies making economy worse
• Yahoo News: Poll: After 1st 100 days, Trump’s approval rating continues to crater as 57% say he’s ‘gone too far’ on tariffs
• CBS News: Trump’s first 100 days seen as bringing big changes, but still too much focus on tariffs — CBS News poll
• NBC News: Poll: Americans vent disappointment with Trump ahead of 100 day, especially on tariffs
• Reuters: Risk of global economic recession surges on US tariff shockwaves: Reuters poll
• Newsweek: Americans Lose Faith in Economy Amid Trump Tariffs

Not good, and it’s a credit to Trump that the polls weren’t worse. This entire month has been a loud, angry drumbeat of media negativity — and Americans weren’t well-educated about tariff policy or global trade deals beforehand, because it’s not a sexy topic. In those (boring) days pre-Trump, Bill O’Reilly on Fox News and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC almost never mentioned ‘em. So, it’s not like illegal immigration, where we’ve heard the different arguments a zillion times and have already settled on a conclusion (which is why the media’s negativity about that lovable Maryland family man failed to move the needle). But with tariffs, we’re still hearing the arguments. Some Americans for the first time ever.

Without the “institutional knowledge” (including, sadly, those lovely on-air tutorials from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies; he would be so helpful right now) to sort through the hysteria, the public is vulnerable to PR manipulation. As of today, Americans are thinking about tariffs though the lens of the mainstream media outlets. And those outlets are focusing on:
• The economy is cratering! Everything’s crashing!
• Trump is a power-hungry maniac and out of control!
• Inflation will explode! We’ll all be broke!
• Shelves will be bare!
• Tariffs are stupid and destructive, lowering America’s standing in the world!

That’s a problem.

Reads a bit like: what if Kamala Harris had been elected president? (In Germany, she was). The divide between Germany and the US is gaping.

• Germany’s AfD Party ‘Definitely Right-Wing Extremist’: Spy Agency (RMX)

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been declared “definitely right-wing extremist,” by the powerful domestic spy agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The party is reacting with outrage. The BfV claims that the party is pursuing efforts against the “free democratic order,” which the agency now says is “certain.” Previously, the party was only declared as a “suspected case,” with this new designation paving the way for not only a ban but also mass surveillance of the entire party, including all its members. With this new designation, the BfV can surveil members, including their emails, phone calls, and chats, without a warrant. In addition, the BfV can now legally infiltrate the entire party with informants and use other spy techniques. Already, other parts of the AfD at the state level were classified as “definitely right-wing extremist,” but the new designation now applies this label to the entire national party.

The party is reacting with outrage, with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the party, writing: “The decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy!” Regarding the statement by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, AfD federal spokespersons Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said: Today’s decision by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy: In current polls, the AfD is the strongest force. The federal government only has four days left in office, the intelligence agency doesn’t even have a president anymore. And the classification as a so-called suspected case is not yet legally binding. Nevertheless, the AfD, as an opposition party, is now being publicly discredited and criminalized shortly before the change of government. The associated, targeted interference in the democratic decision-making process is therefore clearly politically motivated. The AfD will continue to defend itself legally against these defamations that endanger democracy.”

The BfV, however, is attempting to justify its decision, which will be seen by many as an attack on the country’s largest opposition party. Due to the “extremist character of the entire party, which disregards human dignity,” the BfV noted in its statement. Vice presidents of the authority, Sinan Selen and Silke Willems, further indicated that statements and positions of the party “violate the principle of human dignity.” One of the key factors that the BfV is attempting to use to justify the designation is the AfD’s alleged position on “ethnic Germans.” “The ethnic-descendant understanding of the people prevailing in the party is not compatible with the free democratic basic order,” reads the statement from the BfV. “The AfD, for example, does not consider German citizens with a migration history from predominantly Muslim countries to be equal members of the German people, as ethnically defined by the party.”

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been declared “definitely right-wing extremist,” by the powerful domestic spy agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The party is reacting with outrage. The BfV claims that the party is pursuing efforts against the “free democratic order,” which the agency now says is “certain.” Previously, the party was only declared as a “suspected case,” with this new designation paving the way for not only a ban but also mass surveillance of the entire party, including all its members. With this new designation, the BfV can surveil members, including their emails, phone calls, and chats, without a warrant. In addition, the BfV can now legally infiltrate the entire party with informants and use other spy techniques.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1888999118326108392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1888999118326108392%7Ctwgr%5E1c7ec0fa2146094423148b3c66b422bb2d906d25%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fbreaking-germanys-afd-party-is-declared-definitely-right-wing-extremist-by-bfv-spy-agency-paving-the-way-for-a-ban%2F

Already, other parts of the AfD at the state level were classified as “definitely right-wing extremist,” but the new designation now applies this label to the entire national party. The party is reacting with outrage, with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the party, writing: “The decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy!” Regarding the statement by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, AfD federal spokespersons Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said: Today’s decision by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy: In current polls, the AfD is the strongest force. The federal government only has four days left in office, the intelligence agency doesn’t even have a president anymore. And the classification as a so-called suspected case is not yet legally binding.

Nevertheless, the AfD, as an opposition party, is now being publicly discredited and criminalized shortly before the change of government. The associated, targeted interference in the democratic decision-making process is therefore clearly politically motivated. The AfD will continue to defend itself legally against these defamations that endanger democracy.” The BfV, however, is attempting to justify its decision, which will be seen by many as an attack on the country’s largest opposition party. Due to the “extremist character of the entire party, which disregards human dignity,” the BfV noted in its statement. Vice presidents of the authority, Sinan Selen and Silke Willems, further indicated that statements and positions of the party “violate the principle of human dignity.”

One of the key factors that the BfV is attempting to use to justify the designation is the AfD’s alleged position on “ethnic Germans.”“The ethnic-descendant understanding of the people prevailing in the party is not compatible with the free democratic basic order,” reads the statement from the BfV. “The AfD, for example, does not consider German citizens with a migration history from predominantly Muslim countries to be equal members of the German people, as ethnically defined by the party.”

“The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” Vance wrote on X.”

• Germany ‘Has Rebuilt The Berlin Wall’ – Vance (RT)

US Vice President J.D. Vance has compared the German government’s treatment of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to rebuilding the Berlin Wall. On Friday, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, classified the anti-immigration AfD as an “extremist” organization, citing “xenophobic, anti-minority, Islamophobic, and anti-Muslim statements made by leading party officials.” The label enables police to closely monitor the party’s activities. “The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” Vance wrote on X. “The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt – not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” he added.

The party’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, accused the government of attempting to quell dissent. “Since the AfD is the strongest party in polls now, they want to suppress the opposition & freedom of speech,” she wrote on X. AfD was founded in 2013 as a backlash to Germany’s handling of the eurozone debt crisis. It has since shifted focus to demanding tighter immigration and asylum laws and opposing the “woke agenda.” The party also criticizes NATO and has staged protests against sending weapons to Ukraine. AfD finished second in the federal elections in February, winning 152 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag. Last month, it topped opinion polls for the first time, with 26% support. The party is especially popular in the economically underdeveloped regions of former East Germany. AfD has also been embroiled in controversy, as some members have had links to far-right and neo-Nazi groups or used slogans associated with Nazi Germany.

Major German parties have refused to cooperate or form coalitions with AfD under the so-called “firewall” principle. Vance criticized efforts to isolate the party during his speech at the Munich Security Conference in February. “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There is no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don’t,” the US vice president said. The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier built by East Germany in 1961 to stop its citizens from fleeing to West Berlin. It became a powerful symbol of the Cold War and remained in place until it was torn down in 1989, leading to German reunification.

Russia: 26 million deaths. US: just over 292,000.

• Germany Is Weaponizing WWII Memory Against Russia (Amar)

Eighty years ago, Germany suffered its worst self-induced military – as well as moral, political, cultural, you name it – catastrophe ever. First, Nazi Germany led the global fascist challenge that we call World War II. Then, Germany was not merely defeated but crushed by the combined efforts of, in order of importance, the Soviet Union, the US, and UK, to name only those powers that really mattered decisively for the outcome of the war in Europe. This Allied victory in Europe is celebrated in May. In the West, the commemorations peak on the 8th and in Russia, one day later. In Asia, things were different. World War II started earlier – in July 1937, not September 1939, and ended later – in August, not May, 1945. Regarding the war in Europe, the West has always, with varying intensity, sought to diminish the preponderant role of the Soviet Union – and within the latter, of Russia.

Concerning the war in Asia, the West’s main target of this weaponized forgetfulness has been China, rightly labeled “the forgotten ally” by historian Rana Mitter. China, like the Soviet Union and now Russia, has always dared challenge Western hegemony and especially US ‘primacy’. And, as with Russia and the former Soviet Union, it is this geopolitical independence that has led the West to deny the Chinese people’s real and massive World War II contribution and sacrifices, which were enormous (the death toll alone, to quote only one figure, is estimated at 12-20 million). But for now, back to the European part of the war. There, in historical reality, it was the Soviet Union that did the most – by far – to destroy Nazi Germany. And that is a simple, even quantifiable historical fact. Merely a decade ago, it was occasionally admitted even in Western mainstream media, such as America’s Washington Post and Britain’s Independent.

A few figures suffice to sketch just how predominant the Soviet share in the victory over Nazism was: Over the course of the war, in all its theaters, 17 to 18 million Germans served in the Nazi forces (including the Wehrmacht and the smaller but especially important and vicious Waffen-SS). At least 4 million German soldiers were killed in the fight against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 alone. Estimates indicate that at least as many were injured, probably more; around 3 million became POWs. The upshot of this is simple: A massive chunk, some historians estimate up to 80%, of the total German fighting manpower of World War II – not only those who invaded the Soviet Union – was eliminated on what the Germans called the Eastern Front. Without going into easily available details, the picture is similar when we focus not on men but materiel.

Ask, for instance, Google’s Gemini AI in Deep Research mode, and it will sum it up thus: “It is evident that the Eastern Front absorbed the vast majority of Germany’s total tank losses throughout the war.” It turns out that the failure of Germany’s touted Leopard tank in the Ukraine conflict has a long tradition reaching back to Nazi Germany’s Panthers and Tigers: Russia, neutering German cats since 1941. Put simply, as with Sweden’s Gustav XII and France’s Napoleon, it was Russia and the Soviet Union that broke Hitler’s back. And at enormous cost and sacrifice: Current, solid figures put Soviet losses (military and civilian combined) at 26-27 million. (Compare, for instance, with the US: Military casualties, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, just over 292,000; civilian losses were negligible, even if every individual death is, of course, tragic.)

And now it is Germany – of all places – that has marred the run-up to this year’s May anniversary with an embarrassingly ugly scandal. Its essence is a German government attempt to crudely instrumentalize the commemorations to make them serve the propaganda war that has been part of the West’s proxy war in Ukraine, while accusing Russia of doing just that. In Germany, more and more often, every accusation is a confession, as they say about Israeli propaganda.

“..officially designate AfD a “confirmed extremist entity.” This legal status allows the BfV to deploy surveillance and intelligence measures to monitor the party’s activities without restriction.”

• Germany Is ‘Tyranny In Disguise’ – Rubio (RT)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sharply criticized Berlin for designating Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s most popular party according to recent polling, as “extremist.” Such actions have nothing to do with democracy, he has warned. “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,” America’s top diplomat wrote on X on Friday. “That’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise.” Earlier in the day, the German domestic security service (BfV) announced the decision to officially designate AfD a “confirmed extremist entity.” This legal status allows the BfV to deploy surveillance and intelligence measures to monitor the party’s activities without restriction.

Explaining the move, the agency cited “the extremist nature of the entire party, which disregards human dignity.” It pointed to the party’s “prevailing understanding of the people based on ethnicity and descent,” which it said was “incompatible with the democratic basic order.” The AfD has long been known for its harsh anti-immigration stance. “What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD… but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes,” Rubio argued, calling on Berlin to “reverse its course.” The right-wing party has been enjoying steady support from Washington ever since US President Donald Trump entered the White House for his second term.

US Vice President J.D. Vance strongly criticized politicians who shun parties such as the AfD at the Munich Security Conference in February. US-based billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk has repeatedly openly expressed support for the party. In January, ahead of the German parliamentary vote, he hosted a livestream on X with AfD co-leader and then chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel. The party came in second during the February election, behind the center-right Christian Democrats, which ruled out any coalitions with the AfD. Recent polls show the two parties being neck-and-neck, with one survey published by Forsa Institute putting AfD one percent point ahead of their center-right rivals.

“Ukraine’s drive to join Europe involved denying its heroic past, glorifying criminals and Nazi collaborators, and promoting the “Banderization” of society.”

• Odessa Massacre: Point of No Return Marked Ukraine’s Slide Into Nazism (Sp.)

On May 2, 2014, a pro-Maidan crowd outnumbering anti-Maidan protesters trapped dozens inside the Trade Union building and set it on fire with petrol bombs. At least 42 anti-Maidan activists died—either burned, asphyxiated, or killed by gunfire. The mass murder of innocent people in Odessa’s Trade Union house marked a “point of no return” for Ukraine, Ukrainian politics expert Alexander Dudchak told Sputnik. Those behind the West-backed coup that year were driven by Nazi-fueled “hatred for humanity.” Their goal was to build an “anti-Russia,” with Russophobia stoked from abroad. After the tragedy, “it became clear to those who disagreed with the [pro-Western Ukrainian] government that there was no way to defend their rights except through force.” Thus, the Odessa massacre can be seen as the turning point for all subsequent events.

“It became obvious what these forces represented – human-hating, pure Nazism, which came to power in Ukraine,” said Dudchak. Long before the Soviet Union’s collapse, NGOs and foreign funds, like the notorious Soros foundation, began distorting history to ideologically target the younger generation. Ukraine’s drive to join Europe involved denying its heroic past, glorifying criminals and Nazi collaborators, and promoting the “Banderization” of society. Despite the public’s strong preference for ties with former Soviet countries, a West-inspired coup took place, reshaping public consciousness. History was rewritten, dissent silenced through brutal methods, and media control imposed.

On May 2, 2014, Ukrainian nationalists locked anti-Maidan protesters, who opposed Euromaidan and Ukraine’s rapprochement with the European Union, in the Odessa Trade Union House and set the building on fire. Almost 50 people died, and some 250 protesters were injured in clashes with the radicals, according to the United Nations. The massacre was executed by the West’s protégés and under their control. “I don’t rule out that the West may have even written the script for this event. They needed to show the population what happens to those who try to oppose them. And that is what they did – with an animalistic cruelty,” concluded Dudchak.

Boeing’s problems are all over the company. Engineers used to run the company; now it’s accountants.

• Trump Reportedly Turns To L3Harris For “Interim” Air Force One Jet (ZH)

Frustrated by repeated delays in Boeing’s new Air Force One production timeline, President Trump has reportedly commissioned defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to retrofit a Boeing 747 previously used by the Qatari government as an interim presidential aircraft. The Wall Street Journal reported that L3Harris has been tasked with retrofitting the Qatari 747 with communications systems and other equipment to transform the luxury aircraft into Air Force One. According to the people familiar with the matter, President Trump requested that L3Harris complete the needed retrofitting of the jumbo jet by as early as fall. In February, FOX Business’ Edward Lawrence confirmed that Boeing had suffered global supply chain snarls that changed project timings and delayed the completion date to 2029.

White House communications director Steven Cheung told FOX Business at the time: “It is ridiculous that the delivery of a new Air Force One airplane has been delayed for such a long time,” adding, “The president working on identifying ways to speed up the delivery of a new plane, which has been needed for a while.” Months later, WSJ’s L3Harris report may suggest that there were very limited options to speed up the Boeing delivery. Here’s more from the report:

“Before Trump’s inauguration, White House Military Office and senior Air Force officials considered canceling Boeing’s contract for the new planes, according to people familiar with the matter. White House officials under Trump have also discussed whether they can sue the plane manufacturer, some of the people said. Trump initially tapped the bloated defense contractor to build the next-generation presidential aircraft during his first term, aiming to replace the aging fleet. Boeing’s failure to deliver on time has become emblematic of the broader military-industrial complex: bloated, sluggish, and unaccountable. The military-industrial complex’s failures must urgently be corrected. For now, L3Harris is stepping in, aiming to deliver a retrofitted Qatari 747 as an interim Air Force One jet by this fall. America’s defense space needs more domestic competition if it wants to compete in the 2030s.

“The manufactured presentation of the self (fabricated authenticity) is the ultimate neoliberal imperative: people are actively encouraged to become producers of themselves. The name of the game is “fake it till you make it.”

“..this state of affairs is undermining real engagement and driving an increasing number of frustrated and disillusioned users away from these platforms, leaving bots to interact with other bots, as advertisers already lament.”

• The Ghost in the Machine. AI and The Spectral Ontology of Value (Ruggeri)

By now it should be abundantly clear how social influencers operate. Self-promotion, exaggerated claims, and a well-crafted image can snowball into credibility before anyone checks credentials. They build parasocial relationships with their followers who feel like they know the influencer, even if they have never met. Influencers attempt to create an aura of individuality and authenticity through personal storytelling, share raw footage or sensational material, invite followers to “peek” into their lives encouraging voyeuristic engagement. However, this aura is even more fragile than the artificial aura mentioned by Walter Benjamin when in the 1930s he described the Hollywood-driven phenomenon of elevating actors to celebrity status, creating cult-like personas that compensated for the loss of aura in in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Not only is the influencers’ derivative content easily replicable, they too are vulnerable to replacement by AI-generated personas.

Benjamin recognized in the spell of the star’s personality “the phony spell of a commodity.” But most importantly, he warned that a medium that has a dual capacity to abolish distance between the audience and the depicted world while simultaneously detaching the audience from the physical world and its material conditions, is ideally suited to the aims of fascism. Benjamin was primarily referring to film and photography, but in an era of algorithmic reproduction controlled by a handful of tech companies his observations have become more relevant than ever.

Influencers leverage the bandwagon effect, that mix of conformity and fear of missing out. Once a persona gains momentum, with the help of thousands of bots whose cost is now less than a cent for basic accounts, humans jump on. Social media’s smoke and mirrors work because we are wired for stories, not audits. But with billions of automated bots flooding social media platforms, there is a roughly 50% chance that any account you engage with, whether by liking a post, commenting, or following, is a bot. Bots have become so sophisticated that it has become increasingly harder to detect them. As to the remaining accounts that are still operated by humans, about half of them publish content that is generated by artificial intelligence.

