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Debt Rattle March 22 2025

Mar 222025
 
 March 22, 2025  Posted by at 10:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  40 Responses »


Caravaggio The calling of St. Matthew 1599-1600

 

• Trump Accuses Federal Judge Of Trying To ‘Usurp’ His Presidential Power (NYP)
• Trump Is Fighting A Cartel Of Vile, Corrupt And Far-left Judges (Miranda Devine)
• DOJ May Invoke State Secrets Privilege in Showdown With Federal Judge (ET)
• Judgepocalypse Now (James Howard Kunstler)
• Trump Eyeing Crimea As ‘International Resort’ – Seymour Hersh (RT)
• Azov Gaining Power is ‘Symptom of Collapse’ of Ukraine’s Civil Society (Sp.)
• Zelensky Slaps Trump in the Face by Subverting Ceasefire Deal (Sp.)
• Kiev Blew Up Metering Station For EU-Bound Gas – Russia (RT)
• Why Diplomacy With Kiev Is A Dead End (Romanenko)
• Democrats Lurch Ever Further Left (Palathingal)
• Sen. Kennedy Delivers Epic Takedown of Chuck Schumer (Margolis)
• There’s a Mutiny Brewing in the Democratic Party (Margolis)
• AOC, Sanders On Multi-state Tour To Rally Democrats Against MAGA (JTN)
• EU Finds Way To Bypass Hungary – Politico (RT)
• Seizing Russian Assets Would Be ‘An Act of War’ – Belgian PM (RT)
• Kill Europe’s Future Competitiveness Through Exorbitant Military Expenses (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

This answers all Trump related questions today

Optimus

Lutnick

USIP

LBJ

Miller

Lutnick

 

 

 

 

It is all here in this video. The Dems have over 200 judges on their side, ready to do their bidding. These judges don’t have to win, they only have to spend time. Until the next case opens. Multiple cases at the same time is even better.

• Trump Accuses Federal Judge Of Trying To ‘Usurp’ His Presidential Power (NYP)

President Trump accused US District Court Judge James Boasberg of trying to “usurp” his presidential power by temporarily halting his attempts to deport illegal immigrant gangbangers in firey Truth Social posts Thursday night. Trump labeled the federal judge as a “radical left” and ranted that he was welcoming “unparalleled” danger into the country. Boasberg set himself at odds with the commander in chief earlier this week by blocking the administration’s attempt to deport alleged migrant gang members — a move which may have exceeded his judicial authority.“Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “He is a local, unknown Judge, a Grandstander, looking for publicity, and it cannot be for any other reason, because his ‘Rulings’ are so ridiculous, and inept.”“SAVE AMERICA!,” the president ended the post.

In another Truth post, Trump expounded on the problems stemming from a federal judge attempting to overrule a decision made by the president of the United States. “Unlawful Nationwide Injunctions by Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country! These people are Lunatics, who do not care, even a little bit, about the repercussions from their very dangerous and incorrect Decisions and Rulings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “The danger is unparalleled! These Judges want to assume the Powers of the Presidency, without having to attain 80 million votes,” he continued.Trump further characterized the judge’s actions as wanting all of the advantages of being president without taking any of the risks. He then called on Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts to intervene.

“If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble,” the missive concluded. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order on Mar. 15 that halted Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport criminal aliens, including members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The Trump administration defied those orders initially, deporting hundreds of migrant alleged gang members to El Salvador the following day. Boasberg attempted in court Monday to order the deportee-carrying flights to return home with the migrants onboard — much to the irritation of the Trump Justice Department. “These are foreign terrorists. The president has identified them and designated them as such — and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an interview on Fox News on Monday.

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The Trump camp better find something fast.

• Trump Is Fighting A Cartel Of Vile, Corrupt And Far-left Judges (Miranda Devine)

If you ever doubted that Washington’s corrupt cartel of Democratic law firms, judges, NGOs, and deep-state bureaucrats is a machine designed to thwart the Trump administration, just watch as judge after judge blocks the president’s ability to keep his campaign promises. It may not be brown paper bags changing hands, but this lawfare that defies the people’s will is every bit as corrupt. It will be up to the Supreme Court to define the limits of presidential authority, but Chief Justice John Roberts’ preemptive scolding of Trump for musing about judicial impeachment doesn’t bode well for the president. Trump won a resounding mandate in the November election, winning every swing state, the popular vote and both houses of Congress. Democrats are rudderless, fighting each other and incapable of mounting an effective opposition.

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The entire Department of Justice vs one judge. And they still have trouble prevailing.

• DOJ May Invoke State Secrets Privilege in Showdown With Federal Judge (ET)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering invoking its state secrets privilege in its showdown with a federal judge over the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and deportation of illegal immigrants, a high-ranking DOJ official said in a new court filing submitted Friday. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former criminal defense lawyer for President Donald Trump, confirmed a statement issued by Robert Cerna, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official, in court papers filed earlier this week in the case that Cabinet secretaries under Trump “are currently actively considering whether to invoke the state secrets privilege.” “I attest to the accuracy of those statements based on personal knowledge of the events described by Mr. Cerna,” Blanche wrote, “including my direct involvement in ongoing Cabinet-level discussion regarding invocation of the state-secrets privilege.”

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg told government officials that they have a Friday deadline to submit a sworn declaration by a person “with direct involvement in the Cabinet-level discussions” about the state secrets privilege and to tell the court by next Tuesday whether the government will invoke it. Invoking the state secrets privilege—an evidentiary rule used under U.S. legal precedent—means that government lawyers can assert that court proceedings may divulge sensitive state information that may endanger national security. Boasberg this week ordered the government to explain why it did not turn around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador and to argue whether the move violated his court order blocking the Alien Enemies Act deportations of those individuals last week.

Boasberg had directed the government to return flights with Venezuelan illegal immigrants alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua back to the United States. The judge, who is based in Washington, had given the government until noon Thursday to either provide more details about the flights or make a claim that it must be withheld because it would harm “state secrets.” The government resisted the judge’s request, calling it an “unnecessary judicial fishing” expedition. In a written order, Boasberg called government officials’ latest response “woefully insufficient” and said that the Trump administration “again evaded its obligations” by merely repeating “the same general information about the flights.” The judge ordered the government to “show cause” as to why it didn’t abide by his court order to turn around the planes, increasing the prospect that he may consider holding government officials in contempt of court.

The order issued by Boasberg has drawn sharp condemnation from Trump and some Republicans, who have said the judge should be impeached. At least one Republican lawmaker introduced articles of impeachment targeting the judge, although it’s unclear whether GOP House leaders will pursue their usage.House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told news outlets that they may pursue an alternative legislative remedy other than impeachment but will hold hearings on Boasberg and other judges in the coming days. Calls for impeachment, meanwhile, sparked a response from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who released a statement suggesting that it’s unprecedented to impeach a judge for issuing an order that the government disagrees with.

“Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in his statement.While no other Supreme Court justices have publicly commented on the matter, retired Justice Stephen Breyer told CNN this week that he agrees with Roberts’s assertion and said that instead, the government should appeal the matter rather than focus on impeachment. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said in court papers and in media appearances that she believes Boasberg is exceeding his authority by issuing a nationwide injunction blocking deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that typically is invoked in times of war. While issuing the proclamation on the Act, Trump said that his administration believes that the United States is being invaded by Tren de Aragua, a transnational gang that was declared a foreign terrorist organization last month.

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“Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ ‘due process.'” — Buck Sexton

• Judgepocalypse Now (James Howard Kunstler)

Impeachment would be too mild for the claque of Woke-activist federal judges attempting to nullify the executive branch with hectoring writs against any and all sorts of executive actions. If simply bounced off their benches, they could just take up new careers as NPR legal commentators or transsexual pole-dancers. Rather, what you’ve got here is an obvious seditious conspiracy, plain for all to see, orchestrated by the same legal Nosferatus as RussiaGate, the 2020 election, and the J-6 witch hunt.The catch is, this time it is discoverable and subject to prosecution because the party running this legal insurrection no longer has its hands on the levers of power in the DOJ and the FBI as it did when they ran the aforementioned ops. And so, the mighty silence emanating from those two agencies just now should tell you something: namely, that cases are being carefully constructed to finally bring these despicable caitiffs to real and chastening law.

If you want to know one paramount reason for institutional failure in our country, look to the evil enterprise that calls itself “Lawfare.” It originated as a blog launched on September 1, 2010, founded by three key figures: Benjamin Wittes, Jack Goldsmith, and Robert Chesney. Over time it evolved into an activist operation, The Lawfare Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to (cough cough) “Hard National Security Choices,” and run under the shady umbrella of the Brookings Institution. The point of Lawfare is self-evident in its name: it is an instrument of warfare against a perceived enemy which, for the past decade, has been the political faction led by Mr. Trump, the once-and-current chief executive of the federal government. Mr. Trump is a danger to the bureaucratic arm of the federal government because he has defined it as a racketeering operation and moved decisively to end its depredations.

Lawfare is the praetorian guard of the permanent DC bureaucracy, including especially its rogue intel actors, who function as enforcers for the Democratic party that largely staffs the bureaucracy. Norm Eisen, a Brookings senior fellow, is the chief operational strategist for the Lawfare enterprise. He has been active in all its ops, capers, and mind-fucks since Mr. Trump came on the scene in 2015 vowing to “drain the swamp” (i.e., end the racketeering). Norm Eisen holds leadership roles in two subsidiary Lawfare orgs: States United Democracy Center and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Eisen’s broader connection stems from his history of orchestrating legal challenges against Mr. Trump — advising the Mueller investigation, drafting impeachment articles, and leading CREW’s 200-plus lawsuits in Mr. Trump’s first term.

Now, following the Biden interregnum, Norm Eisen leverages a network of nonprofits (ACLU, Public Citizen, etc.) and left-leaning judges to file hundreds of new lawsuits to thwart the MAGA clean-up effort under Elon Musk’s DOGE. Tax filings show that CREW’s funding, in part, comes from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Item: during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, CREW received $432,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from Newtek Small Business, which evolved into a financial holding company after acquiring National Bank of New York City in January 2023, rebranded as Newtek Bank.

The money-laundering through multitudinous foundations, NGOs, and “non-profits” is the essence of the Democratic Party’s racketeering mode in league with federal bureaucracies such as USAID that dispensed billions of dollars to a vast network of activist recipients. Translation: it provides salaries (often six-figures) to party foot-soldiers whose only duties are to move the money through the organizational layers and to be available for such party tasks as ballot harvesting, vote-counting, and organizing riots. This is the mischief that Mr. Trump seeks to put an end to, and so he must be thwarted at all costs by those whose lifeblood depends on the ongoing rackets. The so-called “Resistance” alliance between the Democratic Party and the bureaucracy seeks to prevent reform by any means necessary.

Since they no longer control potent executive agencies such as the DOJ and the FBI for intimidating and punishing their enemies, their only recourse is the federal judiciary and its officers of the courts, that is, lawyers and judges practicing Lawfare. The federal judges are political appointees, such as John J. McConnell from the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, who was a personal injury lawyer (i.e., “ambulance chaser”) and major Democratic Party doner, giving nearly $700,000 to party causes, and serving as Rhode Island Democratic State Committee treasurer. Judge McConnell issued a wide-ranging restraining order against the DOGE-advised freeze of federal funding launched in February of this year. McConnell’s daughter, Catherine, is a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022. See how that works?

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That must have put a smile on Putin’s face.

• Trump Eyeing Crimea As ‘International Resort’ – Seymour Hersh (RT)

US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering lifting sanctions against Moscow in order to turn Russia’s Crimean Peninsula into a major international resort, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has reported, citing a White House official. Since his inauguration in January, Trump has pursued direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict in Ukraine. His administration has indicated that it is open to recognizing Moscow’s sovereignty over Crimea and some of the Donbass as part of a potential peace deal. The Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol officially joined Russia in 2014 following public referendums; they were followed in 2022 by the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye. Kiev continues to claim the territories as its own and has vowed to take them back, but Moscow has insisted that their status is non-negotiable.

In a post on his Substack blog on Thursday, Hersh reported that Trump’s broader aim is to improve US-Russia relations through economic cooperation. The president, he says, is seeking to lift sanctions imposed since 2014 and 2022 and “form a partnership with Putin aimed at turning Crimea into a major international resort.” The official source cited in Hersh’s report added that “they might do the same in Donbass.” The journalist noted that Trump’s approach is markedly different from that of the administration of Joe Biden, with his unnamed source describing the current president as an “economic winner.” Trump’s reported interest in Russian energy and natural resource assets includes oil, gas, and unmined rare earth metals.

Since taking office in January, Trump has reversed several foreign policy positions on Moscow. Following a phone call with Putin in February, US and Russian delegations met in Saudi Arabia, with both sides agreeing to restore diplomatic ties and explore joint business ventures after the Ukraine conflict is resolved. Trump and Putin held another phone call on Tuesday to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire. According to statements from both sides, the conversation was productive, with Russia agreeing to a one-month halt on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure as talks continue.

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“The anger of the Azov will not be quenched, even after Zelensky is gone and a new president elected.”

• Azov Gaining Power is ‘Symptom of Collapse’ of Ukraine’s Civil Society (Sp.)

The destruction of the gas pumping station in Sudzha by Ukraine makes it look like Volodymyr Zelensky has “limited control” over the Ukrainian military and “limited to no control” over the neo-Nazi “Azov* forces,” USAF Ret. Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski tells Sputnik. Due to their belief in their superiority over the rest of the Ukrainian troops, Azov militants “believe that the war was theirs, always, not the politicians, and certainly not Zelensky’s as a propped-up politician who actually ran on enforcing the Minsk II treaty, a ‘peace’ platform.” “I think Azov, like many effective, violent and nationalistic military groups, disrespect politicians on principles, as compromisers and double dealers. Traditionally, these are the ‘generals’ that the politicians fear, not the other way around,” says Kwiatkowski, a former US Department of Defense analyst.

Thus, there appears to be a danger of Azov exercising the “real political power” in Ukraine. “It is a symptom of imminent collapse of what is left of Ukraine’s civil and political society, and it underlines the real problem that [US President Donald] Trump will have to face and has not yet — and that is how to help Ukraine recover a liberal and rights-based society at the conclusion of hostilities,” Kwiatkowski says. “The anger of the Azov will not be quenched, even after Zelensky is gone and a new president elected.

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“Trump should immediately halt all military aid and demand the withdrawal of American personnel..”

• Zelensky Slaps Trump in the Face by Subverting Ceasefire Deal (Sp.)

Volodymyr Zelensky appears to be challenging Donald Trump “after realizing his stance on the Ukraine conflict differs sharply from Joe Biden’s,” Professor Stevan Gajic of the Institute of European Studies in Belgrade tells Sputnik. How could the US force Ukraine to honor the ceasefire? “Trump should immediately halt all military aid and demand the withdrawal of American personnel,” Gajic suggests. The US must declare Zelensky illegitimate and refuse to negotiate with him. Washington should pressure him into holding long-overdue elections. Since Ukraine has lost its independence, Trump should also pressure its backers, including the EU and UK.

On March 20, Ukrainian forces struck the Sudzha gas metering station, violating the energy ceasefire deal agreed upon by Zelensky and brokered by Trump on March 18. Despite the truce, Ukraine attacked Russian infrastructure in Krasnodar that same day. Moscow views this as a deliberate provocation, yet Kiev denies any involvement. Ukrainian media suggest Washington wants a ceasefire to push Zelensky to lift martial law and hold elections in August, but Zelensky has rejected this, fearing he’ll lose his grip on power.

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“The station, located close to the border, was deliberately blown up as part of the Ukrainian retreat..”

• Kiev Blew Up Metering Station For EU-Bound Gas – Russia (RT)

Ukrainian forces retreating from Russia’s Kursk Region have destroyed the Sudzha gas metering station, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported. The incident took place early on Friday, roughly 20 minutes after midnight, the ministry said in a statement. The facility had been previously used to deliver fuel to consumers in European nations. Ukrainian forces seized the site in early August during their incursion into Kursk Region and used it as a secure logistics base, the ministry explained. The station, located close to the border, was deliberately blown up as part of the Ukrainian retreat, the military added.

”The demolition of the key Russian energy site was nothing short of an intentional provocation” in the context of the US-mediated partial ceasefire, under which Moscow pledged to refrain from attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure in exchange for a similar moratorium by Kiev. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has cited the incident as evidence that Kiev cannot be trusted, saying during a regular media briefing that Russian officials “have repeatedly warned our interlocutors about this.” He said that President Vladimir Putin’s order not to attack Ukrainian energy sites remained in force, per his agreement with Trump.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the incident as an act of terrorism. It said Ukrainian military personnel currently involved in the Kursk Region incursion were responsible for the gas station’s demolition. Kiev launched an assault into Kursk Region in hopes of seizing Russian territory as leverage in negotiations. Russian forces have since largely ousted Ukrainian troops, with Sudzha, previously a linchpin of Ukrainian operations, being liberated earlier this month.

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“Ukraine blew up a Russian gas facility just days after a mutual agreement not to do just that. As if anyone expected something different.”