Even those with limited expertise on a given topic can produce persuasive posts and articles, while readers would need an AI tool such as GPTZero to identify their artificial origin. A simple prompt ensures that the AI-generated content they publish is aligned, and resonates, with their followers’ ideological leanings, interests and preferences. An article that appeared in a conservative news outlet can be automatically rewritten to please a liberal audience and vice versa. A paper published by an academic can be summarized and interspersed with jokes and colloquialism to appeal to a non-academic audience, three articles can be seamlessly meshed into one creating a cohesive piece that synthesizes their content, etc. You get the drift.

Shaped by a mix of human activity and AI-generated content, the Internet and social media now resemble a phantasmagoria, a make-believe optical show that projects ghostly images, fetishizes human desires and experiences, and intensifies narcissistic self-reference to create an illusion of authenticity. The manufactured presentation of the self (fabricated authenticity) is the ultimate neoliberal imperative: people are actively encouraged to become producers of themselves. The name of the game is “fake it till you make it.” Lack of qualifications or professional expertise is no barrier for aspiring influencers. Ambition, a background in marketing, a good knowledge of psychological manipulation techniques, the ability to leverage algorithms, and an initial investment in an army of bots to boost content are better guarantors of success.

Those who make the cut can rake in juicy contracts to promote products, services or a political agenda. The more engagement their hustle generates, the more data capital social media platforms accumulate. Unsurprisingly, this state of affairs is undermining real engagement and driving an increasing number of frustrated and disillusioned users away from these platforms, leaving bots to interact with other bots, as advertisers already lament.

Hydroxide

“Every Cancer on Earth is either Parasitic or created by venoms & Hydrogen Peroxide is a cure for both”

Anyone else starting to think we’ve all been lied to about the true nature of Cancer? pic.twitter.com/zU43TVyO7j

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) May 1, 2025

mRNA

We have opened Pandora's Box. These are all the mRNA products in the pipeline according to Grok. pic.twitter.com/JpXt5j6s5E

— Mary Talley Bowden MD (@MdBreathe) May 2, 2025

In the years to come, @Neuralink will make this technology widely available, so that ultimately anyone will have access to it https://t.co/iU813Bsc2r

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 2, 2025

Elon Musk just dropped a bombshell.

Tesla’s robotaxi service launches in Austin this June, & it’s fully powered by Tesla’s own AI chip & software.

No drivers, just cutting-edge AI taking the wheel. This is happening NOW, & it’s wild. Read on—this changes everything. pic.twitter.com/N0aKnhqMwO

— Mark Gadala-Maria (@markgadala) May 1, 2025

Tom plays dead

Meet Tom, the horse that plays dead so that nobody can ride him.pic.twitter.com/EsQV2QwDtv

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 2, 2025

How long before this happens? pic.twitter.com/BnRjHB6s1G

— Canada Hates Trump (@AntiTrumpCanada) May 2, 2025

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Debt Rattle April 2 2025

Apr 022025

April 2, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:28 am Finance Tagged with: bitcoin, France, Germany, Grenell, injunctions, judges, Le Pen, Liberation Day, national security, nuclear doomsday plan, Trump 59 Responses »

Pablo Picasso Sleeping girl 1935

• ‘Liberation Day’: Trump To Announce Tariff Plans In Rose Garden (Whedon)

• Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)

• Judges Block Trump Orders Targeting Firms Tied To Russia Collusion Hoax (JTN)

• Warning Against Judges Intruding On Presidential Powers And Actions (JTN)

• Ukraine Has Secret Nuclear Doomsday Plan (RMX)

• Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Should Turn on Principle Not Politics (Turley)

• Republicans Pad US House Majority With Two Florida Special Election Wins (JTN)

• Trump Dials Back Putin Criticism, Renews Attacks On Zelensky (ZH)

• DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme (ZH)

• Trump ‘Investment Accelerator’ Fast-Tracks Investments Over $1 Billion (JTN)

• France’s Courts Keep Sidelining The Establishment’s Political Rivals (Marsden)

• Italy Calls Le Pen Sentence A Blow To Democracy (RT)

• Trump Cites Grenell As Potential UN Ambassador Nominee (jTN)

• Trump National Security Team Used Gmail For Government Matters – WaPo (RT)

• Donald Trump Jr. Says Le Pen’s Verdict Proves Vance Right About EU (TASS)

• NATO Will ‘Survive’ Trump – EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)

• Germany To Target ‘Internal EU Enemies’ – Politico (RT)

• BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Might Dethrone US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency (Sp.)

• USAID and the Architecture of Perception (Stylman)

Marine

Marine Le Pen:

– Pledged to immediately begin Mass Deportations.

– Pledged to exit NATO and hold a Referendum on leaving EU.

– Opposed Ursula von der Leyen’s EU Presidency.

– Called for Peace in Ukraine.

Now do you understand why they have banned her from becoming President? pic.twitter.com/RFHLQB4MiC

— Cillian (@CilComLFC) March 31, 2025

Lagarde Le Pen

So, let me get this straight. Le Pen faces imprisonment over €2.9M EU funds that she allegedly misused.

But IMF chief Christine Lagarde was found guilty of handing €403M of EU taxpayers' money to a tycoon, yet received no sentence and is now running the ECB.

Fascinating. pic.twitter.com/rvjfDaTZQJ

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) April 1, 2025

Drenched in blood

This EU is much worse than you think. pic.twitter.com/vO2SqeMeVh

— DiEM25 (@DiEM_25) April 1, 2025

Tucker Bukele

One thing you all must realize

MS-13 was created by Bill Clinton when he was president

MS-13 is Satanic and involved in sacrifice, trafficking, kidnapping, murder, and torture etc of US children

Understand, we are taking them down and gathering information in the process pic.twitter.com/WcV0oouQJM

— Redpill Drifter (@RedpillDrifter) March 31, 2025

Benz Obama

We may have found who’s organizing the protests in America. It always leads back to Barack Obama

Obama’s former U.S Ambassador called to use the these tactics against Trump

– This needs to be a legal fight
– It needs to be a media fight
– People-powered revolution (Protestors)… pic.twitter.com/CErypIUOhg

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 31, 2025

Fluid till the last moment.

“..the President wants to ensure that all Americans make out well, particularly Main Street, that’s the focus of these tariffs.”

• ‘Liberation Day’: Trump To Announce Tariff Plans In Rose Garden (Whedon)

President Donald Trump is set to announce his decision on the implementation of an array of new tariffs Wednesday as some of the tariffs he has already announced will take effect. Trump has dubbed Wednesday “Liberation Day” and is planning an event at the White House’s Rose Garden to unveil his decision on broader tariffs. Trump announced tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier in his administration, but agreed to postpone both following negotiations with the leaders of those countries that led to agreements to bolster border security. Each tariff adds 25% on goods from the respective country. While those tariffs were part of border security negotiations, Trump is expected to unveil broader tariffs to achieve his stated goal of rebalancing American global trade. On Tuesday, he received reports from the Treasury, Commerce Department, and Office of the Trade Representative on possible tariffs and their potential impacts, though he reportedly has already made up his mind on what to implement. “I’ve settled, yeah,” he told the The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Ahead of the Rose Garden event, moreover, he unveiled a 25% tariff on auto imports that earned praise from union workers, including from United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders who opposed his candidacy. Trump notably feuded with UAW President Shawn Fain during the election, but Fain had high praise for the commander-in-chief after the auto tariffs. “We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working-class communities for decades,” Fain said. “Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions.” Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are expected to go much broader, though the details remain unclear as of press time and interested parties are expected to push for limited exemptions all the way to the deadline.

The point of conjecture at present is whether Trump will announce an across-the-board 20% tariff on all foreign imports, with few if any exceptions, or whether he will opt for a more targeted, reciprocal tariff policy of matching each nation’s respective rates and negotiating on an individual basis. During the press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to offer a preview of Trump’s exact decision, but spoke to broader tariff policy and the pledged foreign investments that the administration has already secured. “It’s simple. If you make your product in America, you will pay no tariffs. We have already seen a number of the largest companies in the world respond to this economic approach,” she said. “For example, Project Stargate, led by Japan-based Softbank and US-based OpenAI and Oracle, announced a $500 billion private investment in the United State-based artificial intelligence infrastructure.”

“Apple announced a $500 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing and training. Nvidia announced it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years in U.S.-based manufacturing, and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced a $100 billion investment in U.S.-based chips and manufacturing,” she added. “These are just a few of the investment announcements that have already been made, and it is clear that President Trump’s America First approach is already working.” In anticipation of Trump’s announcement, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed an order to remove all remaining import tariffs on American goods, subject to the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee, according to the Times of Israel. Trump himself has indicated he expects other nations to drop their tariffs on American goods in response to his moves and has stated that India would soon drop many of its tariffs. “I heard that India is going to be dropping its tariffs substantially. A lot of countries are going to drop their tariffs,” he told reporters on Monday.

Trump’s support for tariffs during the 2016 campaign was a substantial challenge to long-established Republican free-trade orthodoxy and his second term already threatens to rewrite the party dogma on global commerce altogether. Some lawmakers, however, are less than thrilled by the prospect, and an unusual coalition of moderate Republicans and conservative libertarians have joined forces to express their disagreements. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has led a resolution to end the emergency declaration that prompted Trump’s tariffs on Canada. So far, three Republicans have aligned with Democrats to back the measure, including Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C.; Rand Paul, Ky.; and Susan Collins, Maine, Politico reported. At least one more Republican would need to sign on to pass the measure, which would still likely fail in the House. Nonetheless, the vote will prove a metric for internal support for tariffs on the Republican side.

Some Republicans are enthusiastically on board with the tariffs. Speaking on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show on Tuesday, Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.V., pointed to how free trade practices had led to job losses in his own district. ”The American workers have been living in a trade war for over 40 years, and they’ve seen their jobs be decimated, like in my state of West Virginia, where just last year, because the Biden administration would not implement tariffs on 10-plate steel that was being dumped into the market by China and Canada and some other countries, we lost 1,000 jobs in my district alone, and we had to idle that steel plant,” he said. “That’s not putting the American worker first. It’s not putting America first,” he added. “So, President Trump is the first person in my lifetime who is really trying to reset this table and put us in a good position to be able to succeed here as a country,” Moore added.

Stock markets have reeled in the wake of some of Trump’s tariffs thus far, with key indices such as the DOW Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 plunging significantly in the subsequent days, though they have since stabilized to some degree. Should Trump opt for broader tariff options, equities are likely to witness a similar drop. Nevertheless, the White House offered its assurances on Tuesday that the markets would ultimately adjust to the changing state of affairs. “Yesterday, Dow futures were up, and there’s been a lot of talk about the market, and it was up yesterday,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “So look, the President wants to ensure that all Americans make out well, particularly Main Street, that’s the focus of these tariffs.” Leavitt also predicted that “Wall Street will be just fine.”

Brilliant from John Kennedy. Dso watch.

“How can a federal judge issue an order that affects everyone else outside of that courtroom?”

• Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)

By now, you know that I’m a big fan of Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and his unmatched ability to dismantle weak arguments with his signature Southern wit. On Monday, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he was at the top of his game, systematically exposing the complete lack of legal authority for district judges to issue universal injunctions — a favorite tactic of the left to block Trump’s agenda. Questioning Assistant Attorney General nominee Brett Shumate, Kennedy systematically dismantled any justification for these sweeping judicial orders. “Mr. Shumate, what’s a universal injunction?” Kennedy asked. Shumate explained, “Senator, a universal injunction is an order from a court enjoining the government in a way that goes beyond the parties to the case but applies nationwide or in some cases universally.”

pic.twitter.com/ukyFjwwqlb

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2025

Kennedy pressed further, asking, “What’s the statutory basis for a federal judge issuing an order that affects people other than the parties before the court?” “I’m not aware of a statutory basis, Senator,” Shumate admitted.”There is no statutory basis, is there?” Kennedy reiterated. “No, Senator,” Shumate confirmed. Kennedy then challenged Shumate to name a Supreme Court ruling that interprets the Constitution to allow such injunctions. “Can you name me that case?” he asked. “I’m not aware of one, Senator,” Shumate responded. “There isn’t one, is there?” Kennedy pressed. “I’m not aware of one, Senator,” Shumate repeated. Kennedy then laid out the fundamental issue: “You have a plaintiff and a defendant, and the plaintiff files a lawsuit in federal court. The judge has jurisdiction over those parties. How can a federal judge issue an order that affects everyone else outside of that courtroom?”

“Uh, it shouldn’t be possible, Senator, but district courts do it all the time,” Shumate admitted. “I think on the theory that courts need to enjoin a federal policy from going into effect, and they often will enjoin it nationwide so that all non-parties are protected.” “I thought that if you wanted to affect parties who aren’t in court, you had to file a class action,” Kennedy countered. “That’s correct, Senator,” Shumate agreed. Kennedy pointed out that instead of filing class actions, plaintiffs often seek universal injunctions, which have no legal foundation. “Does this encourage forum shopping?” he asked. “Yes, Senator. Not only does it encourage forum shopping, but also district shopping and filing multiple strategic lawsuits to find one judge who will enjoin a single policy nationwide,” Shumate said. “If you have five lawsuits, only one of those cases needs to be successful.”

Kennedy then turned to historical precedent. “Universal injunction is basically an equitable remedy. Did this exist in common law courts in England?” he asked. “I don’t believe so, Senator,” Shumate responded, citing Supreme Court precedent that equitable relief was traditionally limited to the parties in a case. Recommended: The Atlantic Caught Pushing Another Anti-Trump Hoax Story Kennedy then points out that judges issued only about 27 universal injunctions in the entire 20th century. “But 86 of them were issued against President Trump in his first term. Is that correct?” Kennedy asked. “I don’t know the specific number, but it was a high number,” Shumate conceded. “And so far in President Trump’s second term, 30 universal injunctions have been issued against him. Have they not?” Kennedy continued.

“Senator, I don’t have the specific number, but that sounds about right,” Shumate said. “The universal injunction has become a weapon against the Trump administration, has it not?” Kennedy asked. “Yes,” Shumate affirmed. In his closing remarks, Kennedy highlighted the constitutional issue at hand: “Tell me the basis for universal injunction in Article III. Where does it mention universal injunction?” “It does not, Senator,” Shumate said. “It says courts are to decide the case or controversy before them, which is based on the parties to the case.” Kennedy concluded, “So Congress could act and say, ‘Look, federal judges, you render a decision to a plaintiff or a defendant, but you can’t impact people outside of your courtroom other than through a class action.’ That’s why God created class actions, isn’t it?” “Yes, Senator,” Shumate agreed. Kennedy’s questioning explained that universal injunctions lack any basis in statutory law, Supreme Court precedent, or historical common law and exposed their use as a judicial overreach that disproportionately targets President Trump’s policies.

“..the FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.”

• Judges Block Trump Orders Targeting Firms Tied To Russia Collusion Hoax (JTN)

Multiple judges have blocked efforts by President Donald Trump to hold “Big Law” firms accountable for their connections to lawyers closely tied to the Russia collusion hoax. The executive orders make allegations against some of the most powerful law firms in the nation: the WilmerHale law firm for previously employing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and two of his top prosecutors; against Jenner & Block in part for previously employing top Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann; and against Perkins Coie in large part for previously employing Democratic-party-aligned election lawyer Marc Elias, for helping Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign fund British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked anti-Trump dossier. Elias, who worked at Perkins for many years as the chair of the Political Law Group, went on to serve also as the general counsel for now-former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed 2020 presidential bid. Perkins announced in 2021 that Elias and others were leaving to form Elias Law Group.

Judges have blocked significant portions of Trump’s executive orders aimed at each of those firms, although the Paul Weiss law firm — targeted by Trump in part for employing former Mueller prosecutor Jeannie Rhee — acquiesced to Trump’s demands, with Trump announcing last week that the firm would now be “taking on a wide range of pro bono matters representing the full political spectrum; committing to merit-based hiring, promotion, and retention, instead of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies; [and] dedicating the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services during my term in office to support causes including assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in the justice system, and combating anti-Semitism.” Trump has used similar language in multiple executive orders addressing the “significant risks” posed by so-called “Big Law” firms which “engage in conduct detrimental to critical American interests.”

“Many firms take actions that threaten public safety and national security, limit constitutional freedoms, degrade the quality of American elections, or undermine bedrock American principles,” Trump said in these executive orders. “Moreover, law firms regularly conduct this harmful activity through their powerful pro bono practices, earmarking hundreds of millions of their clients’ dollars for destructive causes, that often directly or indirectly harm their own clients. Lawyers and law firms that engage in such egregious conduct should not have access to our Nation’s secrets, nor should such conduct be subsidized by Federal taxpayer funds or contracts.” The common thread in this batch of executive orders is that each of the firms targeted centers around the previous litigation and law enforcement activity executed against Trump. Those cases did not pan out.

An investigation by special counsel Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found huge flaws with the FBI’s investigation, criticizing the “central and essential” role of the dossier in the FBI’s politicized surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Special Counsel John Durham’s report concluded that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.” The special counsel noted that “the FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.” Trump’s executive order on “Addressing Risks from WilmerHale” was issued on March 27, and it included a heavy focus on Mueller and members of his team.

The Trump order said that WilmerHale “is yet another law firm that has abandoned the profession’s highest ideals and abused its pro bono practice to engage in activities that undermine justice and the interests of the United States” and argued that the firm “is also bent on employing lawyers who weaponize the prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process and distort justice.” “WilmerHale rewarded Robert Mueller and his colleagues — Aaron Zebley, Mueller’s ‘top aide’ and ‘closest associate,’ and James Quarles — by welcoming them to the firm after they wielded the power of the Federal Government to lead one of the most partisan investigations in American history,” the executive order contends. “Mueller’s investigation epitomizes the weaponization of government, yet WilmerHale claimed he ‘embodies the highest value of our firm and profession.’ Mueller’s ‘investigation’ upended the lives of public servants in my Administration who were summoned before ‘prosecutors’ with the effect of interfering in their ability to fulfill the mandates of my first term agenda. This weaponization of the justice system must not be rewarded, let alone condoned,” Trump said in the executive order.

“..exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”

• Warning Against Judges Intruding On Presidential Powers And Actions (JTN)

Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system, leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing. “As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”

More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in the deportation of people accused of being in gangs, in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app. Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.

Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.

Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth. “Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”

Blackmail Kiev style. Blow everything up, including all the neighbors. Scorched earth. Let’s give them another $100 billion.

• Ukraine Has Secret Nuclear Doomsday Plan (RMX)

Ukraine has a secret last-ditch “scorched earth” plan to render its entire territory uninhabitable in the event of a Russian victory in the war – and perhaps the rest of Europe with it. This is according to Oleksiy Arestovych, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In an interview with a Ukrainian journalist that he gave last month, Arestovych claimed that Ukraine’s current head of military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, has floated a plan to blow up all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, and possibly some of Russia’s as well, if all other defensive measures fail. Ukraine currently operates four nuclear power plants with a total of 15 reactors. One of them, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, is the largest plant in Europe and has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Russia, for its part, has 37 reactors divided among 11 power plants.

https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1903424504723829246?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1903424504723829246%7Ctwgr%5Edf7b04cdf48090001566b3c7db9961a15c2fa7c5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fukraine-has-secret-nuclear-doomsday-plan-according-to-former-zelensky-adviser%2F

If all or even some of these reactors were attacked and destroyed simultaneously, the destructive impact would be beyond calculation. The Chernobyl nuclear accident that occurred in Ukraine in 1986, and which remains the worst disaster involving nuclear energy in history, killed dozens and led to long-term health problems for thousands of others. It also led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and rendered the surrounding area permanently uninhabitable, spreading radioactivity over a large area and even into Western Europe. Moreover, the Chernobyl disaster required the combined resources of the Soviet Union, as well as the assistance it received from other countries, to contain it. In a scenario where several nuclear plants were destroyed simultaneously, it would likely exceed the ability of any nation to bring it under control.

The resulting casualties and damage to the environment would therefore be many times worse than what happened in 1986. Nor would this catastrophe be limited to Ukraine and Russia: Harmful radioactivity would undoubtedly be carried by the atmosphere and spread over the rest of Europe as well. Arestovych raised the alleged plan in the context of U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine’s nuclear reactors should be brought under American control. The White House reported that the president had proposed the idea to Zelensky in a phone call they had last month, arguing that this would offer the “best protection” for the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure. While some accused the American president of wanting to seize control of Ukraine’s energy resources for his own country’s benefit,

Arestovych asserted that the real reason was that Washington knows about Budanov’s apocalyptic plan. He said that the Trump administration sees the Ukrainian government as “apes with a grenade” and wants to “take these dangerous toys out of our control.” “They know about our plans to blow up all the nuclear power plants if Ukraine starts losing,” Arestovych said. “Budanov was running around with this [idea] a year and a half ago. Blow up everything, the Russian plants we can reach as well as our own, so that nobody gets them.”The rationale behind this doomsday scenario, the former adviser claimed, is “we all bite the dust, but so will they.” He referred to Zelensky and his senior staff as “a group of deranged people.”

Arestovych, then the advisor of Zelensky, argued in 2019 that Russia would have to invade Ukraine (with 99.9% certainty) to prevent NATO expansion, and this would be an opportunity to collectively defeat Russia: "Our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia" pic.twitter.com/mMqPWBtzGJ

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) March 14, 2025

Arestovych further stated that American efforts to gain control over Ukraine’s nuclear facilities actually date back to the Biden administration, when such plans were proposed under the guise of scientific research. The U.S. Republicans, he says, prefer a more direct approach. Arestovych also alluded to the efforts of Ukrainian banker Oleh Gorokhovsky to raise funds for a nuclear weapons program for the country following Trump’s explosive clash with Zelensky in the Oval Office last month. His fundraiser brought in more than half a million euros. Originally a military officer, Arestovych predicted in a video interview that he gave in 2019 that Russia would attack Ukraine between 2020 and 2022, and that the resulting war would be used as a pretext for Ukraine joining NATO. He was appointed as a government advisor on national security and defense in 2020.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Arestovych gave daily briefings at the president’s office. In January 2023, he claimed that what the Ukrainian government said was a deliberate Russian attack on a residential complex was in fact the result of an error by Ukraine’s own air defense forces. This angered many and he resigned from his position the same month. Arestovych has continued to comment publicly on the war and has been critical of Zelensky’s handling of it. He eventually left Ukraine out of fear of being arrested. He still has a significant social media following, and has said that he will run for president of Ukraine when the next elections are held. Several attacks have already been launched against both Ukrainian and Russian nuclear reactors since the current war began, although fortunately no significant damage has been caused so far. Each side has accused the other of being behind these assaults.

Lost the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, but..

• Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Should Turn on Principle Not Politics (Turley)

(Update 2210ET): According to multiple outlets, Democrat-endorsed Susan Crawford has won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, beating Republican-endorsed Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US history. The campaigns and their supporters spent more than $81 million, and drew the involvement of Elon Musk, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, and other political figures. Crawford’s win means that liberals will retain a 4-3 majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

***
Today, the voters of Wisconsin go to the polls in what may be the single most expensive and important judicial race in modern history. Both parties are spending millions with the balance of the state Supreme Court in the balance. If liberal Susan Crawford wins, the expectation is that she will vote with the Democratic majority to approve a gerrymandering of congressional districts to guarantee the loss of two Republicans and possibly flip control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats. The raw political pitch in the election is disturbing. It assumes that both candidates will blindly support the objectives of their respective parties. The real reason to cast a vote today should be on judicial ideology. Ironically, the United States Supreme Court made that plain in an important Wisconsin case argued just the day before the state election.

The case is Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. In the decision below, the Democratic-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Catholic Charities could not benefit from a religious exemption to the state’s unemployment tax because its charitable work was not sufficiently religious. Catholic Charities is one of the world’s oldest and most respected charities. However, the church believes that it has a duty to help people of every faith who are in need. Thus, the church does not proselytize in offering such aid and services. A state labor commission ruled that the charity’s lack of such religious expression and prayer makes it secular, even if it has religious motivations.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed and ruled that the charity is not operated primarily for religious purposes because it does not “attempt to imbue” beneficiaries “with the Catholic faith nor supply any religious materials to program participants or employees.” In other words, the fact that Catholic Charities helps everyone and does not proselytize worked against it. The Wisconsin Supreme Court essentially argued that it needs to pray more to offer such charity as a church. It is a disturbing ruling that would allow the state to choose between religions in weighing their relative manifestations of faith.

Even liberal justices cried foul over the standard. Justice Elena Kagan suggested it was “pretty fundamental that we don’t treat some religions better than others. And we certainly don’t do it based on the content of the religious doctrine that those religions preach.” Kagan noted, “Some religions proselytize. Other religions don’t. Why are we treating some religions better than others based on that element of religious doctrine?” She noted that the standard “basically puts the state on the side of some religions with some doctrine versus other religions with a different doctrine.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested that the Wisconsin Supreme Court was asking the wrong questions about what it means to be an organization “operated primarily for religious purposes.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch virtually mocked the standard of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, asking if Catholic Charities have to require the people receiving their services to “repent.” He then asked: “is mandatory church attendance versus optional church attendance, that’s the line?” Gorsuch then delivered the haymaker: “Isn’t it a fundamental premise of our First Amendment that the state shouldn’t be picking and choosing between religions, between certain evangelical sects, and Judaism and Catholicism on the other, for example?” The case shows that there are far more important issues dividing these candidates on judicial philosophy that should drive this election. I am not a fan of state elected judges and justices precisely because of the raw political element to these contests. The Catholic Charities case shows that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is divided along more than just a party line.

..but this win may prove to be more important.

• Republicans Pad US House Majority With Two Florida Special Election Wins (JTN)

Republicans padded their slim U.S. House majority Tuesday after winning two Florida special elections to replace a pair of members who resigned their seats. In the 6th Congressional District, state Sen. Randy Fine was projected to defeat Democrat Josh Weil with about 56% of the vote with 98% of ballots counted, according to unofficial results. The race was necessitated by the resignation of former U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican who became President Donald Trump’s national security advisor. Tuesday’s outcome was closer than Waltz’s last race, when he won by 34 points.

Florida Republican Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis was the projected winner over Democrat Gay Valimont with 56% of the unofficial vote tally with 93% counted to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida’s 1st Congressional District. Gaetz resigned his U.S. House seat after being nominated by Trump to be the U.S. attorney general, but he later dropped out of the running because the Republican firebrand and Trump ally faced a tough confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate due to a House ethics investigation. Trump instead nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was easily confirmed. With the wins, the GOP will pad their U.S. still slim House majority to 220 seats to 213 for Democrats.

“..one wonders then: Why does the Trump administration even bother?”

• Trump Dials Back Putin Criticism, Renews Attacks On Zelensky (ZH)

It was only on Sunday that President Trump declared he’s “very angry” at Russian President Putin, statements which featured the threat of secondary tariffs on Moscow, but now the US leader is already dialing back this criticism, Bloomberg observes. Instead he’s once again focused his ire on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warning of “big problems” if he doesn’t sign the controversial minerals agreement and tries to renegotiate. “I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump earlier told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’” “He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems,” Trump said.

Zelensky has signaled that Ukraine is positive about the deal but has complained that its conditions are “constantly changing”. Trump has still kept up some pressure on Putin, however, saying Monday of the Russian leader, “I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will.” He continued in Monday remarks from the Oval, “I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil, but I think, you know, something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job.” All of the weekend criticisms of Putin appeared to arise from the Russian president’s comments late last week declaring that Zelensky’s ‘illegitimacy’ could be fixed by a UN transition process guiding Ukraine to new elections. Only then would Moscow negotiate an end the war, Putin stipulated.

“He’s supposed to be making a deal with him, whether you like him or don’t like him,” Trump told reporters Sunday, referring to Putin. “So I wasn’t happy with that. But I think he’s going to be good.” But again, he reserved blunter criticism for US ally Zelensky: “I heard that they’re now saying, well, I’ll only do that deal if we get into NATO or something to that effect,” Trump had said. Bloomberg has concluded the following of this latest back-and-forth: The result is a geopolitical whiplash on the eve of Trump’s global tariff announcement on April 2 and shows US impatience with the process of securing a temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine more than three years after Putin’s invasion of its neighbor. Trump had vowed he would end the war within 24 hours of taking office but has found Russia to be a tough negotiator and able to wrest concessions from the US by exploiting Trump’s desire to get a deal done quickly.

On Sunday, Trump told NBC he was “pissed off” at Putin. Of course, this is also due to Russian forces rolling up several villages and towns on the battlefield in Ukraine’s east and south just this week alone. Putin has less incentive for a hasty deal, and is in the driver’s seat – but surely the White House knows this, which is perhaps why the pressure is ramping up on Zelensky once again. As for the apparently ever-changing draft minerals deal, Ukraine and its supporters have continued to charge that it’s tantamount to a big resource grab by Washington. Ukraine received its latest version of a new draft of the text on Friday, its foreign ministry stated. CNN writes that “The new proposal for a natural resources agreement, of which CNN has obtained a copy, was put forward by the US Treasury Department and goes well beyond the initial draft, particularly on future US rights and reimbursement for past assistance.”

Some independent geopolitical observes have said the deal effectively imposes ‘indentured servitude’ on Ukraine. “This ‘deal’ is pure extortion and robbery. It would bind Ukraine indefinitely. It would also discourage any investment in any natural deposits in Ukraine. There is no chance that any such deal will be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament,” Moon of Alabama writes. The source then questions, “one wonders then: Why does the Trump administration even bother?”

I’ve seen some questions about this float by. To be continued.

• DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme (ZH)

One day after Elon Musk and Antonio Gracias—founder and CEO of the Chicago-based investment firm Valor Equity Partners, and now a DOGE official—unveiled a “mind-blowing” chart showing a surge in Social Security numbers issued to illegal aliens over the Biden-Harris administration’s first term during an America PAC town hall in Wisconsin on Sunday, Musk’s America PAC hosted an online tele-town hall with Wisconsin voters on Monday night, where he provided more color on the SSN fraud. During the tele-town hall, one Wisconsin voter asked Musk: “You found a lot of fraud in Social Security. Do you know whether the Attorney General will investigate and prosecute that fraud?”

Musk responded: “I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow, because there’s someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database… And was selling Social Security numbers and all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security.” “This is a particular avenue of fraud for illegal immigrants and voter fraud – because the main way identification is established in the US is via Social Security. If you comprise the Social Security system, you can basically get people to get defacto registered to vote – even if they’re not citizens – and get a bunch of benefits and to milk the system – this is pretty insane,” Musk said.

Elon Musk: “I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow, because there's someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database… And was selling Social Security numbers and all the identification information… pic.twitter.com/cq2kyAVtTL

— America (@america) April 1, 2025

On Sunday, Musk and Gracias showed the audience of a town hall a chart titled “New Non-Citizen Social Security Numbers Issued” …

Last night Antonio Gracias and Elon Musk breaks down the invasion scam that I have been documenting for many years.

I incorporated my short clips as they explain the perverted process. pic.twitter.com/r10nIw3TjX

— hernando arce (@hernandoarce) March 31, 2025

Then again, Democrats are against DOGE’s efforts to find waste and fraud at Social Security. Wonder why? American citizens deserve full transparency, accountability, and swift reforms to ensure this kind of fraud is never repeated and used to game elections and drain resources of citizens by illegals. Also, handing out stolen SNNs is a national security threat and can end up in the hands of bad actors, such as members of transnational gangs or terrorist networks.

“..the president has already secured more than $3 trillion in private investments so far.”

• Trump ‘Investment Accelerator’ Fast-Tracks Investments Over $1 Billion (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that creates an “investment accelerator,” which seeks to facilitate and fast-track the approval of any investment into the United States of over $1 billion. The order creates a new office within the Department of Commerce that will speed up the approval process for investments, and encourage countries to invest in the U.S. by reducing regulatory burdens, and increasing communication about investor issues across departments. The new office will also be responsible for administering the CHIPS Program Office, which the White House claims will negotiate “much better CHIPS Act deals than the previous Administration.”

“President Trump believes it is in America’s interest that the Federal Government dramatically expand its assistance to companies seeking to invest and build in the United States,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “By streamlining processes, the Accelerator will attract both foreign and domestic investment, reinforcing America’s position as the premier destination for large-scale investment.” The White House also touted that the president has already secured more than $3 trillion in private investments so far.

“Le Pen’s party got the most votes, and the anti-establishment left won the most seats – neither of which entitles you to actually govern France anymore, apparently..”

• France’s Courts Keep Sidelining The Establishment’s Political Rivals (Marsden)

Earlier this week, the anti-establishment French political leader whom all polls suggest would easily win the presidency, if the vote were held tomorrow, was barred from running for office for five years. How convenient. Right-wing National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty in a Paris court of embezzling European Union funds. Accused of enabling a system whereby aides hired to serve in Brussels ended up doing work for the party, she was also fined an sentenced to two years of home detention under electronic monitoring. The allegations against Le Pen, dating back to at least 2014, were so old that they could have qualified for a French pension. But now the verdict conveniently takes her out of the 2027 election cycle. If you were looking for a foolproof way to supercharge support for Le Pen’s party, congratulations, French judiciary – you nailed it.

There’s no better way to fire up a political movement than to turn its leader into a martyr of a state that looks to be meddling with citizens’ democratic options. Just ask Romania’s Calin Georgescu, who was on his way to victory before getting politically kneecapped by the system: arrested, accused of foreign funding, then ultimately just dismissed for a paperwork technicality. And what happened next? His replacement, George Simion, is now surging in the polls. Who could’ve seen that coming? (Spoiler: Everyone.) Disqualifying candidates for crimes like corruption, fraud, and electoral violations wasn’t automatic in France – until Emmanuel Macron’s party conveniently made it so in 2017. Timing is everything: that law landed roughly three years after Brussels put Le Pen in its investigative crosshairs. Surely just a coincidence. The law’s biggest cheerleader? Macron ally and centrist leader, François Bayrou, who championed it – right up until he found himself accused of the exact same EU cash-grab scheme as Le Pen.

Awkward. He lasted a whole month as Macron’s justice minister before getting booted. But don’t worry, he bounced back. Acquitted last year, he was later handpicked as Macron’s prime minister, despite not running for anything. You know who actually won that election? Le Pen’s party got the most votes, and the anti-establishment left won the most seats – neither of which entitles you to actually govern France anymore, apparently. Meanwhile, leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is also under investigation for – you guessed it – precisely the same kind of disqualifying offense involving EU funding as Le Pen. It’s no wonder Trump looks at this mess and sees himself in Le Pen’s situation. “She was banned for five years and she was the leading candidate,” Trump said. “That sounds like this country.” If Trump had been French, and convicted on some of his own election-related charges, like those in Georgia, he wouldn’t have been able to run for president, either.

Hopefully the fashion capital of the world won’t set a trend with this one. Sure, convict someone. But let the people decide if the convict is still a better electoral option. Democracy means letting people choose – even if their top pick needs a parole officer instead of a campaign manager. There’s a distinct pattern here: every time a candidate starts looking like a real threat to the establishment, the legal system suddenly finds a reason to hit the brakes. It’s almost as if France has an unofficial “Incumbent Protection Act”. Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn? Back in 2011, as IMF head, he was basically measuring the drapes at the Élysée Palace for his imminent move in. Then – bam! – a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault. Career over. And just to make sure, French authorities later charged him with pimping. Yes, pimping. He was acquitted, but good luck running for office when “IMF President” and “Accused Pimp” are both on your CV.

“..no one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens.”

• Italy Calls Le Pen Sentence A Blow To Democracy (RT)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned the conviction of French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, saying it undermines the voice of millions of voters. On Monday, Le Pen, the former leader of the conservative National Rally (RN) party, was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement, two of them suspended, and barred from holding public office for five years. If the conviction stands, it effectively rules her out of the 2027 presidential race. Commenting on the verdict, Meloni told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday: “I don’t know the merit of the objections made to Marine Le Pen, nor the reasons for such a harsh decision. But I think that no one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens.”

Meloni joined a chorus of French and international politicians in criticizing the ruling, which many called undemocratic. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday described the verdict as a “declaration of war by Brussels.” US President Donald Trump also weighed in, saying the criminal prosecution of Le Pen reminded him of the legal challenges he faced under former President Joe Biden’s administration. According to Le Monde, prosecutors argued that Le Pen and several RN lawmakers misused European Parliament funds by diverting them from official duties to party activities in France. Le Pen denied any wrongdoing, called the verdict politically motivated, and said she would appeal.

Speaking on French television on Monday evening, Le Pen vowed to stay in politics and fight for her right to run. “I’m combative, I won’t let myself be eliminated,” she said. Le Pen has run for president three times, finishing second in 2017 and 2022. Her party currently holds the largest number of seats in the National Assembly. According to an Ifop poll published in Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday, 34-37% of those surveyed said they plan to vote for Le Pen in 2027 – over ten points more than her nearest rival, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. A longtime critic of NATO policy in Eastern Europe, Le Pen has opposed Ukraine’s accession to the military bloc and has spoken out against EU sanctions on Russia.

Grenell is a very effective special envoy. But maybe Trump feels Witkoff can now do with he did.

• Trump Cites Grenell As Potential UN Ambassador Nominee (jTN)

President Donald Trump says about 30 people have expressed interest in becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations since he pulled the nomination of New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik for the position. Trump made the comment Monday. He also said David Friedman, who was the U.S. ambassador to Israel during his first administration, and Richard Grenell, who was the former ambassador to Germany, as potential nominees. “We have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it,” he said. Trump also said about 30 people are interested in the position.