• Why Diplomacy With Kiev Is A Dead End (Romanenko)

In a brazen act of duplicity, Ukraine has once again demonstrated that it is not a reliable partner for diplomacy – let alone peace. Mere days after a US-brokered agreement saw Moscow and Kiev commit to a mutual moratorium on targeting each other’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian forces reportedly launched a deliberate strike on a gas metering station in Russia’s Kursk region. This was no accident, no miscommunication, and no unfortunate timing—it was a calculated breach of trust and yet another glaring signal that Ukraine cannot be reasoned with. The agreement in question was a result of a bold and rare diplomatic effort led by President Donald Trump, who had secured direct conversations with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Despite the immense complexities of this long-running conflict, Trump managed to extract a commitment from both sides: a 30-day freeze on attacks against energy infrastructure. It was a starting point – modest, but meaningful. And yet, even that modest agreement was too much for Kiev to honor. Russia, for its part, not only adhered to the ceasefire but did so with a level of discipline and self-restraint that should have been headline news across the globe. In a show of integrity seldom seen in modern warfare, Russian forces actively intercepted and shot down their own drones – already airborne and en route to targets – because those drones had been launched prior to the agreement’s announcement. That is a serious country taking a serious peace process seriously.

Contrast that with Kiev’s conduct. According to reports from the ground and satellite imagery, a Ukrainian strike targeted the gas infrastructure facility near Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region. The attack caused a fire, damage to critical energy infrastructure, and sent a clear message: Ukraine is not interested in honoring its word, and it certainly isn’t interested in diplomacy – only escalation. This latest incident is not occurring in a vacuum. It is part of a long and well-documented pattern of deception and provocation, especially in the face of good-faith overtures by Russia.

Let’s go back. In 2014, the Minsk agreements were hailed as the roadmap to a peaceful resolution in the Donbass. Russia backed them, and Western leaders nodded approvingly. But years later, former Western officials themselves openly admitted that Minsk was never intended to be implemented – it was merely a ploy to buy time for Kiev to rearm. In other words, a lie from the very beginning. In 2022, there was another real opportunity. Talks in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reportedly came close to a viable ceasefire. But just as Kiev was nearing a deal, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson intervened, reportedly urging Ukraine to walk away from the table. The result? Thousands more lives lost and the door to peace slammed shut once again.

Now, in 2025, with yet another window of opportunity pried open through diplomacy – this time led by Trump – Ukraine has apparently chosen to burn it down. Literally. The Kursk attack is not a deviation from Ukraine’s diplomatic record; it is the continuation of it. To President Trump’s credit, his efforts thus far have been the most realistic of any Western leader since the conflict began. Unlike the performative moralizing of his predecessor or the reckless interference of EU and UK heads of state, Trump’s approach has been grounded in pragmatism: reduce civilian suffering, de-escalate the war incrementally, and restore a framework for diplomacy. But those efforts require a willing partner.

Russia has signaled, time and again, that it is ready. Even now, despite this attack, Moscow has not withdrawn from the agreement. It is attending talks. It is engaging. It is showing up to the table. But the table is increasingly starting to look like a trap, set for anyone naive enough to believe Kiev’s promises. And that is the central, bitter truth: Kiev has shown not just unreliability, but outright duplicity. It will sign agreements, only to break them. It will smile for the cameras, only to sabotage talks behind the scenes. It will invoke Western values while acting in direct opposition to the very foundations of diplomacy and peace. For Washington – especially President Trump – this should be the wake-up call. The Kursk strike wasn’t just an attack on Russian infrastructure; it was an attack on diplomacy itself. It was an attack on the possibility of peace.

The world has now seen, repeatedly, who honors their word and who discards it the moment it’s politically convenient. Russia has shown that it is willing to pause, to restrain, to negotiate. Ukraine has shown that it will exploit every agreement, twist every olive branch into a weapon, and backstab at every opportunity.There can be no more illusions. No more Minsk-style traps. No more Istanbul disappointments. If there is to be peace, it cannot be built on the quicksand of Kiev’s promises. Any further negotiations must be predicated on reality – not hope – and the reality is this: one side is showing maturity, consistency, and openness. The other is showing that it cannot be trusted, or even talked to.

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” They’re not just fighting Trump; they’re fighting the future. And in the process, they’re making themselves obsolete..”

• Democrats Lurch Ever Further Left (Palathingal)

The Democratic Party is in free fall. Once a party of pragmatic leadership, strong borders, fiscal responsibility, and law and order, it has devolved into a chaotic, leaderless mess. While President Donald Trump and Republicans rally around an “America First” vision prioritizing economic growth, national security, and government efficiency, Democrats seem more focused on tearing down their own past successes, rather than presenting a coherent vision for the future. With Joe Biden and Kamala Harris out of office, the Democratic Party should be resetting itself for a comeback. Instead, it is rudderless and lost, with no serious leadership stepping up to challenge Trump on substance. The loudest voices—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and their ideological allies—have driven the party into a radical fringe, where woke activism overshadows the core concerns of working Americans.

But it wasn’t always that way. The Democrats of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama once promised hope, change, and reform—Clinton championed fiscal responsibility, strong borders, and tough-on-crime policies, while Obama’s 2008 “Hope & Change” mantra inspired millions who believed he would unite the country, end corruption, and restore faith in government. Yet, instead of delivering on those visions, today’s Democratic Party leadership has abandoned pragmatism in favor of radical identity politics. Many Americans now feel that Trump 2.0—not the Democratic Party—is fulfilling the very “Hope & Change” promise that Obama once made, while Clinton and Obama stand by silently as their party turns into a circus sideshow of gender activism and woke extremism.

Bill Clinton famously declared, “The era of big government is over.” His presidency was defined by pragmatism, working with Republicans to balance the budget, reform welfare, and enforce immigration laws. He understood that unchecked government expansion led to inefficiency, and he wasn’t afraid to challenge progressive orthodoxy when necessary. His 1995 State of the Union address would be unrecognizable in today’s Democratic Party. Clinton stated: “All Americans … are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders.” That speech could have been delivered by Trump himself, yet back then, Democrats applauded. Today, any Democrat saying those words would be attacked by his or her own party.

Obama, too, understood the importance of strong governance. He championed cracking down on government waste, promising that Obamacare would be funded by eliminating “fraud, waste, and abuse.” In 2010, he reassured Americans: “We are scrutinizing spending for waste, looking for ways to achieve savings for taxpayers, and we will continue to enforce the law to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.” Yet today’s Democrats mock those very principles, calling fiscal responsibility a right-wing obsession. Obama also had a firm stance on illegal immigration—one that modern Democrats would denounce. Under his administration, the U.S. deported nearly 3 million illegal immigrants, peaking at more than 410,000 removals in 2012—far higher than anything Trump ever achieved during his first term.

Yet now, even suggesting border enforcement gets you branded a “racist” by the Democratic Party. For all their flaws, Clinton and Obama also took Islamic terrorism seriously—something today’s Democrats fail to do.Clinton launched missile strikes against al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Sudan in response to the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings. He recognized the growing threat of Islamic extremism, though he lacked the political will to fully eliminate it.Obama went even further. His administration drastically expanded drone strikes, authorizing more attacks than Bush and Clinton combined.He personally ordered the special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden, often overruling left-wing activists who wanted softer policies on terrorism. However, his refusal to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” signaled a dangerous unwillingness to confront the ideological roots of the problem.

Trump, by contrast, obliterated the ISIS caliphate in record time and took out Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top terrorist mastermind—something neither Clinton nor Obama had the courage to do.Under today’s Democrat leadership, even acknowledging that terrorism has ideological roots is considered “Islamophobic.” The party has drifted so far left that even Clinton and Obama now look conservative by comparison.Many of us voted for Obama in 2008 because we believed in “Hope and Change.” We thought he would challenge the corrupt system, particularly the Bush-Cheney administration, for lying America into the Iraq War—a war that cost thousands of lives and destabilized the entire region. But Obama didn’t just fail to prosecute Bush and Cheney—he became them. Instead of exposing the military-industrial complex, he expanded it. Instead of ending regime-change wars, he continued them.

Trump, on the other hand, punished Bush and Cheney by taking over the Republican Party, purging neocons from power, and realigning the GOP toward an America First agenda. Obama had the opportunity to be that kind of leader—but instead, he joined the club he promised to dismantle. Elon Musk is delivering the kind of hope and change Americans expected from Obama—but never got. Instead of cutting red tape and fueling innovation, Democrats are blocking progress, filing lawsuits, and relying on partisan judges to do their dirty work. They’re not just fighting Trump; they’re fighting the future. And in the process, they’re making themselves obsolete. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency launch proves that America’s biggest advancements are happening in spite of the Democratic Party, not because of it.

While Republicans, independents, and free-thinking liberals support innovation, today’s Democrats look like a bunch of clowns, desperately trying to suppress progress through lawsuits and regulations. Clinton and Obama must decide: Will they watch their party collapse, or will they step in and save it? The Democratic Party is collapsing under its own weight—but that’s only half the story. The other half is Trump’s speed, strength, and relentless punch. While Democrats flounder in confusion, Trump is moving fast—rebuilding the economy, securing the border, and reshaping America’s global standing in record time. The longer Democrats delay a course correction, the harder his impact will hit them. America needs a serious opposition party, not a circus. If they don’t act soon, Democrats will be remembered not as leaders, but as the ones who let the party die. The choice is theirs. But time is running out.

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“I don’t hate anybody, and that includes Senator Schumer. He’s very smart. On the other hand, Chuck’s often wrong. He never makes the same mistake twice; he makes it five or six times just to be sure.”

• Sen. Kennedy Delivers Epic Takedown of Chuck Schumer (Margolis)

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has learned the hard way that he can’t buck the radical wing of his party without consequences. The Senate Minority Leader’s decision to support the GOP funding bill has unleashed a torrent of progressive fury that’s tearing the Democratic Party apart at the seams. During an appearance on Fox News, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered his trademark straight talk about the Democratic meltdown with a diagnosis that only he could provide. “Among them right now, we’ve all seen the news, he’s about as popular as chlamydia,” Kennedy quipped about Schumer’s current standing with his fellow Democrats.

The progressive rage machine is running at full throttle, with House Democrats now demanding Schumer’s resignation, and some calling on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to challenge Schumer for his seat. Notably, their Senate colleagues haven’t joined this circus yet, probably because they have to actually work with the guy. But the damage is done, and the left’s circular firing squad is locked and loaded. I’m enjoying the show. Kennedy, who’s never met a metaphor he couldn’t make memorable, summarized Schumer’s leadership style perfectly. “I don’t hate anybody, and that includes Senator Schumer. He’s very smart. On the other hand, Chuck’s often wrong. He never makes the same mistake twice; he makes it five or six times just to be sure.” While acknowledging Schumer’s intelligence, Kennedy made it clear that being smart doesn’t always translate to good judgment — he is a Democrat after all.

The Louisiana senator praised Schumer’s rare moment of clarity in supporting the funding bill and noted with characteristic wit, “Unless a football coach taught you history, you understand that shutting government down never achieves anything.” But the real gem came when Kennedy described the current state of the Democratic Party: “The loon wing of the Democratic Party is firmly in control.” Anyone who’s watched these progressives push their radical agenda – especially their bizarre obsession with denying biological reality – knows exactly what he’s talking about. “These people are deeply weird,” Kennedy observed in what might be the understatement of the year.

The GOP’s strategy for handling these Democratic extremists? Kennedy revealed it with a smile: “Our Republican secret plan for dealing with the Democrats is called Operation Let Them Speak.” It’s brilliant in its simplicity – just let them keep talking, and voters will run screaming in the opposite direction. However, Kennedy acknowledged a sobering truth about this Democratic descent into madness: “That’s good for our party, but it’s bad for America, and I think Schumer did the right thing.” He’s absolutely right. While Democratic extremism might help Republicans at the ballot box, watching radical ideologues hijack half of our political system is a tragedy for our republic. We’ve booted them out of power for now, but there’s no guarantee that they won’t get it back someday, perhaps sooner than later.

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The Democratic Party will continue to exist, just under different leadership. But with the same people behind the curtains.

• There’s a Mutiny Brewing in the Democratic Party (Margolis)

No one knows better than Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just how enraged the Democratic base is — and it’s not just a little frustration. According to Politico, the party is on the verge of mutiny. According to the outlet, the fury gripping the party has reached historic levels, creating a seismic rift between congressional Democrats and their grassroots. If this anger keeps boiling over, it could upend the 2026 primaries and reshape the party’s future. “Congressional Democrats have typically enjoyed higher popularity with their voting base than their Republican counterparts,” the paper notes. “But the trauma of the 2024 presidential election defeat appears to have ruptured that relationship. A review of Quinnipiac University’s annual first-quarter congressional polling reveals that, for the first time in the poll’s history, congressional Democrats are now underwater with their own voters in approval ratings.”

Just 40 percent of Democrats approve of the job performance of congressional Democrats, compared to 49 percent who disapprove. That’s a dramatic change from this time last year, when 75 percent of Democrats approved compared to just 21 percent who disapproved. The Democratic base’s disillusionment runs so deep that it’s eerily reminiscent of Republican grassroots sentiment in the period leading up to Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party. The numbers are clear: No longer satisfied with the status quo in their party, Democrats are on the verge of a Tea Party-style, intra-party revolt. The latest approval data for Democrats is unlike anything we’ve seen in recent history, and it’s not just the usual case of sore losers still stewing over an election defeat.

When Democrats first lost to Donald Trump in 2016, their congressional approval ratings within the party actually went up. Why? Because the Democratic base largely approved of the way their leaders fought back against Trump in early 2017. A similar trend played out among Republicans in 2021 — despite Trump’s loss and the left’s overblown hysteria over Jan. 6, GOP voters still viewed congressional Republicans favorably. But this time, something is different. The numbers suggest that Democrats aren’t just upset; they’re fed up with their own party. As Politico points out, the closest comparison to the level of fury gripping Democratic voters today goes back about a decade to when GOP outsider Dave Brat stunned the political world by defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a shocking 2014 primary upset.

Just two years later, Donald Trump bulldozed his way through a crowded field of establishment Republican candidates, reshaping the Republican Party forever. If history is any guide, Democrats could be in for a similar reckoning. In the short term, this is great news for the GOP. The Democrats’ internal civil war is bound to create electoral headaches and give Republicans an edge. But the real concern is what comes next. Once the dust settles, we’re likely to be left with a Democratic Party even more radical than it is today. Some might argue that this shift will only help the GOP, as the left’s increasingly extreme agenda continues to alienate mainstream voters.

But underestimating the radical left is a mistake. For its part, Politico insists that this isn’t about dragging the party further left, but history suggests otherwise. Despite the restive energy in the party’s progressive wing, the Democratic discontent does not seem to be centered around a desire to pull the party to the left or the right. Democrats cannot seem to agree on which direction the party should move in — recent Gallup polling found that 45 percent wanted the party to become more moderate, while 29 percent felt it should become more liberal, and 22 percent wanted it to stay the same.

I’m not convinced that the Democratic Party won’t emerge more radical in the end. But the short-term outlook still looks good. Politico suspects that Democrats could experience “a potentially bruising string of primaries in both the House and Senate.” One of the biggest mistakes of the Tea Party movement was primarying Republicans in moderate to blue districts or states, resulting in the nomination of candidates who couldn’t win a general election. The most notable example would be Christine O’Donnell, who beat Rep. Mike Castle in the Republican primary and ultimately lost to Democrat Chris Coons in the general election in a seat that was actually competitive thanks to the political climate at the time. Will Democrats make the same mistake in 2026 as Republicans did in 2010?

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Might as well bring Kamala back.

• AOC, Sanders On Multi-state Tour To Rally Democrats Against MAGA (JTN)

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has embarked on a multi-state tour in what appears to be the most recent and organized effort to unify the Democratic Party against the Trump administration. Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and Sanders, a Vermont Independent and former Democratic presidential candidate, stopped in Nevada on Thursday and will be in Colorado and Arizona on Friday.The tour is part of Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy: What’s Next” tour, in which the senator essentially argues the U.S. is headed toward an Oligarchy government as President Trump continues to fill his cabinet and other top-level posts with industry titans including billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, head of the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“This isn’t just about Republicans,” Ocasio-Cortez told a crowd in Las Vegas, according to NBC News. “We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us, too.” Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, considered among the most progressive lawmakers on Capitol Hill, are also touring together amid Democratic Party backlash against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for having supplied enough Senate Democrat votes for the passage of a GOP-led, stopgap spending bill earlier this month to avoid a government shutdown.

Ocasio-Cortez did not mention Schumer by name, but the crowd at times broke out into multiple “Primary Chuck” chants – a growing call within the party to challenge Schumer, a fellow New York Democrat, in a 2028 primary should he seek reelection. At the Las Vegas rally, Sanders said to regain voters’ support, the Democratic Party leadership must tell the truth about the influence billionaires have in U.S. politics. He told CBS News the face of the Democratic Party needs to be “working-class people, young people, people who get their hands dirty, people who may not have graduated college, people who do not have PhDs in economics, people who are struggling to put food on the table. They’ve got to be involved. We’ve got to listen to them.”

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Democracy in all its shining glory.

• EU Finds Way To Bypass Hungary – Politico (RT)

The EU has found a way to issue so-called “joint” statements on the Ukraine conflict, by bypassing Hungary’s objections to the bloc’s continued support for Kiev, Politico has reported. Hungary refused to endorse a bloc statement following Thursday’s European Council meeting in Brussels, which reaffirmed the Brussels’ stance on the Ukraine conflict, and the bloc’s intentions to continue arming Kiev. However a document ignoring Hungary’s position was published as a formal European Council conclusion, bearing signatures from only 26 member-states, instead of 27. The EU intends to continue using the exclusionary tactic in preparing key statements in the future, the outlet reported on Thursday. Issuing documents “on behalf of the 26… is the new normal. And it is useful when it comes to political intent. Maybe down the line though we will encounter other problems,” a senior diplomat told Politico.