“Everyone loves that position,” he said. “That’s a star-making position. And so we’ll see what happens.” Last week, Trump pulled Stefanik’s nomination to save House Republicans from losing another member and cutting further into their already narrow majority. House Republicans have already lost two members to Trump nominations, after winning control of the lower chamber in November.

Unnecessary nonsense.

• Trump National Security Team Used Gmail For Government Matters – WaPo (RT)

Members of the US National Security Council (NSC), including national security adviser Mike Waltz, have used personal Gmail accounts to discuss sensitive government information, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing obtained emails and three people familiar with the matter. The report comes after Waltz accidentally added a journalist to a Signal chat group where Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance and other senior officials discussed the upcoming US strikes in Yemen. According to the Post, a senior Waltz aide used Gmail for “highly technical conversations” with colleagues, which included “sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.” The Post cited officials as saying that Waltz had “potentially exploitable information” sent to his Gmail account and posted parts of his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions.

Officials are normally required to use secure government-issued means of communication. NSC spokesman Brian Hughes told the Post that Waltz “didn’t and wouldn’t send classified information on an open account.” He added that when “legacy contacts” were emailing Waltz, he always copied the messages to his government email “to ensure compliance with records retention.” Hughes said that NSC staff are instructed to use “only secure platforms for classified information.” In a statement to Fox News, Hughes said that he could not verify the Post’s claims because the journalist “refused to share any part of the document reported.”

The Democrats have criticized the Trump administration for using the Signal chat app when discussing the bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen last month. According to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, he was added to a group where Hegseth shared the timeline of the March 15 strikes, as well as the weapons systems used in the operation. Hegseth and other White House officials have denied that any classified information was shared in the chat with Goldberg. President Donald Trump has rejected the calls to dismiss Waltz. “I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” he told NBC News on Saturday.

“..Europe is afraid of its own voters and is useless to the United States in this form..”

• Donald Trump Jr. Says Le Pen’s Verdict Proves Vance Right About EU (TASS)

The sentence handed down to Marine Le Pen, the head of the parliamentary faction of the French National Rally party, proves US Vice President JD Vance is right about the EU, son of the American leader Donald Trump Jr. said on X. “France is sending Le Pen to jail and barring her from running?! Are they just trying to prove [JD Vence] was right about everything?” he wrote. Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, blasted the EU for censorship, including for blocking social networks. He said that Europe is afraid of its own voters and is useless to the United States in this form. He said that illegal migrants regularly commit crimes in the EU and advised to tighten border controls.

On Monday, a court in Paris found Le Pen guilty of embezzling EU funds and sentenced her to four years in prison, two of which she will have to wear an electronic bracelet (the remaining two years are suspended). The verdict, according to experts, means she will not be able to run for president of France in 2027. As explained by Le Figaro, Le Pen may retain her parliamentary mandate and the post of chairman of the party’s faction, but she will not be able to participate in possible early elections to the National Assembly (lower house) of the French parliament. The US State Department declined to comment. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS earlier that Le Pen’s verdict shows the “agony of liberal democracy.”

If Kaja Kallas is your top diplomat, you have many problems.

• NATO Will ‘Survive’ Trump – EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)

NATO will remain intact despite pressure from US President Donald Trump, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said. She warned, however, that some member states must be ready to make difficult choices to meet the required level of defense spending. In an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo on Monday, Kallas was asked whether “NATO [will] survive Trump’s term.” “I’m sure. It’s a strong alliance that’s alive and well”, she replied, adding that member nations have committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on defense by 2024 – a threshold that a significant portion of the bloc has yet to reach. “I hear the problems some countries are having, but I also think it’s illusory to get out of this situation without making difficult and unpopular decisions,” she said, citing her tenure as prime minister of Estonia during which the country raised taxes.

Pressed on why the EU does not propose direct subsidies for those lagging behind in defense spending, Kallas stated that the bloc must balance the interests of highly indebted countries and those that contribute the most to the EU budget. To address this, the EU has instituted “relief measures in the fiscal rules to give member states more room to operate,” which could give countries a number of options to increase spending, she added. Since his first term, Trump has been pushing European NATO members to spend more on their own defense. While the bloc’s members agreed to reach a 2% threshold, in February, the US president suggested that NATO members should consider spending as much as 5% of GDP on defense. Last month, he warned: “if they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said Trump was right to demand that European members step up defense spending. NATO leaders have insisted that the hike in military expenditure is aimed at deterring Russia amid the Ukraine conflict. Some officials have suggested that Moscow could launch a full-scale attack on the US-led bloc within a few years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the speculation as “nonsense,” arguing that Moscow has no interest in doing so.

The new guy dreams of control. Inevitable.

• Germany To Target ‘Internal EU Enemies’ – Politico (RT)

The incoming German government plans to play a larger role in EU decision-making, including by punishing nations that dissent against the bloc’s foreign policy, Politico has reported. According to the outlet, a draft coalition agreement targets Hungary, which has defied EU decisions on issues such as the Ukraine conflict and sanctions against Russia. Germany is set to have a new coalition government formed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democrats (SPD), likely led by Friedrich Merz of the CDU. The parties are currently finalizing agreements on key policy areas, including migration, climate, and EU relations. Merz is reportedly aiming to form the new government before Easter on April 20.

One of the documents reviewed by Politico outlines Berlin’s plans for a more assertive EU strategy. It proposes using the ‘Weimar Triangle’ – a trilateral alliance of Germany, France, and Poland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency – to influence the bloc’s direction and strengthen Germany’s use of its voting rights.The draft also states that Berlin plans to “defend” the EU against “internal and external enemies” by calling for punitive action against member states that allegedly violate principles such as the rule of law. Proposed penalties include withholding EU funds and suspending voting rights. “We will take even more consistent action against violations,” the document states.

“Existing protective instruments, from infringement proceedings and the withholding of EU funds to the suspension [of] membership rights such as voting rights in the Council of the EU, must be applied much more consistently than before.” The coalition has also proposed the creation of a “comprehensive sanction instrument” to rein in perceived dissenters, including replacing the EU’s foreign policy unanimity requirement with majority voting to prevent countries from blocking decisions such as sanctions. “The consensus principle in the European Council must not become a brake on decision-making,” the document states.

While Hungary is not mentioned by name, the draft agreement appears to be a clear reference to the country, which has long been at odds with EU policies, including over its approach to the Ukraine conflict and its sanctions policy towards Russia. Budapest has argued that sanctions have been detrimental to the bloc’s economy, and has exercised its veto right on several motions to delay or dilute measures. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly accused the EU of taking a “pro-war” stance and has pursued independent peace initiatives on the Ukraine conflict. The EU has previously threatened to suspend Hungary’s voting rights. It withheld around €22 billion in funds earmarked for Budapest in 2022, citing rights and judicial concerns, but ultimately released about half of that amount last year.

“..amid “geopolitical fragmentation” of the world into competing blocs..”

• BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Might Dethrone US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency (Sp.)

BlackRock’s Outlook 2025 called Bitcoin “a tactical hedge against specific risks, like gold.” Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, who had once labeled Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering,” experienced a notable change of heart last year amid inflationary pressures and the volatility of traditional markets. America’s mounting national debt, which is currently at $36 trillion, could prompt investors to start viewing the digital currency as a safer bet, Larry Fink has warned. “If deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing that position to digital assets like Bitcoin,” he stressed in his annual letter to investors.

Mandatory government spending and debt service will consume all federal revenue, creating a permanent deficit by 2030, Fink added. Initially, Fink was a skeptic, often dismissing Bitcoin as a speculative asset and referring to it as a “fad.” However, he gradually became more open to the idea of digital assets. In January 2024, BlackRock introduced the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a Bitcoin ETF that swiftly emerged as the largest cryptocurrency fund globally. BlackRock’s Outlook 2025 referred to Bitcoin as “a tactical hedge against specific risks, like gold” amid “geopolitical fragmentation” of the world into competing blocs.

Cover all angles of a narrative, and you’re in control.

• USAID and the Architecture of Perception (Stylman)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long portrayed itself as America’s humanitarian aid organization, delivering assistance to developing nations. With an annual budget of nearly $40 billion and operations in over 100 countries, it represents one of the largest foreign aid institutions in the world. But recent disclosures reveal its true nature as something far more systematic: an architect of global consciousness. Consider: Reuters, one of the world’s most trusted news sources, received USAID funding for ‘Large Scale Social Deception’ and ‘Social Engineering Defence.’ While there’s debate about the exact scope of these programs, the implications are staggering: a division of one of the world’s most relied-upon sources for objective reporting was paid by a US government agency for systemic reality construction. This funding goes beyond traditional media support, representing a deliberate infrastructure for discourse framing that fundamentally challenges the concept of ‘objective’ reporting.

Source: USASpending.gov database

But it goes deeper. In what reads like a Michael Crichton plot come to life, the recent USAID revelations show a staggering reach of narrative control. Take Internews Network, a USAID-financed NGO that has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive network, ‘working with’ 4,291 media outlets. In just one year, they produced 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘trained’ over 9,000 journalists. This isn’t just funding – it’s a systematic infrastructure of consciousness manipulation. The revelations show USAID funding both the Wuhan Lab’s gain-of-function research and the media outlets that would shape the story around what emerged from it. Backing organizations that would fabricate impeachment evidence. Funding both the election systems that facilitate outcomes and the fact-checkers that determine which discussions about those outcomes are permitted. But these disclosures point to something far more significant than mere corruption.

These revelations didn’t emerge from nowhere – they come from government grant disclosures, FOIA requests, and official records that aren’t even hidden, just ignored. As my old friend Mark Schiffer noted the other day, ‘The most important truths today cannot be debated – they must be felt as totalities.’ The pattern, once seen, cannot be unseen. Some may question DOGE’s methods or the rapid pace of these disclosures, and those constitutional concerns deserve serious discussion. But that’s a separate conversation from what these documents reveal. The revelations themselves – documented in official records and grant disclosures – are undeniable and should shock anyone who values truth. The means of exposure matter far less than what’s being exposed: one of the largest narrative control operations in history.

No domain is untouched – markets, tech, culture, health, and obviously, media – and you’ll find the same design. Intelligence agencies are deeply embedded in each domain because shaping how we perceive reality is more powerful than controlling reality itself Just as fiat currency replaced real value with declared value, we now see the same pattern everywhere: fiat science replaces inquiry with predetermined conclusions, fiat culture replaces organic development with curated influence, fiat history replaces lived experience with manufactured narratives. We live in an era of fiat everything – where reality itself is declared, not discovered. And just as they create artificial scarcity in monetary systems, they manufacture false choices everywhere else – presenting us with artificial binaries that obscure the true complexity of our world.

As Schiffer wrote elsewhere, reality no longer requires consensus, only coherence. But there’s a crucial distinction: real coherence emerges naturally across multiple domains, reflecting deeper truths that cannot be fabricated. The coherence imposed by perception management isn’t truth – it’s a controlled discourse engineered for consistency, not discovery. The USAID receipts now provide concrete evidence of how this manufactured coherence is built: a scripted reality where the appearance of logic is more important than actual substance.

In 2014 Scott Pelley with 60 Minutes interviewed @elonmusk.

“TAXPAYERS ESSENTIALLY LOANED YOU, TESLA, ALMOST $500 MILLION DOLLARS. HOW MUCH OF THAT DO YOU STILL OWE”? pic.twitter.com/Kynsgq1vqS

— Clyp Keeper (@DGrayTexas45) April 1, 2025

Amateur hour

The simple truth. The United States will never be great again while it's being run by Israel. pic.twitter.com/qy4ImDSqB8

— Kerry Burgess (@KerryBurgess) March 31, 2025

Sachs

🏆 Jeffrey Sachs Should Be A Nobel Prize Winner

AWESOME

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: I'm speaking of Netanyahu.
He is a mass murderer.
He is a killer.
He commits war crimes.
And he has control over American foreign policy and over American domestic policy now. That's the fact. The… pic.twitter.com/4BMXF6vuSd

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) March 31, 2025

Lungs

Test your lungshttps://t.co/YQ9DUK1K9v

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 1, 2025

Backrub

Unlimited backrubs pic.twitter.com/oJBJajRWLQ

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 1, 2025

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

Debt Rattle March 2 2025

Mar 022025

March 2, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 11:05 am Finance Tagged with: EU, far-right, Germany, Musk, peace, smackdown, Trump, USAID, Vance, WaPo, Zelensky 53 Responses »

Giovanni Bellini Pietà c1460

• Putin Should Be The ‘Leader of The Free World’ – Medvedev (RT)

• Musk Tips Vance To Become US President (RT)

• US State Department Slashes USAID Assistance To Ukraine – NBC (RT)

• Zelensky’s Presidency Is Over – Scott Ritter (RT)

• A Dose Of Reality For The West’s Spoiled Brat (Amar)

• Zelensky Is Done – Kiriakou (RT)

• EU Trapped As ‘Cheerleader of US Hegemony’ – Jeffrey Sachs (RT)

• EU Wants Another Year of War – Rubio (RT)

• Russian Experts On The Trump Talks Fiasco (RT)

• Trump’s Smackdown of Zelensky Wake-up Call for West (Sp.)

• EU Delusional if It Hopes to Fill Ukraine Void Without US – Analyst (Sp.)

• WaPo Hit By Second Wave Of “Rapid-Fire” Mass Subscription Cancellations (ZH)

• Far-Right Leaders Gather In Madrid To “Make Europe Great Again” (Vracar)

• What’s Behind Keir Starmer’s Latest Defense Spending Boost? (Jay)

• A Spectre Is Haunting Germany (Beppler-Spahl)

• German Factories Counting On Return of Russian Gas – Bloomberg (RT)

▶️ Powerful video here: revealing the deep and dark corruption which has been fueling this disastrous proxy war from the first moment of its inception. Zelensky is a media creation – a puppet of the West, designed to empty Ukraine of its sovereignty, and ultimately its resources… pic.twitter.com/5xH0vbGool

— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) March 1, 2025

Peace

Trump: All of the sudden he’s a big shot because he has the US on his side. Either we end it or let him fight it out and if he fights it out, it’s not going to be pretty because without us, he doesn’t win. You saw what I saw today. That was not a man who wanted to make peace pic.twitter.com/pM786q9u15

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 28, 2025

jennings

NEW – Scott Jennings on Zelenskyy's WH visit: "All Zelenskyy had to do today was put on tie, show up, smile, say 'thank you', sign the papers and have lunch. That's it! And he couldn't do that." pic.twitter.com/FKIl2cLQje

— Overton (@overton_news) March 1, 2025

Greenwald

Trump has made it clear that his goal is to end the war in Ukraine, and yesterday’s explosive meeting with Zelensky reinforced this commitment to stopping the U.S. from fueling a losing and dangerous war. @ggreenwald on the Trump-Zelensky spat: pic.twitter.com/BWvb22fNhN

— System Update (@SystemUpdate_) March 1, 2025

Dubinsky

JUST IN. Zelenskyy’s Empire Crumbling: Ukrainian MP Demands Impeachment After Oval Office Meltdown

In a stunning turn of events, Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky has ignited a firestorm by demanding an emergency session of Parliament to impeach President Volodymyr Zelensky,… pic.twitter.com/NZkAeqhbu8

— MAGA Resource (@MAGAResource) February 28, 2025

Stephen Cohen 2019

pic.twitter.com/ylq14esHb5
In October 2019, House Democrats were preparing to impeach Trump and declaring that his pause on a US weapons package to Ukraine was a grave threat to national security.

Amid the frenzy, Stephen F. Cohen (RIP) issued a warning. Rather than pushing to arm…

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 28, 2025

Waltz

NOW – Mike Waltz dispels media rumors that Trump admin 'ambushed' Zelenskyy: "That is ABSOLUTELY and categorically false. We had a beautiful setting in the East Room ready for both leaders to sign, that would have bound the U.S. and Ukraine together," pic.twitter.com/H5dDE8kxyK

— Overton (@overton_news) March 1, 2025

Rubio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio just gave one of the BEST interviews I have watched in defense of President Trump's Ukraine and Russia strategy.

President Trump picked a seasoned media veteran like Rubio for moments like these, here is the full interview! pic.twitter.com/ETaBLVVUHE

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) March 1, 2025

Susan Rice

Susan Rice needs to be investigated for acting as a foreign agent, to undermine America, violating the Logan Act

Here is her interview from MSNBC today about President Trump & VP Vance’s meeting with Zelenskyy

It is also being reported Susan Rice, along with Anthony Blinken,… https://t.co/UVq6caCvTc pic.twitter.com/2dw7VgEGWD

— Kylie Jane Kremer (@KylieJaneKremer) March 1, 2025

Bolton

JUST IN: John Bolton is now calling on Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Advisor Mike Waltz to resign over how Zelenskyy was treated today.

"Are you saying Marco Rubio should resign?"

Bolton: "And Mike Waltz, this is really the time to do it. If they don't get out now, I think… pic.twitter.com/1vJw9oZPjP

— George (@BehizyTweets) February 28, 2025

“Europe is a feeble, quarrelsome old woman who is utterly dependent on US protection.”

• Putin Should Be The ‘Leader of The Free World’ – Medvedev (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin should be the ‘leader of the free world’, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said. His remarks came in response to the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, who suggested that the bloc must assume the mantle from the US following Washington’s policy shift on Ukraine. On Friday, Kallas, along with several other EU leaders, reiterated their support for Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who engaged in a heated exchange with US President Donald Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump accused Zelensky of not being grateful for American assistance and not being willing to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict, while the Ukrainian leader urged Washington to continue its military support for Kiev while warning that failure to do so would backfire on the US.

Kallas took a swipe at Trump, writing: “Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor [sic]. Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.” In an interview with RIA Novosti on Saturday, Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, agreed that the title of ‘leader of the free world’ should be transferred from the US to another party, but not the EU. The world “needs one, and he exists. His name is Vladimir Putin,” he said. Medvedev also argued that while EU leaders might try to show some defiance in the face of US pressure, they will ultimately cave in.

“They will make some noise, post identical messages on social media, and return to their pen. Europe is a feeble, quarrelsome old woman who is utterly dependent on US protection.” The former president also reiterated that Moscow remains open to negotiations to settle the Ukraine conflict, but stressed that they must proceed on Russia’s terms. “We have always been ready for negotiations, and any negotiations require reciprocal steps. But only those steps that correspond to the reality on the ground and our basic law.” Russia has praised the Trump administration for attempting to resolve the Ukraine conflict and listen to Moscow’s geopolitical concerns related to it, while blasting the EU for attempting to fuel the hostilities by continuing to support Kiev.