A top EU official cited in the article, pointed out that “no one has any doubts that there is divergence with one member state. The objective should always be to have conclusions at 27 — if it is not possible, if the strategic division is maintained, and we have all the indications that it is maintained, that we would move forward at 26.” Another diplomat insisted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has consistently criticized EU weapons deliveries to Ukraine and called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, “chose isolation and a path of illiberal democracy against the obvious interest of the EU and, in fact, Hungary.” “The security of Europe is too serious of an issue to negotiate with one person who sees things 180 degrees differently than everyone else,” the diplomat stressed.

Hungary’s absence from bloc’s statements does not remove its ability to veto key EU policy decisions, as they still require unanimous support from all 27 members. “The EU wants to avoid the kind of public breakdown in unity” that would likely be triggered by the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights, it said. Orban told Kossuth radio on Friday that at the summit in Brussels he “saw in the eyes of every [EU leader] that Ukraine has lost this war. Getting involved was a bad decision. The Hungarians were right.”

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“..Euroclear is already entangled in legal battles with several parties, many of whom have turned to Russian courts to challenge the asset freeze..”

• Seizing Russian Assets Would Be ‘An Act of War’ – Belgian PM (RT)

Confiscating Russian assets frozen in the EU would be considered “an act of war,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has warned, according to Politico. He cautioned that the move would likely provoke a response from Moscow. Western countries froze an estimated $300 billion worth of Russian sovereign funds following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Around $213 billion of that is held by Euroclear, a Brussels-based clearing house. The frozen funds have already accrued billions in interest, of which Euroclear transferred €1.55 billion ($1.63 billion) to Kiev last July. Speaking to reporters after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, De Wever warned that seizing Russian assets would pose “systemic risks to the entire global financial system” and could trigger retaliation from Moscow.

“We’re not living in a world of fantasy. We’re in the real world, where if you take €200 billion from somebody there will be consequences,” the outlet quoted the Belgian prime minister as saying on Thursday. De Wever’s warning comes as some EU countries including France and Spain have been pushing to confiscate Russian frozen assets as they seek to use the funds to strengthen Ukraine’s defense and improve its negotiating position in any future peace talks with Russia, the article noted. Earlier this month, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that Paris will use interest accrued on Russian assets frozen in European banks to buy weapons for the Ukrainian military, a move condemned by Moscow. While proceeds generated from the frozen funds are already being used to back a $50 billion loan for Ukraine provided by the G7, most Western nations have stopped short of directly confiscating the assets.

According to Politico, Belgium has a major stake in the issue as Euroclear is based in Brussels. The country is reportedly concerned that handing over the funds to Kiev could expose Euroclear to additional legal claims from asset holders. Euroclear is already entangled in legal battles with several parties, many of whom have turned to Russian courts to challenge the asset freeze and demand compensation. The International Monetary Fund has also warned that seizing the funds without a clear legal framework could erode global trust in Western financial institutions. The Kremlin has condemned any attempts to confiscate Russian assets, labeling them “theft” and warning of serious legal repercussions. Russia has also hinted at potential retaliatory measures against Western investments in the country.

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Globalists dream.

• Kill Europe’s Future Competitiveness Through Exorbitant Military Expenses (Sp.)

NATO intends to ask its European members to boost their military gear stocks by about 30%, Bloomberg claims, citing its sources. Commenting on this development, German geopolitical analyst and AfD MP Dr. Rainer Rothfuss tells Sputnik that European countries today find themselves pressured by globalists and defense industry lobbyists pushing to ramp up military spending even as Trump in the US is doing the exact opposite. Just as countries in the northern hemisphere have an opportunity to lower defense spending, “the globalists groups and lobbyist groups lobbying for defense industry interests have found the European countries where most pressure can be exerted where most successfully arms sales can still be increased.” This situation, Dr. Rothfuss explains, does not bode well for Europe’s “future competitiveness” because European powers need to spend more on education, research, development and civil infrastructure instead of military pursuits.

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Giza

 

 

Birds
https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1902968692641505523

 

 

Mantis

 

 

Fold

 

 

Ray

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle January 3 2025

Jan 032025
 
 January 3, 2025  Posted by at 10:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  64 Responses »


Leonardo da Vinci Ginevra de’ Benci 1474-78

 

• Musk Accuses Biden Of ‘Treason’ (RT)
• Musk Calls For Snap UK Election In Attack On Starmer (RT)
• Biden To Award Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson With Medals For J6 Witch Hunt (ZH)
• Mike Johnson Slams Biden For Giving Presidential Award To J6 Panel (JTN)
• H-1B Visas Have An Undeniable Fraud Problem (JTN)
• The H-1B Visa War Exposes A Deeply American Problem (Amar)
• Slovakia Slams Ukraine For ‘Betrayal’ (RT)
• Hungary Loses EU Funding Amid Rule-of-Law Dispute (RT)
• Orban Rival Calls For Early Hungarian Elections (RT)
• Federal Judge Rules for Pfizer in Lawsuit Over COVID-19 Vaccine (ET)
• Fight Between Freedom & Deep State Control – Catherine Austin Fitts (USAW)
• Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Biden Net Neutrality Rules (Hill)
• Biden To Block Trump’s Energy Plans Before Exit (RT)
• Ex-CIA Analyst Doesn’t Buy FBI’s New Year’s Day Terror Narrative (Sp.)
• Bill Gates Turns Mosquitoes Into ‘Flying Syringes’ (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

Mearsheimer

Rogan

 

 

Elon Musk has opened a very dark pit in Britain. They will come after him mighty hard. Legacy media and politics silenced it for years. Elon gives it 100 million views in 24 hours.

Tommy Robinson

https://twitter.com/i/status/1817184820151070917

https://twitter.com/i/status/1874765109446524980

https://twitter.com/i/status/1874958945984602436

 

 

 

 

“This administration did not fail to secure the border. They deliberately opened it. IT WAS TREASON..”[..] to which Musk replied “100% treason”..”

• Musk Accuses Biden Of ‘Treason’ (RT)

Elon Musk has accused US President Joe Biden of “treason” for allowing illegal migrants to flood the country and for selling off the materials allocated for the construction of the US-Mexico border wall. US President-elect Donald Trump and the Republicans have long criticized Biden for failing to secure the US borders, especially in the south. A new wave of debate over the outgoing administration’s border policies started in mid-December, when the Daily Wire reported on X that Biden was auctioning off materials earmarked for the construction of the US-Mexico border wall, which was begun during Trump’s first term in office and later halted under Biden.

The story sparked a flood of comments online, with many users accusing the Biden administration of violating the law and undermining border security. One user, @EndWokeness, summarized what he saw as Biden’s failures in an X post on Wednesday, calling for “accountability” for the US-Mexico border wall having been sold off “for just $5 a piece,” the razor wire fences and river walls having been removed, and the supposed issuance of “94 executive orders to open the border.” “This administration did not fail to secure the border. They deliberately opened it. IT WAS TREASON,” the user concluded, to which Musk replied “100% treason” in his own post on Thursday.

Biden’s immigration policy initially focused on reversing many of the regulations passed during Trump’s first administration, including halting the construction of the US-Mexico border wall. However, amid the flood of illegal migrants and mounting criticism of his border policy, Biden later implemented stricter mechanisms. For instance, last June, he issued an order partially suspending asylum requests at the border with Mexico when daily unauthorized crossings reach a threshold of 2,500. The legal battle over the leftover border wall materials has been going on for years. The Biden administration has argued that the stockpiled steel beams and other supplies were no longer needed for the halted project and that storing them cost the government money. In 2023, Congress agreed with that assessment and ordered the US Department of Defense to “use, transfer, or donate” all “excess construction materials.”

After the legality of this move was questioned, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to block the further sale of the supplies. On December 27, Paxton’s office secured a temporary injunction that prevented the outgoing administration from further disposing of border wall materials over the next 30 days. The ruling will allow Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20, to decide how the remaining supplies will be used. Trump welcomed the court ruling, calling it a “major, crucial WIN for America, and our National Security” in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday. He slammed “Biden and his cronies” for “wrecking” the wall project, and vowed to continue his push for stronger border security measures by finishing the border wall.

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Musk can say things out loud that Trump cannot.

• Musk Calls For Snap UK Election In Attack On Starmer (RT)

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has slammed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and called for early parliamentary elections in the UK, in an attack on the Labor government. The US-based tech billionaire, who has recently emerged as a close adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, expressed support for the Reform UK party and called for the release of jailed right-wing activist Tommy Robinson in a series of posts on X overnight. In his posts, Musk questioned Starmer’s record as the head of the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013 and accused him of failing to investigate “rape gangs” in Britain. He also pointed to a recent YouGov poll suggesting an “absolutely stunning” decline in support for the Labor government. According to the poll published this week, only 12% of respondents said Labour have been successful so far, while more than half described it as ‘incompetent’ and ‘dishonest’.

“A new election should be called in Britain,” Musk wrote in a post on X, sharing the poll results. Starmer’s government currently enjoys a 163-seat majority following a landslide victory in July. The next parliamentary elections in the UK are scheduled to take place in 2029. London has not reacted to Musk’s latest statements so far. The tech entrepreneur also shared a post agreeing with the statement that Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party is “the only way to save” Britain. Musk earlier met with Farage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, with some media outlets claiming he had pledged as much as $100 million in support for the British party. Musk, however, denied the reports.

In a series of posts, he also called for the release of British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was sentenced to 18 months behind bars in late October for publishing a documentary containing libelous claims about a Syrian refugee. The activist calls himself a “political prisoner” and claimed he was jailed for “speaking the truth.”

This is not the first time the US-based billionaire has harshly criticized the Labor government. In August, he said that a “civil war is inevitable” in the UK, prompting London to hit back, calling his words “totally unjustified.” In November, he supported a petition for early elections in the UK, which was backed by over 2 million signatures, and called Britain under Starmer a “tyrannical police state.” Musk has also recently lashed out at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, predicting that he will lose snap elections in February, and expressing support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany party. Berlin reacted by warning that Musk’s statements could strain relations between Germany and the US.

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They honor the people who lost them the election. Good luck with that.

“Both Cheney and Kinzinger became extremely unpopular as a result of their involvement, with Kinzinger choosing to retire ahead of the 2022 midterms, while Cheney was defeated by primary challenger Harriet Hageman in one of the biggest landslides against an incumbent in the history of the House of Representatives.”

• Biden To Award Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson With Medals For J6 Witch Hunt (ZH)

President Joe Biden will award two members of the January 6th Committee – Liz Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson (R-MS) with the second-highest civilian honor for their roles in the carefully controlled witch hunt. According to the Associated Press, whoever is running the country decided that Cheney, Thompson, and 18 other individuals will receive the Presidential Citizens Medal on Thursday. “President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said in a statement. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.” That said, we all know it was a sham from the beginning…

“The J6 Committee was controversial and heavily partisan from the beginning. When it was first announced, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) a chance to seat the conventional number of Republicans on the committee. However, she rejected two of his choices, Congressmen Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), for being too conservative, which led to McCarthy refusing to name any Republicans to the committee. Pelosi herself then chose just two Republicans for the committee, both of whom were known for being radically anti-Trump: Cheney and Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). Both Cheney and Kinzinger became extremely unpopular as a result of their involvement, with Kinzinger choosing to retire ahead of the 2022 midterms, while Cheney was defeated by primary challenger Harriet Hageman in one of the biggest landslides against an incumbent in the history of the House of Representatives.” -American Greatness

Meanwhile, as Julie Kelly noted last week, it appears that Cheney is preparing to fight any Trump-era federal and/or congressional probe into her ‘demonstrably corrupt role’ as vice chairman of the J6 committee. Text messages obtained by Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga), chair of a House subcommittee looking into the J6 committee, prove that Cheney colluded behind the scenes with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson, who dramatically changed her testimony after connecting with Cheney. The communications could represent witness tampering, subornation of perjury—every former White House official including the driver of the presidential vehicle on January 6 has refuted Hutchinson’s account of Trump’s behavior that day—and obstruction.

Based on the results of his ongoing inquiry, Loudermilk determined that “numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney” and called for the FBI to investigate her. Cheney immediately responded by playing the victim and, of course, by blaming Donald Trump. But the American people appear uninterested in Cheney’s excuses; a new Rasmussen poll shows strong public support, including three-quarters of Republicans, for an FBI investigation into the bitter and defeated nepobaby. If Trump’s Department of Justice decides to proceed, Cheney undoubtedly will seek immunity protections in an attempt to keep records away from federal investigators; members of Congress are entitled to immunity under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, which shields lawmakers from criminal liability related to their legislative duties.

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“..a “complete joke and utter embarrassment.”

• Mike Johnson Slams Biden For Giving Presidential Award To J6 Panel (JTN)

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday slammed President Joe Biden for awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to former House January 6 committee leaders Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson. The medal is the second-highest civilian award, and is given to those who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” Other recipients of this year’s medals include: Mary Bonauto, who argued for marriage equality in the Obergefell case, and former Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Ted Kaufman of Delaware. Johnson berated Biden for giving the honor to someone who “intentionally and repeatedly lied to the public,” and claimed the actions were a “complete joke and utter embarrassment.”

“The Jan 6 Select Committee manipulated AND destroyed evidence – created a fake, phony narrative all to try and hurt Trump,” Johnson said in a post on X. “They even hired a TV producer from the legacy media in a desperate attempt to legitimize what Americans knew was a total hoax and complete waste of time. “Be assured of this: House Republicans WILL continue our investigation into this corrupt committee and it will be FULLY FUNDED so it can continue next Congress,” he added. Fellow Wyoming Republican and Sen. John Barrasso on Thursday also slammed Biden for giving Cheney the honor, speculating that he would give Cheney either a pardon or an award, and that she did not deserve either one.

“[Cheney] represents partisanship and divisiveness — not Wyoming,” Barrasso said, per Politico. The announcer who presented Cheney with her medal said it was awarded because she allegedly put “the American people over party.” She accepted the award on Thursday night to a standing ovation in the East Room of the White House, The Hill reported.

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Close the loopholes.

• H-1B Visas Have An Undeniable Fraud Problem (JTN)

Shortly before Americans celebrated Christmas, two federal criminal cases affirmed long-standing warnings that the government’s H-1B visa program was ripe for fraud, and slow to bring accountability. The cases in California and Illinois brought some long-awaited justice to schemes that have tried to help companies rig a system designed for narrow high-tech skills to instead hire foreigners for jobs that should have gone to Americans. The flurry came a year after the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service launched a crackdown and just weeks before a rare schism emerged inside the Make America Great Again universe that pitted pro-H-1B visa program supporters like Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump against usual supporters like commentators Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer, who want the program shut down. That debate has raged throughout the Christmas holidays, with Bannon going so far as to suggest the government should pay reparations to U.S. workers who lost jobs to the H-1B foreign visa holders.

“American workers should be hired immediately to fill those gaps, and then we should start the discussions on reparations, on what they knowingly did to American tech workers,” Bannon said on his Real America’s Voice television show Monday. At the end of the day, the H-1B visa program that provides special work visas for high-tech workers with specialized skills is a small drop in America’s immigration crisis: over the last decade between 70,000 and 85,000 foreigners get new H-1B work visas annually, compared to an estimated 14 million illegal aliens who flooded the border during the four years of Joe Biden’s presidency. But no matter how the MAGA debate ends, the persistent fraud concerns have galvanized concerns on both the left and right in America.

Warnings about H-1B visas date back two decades, but one of the most potent red flags occurred early in Trump’s first term when the Homeland Security Department’s internal watchdog sounded the alarm back In an October 2017, the Homeland Security Inspector General warned the USCIS tactics for providing oversight to the program – mainly site visits — “provide minimal assurance that H-1B participants are compliant and not engaged in fraudulent activity.” “USCIS does not ensure the agency always takes proper and timely action when IOs identify potential fraud or noncompliance,” that report warned, identifying several shortcomings in monitoring. “…Without addressing the challenges, USCIS site visits do not fully safeguard the H-1B Program, and the agency misses opportunities to ensure funds are put to better use through more robust site visits.”

Since then multiple efforts have been launched by government agencies to tighten the program, including an effort started by Trump but abandoned by Biden that vetted applicants by skill sets and looked for an instance of one person seeking visas under multiple identities. But such efforts have been widely panned on both sides of the political spectrum as ineffective or nibbling around the ends of a persistent fraud temptation. “I’d say it’s insufficient,” former U.S. immigration official Robert Law, the director of the Center for Homeland Security And Immigration at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, told The Register security news site last year after the Biden crackdown began. “I don’t think the Biden administration has done anything in the H-1B space that puts integrity into the system and accountability,” Law added.

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No, it does not make Trump weaker. That’s just wishful thinking. If he solves it, it’ll make him stronger.

• The H-1B Visa War Exposes A Deeply American Problem (Amar)

To paraphrase the American film classic, ‘The Big Lebowski’, say what you will about Trumpism but at least it’s neither united nor dull. US uber-oligarch Elon Musk, recently promoted to President-elect Donald Trump’s“first buddy,” has used his very own X platform to tell other Trump supporters to “take a big step back and F**K YOURSELF in the face” (fully spelled out in the original). The designated co-leader of a new Department of Government Efficiency, Musk also threatened to “go to war” with a ferocity beyond what we, mere mortals, can comprehend. Using a rival social media platform, American far-right nationalist guru as well as former Trump first buddy Stephen Bannon reacted by calling Musk a “man-child” and “toddler” in need of “child services.” For good measure, he also denounced him as, in effect, a coward who “punches down” instead of fighting guys his own size or bigger.

On his own podcast show – ‘The War Room’ (of course) – Bannon, too, trumpeted his joy at not backing down but going for “victory” with a “fixed-bayonet advance.” Clearly, it’s hard for middle-aged-plus American alpha males not to fantasize their keyboard tussles into heroic live shootouts at the Online Corral. As of 2022, the US has been at war for 231 of the 248 years of its hyperactive existence. Militarism has mental consequences. And, in the background of that clash of the ego titans, X was so abuzz with posts accusing Musk of massively censoring those disagreeing with him that the platform’s own Grok AI picked up on the quarrel, under the headline “X’s Free Speech Debate: Musk’s Moves Questioned.” Grok came to the oddly academic conclusion that some users were “suggesting a nuanced view where free speech is selectively applied.” And they say AI doesn’t have a sense of humor.

All of the above, please note, was just the tip of the big Trumpist strife-berg. The reason for so much rough play escalating so quickly in MAGA-Land? US visas. To be precise, the fairly small-scale yet important H-1B program, about which more below. In essence, Musk and his crowd are for H-1B; Bannon and company are against. But, as in every proper stormy marriage bust-up, the occasion of the screaming match was far from all that it was really about. Instead, H-1B was just a trigger for an explosion of pent-up tension in the Trumpism 2.0 camp.

And it’s been such a loud, big bang because the underlying issues range so wide, from class (as in Karl Marx, not school) issues at home to geopolitics abroad and even the real meaning of the professed Trumpist core aims, namely making America great again and putting it first. What makes things more tense again is that this is not a first. Instead, over the past few weeks, we have witnessed two major Trumpist family quarrels, with the current H-1B fight being preceded by a slightly less theatrical one over, in essence, the budget and limits on public debt. It is starting to look as if Trumpism 2.0 has a serious schism-and-faction issue. What’s all that new power going to be good for if you can’t – literally – keep it together?

Such cracks and rifts can be damaging, not only in the long, but in the short term, too. In the budget fight, Trump actually lost due to a small but embarrassing Republican rebellion that he publicly tried and failed to master. Apparently egged on by Musk to such an extent that Team Trump had to deny the perfectly un-elected “first buddy’s” inappropriate influence, Trump tried to threaten the rebels into submission. And then they defied him. That was politically awkward and may presage future problems, especially as the Republicans’ control of the House of Representatives is now down to what the Wall Street Journal calls a “razor-thin majority.” Trump will enter the White House already seeming weaker than immediately after his triumphant come-back win in November. No wonder the New York Times commentariat has been gloating.

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Blame yourself, not Ukraine.

• Slovakia Slams Ukraine For ‘Betrayal’ (RT)

Slovak Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok has criticized Ukraine’s decision to halt the transit of Russian gas through its territory, calling it a “betrayal of trust” and a threat to European energy stability. Estok made the comments on Thursday in a Facebook post, noting Slovakia’s significant military, political, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the start of the conflict with Russia. He said his country had expected “solidarity” from Kiev in return. Ukraine refused to extend its transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom beyond the end of 2024, effectively cutting off the flow of natural gas to some EU countries, including Austria, Italy, and Slovakia. Landlocked Slovakia depends on Russian gas to meet about 60% of its demand.

Estok said Ukraine’s decision would cost Slovakia “hundreds of millions of euros” annually due to higher costs for alternative supplies and lost transit fees. “Ukraine has forgotten the assistance provided by Slovakia when it stopped gas supplies. The decision represents a fundamental step that not only betrays the existing trust but also raises questions about the fairness and reliability of Ukraine’s approach to bilateral relations,” Estok stated, adding that Kiev’s move could “disrupt stability and cooperation throughout Europe.” Estok said Slovakia had “prepared in advance” for the halt by having enough reserves to meet its requirements in 2025. However, he said the country’s energy security beyond this year remains in question.

“It is therefore necessary to renew the dialogue and look for solutions and compromises that will ensure the stability of energy supplies in the coming years,” Estok said. Slovakia’s state-owned gas importer, SPP, estimated that finding a replacement for Russian gas this year alone could cost the country at least €90 million. In a video message on Thursday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country is considering cutting electricity supplies to Ukraine and limiting refugee support in response to Kiev’s decision.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky praised the gas transit halt, calling it “a historic event” that would result in “financial losses” for Russia. However, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Ukraine could lose up to $1 billion annually in transit fees from Moscow. Russia said it was willing to extend the transit deal and continue deliveries through Ukraine beyond 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev of “punishing” the EU with its decision, which he said would lead to higher energy prices. At his annual press conference on December 19, Putin stated, however, that the halt would have little impact on Russia.

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“Amid the dispute with Brussels and in order to fill financing gaps, Hungary has turned to other funding sources, including loans from China..”

• Hungary Loses EU Funding Amid Rule-of-Law Dispute (RT)

The EU has permanently denied Hungary access to over €1 billion ($1.04 billion) in funds as of January 1, 2025, due to an ongoing dispute over alleged rule-of-law violations, Welt reported on Thursday citing a spokeswoman for the European Commission. This marks the first perpetual loss of funding by an EU member state under the bloc’s “conditionality” mechanism, according to the outlet. Introduced in 2020, the mechanism allows Brussels to suspend funding to member states which it believes violate the bloc’s rule-of-law principles. The EU has pressured Hungary to change its laws in order to tackle alleged conflicts of interest and corruption for some time, launching “conditionality” proceedings against it back in 2022 and blocking its EU funding.

Brussels has cited alleged infringements of public procurement rules and a lack of control and transparency as reasons for the move. Hungary has since launched reforms and cleared some of the funds, but around €19 billion remain frozen. In July 2024, the European Commission released its fifth Rule of Law report, which highlighted that Hungary still failed to meet EU democratic standards. The report pointed to persistent failures by the country in tackling issues such as corruption, political financing, conflicts of interest, and media independence. Budapest was told it needed to complete reforms by the end of the year or “the first tranche of discontinued commitments,” amounting to €1.04 billion, would expire. The forfeited funds were earmarked for the development of economically disadvantaged regions within the country. According to media reports, the next €1.1 billion tranche intended for Hungary expires at the end of 2025.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban argues that his country has fulfilled all EU requirements, and has vowed to fight to protect money “that is ours.” In mid-December, he threatened to veto the EU’s next seven-year budget unless Hungary regains access to the blocked funds. The 2028-2035 budget requires unanimity among the 27 member states to be approved. Negotiations on the budget are expected to begin in mid-2025. Amid the dispute with Brussels and in order to fill financing gaps, Hungary has turned to other funding sources, including loans from China. Last April, Budapest took a 3-year $1 billion loan from China Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of China and Bank of China Hungarian unit to help finance infrastructure, transport, and energy projects. The Hungarian Debt Management Agency said in July that more such loans could be incoming as Hungary’s economic links with the Asian nation grow.

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EU style color revolution. NOTE: Orban has run Hungary for 14 years now. People like him.

• Orban Rival Calls For Early Hungarian Elections (RT)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s rival for the 2026 election, Peter Magyar, has demanded that the vote’s timeline be brought forward. Magyar, the president of the Respect and Freedom (Tisza) party, made the statement during a New Year’s speech on Facebook. Magyar has been a vocal critic of the current administration, which has been led by Orban since 2010. The past year under Orban’s Fidesz party has brought “unprecedented destruction, unprecedented bad governance” to Hungary, Magyar claimed. “The country says enough is enough. We have no more time, and we will not give it another chance. Let there be new elections in Hungary,” he said, slamming Orban’s rule as ineffective and divisive.“Bring the election day forward to the earliest possible date so that the country does not waste more time unnecessarily, because we have no more time,” Magyar urged.

“We don’t have another year. The Hungarian people have nowhere to retreat.” The next election is currently scheduled for summer 2026. Magyar resigned from Orban’s Fidesz party in February 2024, declaring his deep dissatisfaction with both the government and the opposition. He burst into the political spotlight in June later that year, when his Tisza party garnered a surprising 29.6% of the votes in the 2024 European Parliament elections for Hungary. Orban’s Fidesz, in coalition with the KDNP, gained 44.8%. Orban’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition currently holds a majority of 135 out of 199 seats in the Hungarian National Assembly. The Hungarian prime minister has ruffled feathers in the EU by opposing military aid for Ukraine. Recently, he has argued that Western sanctions against Russian energy supplies have harmed European economies.

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Pfizer has more lawyers than scientists. Hard to beat in court.

• Federal Judge Rules for Pfizer in Lawsuit Over COVID-19 Vaccine (ET)

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by Texas against Pfizer, finding that U.S. law protects Pfizer due to the emergency declared over the COVID-19 pandemic. Several laws shield Pfizer from claims that it misrepresented the efficacy of its vaccine, U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings said in the Dec. 30 ruling. “The Court finds that as a matter of law under the circumstances of this case, the Defendant is entitled to immunity under the Public Readiness and Emergency Act (PREP Act),” Cummings wrote. He also said that both the PREP Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, preempt the allegations from Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2023 brought the suit in county court, alleging Pfizer misrepresented the results of the clinical trial that tested its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer and its partner promoted the vaccine as 95 percent effective against COVID-19 infection, but the companies relied on just two months of trial data.

“Of 17,000 placebo recipients, only 162 acquired COVID-19 during this two-month period. Based on those numbers, vaccination status had a negligible impact on whether a trial participant contracted COVID-19,” the suit stated. “The risk of acquiring COVID-19 was so small in the first instance during this short window that Pfizer’s vaccine only fractionally improved a person’s risk of infection.” Texas officials accused Pfizer of violating several laws, including the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, that prohibit misleading advertising. Pfizer removed the case to federal court and said in court filings that it was protected against the suit by the PREP Act. The act states in part that it grants immunity “from suit and liability under Federal and State law with respect to all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the administration to or the use by an individual of a covered countermeasure,” with narrow exceptions, during an emergency.

The U.S. health secretary declared an emergency over COVID-19 in 2020. Immunity for vaccine makers was recently extended through 2029. “The statute provides immunity from claims for ‘any type of loss’ related to the administration or use of Pfizer’s vaccine,” Pfizer lawyers wrote in a brief in support of the company’s motion to dismiss the case, quoting from a ruling in a separate case. “The claims here fall squarely within this broad definition of ‘loss.’” Texas lawyers said in response that the PREP Act does not shield Pfizer in part because Congress did not preempt state claims against drug manufacturers. “The State’s Complaint contains well-pled factual allegations focusing on Pfizer’s gross misrepresentations to the public about specific aspects of its vaccine’s performance, and that is not preempted,” they told Cummings. Cummings sided with Pfizer in his brief ruling, which concluded by saying the case was dismissed “for essentially the reasons argued in the Motion and Reply” from Pfizer.

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“2025 will be trench warfare between the Deep State control team and the freedom and sovereignty team.”

• Fight Between Freedom & Deep State Control – Catherine Austin Fitts (USAW)

Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of The Solari Report, says the real work for the Trump Administration is happening now. CAF is a financial expert and former Assistant Secretary of Housing (Bush 41 Admin.) who managed hundreds of billions of dollars in her career. CAF says this is a fight within the Trump Administration that is summed up by those who will fight for freedom and sovereignty and those who want America under Deep State control. CAF explains, “You had a lot of people who voted for Trump that wanted to see him protect freedoms. You also have a lot of people voting and donating for Trump because they think he can get them the control grid. The centralization and decentralization are both hoping Trump will give them what they want. . . .

Trump has to do something that works economically. The first day, Trump will be asked to fill the top 10 or 20 positions. Ultimately, after you fill the cabinet and the other top positions, then there are another 10,000 positions to be filled. The President does 1,000 positions, and those thousand do the rest of about 10,000 positions. The guys who want the control grid are trying to get their people in place. The guys who want freedom are trying to get their people in place. . . . After you get the people in place, it’s going to have to be battled out one policy at a time. . . . So, this is trench warfare, and it’s not going to be decided by the election. It’s going to be decided by the staffing and the policy debate that happens day after day.

The corruption that has to be cleaned up is huge. Take the recent announcement of royalties being paid to a government health agency — the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CAF says, “The NIH is receiving $1.1 billion from Pfizer–BioNTech for the Covid vaccine shots.” Ed Dowd says we just added a fresh 800,000 disabled people to the 4 million disabled since the CV19 shots were introduced. The total amount of disabled people in the US from the CV19 vax now stands at 4.8 million. CAF points out Dr. Mark Skidmore (Michigan State) just published a study that says if we could go back to the disability numbers of 2010 and before, the US could reduce the federal deficit by $500 billion a year!! CAF says, “If you connect the dots with Ed Dowd, Dr. Skidmore’s study and the announcement of Pfizer paying royalties to NIH, we are paying NIH a billion dollars to poison the American people and bankrupting the country.”

There is no wonder why Big Pharma and the NIH are very nervous of Bobby Kennedy Jr. Keep in mind, this is just one broken piece of corrupt government. CAF says look who DOGE is auditing first. It’s the IRS. CAF says, “If you knew the government was missing $21 trillion (and it is), you would go to the Fed and audit them. . . . We are going to go over to the New York Fed and the Treasury and look at the bank accounts and find out where that money went and get it back—right? Why would they audit the IRS? Because Janet Yellen (Treasury Secretary) says the American people owe $7 trillion in unpaid taxes. There is only one reason you audit the IRS, and that’s because you want to collect the $7 trillion. So, you are not trying to find the $21 trillion that has disappeared out the back door? You are trying to find the people who Janet Yellen says owe the US Treasury.

CAF says look out for the push for a digital ID. It equals slavery. It’s being pushed by the Deep State control team. CAF says the freedom team will push to keep cash alive. Everyone can do that by using cash more. CAF says, “The big danger in 2025 is going to be rising inflation. . . .The real inflation rate is around 10%.” CAF also says there is a big market correction coming because the stock market is in a bubble. CAF says there will be gruesome news coming out of Syria in 2025 because her sources say, “The genocide and slaughter are off the charts in Syria.” In closing, CAF says there are many ways the Deep State control team wants to separate you from your wealth, and the freedom team will be proposing ways to stop that along with protecting freedom of speech. 2025 will be trench warfare between the Deep State control team and the freedom and sovereignty team.

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Word games. They don’t want neutrality, they want control.

• Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Biden Net Neutrality Rules (Hill)

A federal appeals court ruled this week the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacked the authority to restore certain net neutrality rules last year, handing a blow to FCC Democrats and Biden administration officials who pushed for revived open internet measures. The Thursday ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns last year’s FCC vote, which reinstated the net neutrality rules barring broadband providers from blocking or throttling internet traffic to some websites and speeding up access to others that pay extra fees. The three-judge panel pointed to a Supreme Court decision last June that scaled back executive agencies’ power by overturning Chevron deference, the legal doctrine that previously instructed judges to defer to agencies in cases where the law is ambiguous.

In upending the decision, judges are now expected to substitute their own best interpretation of the law instead of deferring to the agencies. Judge Richard Allen Griffin, writing for himself and Judge John K. Bush, wrote broadband must be considered an “information service,” not a “telecommunications service” as the FCC said in its order last year. The net neutrality rules were first approved in 2015 under former President Obama but repealed under President-elect Trump’s first term in 2017. The commission voted along partisan lines last April to restore the rules under the leadership of Democratic FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. Rosenworcel on Thursday urged Congress to take action in response to the ruling.

“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” she wrote in a statement. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.” Advocates of net neutrality argue it is necessary for ensuring a fair and open internet, while critics claim the rules would expand government control over the internet to solve a problem that has not proved especially pervasive. Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is expected take over as chair this month as the commission switches to a GOP majority, voted against restoring the rules last year, stating the agency “offers up a laundry list of bogus justification” for bringing broadband service under Title II of the Communications Act.

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“..the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which gives the president the power to permanently protect waters from development..”

• Biden To Block Trump’s Energy Plans Before Exit (RT)

US President Joe Biden will invoke a 70-year-old law in a bid to stop incoming President Donald Trump from expanding oil and gas drilling in much of US coastal waters, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Biden’s planned executive order will draw on the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which gives the president the power to permanently protect waters from development, anonymous White House sources told the news outlet. According to these sources, Biden is expected to apply the ban to parts of the Pacific Ocean near California and eastern Gulf of Mexico near Florida.

The ban was described by Bloomberg as permanent, with the outlet noting that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act does not give presidents the authority to revoke protective orders after they are issued. However, some previous orders have been legally challenged and modified. During his first term in office, Trump attempted to revoke an order by former President Barack Obama protecting 125 million acres of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, but his attempt was rejected by a court in 2019. Before he was elected in 2020, Biden promised to allow no new offshore drilling projects. However, he broke this promise last year when he announced three new offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, 2027, and 2029. Biden’s three sales are the fewest announced by any US president in modern history.

Trump has promised to significantly expand domestic energy exploration and production, declaring on the campaign trail that he will “drill, baby, drill.” The president-elect has also promised to roll back Biden’s electric-vehicle mandates, which currently require 67% of new light-duty vehicles and 46% of medium-duty vehicles to be electric by 2032. In a separate move announced on Tuesday, the US Department of the Interior said that it would place a 20-year ban on oil, gas, and geothermal development in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains. The department said that it would hold a 90-day public consultation on the proposal, adding that the ban was requested by Native American tribes, conservationists, and hunters.

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“The second problem is the FBI’s utter lack of credibility, highlighted by Russiagate, Johnson said.”

• Ex-CIA Analyst Doesn’t Buy FBI’s New Year’s Day Terror Narrative (Sp.)

Twin violent incidents rocked the US on New Year’s Day, with an ex-US Army vet plowing a pickup into a crowd in New Orleans and going down guns blazing in a firefight with police, and an active-duty Green Beret blowing up in a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Sputnik asked renowned former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to weigh in. “Right now, the FBI is trying to present this as what they call a ‘lone wolf individual’, acting on his own by himself. I know that’s the story. I don’t find it to be particularly credible,” Johnson said, commenting on the terror attack that rocked New Orleans and claimed scores of lives January 1.