“Best VP ever and our future President..”

• Musk Tips Vance To Become US President (RT)

Tech billionaire and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk has called US Vice President J.D. Vance “our future President,” fueling speculation about Vance’s political ambitions. Musk’s remarks followed a post on X addressing the tense exchange between Vance and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over free speech policies during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday. As Starmer met with President Donald Trump and administration officials at the White House, Vance defended his stance on digital censorship, echoing comments he made during last month’s Munich Security Conference. “We also know there have been infringements on free speech that affect not just the British,” Vance said.

“Of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them, but it also impacts American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens.” Starmer dismissed Vance’s concerns, insisting that free speech remained firmly protected in the United Kingdom. “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time,” the Labour Party leader said. “Best VP ever and our future President,” Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X on Friday. Musk has been vocal in his criticism of Starmer and has frequently aligned with Vance on key foreign policy issues, particularly free speech and US aid to Ukraine.

Musk’s endorsement comes as Vance and Trump engaged in a heated exchange with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky at an Oval Office meeting on Friday. Vance, the first to address Zelensky, criticized his recent public appearances highlighting war devastation, accusing him of hosting “propaganda tours,” and labeling the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful.” The confrontation led to the day’s events being cut short, while Trump reportedly dismissed Zelensky and told him to return when he was “ready to pursue peace.” Musk later also chimed it, saying the Ukrainian leader had “destroyed himself in the eyes of the American people” in an X post.

Musk, who was appointed to lead DOGE when Trump took office in January, has been tasked with reducing government inefficiency and cutting federal spending. His endorsement of Vance marks the second time in recent weeks that he has expressed support for the vice president, previously posting: “Best VP ever and hopefully our future President.” The 40-year-old Vance is the third-youngest vice president in US history. His relationship with Trump has evolved significantly since the president’s first term. Once a vocal critic of Trump, Vance opposed his candidacy in 2016, calling him “cultural heroin” for conservatives and questioning his character. However, he later shifted his stance, securing Trump’s endorsement in his successful 2022 Ohio Senate bid, a move that cemented his place within Trump’s political inner circle.

“He imposed a 90-day funding freeze on the agency and transferred oversight of its programs to the direct control of the State Department..”

• US State Department Slashes USAID Assistance To Ukraine – NBC (RT)

The US State Department has terminated a US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative for a large-scale effort to restore Ukraine’s energy grid, which has been severely damaged by Russian strikes, NBC News reported on Friday, citing sources. USAID, Washington’s primary agency for funding political projects abroad, found itself in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump shortly after taking office, accusing it of corruption and inefficiency. He imposed a 90-day funding freeze on the agency and transferred oversight of its programs to the direct control of the State Department. As part of the crackdown, the State Department not only stopped a USAID program that invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ukraine’s power grid, but also sharply reduced the agency’s footprint in Ukraine, the network said.

Before the reported cuts, 64 American government employees and contractors were on the ground supporting the agency’s mission; now only eight are expected to remain, with the Trump administration placing the remaining USAID personnel on administrative leave and ordering all but “critical” staff to return to the US, NBC reported. ”It significantly undercuts this administration’s abilities to negotiate on the ceasefire, and it’d signal to Russia that we don’t care about Ukraine or our past investments,” a USAID official working on the Ukraine mission told the outlet, adding that the decision would significantly undermine the country’s economic resilience. In 2024 alone, USAID allocated $825 million to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The move comes as Russia continues to carry out drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s defense-linked energy infrastructure to undermine the country’s military effort, resulting in recurring rolling blackouts. Moscow insists that it never targets civilians. The timing of the reported USAID pullout coincides with a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in the White House, in which the US president accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for the substantial aid provided to Kiev, and of being unwilling to negotiate an end to the conflict with Russia. As a result of the heated exchange between the two sides, an agreement granting the US rights to Ukraine’s natural resources as compensation for past aid was not signed.

“Ukraine cannot afford to have him as their leader, and I think you’re going to see Zelensky being exited stage right as rapidly as possible..”

• Zelensky’s Presidency Is Over – Scott Ritter (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency is over, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter has told RT. Zelensky’s five-year term in office concluded in May 2024, but he has refused to hold new elections, citing martial law. According to Ritter, Washington is “fed up” with Zelensky, who US President Donald Trump recently labeled a “dictator without elections,” and is moving to unseat him. Ritter’s words come on the heels of a meeting in the White House between Zelensky, Trump, and US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday, in which a heated exchange took place after Trump told the Ukrainian leader that he would have to negotiate peace with Russia. Zelensky argued that Moscow cannot be trusted and insisted that the US continue supporting Kiev.

Trump said Zelensky is “in no position to dictate” to the US, accusing him of being ungrateful for America’s substantial aid and questioning his willingness to bring about an end to the conflict with Russia. “Zelensky is not a democratically elected president… This was a deliberate setup by the president of the US. The Trump administration is fed up with Zelensky,” he said, arguing that he brought it upon himself by openly antagonizing Trump. This is the end of Zelensky’s presidency. He will not recover from this. Ukraine cannot afford to have him as their leader, and I think you’re going to see Zelensky being exited stage right as rapidly as possible. According to Ritter, the relationship between Trump and Zelensky is now “fundamentally broken.” However, unlike Ukraine, he said, Russia has never “lost the discipline” in contacts with the US and disrupted peace efforts, despite “some fundamental disagreements” on how to resolve the conflict.

“Zelensky was the greatest impediment to the US and Russia to achieve a peace deal… He had to be removed, and now he has been removed,” Ritter explained. He went on to say that while Zelensky’s removal may be “the beginning of the political collapse of Ukraine,” it might not necessarily be a bad thing in terms of peace because “the war is all but over at this point.” Zelensky has so far dismissed calls to step down. In an interview with Fox News following the meeting with Trump and responding to a call from US Senator Lindsey Graham “to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with,” Zelensky said he won’t do so unless asked by the Ukrainian people.

“Churchill was quite a monster – ask the miners or the Indians, for instance – who nonetheless played an important role in defeating Nazi Germany. But he was not a puffed-up provincial comedian.”

• A Dose Of Reality For The West’s Spoiled Brat (Amar)

“A grandiose failure” – take it from the best Ukrainian news site. That’s how Strana.ua has summed up the visit of Vladimir Zelensky, past-best-by-date leader in embattled Kiev, to Washington. And no one who watched the no-holds-barred shouting match between Zelensky, on one side, and US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, on the other, can disagree. Indeed, no one is even trying to disagree: Independent of political bias, there is unanimity in Western mainstream media that this was a historic catastrophe for Zelensky and his version of Ukraine. “A disaster” and “bitter chaos” (The Economist); a “meltdown” that “could not have gone worse” (Financial Times); a “historic escalation” (Spiegel); a “disaster for Ukraine” and a “spectacular confrontation” (Le Monde); an “upbraiding” and “debacle” for Zelensky (New York Times) and so on and so forth… You get the gist.

And please don’t blame me for how boring a review of Western mainstream media is; it’s not my fault that the vaunted press of the self-appointed “free world” and “garden” of “values” offers less diversity of views than the Soviet media circa 1986. The basic idea is very basic indeed: “This was awful because poor Zelensky got bullied.” Some especially eager information war cadres are already fingering J.D. Vance as the one to blame. The Economist, for instance, simply “knows” that the US vice president set up the Ukrainian leader. But then, the same Economist also helped spread the moronic lie that Russia blew up its own Nord Stream pipelines. Intriguingly, Ukraine’s Strana.ua, already mentioned above, sees things very differently. Its take is that “Zelensky himself provoked the scandal by his rudeness” toward both Vance and Trump. The latter, these Ukrainian observers who know their own vain and erratic leader all too well think, were still holding back, staying “quite calm and respectful” toward Zelensky.

For what it’s worth, my personal impression is that Zelensky did provoke the fight; that Vance and Trump treated him harshly and humiliatingly in return; and that Kiev’s prima-donna-in-chief deserved every last bit of it – and then some. Yes, after more than half a decade of Western leaders and mainstream media first building an insane personality cult around him and then babying and coddling him, it was a relief to see him talked to in earnest. And yes, it was glorious. Because Trump is right: Yes, Zelensky has been recklessly toying with World War III. And no, his regime has not been “alone.” On the contrary, without massive Western support that it should never have received it would long have ceased to exist. Vance also has a point: Ukraine is running out of soldiers, and Ukrainian men are hunted like animals to be shipped off to a hopeless meatgrinder war.

Finally, both are right: Zelensky displayed crude disrespect. Don’t get me wrong: In general, I am all for massively disrespecting the American empire. But once you’ve chosen to be its puppet and sold your own nation to it, you might as well cut out the grandstanding. In short, at long last, a dose of reality for the West’s spoiled brat in Kiev. And no more daft Churchill comparisons, please. In reality, like Stalin, Churchill was quite a monster – ask the miners or the Indians, for instance – who nonetheless played an important role in defeating Nazi Germany. But he was not a puffed-up provincial comedian.

“In the US Congress, we have workhorses and we have show horses. And Lindsey Graham is a show horse. So when you’ve lost Lindsey Graham, you’ve lost the war.”

• Zelensky Is Done – Kiriakou (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky is done as the leader of Ukraine and should be removed, journalist and former CIA analyst John Kiriakou told RT, commenting on the verbal spat between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. The meeting became heated when Zelensky resisted Trump’s demand to negotiate peace with Russia, leading the latter to accuse him of ingratitude and an unwillingness to end the conflict. Consequently, Zelensky left the White House prematurely, without signing an agreement that would have granted the US rights to Ukraine’s natural resources. The planned joint press conference was canceled. “For all intents and purposes, Zelensky is done. I wouldn’t be surprised if in three months Zelensky is living in London or some such place,” Kiriakou said on Friday.

He noted that Zelensky, who, citing martial law, refused to step down after his presidential mandate ended last year, will “have to be removed” because he “continues to be an impediment to peace.” “You know, they’ve got this provision in the Ukrainian constitution where they don’t have to have elections during a time of martial law…Maybe it’s time to take a second look at that, get him out, and elect somebody who can negotiate in good faith with the Russian government,” the analyst suggested. Kiriakou noted that without the support of Washington, which Kiev effectively lost when Zelensky antagonized Trump on Friday, the Ukraine conflict can be considered “over.” “[Zelensky] can’t rely on NATO… if the US pulls out. And it looks very much that the US is in the process now of pulling out. The conflict is over. It’s done. This is today’s reality,” he stated.

Zelensky has previously dismissed the possibility of stepping down. In an interview with Fox News following the meeting with Trump, he responded to a call from US Senator Lindsey Graham “to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with.” Zelensky stated he won’t do that unless asked by the Ukrainian people. According to Kiriakou, losing the support of such a pro-Kiev figure as Graham is yet another sign that Zelensky time at the helm is over, as is the conflict itself. “In the US Congress, we have workhorses and we have show horses. And Lindsey Graham is a show horse. So when you’ve lost Lindsey Graham, you’ve lost the war. [It] is a message to Vladimir Zelensky that it’s time to just stop,” the analyst said.

He said it before “Zelensky went to Washington”. Things are different now.

• EU Trapped As ‘Cheerleader of US Hegemony’ – Jeffrey Sachs (RT)

The European Union’s unwavering support for US hegemonic policies has ensnared it in a precarious position, according to award-winning American economist and public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs. In an interview with RT on Friday, Sachs discussed the Ukraine conflict, the EU’s geopolitical stance, and the broader implications of Washington’s foreign policy. He emphasized the necessity for the EU to assert its independence from Washington’s influence, advocating for the establishment of its own foreign policy and the normalization of relations with Moscow. The bloc “needs to have its own foreign policy. It needs to re-engage with Russia”, Sachs stated, highlighting the significance of the EU’s $20 trillion economy and the critical need for it to operate in harmony with the global economy.

When questioned about the EU’s potential to detach from Washington’s influence, Sachs affirmed: “I think it can and should be”. He criticized the bloc’s approach of” following the US in a blind kind of way, just trying to be the great cheerleader of US hegemony.” Sachs argued that US unipolar dominance must evolve, expressing concern over the current state of international discourse, where everything is broken down, and the hate talk is nonstop for everybody. Addressing the Ukraine conflict, Sachs suggested that both the EU and Kiev have suffered by aligning too closely with Washington’s policies. Now they don’t know quite what to do, he remarked, referencing former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s famous observation: “To be an enemy of America is dangerous, to be a friend of America is fatal”.

In the interview with RT, recorded before Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to Washington, Sachs described the trip for the signing of a meaningless document on mineral rights as “sad, desperate, confused”. The meeting between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump devolved into an openly hostile confrontation, during which Trump accused Zelensky of ingratitude and unwillingness to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict. According to Sachs, “a true peace” in the conflict could be achieved, as there is “no fundamental conflict between the US and Russia”. Moscow and Washington are currently engaged in negotiations following a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, and subsequent high-level talks between Russian and U.S. delegations in Saudi Arabia.

“Rubio emphasized that Washington is seeking peace for Ukraine, adding that if there’s even a 1% chance of that happening, it “needs to be explored.”

• EU Wants Another Year of War – Rubio (RT)

Some EU countries would favor the conflict between Russia and Ukraine dragging on longer with the idea of weakening Moscow, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has charged, stressing that Washington’s goal is to end the hostilities. Rubio’s comments came after a heated meeting between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky on Friday, which triggered accusations from American officials that the Ukrainian leader showed “disrespect” and ingratitude towards the US. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Rubio emphasized that Washington is seeking peace for Ukraine, adding that if there’s even a 1% chance of that happening, it “needs to be explored.” He also suggested that some of his EU counterparts are not exactly on board with this approach.

He cited an unnamed European foreign minister as saying that the EU’s plan is to allow “the war go… on for another year and at that point Russia will feel so weakened that they’ll beg for peace.” Rubio criticized this approach, stating, “That’s another year of killing, another year of dying, another year of destruction, and by the way, not a very realistic plan in my point of view.” Rubio has also called on Zelensky to apologize for what he called an “antagonistic” approach during the meeting, rebuking him for his stance on an agreement granting the US rights to Ukraine’s natural resources, which was set to be signed at the White House but ended up in limbo due to the spat that ensued. While Zelensky – who urged the US to continue military support for Ukraine while warning that the failure to do so would backfire – was heavily criticized by Trump administration officials and Republicans, many EU leaders rallied to his support.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, praised Zelensky’s “dignity” and reassured him that he is “never alone.” Friedrich Merz, Germany’s presumed future chancellor, said that “we must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.” Meanwhile, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, went even further, issuing a not-so-veiled rebuke to Trump. “We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor… Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.” Whereas Russia has praised the Trump administration for its willingness to find ways to resolve the Ukraine conflict, including examining its root causes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denounced the EU for what he described as a desire to further escalate the hostilities.

4 “experts”. This is Fyodor Lukyanov’s contribution.

• Russian Experts On The Trump Talks Fiasco (RT)

“Vladimir Zelensky underestimated the scale of the shift that occurred in American politics after Donald Trump’s arrival. He was misled by the fact that for three years, no one in the West considered it acceptable to publicly contradict Ukrainian representatives, especially Zelensky himself. Diplomats, politicians, and cultural figures from Ukraine were allowed almost anything. They are victims; they have the right. Permissiveness played a cruel joke on the Kiev leader. But the issue is not just about someone’s bad manners; that is a private matter. Such a model of behavior was possible as long as the Ukrainian conflict was perceived in the West as a battle of the right side of history against the wrong one. And in such a battle, almost anything is allowed. And no one will condemn it.

Trump views the war as an annoying nuisance, a mess in which all participants are to blame, especially his predecessor. The key takeaway from Trump during this truly historic interaction in the White House was: I am a mediator; I am not on anyone’s side; I want the war to end. And this is a fundamental shift. Strangely enough, Trump has taken a position of classic diplomacy, which is necessary to end wars. Zelensky and his supporters reject it, counting on a clear victory. But that is unattainable. Zelensky’s problem now is that, having made a fatal mistake in his choice of strategy in the White House, he has disarmed even his support group in Europe and within the US itself.

They may express as much outrage as they want about Trump and demand continued aid for Ukraine, but Zelensky’s mistake is glaring. The opportunity to sway the American president to a more favorable position has been lost. And two small remarks. First, Zelensky now has the opportunity to appreciate the restraint and even tactfulness of the Russian president, no matter how they feel about each other. Second – the war continues.”

“Europe May Pay Lip Service to Zelensky, But Taking Over for the US is Burden too Big to Bear..”

• Trump’s Smackdown of Zelensky Wake-up Call for West (Sp.)

The fierce clash between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky on live TV shocked US allies and prompted devastated Washington pundits to start writing requiems to ‘Pax Americana’. Sputnik reached out to a pair of veteran observers of international politics and defense policy to explain the blowup, and what comes next. “Zelensky came all the way to Washington to sign an open-ended, financially unlimited, no security-guarantee deal marketed in his own country as the opposite. Trump and Vance openly declared that he’s been defeated, is gambling with the lives of his own people, that he has no men left and that peace must be made,” renowned Turkish journalist Ceyda Karan told Sputnik, commenting on Friday’s epic slugfest.

“They said outright that Zelensky is going to drag the whole world into World War III. What’s striking here is that Trump is presenting the truth to the Western world, which has become accustomed to political correctness,” Karan stressed, outlining the most important takeaway from the verbal altercation. Zelensky tried “to play the role of a ‘hero being mistreated’ by the US president. The issue of Trump demanding the rights to Ukraine’s resources has been presented to the world as if Zelensky were a victim. However, he himself has been talking about this throughout the past year. When the US Congress had difficulty allocating new military aid to Kiev, it was Zelensky who offered resources, sitting next to Senator Lindsey Graham and listening to his rhetoric about ‘fighting to the last Ukrainian’,” the observer recalled.

He repeated this idea while meeting Trump on the eve of the 2024 election at Trump Tower in September, and again before Ukraine’s parliament at the end of last year during his speech on his so-called ‘victory plan’, “which was ridiculed even by Western media,” Karan said. “To replace the US, Europe at least has to double its support for Ukraine,” Swedish Armed Forces veteran and politician Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik, commenting on European leaders’ plans to organize a hasty summit on Ukraine support in the fallout from the Trump-Zelensky blowup. “Picking up the slack for the US would be “a very heavy burden for Europe to carry,” Valtersson explained, particularly amid “growing resistance among the European population to spending huge amounts of money on Ukraine,” which would only increase further if spending did.