“Let’s start with the fact that the initial news reports presented this as a further sign of the lack of control over immigration in the United States. This had nothing to do with illegal migrants. These were two US citizens, both,” Johnson emphasized, adding that both men were also affiliated with the Army. “It’s a threat from within,” the observer said, calling reports that the New Orleans attacker was affiliated with ISIS* “curious and ironic,” given the US government’s habit of labeling people terrorists and then working with them, whether in Syria today or Afghanistan going back to the 1980s. The second problem is the FBI’s utter lack of credibility, highlighted by Russiagate, Johnson said.

“The FBI said while there’s no evidence that [the New Orleans attacker] was working with anybody else. I gotta be honest, I don’t trust the FBI. The FBI has a history of lying, absolute lying and fabricating. They fabricated the whole Russiagate affair,” Johnson recalled, citing the debunked claim hatched by the Clinton campaign in 2016 and taken up by the FBI in 2016 about Donald Trump’s alleged ‘collusion’ with Russia. “I can’t rule out the possibility that this individual was acting as part of a broader effort to create chaos and instability in the United States prior to the inauguration of Donald Trump to prevent Trump from being inaugurated. Because Trump is seen as a potential existential threat to organizations like the FBI, the CIA, [and] the Department of Justice,” the veteran former intel analyst said.

Johnson also has a number of other questions regarding the New Orleans incident, like who really planted the two discovered IEDs, and where the money came from, given that the suspect was reportedly broke, and served in the Army’s HR department, meaning he had no special explosives or firearms training. The Las Vegas suspect on the other hand, as an active-duty special forces NCO, “did have the training with weapons and explosives, which in turn begs the question of how did he blow himself up?” Johnson asked, adding that the social media photo of the suspect wearing a ‘Slava Ukraini’ T-shirt begs the question of whether he ever traveled to Ukraine or had any contacts with Ukrainian intelligence.

“Because this very well could have been tied into Ukraine. Carrying out an attack on the Trump Tower. Because they recognize Donald Trump is going to potentially bring an end to this war,” Johnson said. At the moment, there are more questions than solid answers on all counts, the observer summed up.

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Is this why Kirilov was murdered?

• Bill Gates Turns Mosquitoes Into ‘Flying Syringes’ (Sp.)

A Bill Gates-funded center has bred mosquitoes capable of injecting parasites into unsuspecting humans under the pretext of vaccinating against malaria. But are they truly harmless? The Gates Foundation-backed Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands has developed a method of malaria vaccination using mosquitoes to deliver live-attenuated Plasmodium falciparum parasites. The mosquitoes act as ‘flying syringes’ to deliver malaria vaccines – or potentially other substances. But concerns have been raised that recipients could be unaware of the process and be vaccinated without their consent.

In 2008, Gates pledged $168 million to develop a next-gen malaria vaccine. Jichi Medical University in Japan received funding to genetically modify mosquitoes that can pass a malaria vaccine protein into a host. In 2016, Gates announced a joint $3.7-billion initiative with the British government to combat malaria. By 2018, Gates-funded Oxitec was developing genetically-modified male mosquitoes whose offspring with wild females would die before adulthood. In both cases, scientists raised concerns over the lack of comprehensive studies of environmental, health and ethical risks. If issues of human consent and ethics are overlooked, insects could be used as ‘vectors’ for other biological agents. But who guarantees they carry life-saving vaccines and not harmful pathogens? It would be impossible to verify the exact contents of the ‘flying syringes’.

The Pentagon is said to have conducted similar studies in overseas bio-labs, including in Ukraine, according to assassinated Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov. Kirillov revealed that US biolabs in Ukraine studied viruses transmitted by mosquitoes, including dengue fever. That was also referenced in a lawsuit filed by Cubans following the 1981 dengue epidemic in the country, where the only area unaffected was around the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

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Camouflage

 

 

2 old guys

 

 

Grafting

 

 

Komodo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1874803493665386785

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 31 2024

Oct 312024
 
 October 31, 2024  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Gustave Caillebotte Paris Street, Rainy Day 1877

 

• On November 5 the Decision Will Be Made between Freedom and Tyranny (PCR)
• Trump Rides In Garbage Truck (RT)
• Final Messaging of Trump and Harris Are Polar Opposites (Whedon)
• Harris Campaign Manipulating Social Media – Researcher (RT)
• Harris Campaign Slashes North Carolina Ads As Dems’ Turnout Plunges (ZH)
• Trump Told Netanyahu To End War – Israeli Media (RT)
• Rogan Rages At YouTube Censorship: “You Can’t Suppress Shit… ” (ZH)
• NYTimes Journos Uncover Elon Musk’s Secret Luxury Compound In Austin (ZH)
• Wikipedia Is ‘Broken’ – Musk (RT)
• US Supreme Court Lets Virginia Purge Noncitizens From Voter Rolls (ZH)
• As Liz Cheney Slams Donald Trump, Her Integrity Comes Under Fire (Julie Kelly)
• Who are the Big Money Players Supporting the Candidates? (Sp.)
• EU Wants to Subdue Hungary by Replacing Viktor Orban With Their Protege (Sp.)
• Ties With Russia ‘Absolutely Necessary’ – Ex-Ukrainian President (RT)

 

 

 

 

Ackman

Art of the Surge
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851419171420045524

Puerto Rico

Indian Space Agency Chief

Vivek

Biden garbage

Donalds
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851471969172037796

Bannon Wolff
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851614803694866881

Vote

Tulsi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851594961785086239

Dore Tucker

 

 

 

 

“Democrats Continue to Block All Efforts to Restore Electoral Integrity.”

“If Trump does not regain office, America will never again experience a free election. Voting will be used as a ratification for the one-party state..”

• On November 5 the Decision Will Be Made between Freedom and Tyranny (PCR)

The Democrat Nevada Supreme Court ruled contrary to law that non-postmarked ballots that arrive 3 days after the election can be counted. This permits non-mailed mail-in ballots to be filled in after the vote count and used to reverse the electoral result. The federal US Appeals Court for the fifth circuit ruled that the US Constitution requires ballots to be counted on election day. The Democrats have declared the US Constitution to be a racist document that they will not abide by despite their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. Democrat federal district courts required the state of Virginia to restore non-US citizens to its voter rolls. This allows the Democrats to vote the non-citizens. The Democrat Department of Justice (sic) required the state of Alabama to have non-US citizens on the state’s voter rolls. A federal judge dismissed the Republican attempt to have only US citizens on Michigan’s voter rolls.

The Democrat Pennsylvania supreme court illegally ruled that improperly cast mail-in ballots can be counted. The Democrat district attorney in Philadelphia is suing Elon Musk in an effort to stop Musk’s support of the US Constitution. Democrat states legalized street corner drop-in ballot boxes that permit anonymous individuals to stuff with fraudulent votes that the Democrats have ruled must be counted. O’Keefe Media Group reports that in totally corrupt Maricopa County, Arizona, Democrat election officials instructed poll watchers not to interfere with illegal ballot harvesting or to report any voting irregularities. American universities have produced a generation of Woke leftwing business leaders. The consequence is that the business leaders are no longer Republican, and their money, especially that of billionaires, has gone to the Democrats.

The latest campaign filings for the first half of October show that Kamala spent $304.5 million on her election campaign which raised $295.3 million. Trump came in with less than half of that. Trump raised $117 million and spent $143.7 million. If these reported figures are correct and representative of the campaign, it means that American money is aligned with the revolutionary Democrat Party which intends to overthrow the Constitution and citizen rule. Voters are committed differently, but the election is easily stolen from them. I agree with Elon Musk. If Trump does not regain office, America will never again experience a free election. Voting will be used as a ratification for the one-party state. November 5 is the day the decision is made between freedom and tyranny. If tyranny wins, there will be no going back.

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“They’ve bullied you, they’ve demonized us, they’ve censored us, they’ve deplatformed us and they weaponized the power of our own government against all of us..”

• Trump Rides In Garbage Truck (RT)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rode a garbage truck during a campaign stop in Wisconsin on Wednesday, in an apparent dig at outgoing US President Joe Biden’s disparaging comments about Trump voters. Biden labeled Trump supporters “garbage” in a Zoom call with activists on Tuesday. He later clarified that he was condemning a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe from the stage during an earlier Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, who compared Puerto Rico to “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.” The supporters of the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, have described Hinchcliffe’s speech as “racist,” although the comedian insisted that the joke was taken out of context. Trump mocked Biden and Harris as he appeared in the battleground state of Wisconsin sitting inside the cabin of a white dump truck decorated with American flags and laden with his own campaign slogans.

“How do you like my garbage truck?” the former president asked reporters, leaning out of the passenger seat window. “This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.” Trump later delivered a speech in Green Bay while wearing a bright-orange vest. “I have to begin by saying, 250 million Americans are not garbage,” he told the crowd, accusing the Democrats of spreading hate towards his fans. “For the past nine years, Kamala and her party have called us racists, bigots, fascists, deplorables, irredeemables, Nazis, and they called me Hitler,” he said, drawing boos from the audience. “They’ve bullied you, they’ve demonized us, they’ve censored us, they’ve deplatformed us and they weaponized the power of our own government against all of us,” he added.

Trump’s ally, businessman and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, posted a video of himself emptying bins in a garbage truck and wearing a green vest. Harris has distanced herself from Biden’s ‘garbage’ comment. “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” she told the BBC, promising that, if elected, she would be “a president for all Americans, including those that don’t vote for me.” Both Republicans and Democrats have increasingly accused each other of resorting to hateful rhetoric throughout the highly contentious election cycle, as voters are set to go to the polls on November 5. Trump himself has been criticized for using brash and vulgar language against his opponents, most recently for describing his rivals as an “enemy from within.”

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“..looking forward versus back..”

• Final Messaging of Trump and Harris Are Polar Opposites (Whedon)

In the campaign’s final days, former President Donald Trump is campaigning on a vision for the nation’s future while Vice President Kamala Harris seems to be looking back four years to rehash Democratic grievances over his election challenge, and reverting from a campaign based on “joy” to calling Trump and his supporters “fascists” and even “Nazis.” Harris held a rally Tuesday on The Ellipse, the same site where Trump delivered his own address on Jan. 6, 2021, which Democrats have characterized as an attempt to incite an “insurrection.” During her speech, Harris recalled Trump’s time in office and called on voters to “turn the page” on the era of his political ubiquity. She further painted Trump as a purveyor of division, recalling his remarks about “the enemy within,” and urged Americans to “turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division […] It is time for a new generation of leadership in America,” she said, warning that Trump would walk into the Oval Office with an “enemies list.”

Her speech followed years of Democrats labeling Trump a “threat to Democracy” and a “fascist” and came amid media outcry over his Madison Square Garden rally. Legacy media and Democrats alike drew comparisons between Trump’s event and a 1939 Nazi rally held at the same venue. That venue, ignored by mainstream media, was also home to rallies held by Presidents Hoover, Truman and John F. Kennedy, where Marilyn Monroe sang a salacious rendition of “Happy Birthday” to JFK. Jan. 6, meanwhile, has long been a focus of the Harris campaign, and featured heavily in events featuring former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who served on the House panel that investigated that incident. Attracting backlash at the Madison Square Garden rally was comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, an insult comic who made a joke about Puerto Rico upon which the Harris campaign and media seized as validation of Trump’s supposed racism and admiration for Adolf Hitler.

The theme of Trump as a fascist and threat to democracy, especially in light of Jan. 6, has essentially become the campaign’s final message to the American voters, but many doubt that it will resonate with the electorate. In a recent Emerson College survey, 45.2% of respondents said that the economy was the most important issue of the election compared to only 13.7% who chose “threats to democracy” as a most salient issue. A further 14.4% chose immigration and 7.2% picked abortion access. Healthcare rounded out the top five with 5.9%. A CBS survey, however, suggests that “democracy” may be more than just a minority issue, albeit one that doesn’t split on partisan lines. Seventy-one percent of respondents identified “the state of democracy” as a “major factor” in their vote. But the economy again overshadowed the issue as 84% labeled it a “major factor” and 76% said the same of “inflation” on its own. Trump, for his part, has heavily emphasized economic concerns in the final push, even debuting a new proposal during his Sunday rally to provide a new tax credit for family members taking care of parents or other relatives.

“[W]hat Trump’s overall closing message has been, which if you look at what he’s saying and you look at his paid ads… it’s really mostly about the economy and about immigration and about how we can have a more optimistic future in America.” CNN’s Scott Jennings said amid media furor over Hinchcliffe.. In a press conference on Tuesday, the former president said that Harris had opted to double down on the Nazi narrative and continue to focus on Jan. 6 because “her record is horrible” and she can’t focus on the issues that matter to Americans because of it. “I’m running on a plan to save America,” Trump said during a Tuesday press conference. “It’s going to be saving it from the incredible destruction that’s been caused by crooked Joe Biden and Kamala.”

“So when Kamala Harris was doing the CNN town hall last week, and she was asked a question that might be about Hitler or January 6, I understand if she includes in her answer something about Hitler on January 6,” said former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. “But when you get asked questions about the economy and the border and you’re still answering about Hitler and January 6, you don’t deserve to win, because … you’re being handed what should be a softball question.” “You should walk into that town hall. You should walk into that town hall hungry to answer it. ‘Oh my gosh. I can’t wait until they ask about the economy, because I’m so proud of my record and I’m so proud of my ideas that I can’t wait to tell people everything that we’re working on.’ Instead, when you actually get to that point of a town hall or an interview, Kamala Harris is, you know, she still is like, oh my gosh, let me figure out how to answer this in some word salad. It’s about Hitler and January 6. It doesn’t work.”

In the meantime, there is little to suggest that Harris’s messaging or outrage at Hinchcliffe’s jokes have moved the needle in her favor. Polymarket betting odds currently favor Trump to win the presidency over Harris by a 66.9% to 33.1% margin. The current figure represents an increase in Trump’s odds since Sunday and marks his highest odds against Harris in months. He also currently leads Harris in the RealClearPolitics polling average by 0.4%. At the state level, Trump currently leads in every swing state, save Michigan, a modest decline from his recent high that had him winning every key battleground.

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“..fraudulently games Community Notes with sock puppet accounts and astroturf tactics..”

• Harris Campaign Manipulating Social Media – Researcher (RT)

Kamala Harris’ and Tim Walz’s campaign staff have organized “astroturf” operations on the social media platform Reddit and conspired to manipulate the Community Notes feature on X, according to an American researcher. “Astroturfing” is a term used to describe manufactured content posing as authentic, named after the artificial soil used at American sporting venues, as opposed to real, “grassroots” support. The Harris-Walz campaign “fraudulently games Community Notes with sock puppet accounts and astroturf tactics. And we have the screenshots and spreadsheets and campaign comms to prove it,” Sean Davis, founder of the outlet Federalist, posted on Wednesday. Davis was citing a series of articles by a researcher going by the handle ‘Reddit Lies’, including screenshots taken from the Harris-Walz server on the messaging platform Discord, purporting to show how the Democrats conspired to swamp social media with their content, while suppressing criticism.

In one example, Democratic National Committee employee Timothy Durigan instructed campaign volunteers to vote down a Community Note that flagged a post by the @KamalaHQ account as inaccurate. The Community Notes project was rolled out by Elon Musk after he purchased Twitter – since renamed X – in 2022, as a way to flag inaccurate or misleading posts without resorting to censorship. According to ‘Reddit Lies’, multiple official Harris-Walz accounts have “regularly provided dishonest presentations” of their rivals, former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, to the point where even CNN called them out. Yet “virtually none” of their “false and misleading tweets” have Community Notes – most likely because of a coordinated campaign to vote them down, the researcher said.

The Harris-Walz Discord has a “Twitter (X) Community Notes Training” module, which teaches users how to increase their score and urges them to downrank notes that call out inaccurate claims by Democrats, according to screenshots published by the Federalist. While the campaign may have had success in keeping Community Notes off their misleading posts, it has not been able to manipulate the system to the extent it wanted, ‘Reddit Lies’ said, citing a post in which one of the organizers lamented X’s safeguards. The campaign also appears to be using a tool called Reach to propagate its messages across multiple platforms, running afoul of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” bans intended to stop ‘Russian bots’ that the Democrats allege have interfered in US elections.

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“The campaign had seen a North Carolina-Nevada combo as a potential game-saving offset in the event Trump were to win Pennsylvania. Now, North Carolina seems to fading out of reach..”

• Harris Campaign Slashes North Carolina Ads As Dems’ Turnout Plunges (ZH)

North Carolina may no longer be a swing state: With under a week to go until Election Day, the Kamala Harris campaign just slashed its planned advertising in the state. Some see the move as a surrender in the face of surging Republican turnout and plunging Democratic turnout in early voting there. According to AdImpact, a political intelligence firm, on Monday the Harris-Walz campaign reserved $2.7 million worth of ads in North Carolina for the last stretch of the campaign, only to turn around and kill more than $2 million of its reservations on Tuesday. Though Harris is following through on a scheduled Raleigh rally on Wednesday morning — while Trump is holding his own event in Rocky Mount, NC — her campaign managers’ hopes of winning North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes have likely plunged as daily updates of early voting numbers continue to paint a grim picture of her prospects in the Tar Heel State.

The 2020 vs 2024 contrast in early voting patterns is striking. Compared to the same time four years ago, North Carolina Democrats have cast 341,000 fewer votes, while Republicans have cast 9,000 more, noted Andy Jackson of the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation. Aside from the party mix, North Carolina is also seeing lower turnout among two traditional Democratic voter blocs: young people and blacks. In 2020, 92% of the state’s black voters backed Biden. Across the country, however, black support of Trump is surging. Earlier this month, political analyst Mark Halperin told Tucker Carlson that, despite Harris’ bullishness on North Carolina, reliable Republicans told him North Carolina was firmly on the Trump side of the scoresheet:

Last week, an unnamed Harris campaign official conceded that things were starting to look bleak in North Carolina, telling NBC News, “Of all of the seven [swing states], that one seems to be a little bit slipping away.” The campaign had seen a North Carolina-Nevada combo as a potential game-saving offset in the event Trump were to win Pennsylvania. Now, North Carolina seems to fading out of reach, while early voting turnout patterns in Nevada also have Democrats sweating. In this scenario, if Trump wins North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, he’d only need 8 more electoral votes from the four remaining swing states to reach the winning 270:

While early voting numbers paint a grim Democratic picture, opinion polls continue to portray the North Carolina race as a tight one. The most recent poll, via AtlasIntel, has Harris leading 49% to 48%. Trafalgar’s latest survey shows Trump leading 49% to 46%. In 2020, Trump won North Carolina, beating Joe Biden 49.9% to 48.6%. Going into early voting, there was considerable concern among Republicans that turnout in GOP-dominated western North Carolina would be smothered by the devastation visited upon the region by Hurricane Helene — so much so that the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, mused that North Carolina’s legislature should consider awarding the state’s electoral votes to Trump no matter what the election’s outcome is.

However, in another Democrat-jarring early-voting dynamic, “Turnout in the 13 counties hardest hit by Helene is slightly HIGHER than in the rest of the state,” said election expert Jackson. According to a new Elon University poll, only 24% of North Carolina Republicans say that state and federal agencies are doing a “very good” or “good” job handling recovery efforts, compared to 68% of Democrats — who are less likely to live in the affected zone. As an increasingly weakened Harris campaign staggers to the finish line, what will be the next shoe to drop?

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“..Israel should end the war “fast… because they are getting decimated with this [negative] publicity.”

• Trump Told Netanyahu To End War – Israeli Media (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants the war in Gaza over before he takes office in January, assuming he wins next week’s presidential election, the Times of Israel reported on Wednesday. Trump made the demand to Netanyahu when the pair met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in July, the Israeli news site reported, citing “a former Trump administration official and an Israeli official.” Four months before the meeting, Trump told the Israel Hayom news outlet that “you have to finish up your war,” calling the destruction of civilian homes in Gaza “a very bad picture for the world.” Trump, who often touts his close relationship with Netanyahu and his support for Israel, said a week before the meeting that Israel should end the war “fast… because they are getting decimated with this [negative] publicity.”

In his public statements, Trump has never set a timeline for Netanyahu to cease military operations. The officials who spoke to the Times of Israel stressed that Trump did not define what he would consider an end to the conflict, with the American source saying the Republican could very well support “residual” activity by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that the IDF will continue to wage war until it achieves “total victory” over Hamas, and that Israel will maintain “full security control” over the strip afterwards. Speaking to lawmakers from his Likud party earlier this week, Netanyahu said that he “can’t agree” to Hamas’ demand that the IDF withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the release of the roughly 100 hostages still held by the Palestinian militants. Any pre-inauguration day victory, the American official said, must include the release of these hostages.

Further complicating matters is the fact that Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners have signaled multiple times since last October that they would withdraw from government – tanking Netanyahu’s political career – at the first sign of any ceasefire with Hamas. “There are internal political constraints to ending the war quickly,” an Israeli security official told the Times of Israel earlier this month, apparently referring to this possibility. Despite his pro-Israel stance, Trump has made inroads with Arab-American voters by promising to end the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon. In a social media post on Wednesday aimed at Lebanese-Americans, Trump declared that the conflict in their homeland was “caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden,” and said that he would ensure “your friends and family in Lebanon… live in peace, prosperity, and harmony with their neighbors.”

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“It’s a runaway train and they hate it because they’re ideologically opposed to Trump being more popular..”

• Rogan Rages At YouTube Censorship: “You Can’t Suppress Shit… ” (ZH)

“If you Google’d Rogan-Trump you could only get clips, you couldn’t find the full episode,” exclaimed Joe Rogan this afternoon, after numerous reports of censorship/suppression of his legendary interview with former President Trump on YouTube. “We reached out to them,” he continued, “and they fixed it,” but, he went on “Elon was furious and contacted Daniel Ek at Spotify and they put it on X as well. Now it has more views than ever.” In fact, on top of the unknown tens of millions who watched/listened to it on Spotify, almost 20 million people have watched the Rogan-Trump interview on X now……and a further 41 million on YouTube… Rogan forthrightly explained to those who will not listen: “You can’t suppress shit. It doesn’t work. People are going to realize what you’re doing.

“This is 2024. “If my video isn’t trending, then what is? Why is my video not trending? If one show has 36 million downloads in one day, that’s not trending? There’s no way this was a mistake. It could have been a rogue engineer or something.” We suspect Rogan is being generous with that thought. “They’re desperate because they had no idea it was going to be that popular. It’s a runaway train and they hate it because they’re ideologically opposed to Trump being more popular. Mass reporting could also have done it, but that’s a symptom of the left too.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1851751389858541792

Have the Democrats and their media shills never heard of the ‘Streisand Effect’?

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“A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces, by far.”

• NYTimes Journos Uncover Elon Musk’s Secret Luxury Compound In Austin (ZH)

The world’s richest man and Donald Trump’s most prominent supporter has reportedly acquired two mansions in Austin, Texas, within walking distance of each other, paying upwards of $35 million for the villas to support his growing family (of which there are at least 11). Nosy New York Times journalists, citing sources and public records … were the first to report that Musk acquired two mansions in Austin, all within walking distance of each, for $35 million. They said one of the mansions was a 14,400-square-foot mansion resembling a Tuscan home. The other home was directly behind it. Sources told the NYTimes there was a third mansion about a 10-minute walk away—this is the home Musk usually stays at while in Austin. NYT journos wrote:

“Three mansions, three mothers, 11 children and one secretive, multibillionaire father who obsesses about declining birthrates when he isn’t overseeing one of his six companies: It is an unconventional family situation, and one that Mr. Musk seems to want to make even bigger.” Musk moved to Austin after dumping his California mansions and shifted his companies, SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company, to Texas. This decision was primarily because Governor Gavin Newsom and far-left Democrats ruined California with backfiring progressive policies that sparked a tidal wave of violent crime. Plus, business conditions in the state are atrocious compared with Texas. In Musk’s mind, imploding global fertility rates are the biggest crisis of our lifetime: “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces, by far.”

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“..the website “is controlled by far-left activists” and that “people should stop donating to them.”

• Wikipedia Is ‘Broken’ – Musk (RT)

Wikipedia is “broken,” X and Tesla owner Elon Musk wrote on Tuesday, commenting on accusations that the online encyclopedia allows articles which essentially brand Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump a “fascist.” The billionaire, who recently offered his full support to the previous US president ahead of the November election, highlighted an article called ‘Wikipedia Editors Officially Deem Trump a Fascist’ by American writer Ashley Rindsberg. The article published on Pirate Wires drew attention to several Wikipedia entries, including ‘Trumpism’, ‘Racial views of Donald Trump’, and ‘Donald Trump and fascism’, noting that the latter page appeared on the same day that The Guardian published a 4,000-word essay called “Is Donald Trump a Fascist?” alluding to many similar points.

The page ‘Donald Trump and fascism’ also contains some of the more pointed accusations against the Republican, including comparisons between the January 6 attack by the then president’s supporters on Capitol Hill and the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed coup attempt by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1923. Rindsberg noted that the ‘Trumpism’ Wikipedia page writes that the supposed ideology “has significant authoritarian leanings,” and is “national-populist” and “neo-nationalist” in essence while relying on “a source that argues exactly the opposite.” He added that some of the key quotes in the ‘Trumpism’ article are sourced to late sociologist Richard Lachmann, who was described as a “committed leftist” and “an anti-imperialist.”

Commenting on Rindsberg’s article, Musk wrote on X: “Wikipedia is broken.” He previously claimed that the website “is controlled by far-left activists” and that “people should stop donating to them.” Musk’s criticism of Wikipedia comes after a June report by the Manhattan Institute found that some English-language articles tended to associate right-wing leaders more often with words correlated with negative emotions as “anger” and “disgust.” This apparent bias, the researchers added, is also influencing automatic responses given by AI large language models.

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“The ruling applies only to Virginia’s “systematic” effort to remove noncitizens that began after Aug. 7..”

• US Supreme Court Lets Virginia Purge Noncitizens From Voter Rolls (ZH)

The US Supreme Court has granted a request by Virginia officials to move forward with its removal of roughly 1,600 alleged noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls – granting a request from state officials to pause a lower court order that blocked Virginia from continuing a systematic voter removal program launched in August. “The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted. The October 25, 2024 order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia … is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit…” reads the order, which passed by a vote of 6-3. As the Epoch Times noted on Monday, the application was filed in the case known as Beals v. Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights. The application was directed to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency litigation from Virginia.

The lead applicant, Susan Beals, is Virginia’s Commissioner of Elections. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found unanimously on Oct. 27 that taking the names off the voter rolls within 90 days of an approaching federal election appears to violate the National Voter Registration Act. Federal elections are scheduled for Nov. 5. The Supreme Court previously held in Purcell v. Gonzalez (2006) that courts should not change rules close to an election because doing so creates a risk of causing confusion. Virginia counters that the legal provision is not relevant because the names being removed are not those of U.S. voters. But “that argument violates basic principles of statutory construction by focusing on a differently worded statutory provision that is not at issue here and proposing a strained reading of the Quiet Period Provision to avoid rendering that other provision absurd or unconstitutional,” the Fourth Circuit said.

Such an interpretation would be problematic because it would give the words “voters” and “registrant” an identical meaning, the circuit court said. Moreover, Virginia had not demonstrated its appeal was likely to succeed or that it would suffer irreparable harm should the appeal be denied, the circuit court said as it affirmed an Oct. 25 ruling by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles. Giles wrote that Virginia was still free to cancel the voter registration of noncitizens individually or to investigate “noncitizens who register to vote or who vote in Virginia’s election.” The ruling applies only to Virginia’s “systematic” effort to remove noncitizens that began after Aug. 7, she added.

Nevada
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851305139560464660

Dominion
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851618753860993201

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“The driver’s transcript, in addition to hundreds of witness interviews conducted by the J6 committee, still has not been made public.”

• As Liz Cheney Slams Donald Trump, Her Integrity Comes Under Fire (Julie Kelly)

Liz Cheney, a staunch “Never Trump” former Republican representative, has joined Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in key swing states in the final days of the campaign to warn voters that Donald Trump does not respect the “rule of law” or the U.S. Constitution. “[When] you think about, what are you looking for in somebody you hire, you’re looking for somebody that you can trust, you’re looking for somebody who’s going to be responsible, who’s going to operate in good faith,” Cheney told the Detroit Economic Club on Oct. 22. But new evidence has emerged suggesting that Cheney may have unethically influenced crucial anti-Trump testimony while serving as vice chairman of the January 6 Committee that investigated the protest at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. At issue is Cheney’s collaboration with Cassidy Hutchinson, now 27, a former aide to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson, who also is campaigning for Harris, is widely considered the committee’s “star” witness for her damning account of Trump’s alleged conduct on January 6. For nearly two hours during her June 28, 2022, televised appearance, Hutchinson explained her version of what happened before and after Trump’s speech at the Ellipse as the White House scrambled to respond to the escalating chaos at the Capitol. In one of the more explosive moments of that hearing, Cheney held up the handwritten draft of a tweet for President Donald Trump to post instructing protestors to disperse from the area. Cheney asked Hutchison if she had written the tweet, which was never posted. “That’s my handwriting,” replied Hutchinson, who said the words had been dictated to her by Meadows that afternoon around 3:00 p.m. A footnote in the committee’s final report stated that a “review of Hutchinson’s handwriting was consistent with the script of the note.”

The import of the testimony was clear: Hutchinson was not only an eyewitness but a key participant as events unfolded that day. But a certified handwriting analyst retained by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga), chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, determined that Hutchinson did not write the note. The handwriting, according to the expert, belongs to Eric Herschmann, a Trump White House lawyer who had immediately contradicted Hutchinson’s testimony in 2022 and later provided several samples of his own handwriting to Loudermilk’s analyst. “The Select Committee was willing to take [Hutchinson] at her word, rather than checking into the facts. The American people deserve the truth,” Loudermilk said. [..]

This latest disclosure by Loudermilk – who is conducting separate inquiries into the events of Jan. 6 and the now defunct J6 select committee – appears to represent another example of Cheney’s questionable involvement on the committee, particularly related to Hutchinson. Loudermilk unearthed text messages on an encrypted chat app between Cheney and Hutchinson prior to her public testimony, which represented the fifth time Hutchinson testified before the committee; she had already sat for transcribed interviews in February, March, May, and on June 20, 2022. On June 6, 2022, Hutchinson texted Cheney using Signal, asking “to have a private conversation with you,” according to information released by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.

They were connected by Alyssa Farah Griffin, a one-time co-worker of Hutchinson and also a witness before the committee who now appears on “The View.” The texts appear to indicate Cheney and Hutchinson spoke on the phone shortly after that initial outreach. Hutchinson dismissed her attorney at the time, former White House deputy general counsel Stefan Passantino, a few days later. Passantino had represented Hutchinson and was paid to do so by Trump’s Save America PAC. Two Cheney-recommended lawyers, Jody Hunt and William Jordan, soon agreed to represent Hutchinson pro bono. Cheney, a lawyer who is a member of the Washington D.C. bar, appeared to know her communications violated ethics guidelines about communicating with witnesses behind their lawyer’s back. A text from Farah Griffin to Hutchinson acknowledged a “concern” that Cheney “can’t really ethically talk to you without [Passantino.]”

But Hutchinson did more than just change lawyers; in several instances, she changed her story from her previous testimony. During her televised testimony, which committee staffers later described as an “emergency” event initiated by Cheney, Hutchinson re-enacted an alleged confrontation between Trump, his driver, and the head of his security detail in the presidential vehicle following his speech at the Ellipse. Under questioning led by Cheney, Hutchinson said Trump became “irate” upon being told it was not safe to go to the Capitol after he advised his supporters to march there “peacefully and patriotically.” Trump, according to Hutchinson’s second-hand account, attempted to grab the steering wheel of the vehicle. “Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward [Head of Security] Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson said as she recounted a conversation she purportedly had with Tony Ornato, the deputy White House chief of staff at the time, after the incident.

Her testimony rocked the political world, with legal analysts from across the spectrum insisting that the story would doom Trump. Others expressed skepticism, prompting Cheney to defend her witness. “I am absolutely confident in her credibility, I am confident in her testimony, and the committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources,” Cheney told ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl on June 30, 2022. But no one in the White House corroborated Hutchinson’s version of events. To the contrary, Ornato said the first time he heard of any confrontation in the presidential vehicle was during Hutchinson’s testimony. “I recall, that day after Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony, going to the Secret Service Counsel and being in his office and then the Secret Service spokesperson asking me about my recollection was of that story.

And I relayed that that is not a story I recollect and I don’t recall that story happening,” Ornato told Cheney, who asked about the incident. And during the committee’s questioning of the unnamed Secret Service driver, investigators didn’t ask about the alleged incident. The subject was discussed only after the driver’s attorney “proactively” brought it up, according to a report by Loudermilk’s committee, prompting the driver to tell the committee that he “[President Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel. [President Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.” The driver’s transcript, in addition to hundreds of witness interviews conducted by the J6 committee, still has not been made public.

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“One of the biggest games, the easy money games in America and in the West right now is promoting this unregulated globalism..”

• Who are the Big Money Players Supporting the Candidates? (Sp.)

Fifty megadonors have collectively poured over $2.5 billion into political committees and other organizations supporting Democrats and Republicans, according to The Washington Post. Individual megadonors have played “an outsized role” in the 2024 presidential race, Axios reports. “What the donors expect in return is influence,” Jim Rogers, renowned investor, chairman of Beeland Interests, and co-founder of Quantum Fund, told Sputnik. “And if they need something or think they need something from the government, they think that they will be able to contact the government, contact someone and get what they need. If you pay a lot of money, you expect to get something in return.” Billionaires Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg gave $50 million each to support Kamala Harris, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk has given almost $75 million to PACs supporting Trump.

Businessman Timothy Mellon poured a whopping $125 million into the super PAC Make America Great Again. Nonetheless, Harris is leading Trump by over two-to-one in terms of fundraising and spending. “In the period 1988 to the present, the emergence of unregulated globalism has created an opportunity for big investors to really not just curry favor with big governments, but to basically pick and choose leaders and key officials in these governments, either to protect themselves from prosecution or to put themselves in a position where they can reap large financial rewards off of their government connections,” Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel told Sputnik. Referring to the Biden and Clinton families’ suspected influence peddling schemes, the analyst noted that “it’s relatively cheap to send $20 million, $100 million, even $250 million towards a politician, if that politician can turn around and help a big company turn $2 trillion into $4 trillion.”

Kamala Harris has raised around $1 billion since July, when she was endorsed by George and Alex Soros, BlackRock co-founder Ralph Schlosstein, and Evercore founder Roger Altman. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon also expressed his full support for Kamala in private, according to The New York Times. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has long played a substantial role in Democratic administrations, with the company’s employees serving in the US government under both Barack Obama and Joe Biden. “One of the biggest games, the easy money games in America and in the West right now is promoting this unregulated globalism where there is no power strong enough to obstruct a multinational company or investors or multinational companies from profiting off of their ties to these various government actors,” Ortel stressed. Alphabet Inc., Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Meta top the list of Kamala Harris’ campaign donors, according to OpenSecrets.