If European powers do move forward anyway as the US seeks normalization, they would drive themselves into a corner trying “to continue isolating Russia” alone, without Washington’s backing, which would in effect mean they “will be isolated themselves.” Valtersson expects any public European “united front” behind Zelensky among the Europeans to “crack” over time as alternative parties seeking peace and realism in Russia policy rise, while other countries “pay lip service to supporting Ukraine” without actually ramping up commitments. “Europe will be divided into three groups; those that ardently support Ukraine, those that pretend to support Ukraine and those that fight for a detente and a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” the observer predicted.

“NATO is finished,” the analyst speculated, since the EU’s main military wing is “paralyzed without its transatlantic partner.”

• EU Delusional if It Hopes to Fill Ukraine Void Without US – Analyst (Sp.)

Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with Donald Trump in Washington was a disaster, with the Ukrainian leader forced to leave early after a public altercation with the US President. EU member states are “incapable of sustaining Ukraine’s military needs, let alone facilitating post-conflict reconstruction, estimated at tens of billions of dollars,” Joseph Siracusa, global futures professor, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, told Sputnik. After the Trump-Zelensky blowout, losing US muscle will be “fatal” for Ukraine, triggering a scramble for power in Kiev and the need to adjust to the reality of being “excluded from NATO though permitted to enter the EU,” he added. Furthermore, “NATO is finished,” the analyst speculated, since the EU’s main military wing is “paralyzed without its transatlantic partner.”

Bezos needs to weed out the extremists. He must create X on paper.

• WaPo Hit By Second Wave Of “Rapid-Fire” Mass Subscription Cancellations (ZH)

The Washington Post was hit with another wave of subscription cancellations—its second in months—following an op-ed by its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in which he advocated for “personal liberties and free markets.” Bezos announced on Wednesday morning that the WaPo’s opinion pages will be “writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” As Bezos explained on X: There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.

I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity. According to NPR News, this led to the immediate resignation of Opinions Editor David Shipley and the cancellation of 75,000 digital subscribers. The number of cancellations comes from a person who asked for anonymity because of the fear of repercussions at the Post.

…

The rapid-fire cancellations since Wednesday represent a historic level of reader fury over the changes. Yet they are only the most recent wave in a series of mass cancellations that began in late October. That was when Bezos killed a planned endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Between then and Election Day, more than 300,000 subscribers canceled the Post, as NPR first reported last month. That was more than 12% of digital subscribers, which make up the vast majority of the paper’s paid circulation. The Post has aggressively wooed new subscribers to replace them, boosting circulation by 400,000, often at highly discounted rates, according to a Post executive. Google Search trends data showed “cancel Washington Post” surged the most in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, three states home to the radical left – and subs of WaPo that would be the most angry with Bezos shifting towards libertarian views.

Far-right has become a meaningless term. Anyone not explicitly woke can apply. Is Trump far-right? Plenty people would say yes, but that doesn’t make it true. How about Orban? Putin?!

• Far-Right Leaders Gather In Madrid To “Make Europe Great Again” (Vracar)

Representatives of the Patriots for Europe (PfE), a far-right bloc in the European Parliament, met in Madrid for a summit hosted by Spain’s Vox party on February 8-9. During the meeting, they attacked policies and trends that they say are stripping Europe and Europeans of their supposed greatness. Riding the wave of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, they announced their intention to “make Europe great again.” In attendance were Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen, and right-wing politicians from Estonia, Portugal, Greece, and Italy, among others. Their speeches stuck to familiar tropes, criticizing the European Union’s climate and migration policies and railing against “wokeism” and “progressive” domination over policymaking in Brussels. However, this gathering took place in a different context than far-right exchanges in previous years.

Trump’s victory has emboldened the far-right across Europe, reinforcing their belief that their moment has arrived. “The Trump tornado has changed the world in just a few weeks,” Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán declared. “Yesterday we were heretics, today we’re mainstream.” This boost in confidence also coincides with right-wing electoral gains across Europe. Most notably, Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD)—not part of the PfE—is polling in second place ahead of the upcoming elections. Much of the summit’s centered on sovereignty, though not the kind of sovereignty that promotes solidarity and self-determination. Instead, xenophobia and exclusion are at the center of the PfE’s vision of society, with some speakers going so far as to call for a “new Reconquista.”

“Migration policy is out of control, and the bottomless pit of immigration is emptying our coffers and filling our prisons,” said Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally. When it comes to their own ranks, however, the far-right seems to be all about internationalism. PfE leaders eagerly discussed strengthening transatlantic alliances—not just with Trump’s administration, but also with far-right leaders in Latin America. “Patriots is a transatlantic party, but we are also open,” said Vox representative Jorge Buxadé just ahead of the meeting. “It is not only a transatlantic alliance with the North, with the US, but also with the South. That is where Vox plays a key role—bridging the connection with (Argentine President) Milei and (Paraguayan President) Peña.”

The speeches delivered on Sunday made it clear that European far-right leaders expect Trump’s presidency to bolster their influence and help them strengthen ties with like-minded political movements worldwide. Those attending the summit also looked to Trump’s presidency as a weapon against “wokeism” and what they describe as a progressive takeover of political institutions. In Europe, they frame this belief as a critique of EU leadership on climate change, industry, and governance. In his speech, Orbán went so far as to claim that “Europe has been kidnapped by the progressive ideology just like the mythological Europa was taken by the bull.”

While Ursula von der Leyen’s leadership faces criticism from all sides, left-wing parties focus on her austerity-driven policies, which have fueled poverty and inequality across Europe. The left’s critique is based on real economic struggles, advocating for social justice and peace, in reflection of the people’s demands. In contrast, PfE offers no such alternative. While some, including Lega’s Matteo Salvini, mentioned Europe’s deepening industrial crisis, their proposed solutions for popular discontent remain unchanged: xenophobia, securitization and militarization, climate denialism, and further cuts to public services. As a result, while PfE leaders believe their movement is the future of Europe, their reliance on the same neoliberal policies they claim to oppose suggests otherwise.

A small dick?!

• What’s Behind Keir Starmer’s Latest Defense Spending Boost? (Jay)

Who is Sir Keir Starmer and whose interests does he represent? Even his strongest supporters from the West are beginning to notice that there hasn’t been one single policy strategy since he became British PM, which is for the actual British public themselves. Traditionally one tends to think of Labour PMs wanting to make a splash with the poor in their first six months in office, but all Starmer has done has made this particular group even poorer. His recent announcement in the House of Commons (Britain’s parliament) like many others since he took office in the summer of 2024, surprised everyone, even his own MPs. He is raising the percentage of the country’s GDP usually prescribed to defense spending from 2.3% to 2.5%, which, in practical terms means that the £53.9bn usually put aside for defense spending in one year will rise a further £13.4bn from 2027.

What is behind this somewhat odd ruse? Britain’s relations with the U.S., it should be pointed out, are at an all-time low since Trump took office. Did the U.S. president give signals to Downing Street that this is what he wanted? Possibly. Given the terrible relations between London and Washington, it pulls the UK out of the hole that it largely dug itself with both its foreign secretary running down Trump in a YouTube rant and Peter Mandelson doing much the same, contributing towards a bard atmosphere. So can Starmer save it and work with Trump?

This is a harder question as the British PM is leading the charge on supporting the Zelensky regime further with military support. The timing is of course paramount as Trump’s swift moves to get a peace deal have gained momentum since Zelensky confirmed that he has agreed to a mineral deal. The deal itself does not guarantee a peace deal, but it certainly paves the way as now Trump has a stake in Ukraine and the country being peaceful. It also sends a signal to Putin. Almost at the same time the Ukrainian parliament voted to continue martial law in Ukraine, which, in theory allows Zelensky to continue as unelected President, we can conclude that Trump has let Zelensky buy some time.

But as usual it is the Europeans who are the real threat to Zelensky’s longevity. Starmer’s announcement of bigger defense spending is a signal that the UK will support a war in Ukraine indefinitely hoping that other EU countries will follow the theme. The problem of course is that this sets the EU off on a collision course with Trump, which many would argue threatens to be the start of an unprecedented rift, only corrected by him being replaced by a democrat President. Europe has never been so isolated from the U.S., as of now with its blinded dogma over Ukraine and a war it cannot stop fighting and losing. The more a rich man spends on a fake painting, the less inclined he is to accept its lack of authenticity. This is where Europe is now, with Starmer leading the pack of mad wolves talking about sending British troops there. Insane.

Of course, Trump and Putin will put an end to these wet dreams – would British soldiers even agree to go there? – by simply creating a peace plan which the rest of Europe will have to respect. To do this, priorities have to be drawn up. Trump gets his payback on minerals. Putin concedes this small request. Next, do we work with Zelensky or bypass him? Will Russian sanctions be part of a bigger deal? Almost certainly as it is no coincidence that Trump has already indicated in mainstream media that at some point these will be tackled head on. The delay is Trump working out what benefits he can extract from Putin if he is to lift sanctions. The important thing is that for the first time in contemporary history U.S. is not the belligerent buffoon starting wars around the world to embolden its hegemony and show the world what it can do with just mere military might. It is a peace broker, ending wars. And with the help of Russia.

Where does Europe stand in all this? Like children who have been left at a kiddies birthday party with no cake. Petulant, juvenile and completely deluded about who they are and what their capabilities are. Europe bays for more blood and even greater economic decline, while their own people suffer more and more. The most insincere aspect of Starmer’s speech in the parliament is when he talks about poor people suffering for the Ukraine war. His own government has gone from denying old people a heating subsidy to now his own police force threatening them with jail time if they don’t stop their mean tweets about Labour officials. Is it perhaps that Zelensky is so admired for being a dictator in Europe who has achieved so much more than his western counterparts, why he is so revered?

The spectre of Elon Musk.

• A Spectre Is Haunting Germany (Beppler-Spahl)

Just weeks before Germany’s general election, a spectre is haunting the country’s political class —the spectre of Elon Musk. Amid the allegeded threat of foreign interference in the election, the hand-wringing over how to stop the troublesome billionaire boss of X/Twitter—who has publicly backed the far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)—has reached worrying heights. This was evident when Thierry Breton, the former European Union commissioner for digital affairs, peddled the idea that the elections might have to be annulled if Germans voted the wrong way. Breton was discussing the possibility of an election win for the AfD in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV/RMC. Referring to Musk, he said: “Let’s keep calm and enforce our laws in Europe when they are at risk of being circumvented […]. We did it in Romania, and we will obviously do it if necessary in Germany.”

He was, of course, alluding to the shocking annulment of Romania’s presidential election in December after an outsider—a Putin-supporting anti-vaccine populist—had surprisingly won the first round. The EU elites tried to blame the result on foreign ‘disinformation’ spread via social media. No German politician has yet gone as far as Breton. But it would be a big mistake to dismiss the former EU bureaucrat’s statement as a mere slip of the tongue–even if he has, in the meantime, retracted. (After Musk labelled him “a tyrant of Europe”, Breton claimed that he had been misquoted, that it “was another fake news” or a translation mistake, tweeting: “The EU has NO mechanism to nullify any election anywhere in the EU.”)

Yet other influential figures, such as Germany’s president Frank Walter Steinmeier (SPD), have also issued similar warnings. When Steinmeier dissolved the Bundestag (German Parliament) in December, and announced snap elections, he said: “Outside influence is a danger to democracy. Be it covert … or open and blatant, as is currently being practised particularly intensively on Platform X.” Notably, to date, the president has not distanced himself from Breton’s threat to erase the election results. There is no doubt that Musk has been meddlesome. He has also emboldened the AfD leadership. In late December, he wrote an opinion piece for Die Welt claiming that “only the AfD could save Germany” from decline. Following Steinmeier’s warnings in December, he took to X, disparaging the president as an “anti-democratic tyrant”.

Then, on January 9th, Musk livestreamed approximately 70 minutes of conversation with Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor. During the talk, he reiterated his endorsement for her party. Though not everyone in the AfD was happy with Weidel’s performance—she was long-winded, and often very crass—they naturally appreciated Musk’s backing. At the AfD’s party conference, held last weekend, Weidel’s references to Musk received enthusiastic applause. However, attributing the AfD’s success to Musk, rather than to the failures of Germany’s established politicians, is blatant nonsense. The party’s polling numbers have held steady at around 20% for weeks, and recent surveys indicate that Musk’s interventions have had negligible impact, at best. This narrative reflects a persistent and problematic anti-populist assumption: that voters are passive objects, easily swayed by ‘demagogues’ rather than acting on their own political judgment.

Back in January last year—long before Musk was getting up to mischief online—Frank Walter Steinmeier called for a large alliance against the AfD and said: “We will not allow this country to be destroyed by extremist pied pipers.” What he meant was that AfD supporters were following tricksters and shady characters, as the rats and the children of Hamelin followed the pied piper to their doom in the old German folktale. The insult to German voters in the analogy was obviously lost on the president. The establishment’s fear of Musk is, in truth, its fear of the electorate. The threat to cancel the election was just one of many that have been made in recent days. Following Musk’s conversation with Weidel, EU vice president Henna Virkkunen announced an investigation into whether the conversation violated the Digital Services Act. Germany’s Bundestag has also launched an investigation into whether it was an illegal “party donation.”

The idea that the speech had given the party an illegal monetary advantage (“geldwerter Vorteil“) has also been peddled by Robert Habeck, Germany’s hapless economics minister and the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor. If the allegation of a financial advantage is proven, “this would have considerable consequences” for the AfD, said Michael Brenner, a constitutional lawyer, adding that the party could face “a very substantial sum” in fines. Claiming that a single interview may have given the AfD an unfair advantage in the run-up to the federal elections is more than a little disingenuous. While mainstream parties like the SPD, CDU, and Greens regularly receive extensive media coverage through numerous interviews and talk shows, the AfD has frequently been excluded from such platforms.

“The EU has pledged to phase out Russian energy by 2027. Germany’s Economy Ministry insists that independence from Russian gas remains a priority for the country.”

• German Factories Counting On Return of Russian Gas – Bloomberg (RT)

Key German industrial leaders have expressed their desire to see Russian gas return to Europe once a resolution to the Ukraine conflict is found, Bloomberg has reported. Chemical and manufacturing sector representatives argue that affordable energy is crucial for Germany’s economy to recover, the agency wrote on Friday. European gas prices surged after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Pipeline gas imports from Russia mostly ceased due to sanctions and the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022. Nevertheless, EU nations have still been buying record volumes of Russian LNG, the cost of which has nearly quadrupled in three years, according to Eurostat. Christian Gunther, managing director of the Leuna chemical park, emphasized that bringing back Russian gas would be a logical step if peace is achieved.

“We must ensure the damage caused by this conflict is repaired,” he told Bloomberg, adding that resuming deliveries “would be the logical consequence.” In 2021, Russian pipeline gas accounted for 32% of the total demand of the EU and UK, while Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its consumption, according to the European Council and Statista. Since cutting ties with Russian energy, the EU has turned to expensive LNG imports, primarily from the US. The shift has driven natural gas prices on the continent to their highest levels in two years, prompting discussions in Brussels about price caps. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that soaring energy costs could cripple the EU economy.

The EU’s latest sanctions package, introduced on Monday, tightens restrictions on Russian energy but stops short of banning LNG imports. Gunther earlier criticized Germany’s energy policy, pointing out the inconsistency of banning Russian pipeline gas while still importing LNG. Bloomberg reported that Sven Schulze, the economy minister of German’s Saxony-Anhalt state, believes permanently excluding Russian gas “would be a mistake.” US President Donald Trump has been urging Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to negotiate a peace deal with Russia, warning that failure to do so could result in the loss of American support.

On Friday, during a heated meeting at the Oval Office, Trump reportedly told Zelensky to leave the White House and return when he was ready to pursue peace. Ukraine refused to extend its gas transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom beyond 2024, further reducing EU access to Russian pipeline gas. The only remaining supply flows through the TurkStream pipeline via Türkiye and Greece. “We need peace to reopen pipelines, ensure supply security, and lower prices,” said Manuela Grieger, former chair of the workers union InfraLeuna, told Bloomberg. The EU has pledged to phase out Russian energy by 2027. Germany’s Economy Ministry insists that independence from Russian gas remains a priority for the country.

Seinfeld

Live from the Oval Office pic.twitter.com/hH2G0imxsy

— G (@stevensongs) February 28, 2025

USAID

Very important to understand the corruption machine
pic.twitter.com/EMrZCsBKiI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 1, 2025

Elon Epstein

OH SHIT‼️

Elon Musk confirms Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and Reid Hoffman as Epstein Clients

“Epstein clients, who are obviously extremely powerful politically and very wealthy… Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and Reid Hoffman, and some others too.”

• Rogan expresses displeasure… pic.twitter.com/EmyEHrcuzw

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) March 1, 2025

Elon Soros

NEW: @ElonMusk really has George Soros figured out.

"George Soros is a systems hacker. He is a genius arbitrager. He figured out that you could leverage a small amount of money to create a non-profit then lobby politicians to send a ton of money to that non profit so you can… pic.twitter.com/yWTfYb6SCk

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) February 28, 2025

NEW: Elon Musk and Joe Rogan discuss George Soros and the multi-billion dollar fraud of government-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

"We saw one person getting $1.9 billion sent to their NGO, which was formed a year ago and had no prior activity."

"If you have a… pic.twitter.com/XZFQ96J3og

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 28, 2025

Cockatoo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1895858333938245676

Butterfly

Very cute butterfly.

This memory will be forever… pic.twitter.com/6Yvc0yfMzC

— The Figen (@TheFigen_) February 28, 2025

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs never went extinct. They're alive and well, playing with cat toys and making adorable noises pic.twitter.com/Gc8EbkAZSa

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 1, 2025

Galagos

Galagos also known as bush babies are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa,

pic.twitter.com/C7VhCK5L9h

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) March 1, 2025

Kid

This dad has a good approach, teaching his child that no one can rely on anyone. pic.twitter.com/TJDBdNzAiH

— Tansu Yegen (@TansuYegen) March 1, 2025

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

Debt Rattle January 2 2025

Jan 022025

January 2, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 11:04 am Finance Tagged with: Biden’s decline, cybertruck, Elon Musk, gas cutoff, Germany, Jimmy Carter, Putin, Trump, Xi 58 Responses »

Rembrandt van Rijn Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer 1653

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_This_(novel)

• Journos Who Hid Biden’s Decline Should Never Live It Down (NYPost)

• Musk Says Cybertruck That Exploded in Las Vegas Contained Blast (Sp.)

• Ukraine Must Be Held Accountable For ‘Stealing’ US Aid (Durso)

• Ukraine Lost Nearly 600,000 Troops in 2024 (Sp.)

• Zelensky Accused of Lying In New Year’s Address (RT)

• Polish FM Slammed For Celebrating Gas Cutoff (RT)

• German Energy Official Asks Citizens To Save Gas (RT)

• Scholz Ally Warns US Of Strained Relations Over Musk’s Germany Jabs (RT)

• Trump Says Mike Johnson Will Secure Enough Votes To Remain Speaker (ZH)

• Trump Rings In 2025 With Vow To Restore Respect For America (JTN)

• Putin’s New Year’s Speech Marks Exactly 25 Years In Power (ZH)

• Xi Uses New Year’s Speech To Call Anew For Reunification With Taiwan (JTN)

• Russian Rejection Of Trump Proposals Puts Wrinkle In Pursuit For Peace (JTN)

• President Jimmy Carter (Paul Craig Roberts)

• Trump Says He Is Planning To Attend Jimmy Carter’s Funeral (AP)

• Imperial Hubris -And Its Consequences- In Syria (Alastair Cooke)

YMCA
https://twitter.com/i/status/1874474889199210840

Homan

WATCH: Border Czar Tom Homan Unleashes on Biden Administration for Emboldening Islamist Terrorists | @RealTomHoman

"You can't have national security if you don't have border security."

This needed to be said on behalf of all Americans who have been watching what's been… pic.twitter.com/XH5Hul5ahy

— Overton (@overton_news) January 2, 2025

“..the legacy media completely and willfully failed to cover one of the biggest stories of this decade, that the president of the United States was unfit for office from Day 1 and his entire staff was hiding it..”

• Journos Who Hid Biden’s Decline Should Never Live It Down (NYPost)

President-elect Donald Trump is forcing the Democratic politicians who spent years lying about President Biden’s senility to take their bitter medicine, but we’re more concerned about the toady media who played along. Trump on Monday posted a video showing clip after cringe-worthy clip of Democratic leaders from Rep. Nancy Pelosi to Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas denying again and again that Biden was mentally and physically deteriorating, claiming he was “sharp,” “on his game,” “focused” and that “his age is an asset.” Every last one deserves scorn, but so do the journalists who not only let these fantastical fibs go unchallenged, but even parroted the lies: Biden was showing no signs of mental decline, they insisted — and it was offensive, ignorant and borderline bigoted to even suggest otherwise.

The entire idea that Biden was anything but healthy — virile, even — was treated as a right-wing, tin-foil-hat talking point. The public wasn’t buying it: Back in February, 86% of Americans thought Biden was too old to serve a second term because they had watched his decline happen in real time, and over the course of several years. Way back in 2022, some 75% of Democratic voters wanted someone other than Biden to run in 2024. But the “Biden is fine” charade continued even after special counsel Robert Hur said a jury would see Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” and Biden himself began repeatedly calling world leaders by the names of their dead predecessors. The White House smeared all video proof of Biden’s decline as “cheap fakes” and edited transcripts to erase signs of his constant memory issues.

And at every turn, spineless, in-the-tank journos obediently did Team Biden’s propagandistic dirty work — right up until the debate, when Biden’s senility became too unmistakable to continue denying. Now they’re acting bashful, but it’s far too late to salvage their shredded credibility. Ex-MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan says he was “embarrassingly wrong” to say “Republicans will regret … helping spread the distorted image of [Biden] as a guy who is totally out of it” leading up to the debate. Progressive journalist Matt Yglesias said he “thought Joe Biden was going to prove his doubters wrong.” Is it better or worse if they actually believed it?

Dem-friendly journalists saw the same evidence as the rest of us that Biden was compromised, and instead of being skeptical, asking questions and putting the White House’s feet to the fire — doing their jobs — they joined the crusade to gaslight America. Incoming Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt says she intends to change up who gets preferred access to White House briefings — allowing in non-traditional voices like podcasters. Since the legacy media completely and willfully failed to cover one of the biggest stories of this decade, that the president of the United States was unfit for office from Day 1 and his entire staff was hiding it, that seems like a fair shake. No one who perpetuated, concealed or ignored this grotesque scandal should ever live it down.

“The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack.”

• Musk Says Cybertruck That Exploded in Las Vegas Contained Blast (Sp.)

Late on Wednesday, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded near the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. One person died and seven others were injured in the explosion, the Las Vegas Police Department said, adding that an investigation was underway. US billionaire Elon Musk said on Thursday that the Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas was able to contain the explosion and limit the damage. Shortly after the incident was reported late Wednesday, Musk announced that a top Tesla team was investigating the explosion. Tesla’s investigation found that the explosion was caused by “very large fireworks and/or a bomb” stored in the rented vehicle, not a malfunction in the car itself.

“The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken,” Musk said on X. During the investigation, Las Vegas police discovered gas tanks and large fireworks mortars in the bed of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded near the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Sheriff Kevin McMahil said later in the day, also thanking Musk for all the information he and his team provided.

This could be Trump’s ticket out of Ukraine. DOGE.

• Ukraine Must Be Held Accountable For ‘Stealing’ US Aid (Durso)

The shame of American military assistance in Iraq and Afghanistan is that while our troops and their local allies were fighting bravely, the leaders of our so-called allies were getting rich. We have seen something even worse in Ukraine: While Ukrainian military personnel and civilians fight valiantly in a fierce contest for independence, Ukrainian leaders have gotten fabulously wealthy. The American shame is that the U.S. heedlessly expanded NATO to the borders of Russia, and then, after Russia pushed back, enabled and funded the cynical maladministration by the Zelensky government, which will go down in history as one of the greatest examples of waste and theft of Western aid. What’s more, Ukraine’s casualties have permanently altered the country’s demography and will limit its prospects for economic recovery, leaving the country “wrecked” and the scene of a future “frozen conflict,” per Professor John Mearsheimer.

The sheer scale of waste and fraud will only be revealed by independent investigations after the war’s end. The Zelensky government uses the war to quash media stories that dare to question Ukrainian spending of our taxpayer dollars. Still, many brave Ukrainian journalists and officers have exposed scandals of overpricing, shoddy equipment and embezzlement at the highest levels of Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration. They have risked being labeled as Russian saboteurs or sent to certain death at the front lines for reporting the truth. The real crime of the Zelensky administration, however, began in late 2023. In a November 2023 article for The Economist, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, then commander in chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said that without a substantial technological edge, Ukraine would face a stalemate. He said traditional attritional strategies were insufficient to overcome the numerical advantage of the Russian forces.

Zaluzhnyi emphasized several key points: • Stalemate on the front lines: The war had reached a deadlock, with both Ukrainian and Russian forces locked into positions reminiscent of World War I trench warfare. He noted, “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.” • Need for technological advancement: To break this stalemate, Ukraine required significant technological innovations. He highlighted the importance of drones, electronic warfare, anti-artillery capabilities, demining equipment and robotics. Zaluzhnyi stated, “In order for us to break this deadlock, we need something new—like gunpowder once was, which the Chinese invented and which we are still using to kill each other.” • Limitations of attritional strategies: Zaluzhnyi acknowledged Ukraine had miscalculated by assuming that inflicting heavy casualties on Russian forces would stop them. He noted that Russia had suffered at least 150,000 dead yet continued its aggression, indicating that such losses did not deter Russian leadership.

In other words, it was time to focus on diplomacy. But Zelensky had no interest in diplomacy, because ending the war would mean ending the state of emergency, new elections and a change in the structure of international assistance. In his own political interest, he ousted Zaluzhnyi and continued a war he was warned would waste lives and money without result. In the end, Zaluzhnyi was too optimistic; lives and money were indeed wasted, but they did not achieve a stalemate. Russia regrouped and gained territory. Zaluzhnyi was not the only one warning about dynamics on the battlefield. In April 2024, the leadership of Ukraine’s military intelligence participated in a series of roundtable discussions at Washington think tanks and policymakers.

A former American diplomat familiar with the visit told this author, “They expressed their reservations about continuing full scale conventional warfare. They were concerned that Ukraine had lost momentum and would be overwhelmed. They advocated instead for increased asymmetric warfare inside Russia to gain an upper hand in negotiations to end the war.” The result of this engagement was that the chief of military of intelligence, Kyril Budanov, was muzzled by Team Zelensky in a series of media attacks in pro-government websites. His key deputies were fired without his consent, weakening his agency. The waste and corruption only spread from there. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala championed a European munitions initiative that wasted billions more dollars.

Zelensky and his ambassador to the Czech Republic infamously praised Fiala even as the Czech munitions initiative procured overpriced and faulty shells that resulted in the maiming of Ukrainian soldiers and destruction of battlefield equipment. More scandals arose, involving Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustam Umerov and Ministry of Defense procurement official Oleksii Petrov buying faulty equipment for astronomical prices. These have been extensively reported by Ukrainian media. While Zelensky prevented his military commanders from openly speaking the truth about Ukraine’s chances to break through the stalemate, his loyalists at the Defense Ministry misspent record amounts of money in record time. They also tapped into assistance in kind, another lucrative source of enrichment.

And in a case where corruption has merged with treason, weapons sent to Ukraine for its defense were diverted to Nigeria’s Lake Chad region, “bolstering the strength of terrorist groups.” There are also unconfirmed reports that weapons donated to Ukraine have wound up in the hands of criminal gangs in Sweden. Zelensky and his administration should answer to the Ukrainian people for lives and territory lost because he silenced his military commanders. And they should also be held accountable by the U.S. Congress for the lost billions of American taxpayer dollars. (Total aid from the U.S. and its Western allies totals $260 billion.) It’s past time Washington stopped letting corrupt foreign officials steal American aid.

(James Durso is a regular commentator on foreign policy and national security matters at The Hill. Mr. Durso served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years.)

How did we ever get used to this?

• Ukraine Lost Nearly 600,000 Troops in 2024 (Sp.)

Ukrainian forces have lost around 593,410 troops over 2024, according to Sputnik calculations of the Russian Defense Ministry’s data. The ministry’s weekly briefs over the year indicate that Kiev lost around 4,000 soldiers weekly in early 2024. By March, this figure increased to 7,000, before it experienced a slight decrease. Besides, in March, Ukrainian forces attempted to cross the Russian border in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, which resulted in losing around 3,000 troops more, Sputnik calculated on Wednesday.

After that, Kiev’s combat losses started increasing, reaching over 10,000 people per week in late May, after which the number did not go lower than that. Following the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk Region in August, the losses further escalated, the calculations revealed. The most significant weekly losses for Kiev’s troops occurred from October 26 to November 1, with approximately 17,000 Ukrainian fighters being lost.

“..described the incident as “the first joke of 2025” and speculated that the video editor responsible might face a harsh punishment, such as being sent to the front line.”

• Zelensky Accused of Lying In New Year’s Address (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky has been accused by several media outlets of presenting South Korean missiles as Ukrainian-made in his New Year’s address for 2025. In the 20-minute speech released on Tuesday, Zelensky touted what he described as the country’s success in developing a variety of weapons, calling them “arguments for a just peace” with Russia. ”Ukraine is once again building its own, its own missiles. And for the first time, it produces over a million drones in a year. Forcing the enemy to learn Ukrainian. Palianytsia, Peklo, Ruta. Making them tremble at the words Neptune and Sapsan. All these are our missiles. Ukrainian.” he said.

As he was naming the types of weapons, his address featured footage of drones and missiles in action, either during testing or combat scenarios. When he mentioned the Sapsan missile, the video showed the projectile launch. However, the Ukrainian outlet Strana, as well as Russian media outlets, pointed out that the clip shown in Zelensky’s address was suspiciously similar to footage of the South Korean military launching a Hyunmoo-2A cruise missile in 2017. In light of this, the Russian Telegram channel ‘Operation Z: War reporters of Russian Spring’ accused Zelensky of “blatant lies.” Another Telegram channel, ‘Voyenny Osvedomitel’, described the incident as “the first joke of 2025” and speculated that the video editor responsible might face a harsh punishment, such as being sent to the front line.

Sapsan has been under development since 2006, but the process has been hampered by delays and funding shortfalls. In 2018, Ukraine unveiled a mock-up of the system during a military parade. The complex is said to have an intended range of 500km, which is more than the ATACMS supplied to Kiev by the US, and Ukrainian experts have touted it as a potential game-changer in the conflict with Russia. However, there are no credible reports that it has ever been used on the battlefield.

“Sikorski should be “locked up in a mental institution” for “celebrating cutting Europe off gas in the middle of winter..”

• Polish FM Slammed For Celebrating Gas Cutoff (RT)

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has celebrated Ukraine’s decision to halt the flow of Russian gas to the EU as a victory for the West, despite the cutoff leading to higher prices and shortages in some countries. Russia stopped gas transit through Ukraine early on Wednesday morning, after Kiev refused to extend an agreement under which it collected transit fees to move the gas through its own pipeline network and into Moldova, Romania, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia, and then on to Austria and Italy. Sikorski took to X to celebrate. “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin spent billions building Nordstream to circumvent Ukraine and blackmail Eastern Europe with the threat of cutting off gas supplies,” he wrote, referring to two pipelines that linked Russia with Germany until they were destroyed in an act of sabotage in 2022.

“Today Ukraine cut off his ability to export gas direct to the EU,” Sikorski continued, hailing the decision as “another victory after the enlargement of NATO by Finland and Sweden.” Kiev’s decision caused EU gas prices to spike to €50 per megawatt hour, a figure unseen since October 2023. Slovakia, which relied heavily on Russian gas imports via Ukraine, will be severely affected, as will EU candidate state Moldova, which used Russian gas to generate much of its electricity. Sikorski should be “locked up in a mental institution” for “celebrating cutting Europe off gas in the middle of winter,” wrote journalist Thomas Fazi responded to Sikorski’s post. “Russia was clearly trying to blackmail Europe by supplying even more gas to them. Thankfully, Ukraine heroically ‘saved’ Europe by cutting off the gas,” another commenter wrote. “The absurdity of this logic is mind-blowing.”

“People like Sikorski who want to destroy European economies by cutting them off from global resources and markets should not be allowed to live in Europe,” another comment read. “Go to the USA where your loyalties lie.” Sikorski was similarly ridiculed back in 2022, when he responded to the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines by posting – and then deleting – an image of the blast site along with the caption: “Thank you, USA.” While German investigators have reportedly settled on the theory that the pipelines were destroyed by Ukrainian saboteurs, American journalist Seymour Hersh maintains that they were blown up by the CIA and US Navy. The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has blamed “professional saboteurs from the Anglo-American security services,” referring to the US and UK.

10 years ago Germany was fine. It went fast. Merkel deserves much of the blame. But she left before the walls started coming down.

• German Energy Official Asks Citizens To Save Gas (RT)

Households and businesses in Germany should save gas to avoid shortages, Die Welt reported on Wednesday, citing the country’s energy regulator, the Federal Network Agency. According to an analysis by the agency, the country has been consuming significantly more gas this heating season than last year. The agency said total gas consumption in Germany rose by 5.8% from October to December 2024 against the same period the previous year, to 246 terawatt-hours (TWh). Industries recorded an increase in consumption of 9.1% compared to 2023, while the increase in households and businesses was more modest at 1.9%, the report noted.

The agency attributed the spike in gas consumption to colder weather. However, the head of the energy regulator, Klaus Muller, told the news outlet that, given the trend, consumers would be wise to be more frugal with gas use to avoid shortages, and consequently, a rise in prices. “It is definitely still worth saving gas and thus easing the burden on your wallet,” he was cited as saying. According to Muller, however, the country’s gas supply is not in jeopardy yet, as storage facilities are still 80% full. “This means we are well prepared for the next three months,” he said, adding that Germany has “come through the first half of the winter well so far.”

When it comes to heating, natural gas is still the most important energy source in Germany, with roughly half of all apartments and single-family homes nationwide heated with gas, Die Welt reports. Germany relied on Russia for more than half of its gas demand before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Deliveries were either significantly curtailed or entirely halted after the EU imposed sanctions on Moscow, and the Nord Stream pipelines delivering Russian gas directly to Germany were destroyed by blasts at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in September 2022. Long considered the EU’s industrial powerhouse, Germany was among the hardest hit by the reduction of Russian energy supplies, with its economy plunging into a recession in 2023.

The German government in October revised down its GDP forecast for this year to a further contraction of 0.2%. The loss of cheap Russian gas and reliance on the far more costly liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US has also pushed energy prices in Germany beyond what a lot of industrial enterprises can afford, triggering a wave of shutdowns and bankruptcies. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently criticized her successors for abandoning Russian gas. In an interview with France 2 TV released in early December, she said buying gas from Russia “was a win-win situation” for both states, as Berlin was able to obtain the much-needed commodity “at a favorable cost,” while “prices exploded” after Germany abandoned Russian supplies.

How to divert attention away from your failures.

• Scholz Ally Warns US Of Strained Relations Over Musk’s Germany Jabs (RT)

Elon Musk’s verbal attacks on German leaders risk straining relations between Berlin and Washington, Rolf Mutzenich, the head of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group, has warned. In an interview with Spiegel on Wednesday, Mutzenich blasted the US billionaire over his jabs at German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Musk had referred to Steinmeier as an “anti-democratic tyrant” and predicted Scholz’s – who he labeled a “fool” and “Oaf Schitz” – election defeat – while also voicing support for Germany’s far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, calling it “the last spark of hope for this country.”

Mutzenich accused Musk, one of the most prominent allies of US President-elect Donald Trump, of “crossing a line between friendly states” while defending Steinmeier. He argued that Steinmeier is Germany’s head of state under international law, meaning that “the verbal attacks on the Federal President are therefore aimed at all citizens.” Mutzenich went on to urge Berlin to clarify whether Musk’s repeated “disrespect, defamation, and interference” align with the stance of the incoming Trump administration. German officials earlier suggested that Musk’s comments could be a potential attempt to influence Germany’s snap parliamentary elections in February. Scholz’s coalition government recently collapsed due to disagreements over Ukraine aid, economic reforms, and climate policy, leading to a vote of no confidence and parliamentary dissolution in December.

During Trump’s first term, US-German relations were strained over several key issues. Trump criticized Germany’s significant trade surplus with the US while threatening tariffs on German cars. He repeatedly accused Berlin of failing to meet NATO’s 2% GDP defense spending target, calling Germany overly reliant on US military support. Trump also opposed Germany’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, which was sabotaged in 2022 after the start of the Ukraine conflict, arguing that it would increase the EU’s energy dependence on Moscow.

Johnson’s far from perfect, but “He’s The One That Can Win Right Now”. Trump needs the House.

• Trump Says Mike Johnson Will Secure Enough Votes To Remain Speaker (ZH)

While House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has a growing coalition of opponents within his own party who are ‘keeping their options open’ when it comes to Friday’s vote to decide his fate, President-elect Donald Trump says he thinks Johnson has enough votes to secure a second term. Speaking with reporters outside Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve, Trump described Johnson as a “good man” and “a wonderful person” who will ultimately gain enough support during this week’s vote. “We are going to have a great time in Washington, I think we are going to get great support,” Trump said, adding that he would call lawmakers personally to drum up support “if necessary.” “He’s the one that can win right now, people like him, almost everybody likes him,” Trump continued.