Silicon Valley tycoons have also flocked to support Harris: Facebook* co-founder Dustin Moskovitz gave $30 million to the Harris campaign while co-founder of Opsware Ben Horowitz donated $2.5 million. “The Republican Party is no longer the party of the rich,” Ortel noted. “The Democratic Party out of Silicon Valley and the neo-monopolies created there – they have the money, which is very different than it was in the 1980s under Reagan and under Bush.” While Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Hollywood have thrown their weight behind Harris, US industries and defense contractors have largely supported Donald Trump, according to OpenSecrets and financial tech startup Quiver Quantitative. Trump is famous for huge military spending and benefits to domestic industrial giants. In 2018, he signed what at the time was seen as the largest military budget in US history, worth $700 billion. Still, Boeing reportedly provided Harris with a bigger chunk of donations.

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“The stakes are high, because they want Hungary to abandon its sovereign [politics] and fully submit to the will of the leadership in Brussels..”

• EU Wants to Subdue Hungary by Replacing Viktor Orban With Their Protege (Sp.)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European People’s Party (EPP) Manfred Weber of colluding to oust him and install their own puppet government in Budapest. “Brussels is colluding with [Prime Minister] Viktor Orban’s liberal-social-democratic opposition in Hungary and is trying to pull the ground from under its feet in the parliamentary elections due in 2026,” Endre Simo, the president of the Hungarian Community for Peace (Magyar Békekör), told Sputnik. “Under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber, we can witness Brussels’ serious political interference in Hungary,” he added. Simo noted Weber’s support for Peter Magyar, leader of “the presumably foreign-funded” opposition party Tisza, began before the June European Parliament elections. Weber asserted on October 9 that Orban would eventually be defeated by Magyar, with Hungary’s general elections scheduled for April 2026.

Orban came to prominence for advocating conservative values and national sovereignty, which was lambasted by the EU as a threat to the bloc’s unity and democracy. He also: • rejected EU migrant quotas and built a fence along its border with Serbia and Croatia in 2015 amid the European immigrant crisis • cracked down on a George Soros-funded university and other foreign NGOs over interference in Hungarian affairs in 2018 • blamed anti-Russia sanctions imposed by the EU after the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine for the European energy crisis, and said they should be scrapped • opposed Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the EU, stressing that Ukraine should be a neutral buffer zone between Russia and the West – with security guarantees • opposed the bloc’s militarization of Ukraine and repeatedly blocked EU aid packages to the Kiev regime, arguing that arming Ukraine brings Europe “closer to destruction” • embarked on a peace mission tour to Russia, China and Ukraine in July 2024.

According to Simo, Tisza appears to be “a promising opposition formation for all anti-Russian domestic and international forces” that fully supports the policy of the European Union, including its proxy war in Ukraine. By contrast, Orban is seeking peace, the pundit says. “Viktor Orban’s government wants to live in peace with Russia,” Simo says. “It firmly rejects Brussels’ efforts to defeat Russia militarily and with sanctions, and to this end to continue providing military and financial support to Ukraine.” In his speech to the EU parliament in October, Orban presented his priorities for the Hungarian presidency of the EU and called for “changes”. “He ranked peace first, economic efficiency second, and the review of the EU’s immigration policy,” Simo said. Predictably, Orban’s speech was met with harsh criticism from von der Leyen and Weber. “The stakes are high, because they want Hungary to abandon its sovereign [politics] and fully submit to the will of the leadership in Brussels,” the pundit warned.

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“..how else would we get reparations?”

• Ties With Russia ‘Absolutely Necessary’ – Ex-Ukrainian President (RT)

Ukraine will need to renew ties with Russia in order to seek compensation when the armed conflict between the two is over, the country’s former president Leonid Kuchma has argued. Asked during an interview with Interfax Ukraine on Monday whether economic contacts with Russia would be possible anytime soon, tformer head of state said they would be “absolutely necessary,” because “how else would we get reparations?”. Considering Russia’s geographic location and rich mineral resources, regular commerce is possible in the future, he added. But Russia must “change its aggressive imperialist psychology” first, Kuchma claimed, adding that he does not expect that to happen. Kiev and its Western backers have described the Ukraine conflict as a ‘Russian imperial conquest’.

Moscow denies that, pointing to the US-led proxy war triggered by NATO’s expansion in Europe and Ukrainian discrimination against ethnic Russians. In February, an economic adviser to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed Kiev would seek roughly $1 trillion in damages from Russia. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal also suggested a sum of sum $750 billion last year. The US has warned that the $300 billion in Russian national assets frozen by the West since 2022 will not be released until Moscow agrees to pay reparations. Meanwhile Russia is considering potential claims against Ukraine, senior diplomat Rodion Miroshnik said this month. Regional officials previously estimated damages in the range from hundreds of millions of dollars to $145 billion.

The latter is what Kiev allegedly owes Crimea for attacks since 2014 when voters in the region rejected an armed coup in Kiev and voted to join Russia. Kuchma, who led Ukraine from 1994 to 2005, stated that his government forged good relations with neighboring nations by meeting “each other halfway instead of bumping heads”, he mused. The ex-president argued that if his successors followed his example and showed flexibility in relations with Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban would have been more supportive of Ukraine now. After the 2014 Maidan coup, Kiev sought to suppress all languages except Ukrainian in the public sphere. Orban has accused Ukraine of infringing on the rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority living in the west of the country.

Read more …

 

 

 

Fruit loops

 

 

Brick

 

 

Street art
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851508647261614483

 

 

Seahorse
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851704401146318858

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle September 3 2024

Sep 032024
 
 September 3, 2024  Posted by at 8:09 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  43 Responses »


René Magritte Memory of a voyage 1955

 

• A Vote for Kamala Is a Vote for Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Kamala Harris is ‘Clear Underdog’: Campaign Chief (Sp.)
• With Friends Like CNN, Kamala Harris Can’t Fail (Bridge)
• Is Kamala Very Very Afraid? (Jim Kunstler)
• California Bill Banning Voter ID Laws Passes Legislature (ET)
• On a Highway to Hell (Scott Ritter)
• Russia Says Relations With US At All-Time Low (RT)
• 50 Countries United Against Russia Under ‘Nazi Banners’ – Lavrov (RT)
• Lukashenko Prepares His Weapons: Could Belarus Be Drawn Into The War? (Oncan)
• Hungary Can’t Survive Without Russian Oil – FM (RT)
• Soros-Bankrolled Human Rights Watch Tells Mongolia To Arrest Putin (RT)
• US Seizes Maduro’s Plane – CNN (RT)
• RFK Jr: “A Reckoning” For “Immoral, Homicidal” COVID Criminality Needed (MN)
• Why Musk’s Lawsuit Against Media Matters . . . Matters (Turley)
• Kyle Bass Says ‘Green’ War To Blackball Oil Was Doomed To Fail (ZH)

 

 

 

 

RFK Vietnam

 

 

Trump Crooks

 

 

Day one

 

 

Cotton

 

 

Tulsi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830557403848511566

 

 

Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830527091126702437

 

 

Reagan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830240891266564449

 

 

GlennG

 

 

 

 

 

 

“When We Lose the Constitution, We Lose America”

“Probably few heard Kamala Harris say [..] that free speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, is impermissible without oversight and regulation and has to stop..”

“How can Kamala possibly take the oath of office and promise to uphold the Constitution?”

• A Vote for Kamala Is a Vote for Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

It is clear that large numbers of Americans have no conception of what is at stake in the November presidential election. Insouciance, being an American trait, is especially high this Labor Day Weekend. Probably few heard Kamala Harris say on August 30 in this video in what seems to be an interview at a CNN event that free speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, is impermissible without oversight and regulation and has to stop. Yes, she said that, and in the same 28 seconds said a number of other unbelievably stupid things that demonstrate her incapacity to serve in any political office even at the lowest level. For example, Kamala said “he (Musk) has lost his privileges and it (X) must be taken down.” Kamala is saying that free speech, the bedrock foundation of American freedom is a privilege granted by government, and by refusing to accept government censorship of free speech, Musk has lost his “privilege” to operate a social media company, which “must be taken down.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1829652525315944693

For example, “the bottom line is that you can’t say you have one rule for Facebook and a different rule for Twitter” (she means X). There is no such rule. What she is saying is that Facebook’s cowardly or woke management has agreed to censor in order to protect the lies that constitute the official narratives, and Elon Musk, being a person of character and integrity, has not. Kamala Harris is so totally ignorant and so totally uneducated that she is unaware that the US Constitution governs the US government. She thinks our Constitutional rights are subject to regulation by government in order to conform us to official narratives. Kamala says that social media sites “are directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any oversight or regulation,” but so is she. So is CNN. So is NPR. So is NBC. So is CBS. So is ABC. [..] So is the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland security. So is the Supreme Court. So is Congress. So is the President of the United States.

Kamala is so utterly stupid — indeed, she is so stupid as to be unbelievable — that she does not realize that she is sticking the gag into her own mouth. Kamala is so dumb that she does not understand that social media does not speak to millions of people. Instead, millions of people on social media speak to whoever cares to hear, usually a small number. How can a person as stupid as Kamala and as hostile to free speech be a candidate for president of the United States? How can Kamala possibly take the oath of office and promise to uphold the Constitution? The woke progressives don’t care. They hate the Constitution as much as Kamala is ignorant of it. I have often reported that law schools long ago abandoned the US Constitution as an obstacle to a woke society of DEI. Hardly a day passes that a law school dean doesn’t prove the truthfulness of my statement. [..]

On August 30, 2024, Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, called for a new constitution, claiming that failing to make changes would cause the U.S. to “drift toward authoritarianism.” If Chemerinsky were competent to be a law school dean, he would understand that the United States is the Constitution. Chemerinsky’s call for a new constitution is a call for the overthrow of the United States. Will he be arrested as a threat to democracy? Without the Constitution, we would be some other country–which is what they want. The goal is a compliant population with no rights, only privileges that can be revoked for non-compliant behavior. They oppose the idea that government is accountable to people. Their goal is a people who are accountable to the government. Once Kamala is in office, the transformation will be complete.

Dear insouciant American, try to pay attention, try to understand, that the Dean of one of America’s largest law schools is claiming that the US Constitution, the embodiment of the rights of free people, is an oppressive document and stands in the way of “justice and equity.” The Berkeley Law School dean has actually written a book about How the Constitution Threatens the United States. When the Constitution is destroyed, America is destroyed. When law schools have deans too stupid to understand this, it indicates that America has been lost. Dear insouciant American, try to understand that the November election is not about abortion rights. It is not about “inclusion.” It is not about any of the issues about which you are being indoctrinated. It is about whether you have any prospect of continuing life in freedom.

Read more …

“The New York Times suggests the memo is “an artful attempt to lower expectations” and boost fundraising..”

• Kamala Harris is ‘Clear Underdog’: Campaign Chief (Sp.)

The Democrats enter the final phase of the election as “the clear underdogs”, Harris-Walz campaign chief, Jen O’Malley Dillon, wrote in a memo titled “The State of the Race 65 Days Out.” Dillon, previously confident in Joe Biden’s victory despite poor poll results, had never made such a statement before. The US mainstream media cites Harris’ rising approval numbers, while questioning Dillon’s newfound caution. What’s troubling the Harris-Walz campaign chief?

• Despite record fundraising, increased volunteer interest, and a spike in voter enthusiasm, Dillon cautions that “Donald Trump has a motivated base of support, with more backing and higher favorability than he has had at any point since 2020.” • The upcoming debate between Vice President Harris and Trump, with the latter described in the memo as “a formidable opponent”, is another note of concern. • Dillon observes, “In 2020, the election came down to about 40,000 votes across the battleground states. This November, we anticipate similarly razor-thin margins.” • Additionally, Trump is “a heavily defined candidate”, whereas American voters are less familiar with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Dillon urges “aggressive campaigning” to “introduce and define [the Harris-Walz] ticket to the voters.”

The New York Times suggests the memo is “an artful attempt to lower expectations” and boost fundraising, while reinvigorating the base. However, Republicans argue that Harris is the underdog, claiming her poll lead results from deliberate oversampling of Democratic voters. They criticize her as economically “illiterate” and point to her controversial record as Joe Biden’s vice president.

Read more …

Nobody watches CNN. Ironically, that’s what they count on.

• With Friends Like CNN, Kamala Harris Can’t Fail (Bridge)

How pathetic, how lacking in confidence is this woman, that she is running for president of the United States, the highest office of the land, but won’t agree to an interview with a friendly network without Tim Walz accompanying her. On top of that, the Harris campaign picked the lowest-rated news channel (CNN) to do the interview, hours before a holiday weekend, and on the same night college football season kicked off. In other words, Harris’ handlers were desperately seeking to keep this interview as low key as possible. While CNN’s Dana Bash did ask several substantive questions in this closely watched interview, there was scant critical follow up to Harris’ answers although the vice president has flip-flopped on numerous occasions in the past, most notably on the question of America’s energy resources.

“When you were in Congress, you supported the green New Deal, and in 2019 you said, quote, ‘There is no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking.’ Do you still want to ban fracking?” Bash asked. Harris responded that she no longer wanted to ban fracking and that she had emphasized that position in 2020. Bash reminded that Harris had previously said in a 2019 town hall that she did in fact want to prohibit fracking. When the CNN host went on to ask the vice president why she wanted to change her 2019 position, Harris made vague references to “scientific studies” on climate change, when the real reason for the flip-flop was to secure votes in the swing state of Pennsylvania where fracking is an important part of the economy. In other words, politics as usual.

Bash also questioned Harris for her role as ‘Border Czar’ in the Biden administration. The vice president was asked if she is still of the opinion that border crossings should be decriminalized, a position she took during her 2019 campaign. Harris managed to largely evade the question, simply answering that she believes in “consequence” and that “we have laws that have to be followed and enforced.” The problem is, the Biden administration has done very little to enforce those laws. Conservative estimates report that under President Biden’s watch, there have been over 8.5 million migrant encounters nationwide, 6.7 million of which have been at the Southwest border. Worse yet, 1.7 million known ‘getaways’—illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol— are now living in the interior of the United States without documentation and without having undergone any vetting by immigration officials.

The number of illegal immigrants in the country has roughly doubled under President Biden. The United States had some 10.2 million illegal immigrants in 2020, and another 10 million have entered during Biden’s presidency. In light of this escalating situation, Harris had a lot of answering to do in the interview, which regrettably never happened. Meanwhile, many political commentators fear that a cloud of foul play surrounded the Harris-Walz sit down, and for good reason. Indeed, there is no reason to believe that CNN, a fiercely pro-liberal news channel, did not provide Kamala Harris with the questions prior to the interview.

Suffice it to recall that in the run up to the 2016 presidential showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, former Democratic National Committee interim chair and CNN contributor Donna Brazile was caught sending town hall topics to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. News of the incident was discovered courtesy of leaked emails – a “hack job” conveniently blamed on the Russians, and despite the fact that a DNC employee, Seth Rich, 27, was murdered in cold blood on the streets of Washington, DC shortly after the revelations went public. Police say the young man was the victim of a robbery, although none of his private possessions were taken. Bash also questioned Harris over Biden’s disastrous debate performance that set in motion the effort to remove the president and replace him with Harris.

After Biden stumbled through the June 27 debate against Trump, Harris took to CNN to defend the 81-year-old president’s health and mental acuity. “Do you have any regrets about what you told the American people [about Biden’s health]?” Bash asked. “Not at all,” Harris responded, with a hint of conspiracy. Given Harris’ known inability for articulating complex ideas without the help of a teleprompter, many observers are of the opinion that Biden’s departure at the 11th hour was a deliberate move that protected Harris from having to spend too much time in the public eye before November. We already know from past experience that Harris’ political shelf life is extremely short.

Just four years ago, Harris was forced to withdraw early from the presidential nomination process with poll numbers in the low single digits, yet today she has managed to advance one step from the White House without winning a single vote. All things considered, some might call that very suspicious fortune. The only thing that can explain this surge in popularity is a media industrial complex that is willing to celebrate Kamala Harris as she prepares for her first and possibly last debate against The Donald on September 10. After that it’s anybody’s guess, but given the fact that almost the entire media complex has thrown its hefty support behind Harris, Trump is facing a formidable challenge.

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“Mr. Obama. Voila and fait accompli! If he finds himself appointed rather than elected, he would not be in defiance of the 22nd Amendment..”

• Is Kamala Very Very Afraid? (Jim Kunstler)

Lurking behind her is not only the American intel blob of dark forces and sinister figures, but an international blob made up of malevolent groups within and throughout Western Civ, clearly working to bring it down — the Eurocrats wrecking their own countries’ agriculture and their industrial economies while jailing their opponents for thought crimes; the WEFers pushing the demented climate change agenda and ruinous migrant invasions; the bankers looking to seize the “collateral” (property, chattels, investment portfolios) of a billion everyday citizens when the bond Ponzi scheme blows up, as it must; the WHO steered by Bill Gates seeking to inject unsafe vaccines into everybody in order to greatly and quickly reduce the population; the Soros NGO legions working to subvert the public interest here, there, and everywhere; the NATO warmongers trying like hell to start World War Three. . . . Kamala Harris surely understands — if she understands anything — that she has become their chosen pawn, and is at their mercy (they have none).