President-elect Trump on House Speaker Mike Johnson: "He's the one that can win right now. People like him. Almost everybody likes him." pic.twitter.com/j9hCy9T7DU

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 1, 2025

The day before, Trump posted to Truth Social that Johnson was a “good, hard-working, religious man,” who will “do the right thing.” “Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!” Johnson thanked Trump on X, saying that he was “honored and humbled” by the support. “Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America,” he wrote, adding “The American people demand and deserve that we waste no time. Let’s get to work!” That said, several House GOP members have suggested they’re no so hot for Johnson – with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) saying he plans to vote for an alternative, and that Johnson “gave the Democrats the billions of dollars they wanted for Ukraine.”

Meanwhile in a Fox News interview last week, Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-MD) said that Republicans “need to consider, if we’re going to advance Trump’s agenda, whether the current leadership is what we need,” while Rep. Scott Perry said last Thursday that he’s “going to keep my options open,” adding “I want to have a conversation with Mike.” Other Republicans who are a “no” for Johnson include Andy Biggs (AZ), Victoria Spartz (IN) and Chip Roy (TX). And while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) hasn’t publicly commented on how she will vote, she’s previously clashed with Johnson – having unsuccessfully attempted to unseat him in May over his support for a $1.2 trillion minibus spending bill, as well as his passage of a $95 billion foreign aid package which failed to include border provisions.

“We’re going to do fantastic as a country..”

• Trump Rings In 2025 With Vow To Restore Respect For America (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump rang in the New Year with close friends and family at his Mar-a-Lago resort, promising his return to the White House in 2025 will raise America’s standing across the globe. “We’re going to do fantastic as a country,” a tuxedo-clad Trump told reporters Tuesday night during a brief gaggle. “People aren’t respecting us as much, and they will be.” Trump also addressed matters across a turbulent world, saying he’d wait to see if Hamas would reach a ceasefire with Israel and reiterating his demand that the terrorist group release all remaining hostages.

“I’ll put it this way: They better let the hostages come back soon,” he said. The President-elect also revealed he plans to attend the late Jimmy Carter‘s state funeral in Washington on January 9. Trump hosted a New Year’s Eve bash at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, that included luminaries like Elon Musk and family members like his wife Melania and daughter Tiffany.

25 years ago Russia was nowhere land.

• Putin’s New Year’s Speech Marks Exactly 25 Years In Power (ZH)

President Vladimir Putin has issued a traditional New Year’s Eve speech on Tuesday, which marks exactly 25 years of the Russian leader in power. There was a brief few year period when he was Prime Minister under President Dmitry Medvedev based on constitutional term limits. He said that Russians should be “proud” of what Russia had done during his quarter century ruling the country. He issued the expected well wishes for the year ahead, but interestingly did not expressly mention the ongoing Ukraine war, which has resulted in far-reaching US and European sanctions on Moscow. “Dear friends, in just a few minutes 2025 will be ushered in, completing the first quarter of the 21st century,” Putin began in the televised remarks.

“Yes, we still have a lot to decide but we can be rightfully proud of what has already been done,” he added, saying his 25 years as president led to the “further development” of the country and its economy and defense. He heaped praise on Russian soldiers defending the nation, at a time that Ukrainian forces still occupy hundreds of square kilometers of the southern border region of Kursk. “On this New Year’s Eve, the thoughts, hopes of relatives and friends, millions of people across Russia are together with our fighters and commanders,” Putin said. “Now, on the threshold of a new year, we are thinking about the future. We are sure that everything will be all right. We will only go forward.” Putin first took power after having been named acting president on New Year’s Eve in 1999 when predecessor Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned amid post-Soviet economic collapse and turmoil.

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev started the tradition of a New Year’s Eve speech, and is watched by millions of Russian households. It typically involves a summary of major events of the past year, and general well wishes for the year to come. “Now, on the threshold of a new year, we are thinking about the future. We are sure that everything will be all right. We will only go forward,” Putin said. AFP noted that the address “aired on state TV just before midnight in each of Russia’s 11 time zones” – and it was also likely closely watched by analysts at Western intelligence agencies and the Pentagon.

The Trump administration enters the White House in less than three weeks, and all eyes will be on the question of how quickly Trump will push Kiev toward the negotiating table. The Kremlin has been cautiously optimistic, but feels in control of the war in the Donbas. President Zelensky has meanwhile balked at the possibility of ceding territory, though the Crimea question has remained open from the Ukrainians’ perspective. Russia is going to settle on nothing less than total and permanent control over the four territories in the east, and a permanent ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO. Trump is reportedly mulling a minimum 20-year waiting period for Ukraine, however. Moscow says even this long delay is not acceptable.

The US still officially supports the One China policy.

• Xi Uses New Year’s Speech To Call Anew For Reunification With Taiwan (JTN)

Chinese President Xi Jinping used a New Year’s Eve address to call anew for Taiwan to be reunited with his communist country, setting the stage for a tougher era of U.S. diplomatic relations as Donald Trump prepares to return to office. “The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family,” Xi said Tuesday, hitting the theme for a second straight holiday address broadcast on the state-controlled CCTV. “No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification.” Beijing has ramped up military activity around Taiwan, including large-scale exercises shortly before Christmas. Those menacing operations included Chinese aircraft entering the island nation’s air defense identification zone shortly beore Xi spoke on Tuesday.

In October, Xi told the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party that he preferred a peaceful reunification with Taiwan but added that China “will never promise to give up the use of force and reserve the option to take all necessary measures.” Taiwan’s new president responded Wednesday to Xi’ address, saying his island wishes to have peaceful relations with China but questioning why Beijing has blocked tourism between the two. “Is this really showing goodwill towards Taiwan? Can’t they treat everyone equally?” President President Lai Ching-te told reporters. “But I still want to stress this: Taiwan hopes to have healthy and orderly exchanges with China under the principles of reciprocity and dignity,” Lai added.

As Trump prepares to return to office, Taiwan dispatched two senior members of it National Security Council to meet with his team in the United States. The president-elect has urged Taiwan to spend more on its defense security in the face of Chinese provocation.

Negotiating. It’s still just round 1.

• Russian Rejection Of Trump Proposals Puts Wrinkle In Pursuit For Peace (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly promised while on the campaign trail that he would end the Russia-Ukraine War “within 24 hours”, but Moscow’s recent rejection of terms from the Trump team has suggested that winding down the conflict may be more complicated. Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022 after diplomatic talks broke down. It subsequently annexed four provinces in the country’s southern region after holding referendums the international community condemned as fraudulent. At present, it does not fully control any of those four provinces, but Moscow has made modest progress in the Donetsk Oblast this year since the fall of the fortress city of Avdiivka. In a recent interview with Russian state-aligned media outlet TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed leaks of the Trump team’s reported plans and public statements the president-elect has made on the conflict.

Trump’s team has yet to formally release any peace plans and Lavrov confirmed that Moscow had not received “official signals” about an agreement. He did, however, specifically reject delaying Ukraine’s NATO accession by 20 years and deploying European peacekeepers to patrol the ceasefire line. “Judging from numerous leaks and Donald Trump’s interview with Time Magazine on December 12, their idea is to suspend hostilities along the line of contact and transfer responsibility for confrontation with Russia to the Europeans,” he said. “We are not happy, of course, with the proposals made by members of the Trump team to postpone Ukraine’s admission to NATO for 20 years and to station British and European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.”

Both Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have called for shifting the responsibility for Ukraine’s security toward NATO’s European members in light of their geographic proximity. Some nations, such as France, have openly floated the idea of deploying their own troops to help Ukraine stabilize the front. That has not occurred, at least officially. Lavrov, however, noted that “NATO military and mercenaries openly participate in the planning of combat operations and fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. He categorically denied claims that North Korean troops were fighting on the Russian side.

Russia’s own rejection of Trump’s reported proposals, however, presents only one of the obstacles to a Trump-led peace plan, with Ukraine and Europe presenting two more. After Trump appointed retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg to serve as his special envoy to Ukraine, Lavrov expressed an interest in working with Washington, saying “If the signals that are coming from the new team in Washington to restore the dialogue… are serious, of course, we will respond to them.” Kellogg himself has suggested that “both sides are ready” for negotiations, highlighting the reported death tolls on both sides as motivating a desire for peace. Willingness to negotiate, however, does not indicate a willingness to concede on key points and the distinction could prove the difference between successful dialogue and further escalations.

[..] “We will continue to support Ukraine on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership. We will continue to support Ukraine on its path towards accession to the European Union,” wrote the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom in mid-December. “We reiterate our firm support for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter with full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” they continued. Though Germany is slated to face an election in February and the recent ouster of the French prime minister has left the character of Paris somewhat unclear, most of the signatory nations are not expected to face a meaningful realignment in their foreign policy for the foreseeable future.

[..] Lieven highlighted that many points of contention between Russia and Ukraine’s western backers were not matters over which Ukraine would have much say. Among those were proposals for Europe and America to provide security guarantees to an unofficially unaligned Ukraine and promise to intervene as though they were a NATO member should Russia attack again. “However, everything that I have heard from Russians tells me that this is just as unacceptable to Moscow as NATO membership itself and would therefore make agreement impossible,” he added. “Moreover, European countries would agree to send their troops only if they had an ironclad guarantee from Washington that the United States would intervene if they were attacked. This, in effect, punts the decision back to Washington: not Kyiv, and not Brussels, Warsaw or Paris.”

“Politics is a dirty and dangerous business, and it is not the environment in which good people thrive.”

• President Jimmy Carter (Paul Craig Roberts)

President Jimmy Carter departed this world with 2024. He was a good man outfoxed by Washington. A populist, he was not the establishment’s choice for president which set about weakening him by framing his Director of the Office of Management and Budget and then turning on his chief of staff. President Carter intended to continue President Nixon’s policy of defusing tensions with the Soviet Union. He and Soviet leader Brezhnev agreed to limit the buildup of nuclear weapons by signing a second Strategic Arms Limitation agreement, but the US Senate under the influence of the military/security complex refused to ratify the treaty. Carter came under the influence of Zbigniew Brzezinski who had the idea of involving the Soviet Union in a Vietnam of its own in Afghanistan. Thus began Washington’s affair with Muslims which developed into the proxy forces Washington used against Libya and Syria.

Carter’s good intentions often had undesirable consequences. His effort to reduce conflict between Israel and Middle Eastern governments produced with the Camp David Accords Egypt’s official recognition of Israel. This resulted in Israel’s legitimization and strengthened Israel at the expense of the Muslim Middle East. Later in life Carter tried again to restrain Israel with his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Jews turned on Carter, called him an anti-semite, and resigned from the Carter Center. Jimmy Carter, like other genuine peacemakers, was too good of a person to understand the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. The “Two-State” solution was used for years to cover up Israel’s gradual absorption of Palestine into Israel. Today Palestine is no more and Israel is expanding into Syria and soon Lebanon. Another of Carter’s good intentions that went wrong was the creation of the Department of Education. This completed federal control over education.

President Carter was hurt politically by the failure of his attempted military rescue of US embassy personnel in Iran who were being held hostages by the new revolutionary Islamist government. This dramatic failure of American arms was a boost to Ronald Reagan’s election. I have always wondered if the military accident in the Iranian desert that destroyed the operation was contrived. The military/security complex does not favor men of peace. Carter also hurt himself by turning the Panama Canal over to Panama. Americans saw this as giving away America’s accomplishment as a pointless good will gesture. Today Trump is talking about taking it back. Jimmy Carter’s presidency raises the question of how good a person can be and still be a successful president. Politics is a dirty and dangerous business, and it is not the environment in which good people thrive.

“He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.”

• Trump Says He Is Planning To Attend Jimmy Carter’s Funeral (AP)

President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s planning to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter. Asked about it as he walked into a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump responded, “I’ll be there.” Pressed on whether he’d spoken to members of Carter’s family, Trump said he’d rather not say. Funeral services honoring Carter, who died Sunday at 100, will be held in Georgia and Washington, beginning Jan. 4 and concluding Jan. 9. Trump was a frequent and fierce critic of Carter on the campaign trail ahead of November’s election, using the rising inflation rates of the 1970s to unfavorably compare President Joe Biden to Carter and his administration. But the president-elect was gracious about the former president in posts on his social media site after Carter’s death Sunday, writing that the nation “owed him a debt of gratitude.”

“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for,” Trump wrote of Carter. “He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.” Wearing a tuxedo as he entered the festivities, Trump took a few minutes of questions from reporters on various topics. He was asked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, but said only, “We’re going to see what happens.” The president-elect added of hostages seized more than a year ago by Hamas, “I’ll put it this way: They better let the hostages come back soon.”

Trump also said he thought 2025 would be a “great year” and “we’re going to do fantastically well as a country.” “There’s a whole light over the whole world, not just our country. They’re a lot of happy people,” Trump said of recent weeks. Asked about his resolutions for the new year, Trump said, “I just want everybody to be happy, healthy and well.” Trump later took the stage to briefly address the crowd ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago and promised “to do a great job as your president.” Biden, for his part, spent New Year’s Eve celebrating the wedding of his niece Missy Owens in Greenville, Delaware, followed by the reception in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Biden and first lady Jill Biden cut short their traditional holiday trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands to attend the ceremony.

“..Assad’s denial mindset and the consequent speed of the military dénouement was the surprise. That was the true ‘black swan’.”

• Imperial Hubris -And Its Consequences- In Syria (Alastair Cooke)

The Syria story, it seems, is not so simple as ‘President Assad fell’ and the ‘technocratic Salafists’ rose to power. At one level, the collapse was predictable. Assad was known to have been influenced by Egypt and UAE for some years past. They had been urging him to break with Iran and Russia, and to shift to the West. For some 3-4 years he had been incrementally signalling and implementing such a move. Iran especially faced increasing obstacles over operational matters in which they were co-operating with Syrian forces. His shift was meant as a message to Iran. The financial situation of Syria – after years of U.S. Caesar sanctions, plus the loss of all agricultural and energy revenues seized by the U.S. in occupied north-east Syria – was catastrophic. Syria simply had no economy.

No doubt, reaching out to Israel and Washington was presented to Assad as the only practical exit to his dilemma. ‘Normalisation’ could lead to the lifting of sanctions, they implored him. And Assad, according tothose in touch with him, (even at the eleventh hour before the HTS ‘invasion’) was believing that Arab States close to Washington would have opted for his continued leadership, rather than see Syria fall prey to Salafist zealots. To be clear: Moscow and Tehran had warned Assad that his army (as a whole) was too fragile, too underpaid, and too penetrated and bribed by foreign intelligence services, to be expected to defend the state effectively. Assad also was warned repeatedly about the threat from Idlib jihadists planning to take Aleppo, but the President not only ignored the warnings – he rebutted them.

He was offered a very large external military force not once, but twice, even in ‘the last days’, as Jolani’s militia were advancing. Assad refused. “We are strong”, he told an interlocutor on the first occasion; yet shortly afterwards, on a second occasion, he admitted: “My army is running away”. Assad was not abandoned by his allies. It was by then too late. He had flip-flopped once too often. Two of the principal actors (Russia and Iran) were frustrated and rendered unable to help – absent Assad’s consent. A Syrian who knew the Assad family, and who spoke with the President at some length just prior the Aleppo invasion, had found him surprisingly sanguine and unflustered – assuring his friend that there were forces enough (2,500) in Aleppo to deal with Jolani’s threats, and hinting that President Sissi might be ready to step in with aid for Syria. (Egypt of course feared Muslim Brotherhood Islamists taking power in a former secular Ba’athist state).

Ibrahim Al-Amine, editor of Al-Akhbar, noted a similar perception by Assad: “Assad seemed to have become more confident that Abu Dhabi was capable of resolving his problem with the Americans and some Europeans, and he heard a lot about economic temptations if he agreed to the strategy of exiting the alliance with the resistance forces. One of Assad’s workers, who stayed with him until the last hours before he left Damascus, says that the man was still hoping for something big to happen to stop the armed factions’ attack. He believed that “the Arab and international community” would prefer that he remain in power, rather than Islamists take over the administration of Syria”.

Yet, even as the Jolani forces were on the M5 highway linking to Damascus, the wider Assad family and key officials were making no efforts to prepare for a departure, or to warn close friends to think about such contingencies, the interlocutor said. Even as Assad was heading to Hmeimin en route to Moscow, no advice to ‘get out’ was sent to friends. The latter said that they did not know after Assad’s silent departure to Moscow who exactly, or when, ordered the Syria army to stand down and to prepare for transition. Assad briefly visited Moscow on 28 November – a day after the HTS attacks in Aleppo province and their swift advance south (and a day after the ceasefire in Lebanon). The Russian authorities have said nothing about the content of the President’s meetings in Moscow, and the Assad family said that the President had returned tight-lipped from Russia, too.

Subsequently, Assad departed finally to Moscow (either on 7 December, after despatching a private plane on multiple flights to Dubai, or on 8 December) – again telling virtually nobody in his immediate and family circle that he was departing for good. What caused this out-of-character mindset? No one knows; but family members have speculated that Bashar Al-Assad had been seriously disorientated emotionally by the grave illness of his wife, Asma, to whom he is devoted. Put frankly, whilst the three main players could see clearly the direction events were heading (the fragility of the state was no surprise), nevertheless, Assad’s denial mindset and the consequent speed of the military dénouement was the surprise. That was the true ‘black swan’.

Mass

“The Mass injection of over half the Worlds population with that drug, is the worst thing to ever happen in the history of our species”

Yep – it’s the greatest crime against humanity ever committed – listen. pic.twitter.com/mHdIiMHEWc

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) January 1, 2025

Majestic

I’m not gonna lie this horse just might be the most majestic creature I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/PzHSsK0AjM

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) January 1, 2025

Cat tricks
https://twitter.com/i/status/1874251694680289513

Dragonfly
https://twitter.com/i/status/1874465854886474021

Cat cage
https://twitter.com/i/status/1874519939748712721

Armadillo

Man picks up a Screaming Hairy Armadillo named Rambo and knows super cool fact about it. pic.twitter.com/5iSHFml15f

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) January 1, 2025

Shadows

Every step matters! Thank you for walking with us into 2025, on our mission to save wild lives and secure habitats. Together, we can create a brighter future for wildlife.https://t.co/tjJMQ7z3GJ pic.twitter.com/FMdf5Qr79Y

— Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (@SheldrickTrust) December 31, 2024

Rainstorm

Shenyang, China, recently recorded one of the biggest rainstorms in 73 years.

These are the fish in the river reacting to the event.pic.twitter.com/l1ovrVhHag

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 2, 2025

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