She should be afraid especially of the American blob. That combine of higher-ups in the CIA, the DOD, the FBI, the DHS, the State Department, and Gawd knows how many lesser-known agencies and “black op” back offices, knows that it is in great danger if Mr. Trump happens to get elected (despite their best efforts to rig things). After all the trips laid on him, all the way up to attempted assassination, you can be sure that Mr. Trump will be coming after the cabal for committing real and serious crimes. They are running scared now. Despite all the power seemingly at their command, nothing has availed so far — not lawfare, not bullets — to stop Mr. Trump’s implacable march back into the Oval Office, where he could possibly succeed in turning the USA back into a functioning republic

Poor Kamala Harris is the blob’s wholly inadequate instrument to fend off this fate. If she continues to perform badly, the blob might not hesitate to try getting rid of her. That may be the blob’s last chance of stopping the election from happening altogether. The nation has never been in the predicament of having the head of a ticket resign or die in the homestretch of an election campaign. There is no provision in the Constitution for it because there are no provisions in the Constitution for political parties per se. It would all be a kind of improv.

And then, of course, America would be stuck with the unfit and incapable “Joe Biden,” heading the government, at least until something else can be worked out. Maybe that working out would just be the final stage of the coup that has been in motion, really, since 2016 when John Brennan, Barack Obama, and James Comey attempted to oust Mr. Trump with RussiaGate. Some kind of “interim commission” might be formed to “solve” the problem of the cancelled election. They’ll look for someone with “proven ability” to serve as provisional president — maybe, someone who has already been president. . . say, Mr. Obama. Voila and fait accompli! If he finds himself appointed rather than elected, he would not be in defiance of the 22nd Amendment. Okay, now try re-thinking how scared Kamala Harris must be.

Read more …

“California is one of 15 states that doesn’t ask for photo ID at the ballot box..”

At what point does this become election interference?

• California Bill Banning Voter ID Laws Passes Legislature (ET)

A California bill that would ban local governments from requiring voter identification in their elections passed the state assembly, and now awaits the governor’s approval or veto. The measure would ban local governments such as Huntington Beach—where voters recently gave the City Council the go-ahead to impose such a requirement—from enacting voter ID laws and makes clear the state has exclusive jurisdiction when it comes to the voter verification process. Senate Bill 1174, authored by Sen. Dave Min, passed the Assembly in a 57 to 16 vote on Aug. 27. “I have repeatedly told the Huntington Beach City Council members pushing this issue that if they were to produce any evidence of widespread voter fraud, I would lead efforts to change California’s voter eligibility rules. They have not produced any such evidence,” the Irvine Democrat said in an Aug. 30 press release following the Assembly vote.

In May the Senate approved the bill 30–8. Min said his bill would protect against a “patchwork of varying election requirements” throughout the state, blocking all cities from requiring voters to present a government-issued identification to vote. The ban would include charter cities, which have more authority than general-law cities over such things as regulating local police and elections. “We cannot have 100 different charter cities making up 100 different sets of voting rules, based on fringe conspiracy theories,” Min said, referring to questions of election integrity in the 2020 presidential election. In a May 21 Senate floor hearing, Min said SB 1174 would create a statewide standard that prevents cities from enacting their own policies, which he said could disenfranchise voters.

In a recent Assembly Local Government bill analysis, Min argued that voter ID requirements only create barriers for voters but don’t protect against fraud, as voters already must verify their identity when they register. He said the state already automatically recounts some ballots, does signature verification checks, and allows voters to track their ballots. “We will not concede to ploys of voter fraud while an overwhelming body of evidence proves our elections are safe, secure, and above board,” he said. Voters in California are required to show identification only if they didn’t provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when registering, but the secretary of state also accepts credit or debit cards, student IDs, or an ID from a commercial establishment.

[..] Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates told The Epoch Times in a recent interview that Min’s bill is “pure political symbolism” in response to the city’s recently passed measure. He said as a charter city, under Article XI, Section 5 (b) of the California Constitution, Huntington Beach has a right to have voter ID, and the state will lose any legal challenges it brings. “The state is running headlong into another legal clash, which it will lose miserably. Huntington Beach has it right, the state has it completely wrong. And all Californians want election integrity. It’s common sense,” he said in a text message to The Epoch Times.

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“..all we guarantee is that eventually there will be a warfighting scenario where the U.S. will end up using nuclear weapons. And then we all die.”

• On a Highway to Hell (Scott Ritter)

[..] the Biden administration is now confronted with the possibility and or probability of a much larger, capable Chinese strategic nuclear force capable of surviving a limited U.S. first-strike and delivering a nation-killing nuclear payload to U.S. soil in retaliation. To adjust to this new reality, the U.S. would need to allocate nuclear warheads currently targeted against Russia onto China. This would require that the U.S. not only develop revised target lists for both Russia and China, but also rethink targeting strategies in general, looking to maximum physical destruction over political impact. More dangerously, the U.S. would have to look at employment strategies that maximized the element of surprise to ensure all targets were hit by their designated weapons. This would require a change in the readiness posture and operational deployment areas of U.S. nuclear forces.

With increased readiness comes the need for vigilance against any preemption efforts by a potential nuclear adversary, meaning that U.S. nuclear forces will be placed on a higher alert status. In short, the risk of nuclear war, inadvertent or otherwise, has become exponentially greater. In March the Biden administration reportedly issued a new Nuclear Employment Guidance document reflecting this reality. Nowhere in this guidance is there consideration for using arms control as a means of managing the nuclear equation, either by extending the New START treaty, or working with China to prevent a Chinese nuclear breakout. Instead, the U.S. appears to be concerned about the erosion of nuclear deterrence that will be brought about by diverting weapons dedicated to non-Chinese contingencies. When seen in this light, the answer to the problem is more, not fewer, nuclear weapons.

This is why the U.S. is going to let the New START treaty lapse in February 2026 — once the treaty goes away, so, too, does the cap on the number of deployed warheads, and the U.S. nuclear establishment will be able to build up the U.S. operational nuclear arsenal so that there are enough weapons for every designated target. The world is becoming a very dangerous place. Nuclear weapons offer the illusion of security. By allowing the U.S. nuclear posture to shift away from deterrence toward warfighting, all we guarantee is that eventually there will be a warfighting scenario where the U.S. will end up using nuclear weapons. And then we all die. We are, literally, on a Highway to Hell.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1830702703678472650

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“Bilateral relations are now at probably their historical low point with no prospects for entering a growth trajectory to be seen..”

• Russia Says Relations With US At All-Time Low (RT)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia-US relations are at a historic low, dismissing the idea that the two sides could gradually improve them in the foreseeable future. In an interview with national broadcaster, Russia 1, the top official emphasized that Washington has been consistently trampling on Moscow’s interests and exerting pressure for several decades. Ties between the two states have reached “a cracking-up point” during Joe Biden’s presidency, according to Peskov, who stressed that the US administration is demonstrating an openly hostile position towards Russia by supporting Ukraine. “Right in the middle of Mr. Biden’s presidency all these processes have culminated […] Bilateral relations are now at probably their historical low point with no prospects for entering a growth trajectory to be seen,” he said.

“The US, despite many statements to the contrary, is directly involved in the Ukraine conflict,” Peskov concluded. Bilateral ties between Russia and the US took a nose-dive in 2022 when Washington and its allies attacked Moscow with a barrage of economic sanctions following the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict. Moreover, the White House has been providing Kiev with substantial economic and military aid, drawing reprobation from Russian officials, who have accused Washington of playing a direct role in the conflict. In addition, the US withdrew from two security treaties, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty and the Open Skies treaty, under the administration of Donald Trump. While the White House under President Joe Biden has extended the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) through 2026, last year Moscow suspended its participation, citing the US role in the Ukraine conflict.

Peskov also cast doubt on statements made by former US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pledged to resolve the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours if elected a second time. The Republican presidential frontrunner has also claimed that he had an excellent relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin while in office, adding that the conflict would have never started on his watch. “I don’t think there is a magic wand, it is impossible to do anything in a day,” Peskov said. “Although, if we assume that the next US president will make a statement during his inauguration speech that the US stands for peace and is therefore ending its support for Ukraine […], then something in someone’s brain will change.”

Mearsheimer

Read more …

For decades, the Americans and their allies “sought total control over Ukraine. They funded nationalist and anti-Russian organizations there; they persistently worked to convince Ukraine that Russia was its eternal enemy..”

• 50 Countries United Against Russia Under ‘Nazi Banners’ – Lavrov (RT)

The West has always wanted to dismantle Russia and has gone as far as joining forces with the Nazis in Ukraine in an attempt to achieve this goal, Moscow’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov has said. The foreign minister made the statement during a meeting with students and educators at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Monday, the first day of the new academic year in Russia. The West has always been concerned that Russia is “too strong, too independent,” and has wanted to do something about it, “preferably breaking it up,” said Lavrov. “A very indicative story is repeating itself because today, 50 countries have gathered against Russia under Nazi banners, considering the essence of the [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky regime,” he continued, referring to the military assistance provided by the US and its allies to Kiev amid the conflict with Russia.

The foreign minister noted that Ukrainian troops have on numerous occasions been filmed wearing Nazi patches or carrying banners similar to those used by Adolf Hitler’s forces during the World War II. The “denazification” of Ukraine was identified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as one of the main goals of Moscow’s military operation against Kiev when it was launched in late February 2022. Lavrov asserted that Moscow was not going to play by Western rules and will not “embed itself into various schemes created without our participation and without taking Russia’s interests into account.” However, he said Putin had made it clear that Moscow remains “open to contacts with the countries of the ‘collective West,’ with the understanding, of course, that they will abandon their openly hostile policies towards our country.”

If the US and its allies do not change their ways, “we will continue to respond resolutely to any unfriendly steps,” Lavrov added. Elsewhere on Monday, Putin said the conflict between Moscow and Kiev had broken out because of “the destructive strategy of the West” regarding Ukraine. For decades, the Americans and their allies “sought total control over Ukraine. They funded nationalist and anti-Russian organizations there; they persistently worked to convince Ukraine that Russia was its eternal enemy and the main threat to its existence,” the Russian leader said. Washington and its “satellites” orchestrated the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev, which was driven by “radical neo-Nazi groups” that continue to determine Ukraine’s policies to this day, he added.

Read more …

“A nuclear disaster that could occur in the region would be most beneficial to Washington..”

• Lukashenko Prepares His Weapons: Could Belarus Be Drawn Into The War? (Oncan)

The operation by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region was not just a tactical move by Ukraine, but also a step that revealed the West’s intentions in the ongoing war. The acceptance of this demand raises the possibility that the attacks within Russia, beginning with Kursk, will be designated as the “main offensive line” from the perspective of Ukraine and the West. Before the peace negotiations, which are now expected by everyone to take place “someday,” the West intends to sit at the table as strongly as possible, in exchange for Donbass, which is connected to Russia. Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the removal of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles in attacks on Russian soil, and it was learned that “some NATO countries” have also prepared a statement with the same demand. While developments on the Kursk front remain tense, significant events have occurred in another important country involved in the Russia-Ukraine confrontation: Belarus.

In recent days, some critical developments have taken place in Belarus that have not received much attention in the media. The Kyiv administration recently violated Belarusian airspace with attack drones, and Belarus’s ready air defense system quickly announced that it had destroyed these drones. This marks the largest military engagement Belarus has had with Ukraine in recent times, despite Belarus’s efforts to avoid becoming directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. For Ukraine and the West, Kursk, with its nuclear power plant in the region, is a significant leverage against Russia. A nuclear disaster that could occur in the region would be most beneficial to Washington. What about Belarus? The strategic minds in the West will do everything possible to drag Russia’s closest ally into the hot war. This could include a potential leak at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located just 16 kilometers from the Belarusian border.

Among the various methods of attacking Russia and Belarus, it is no coincidence that the first thought is of a nuclear leak. The easiest way to overcome the “obstacles” to deploying NATO weapons, or even NATO troops, in Ukraine is through a nuclear leak in the region and the creation of a perception that Russia and Belarus are “unable to control the disaster.” Therefore, in military developments like the attack on Kursk, the most critical point to monitor is not which town is controlled by whom, but how close they are to nuclear power plants.In light of the recent developments on the Kursk front, the Belarusian army has decided to strengthen the units in the Gomel and Mazyr regions. Mazyr is a Belarusian region close to the Dniester River and Kyiv, while Gomel is near Kursk via Bryansk. Special operations forces, ground forces, and missile units, including Polonez and Iskander missile systems, have begun new training and exercises in the designated regions.

Similarly, the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to improve border security systems and defense elements, while also amassing troops along the Belarusian border. Meanwhile, plans to drag Belarus into the Russia-Ukraine conflict are still being pursued in the West and Ukraine. Recently, former commander of the Polish Army’s Ground Forces, General W. Skrzypczak, accused Belarus of conducting a “military campaign” against Poland and called for the establishment of a “Belarusian legion” in his country.

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“..It affects about a third of our imports from Russia.

In Slovakia, the situation is even worse, these supplies account for about 40% there..”

• Hungary Can’t Survive Without Russian Oil – FM (RT)

Hungary cannot survive without Russian oil, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has warned, stressing that Ukraine’s decision to suspend transit poses a serious challenge for Budapest. Kiev halted the transit of crude supplied by Russian energy giant Lukoil via the Druzhba pipeline in June, citing sanctions. The measure has directly hit landlocked Hungary and Slovakia, depriving them of oil previously exported by Lukoil through Ukrainian territory. In an interview with Russian business daily RBK on Monday, Szijjarto said Hungary will be completely deprived of oil without supplies from Russia. “We will not be able to feed the country in a broad sense. We simply will not be able to meet the demand for fuel… because we do not have sufficient alternative infrastructure,” the diplomat said. “You just have to look at the numbers… We do not want to take such risks,” Szijjarto added. “Therefore, the fact that Ukraine has made such a decision is a very serious challenge for us. It affects about a third of our imports from Russia.

In Slovakia, the situation is even worse, these supplies account for about 40% there,” he stressed. Kiev imposed sanctions on Lukoil in 2018, having banned the company from divesting its business in the country, as well as prohibiting trade operations and participation in the privatization or leasing of state property. Lukoil still sent crude via the southern arm of the Druzhba pipeline as EU sanctions did not target these flows. The EU prohibited transport of Russian crude oil by sea in December 2022 as part of far-reaching sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have been granted exemptions by Brussels as they source alternative supplies. Slovakia and Hungary are the only EU member states that have rejected the bloc’s policies on supplying Kiev with military aid amid the conflict with Moscow. Both states have repeatedly called for the crisis to be solved through diplomacy.

Last week, Politico reported that Budapest had proposed a solution for the restoration of halted Russian oil flows by rebranding Lukoil products. That way, the crude shipped via Ukraine could be officially sold to Hungarian energy giant MOL before it crosses the border. The arrangement could reportedly mean paying an additional $1.50 per barrel to secure transit outside of previous agreements. Szijjarto told RBK that a temporary solution to the crisis situation could be found, stressing that “in the long term, we need to look for another, legally significant solution.” The Hungarian diplomat traveled to Russia last week to discuss energy security issues. Budapest is “satisfied with Russian energy cooperation, which is one of the guarantees of the country’s food security,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook after meeting with the head of Russian energy giant Gazprom, Aleksey Miller.

Read more …

ICC, Ukraine, HRW… And Putin got a welcome with all honors.

• Soros-Bankrolled Human Rights Watch Tells Mongolia To Arrest Putin (RT)

The George Soros-funded organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the government of Mongolia to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin during his trip to the country, which would be in accordance with the Asian state’s obligations as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Putin arrived in Mongolia on Monday at the invitation of the country’s president, Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, to attend a ceremony commemorating the 1939 Battle of Khalkhin Gol, in which Soviet and Mongolian forces defeated the Imperial Japanese Army. Ahead of his visit, HRW, which has received over $100 million from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, issued a statement on its website warning Mongolia against allowing Putin to enter the country.

“Mongolia would be defying its international obligations as an ICC member if it allows Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit without arresting him,” the HRW’s senior international justice counsel, Maria Elena Vignoli said, claiming that welcoming the Russian President would “undermine the crucial principle that no one, no matter how powerful, is above the law.” Last year, the ICC issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest, accusing him of “unlawful deportation of population (children)” and “unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine” to Russia amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Russia has rejected the ICC’s accusations as absurd, stressing that the evacuation of civilians from a combat zone is not a war crime. Moscow has also pointed out that it has never signed the Rome Statute, on which the ICC is based, meaning that the court has no jurisdiction in the matter.

Meanwhile, Mongolian authorities, despite having signed the Rome Statute on which the ICC is based, have reportedly said that they have no intention of arresting Putin, according to Bloomberg, which cited two sources familiar with the matter. Putin arrived in the Mongolian capital on Monday and was greeted by an honorary guard at Ulaanbaatar Airport. According to presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, he will have a “rich program” on Tuesday as part of his state visit, which will include a meeting with his Mongolian counterpart, negotiations in various formats dedicated to bilateral relations, as well a signing ceremony of Russian-Mongolian intergovernmental documents. Ahead of the trip, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow had “no concerns” about Putin’s visit and the ICC warrant, stating that “we have excellent relations with our friends from Mongolia,” and that all issues concerning the Russian president’s trip had been “worked out” beforehand.

Read more …

They really want the oil.

• US Seizes Maduro’s Plane – CNN (RT)

The US government has confiscated an airplane reportedly used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, claiming it violates Washington’s sanctions against Caracas, CNN reported on Monday. The Americans have charged Maduro with drug trafficking and refused to recognize his victories in the last two Venezuelan presidential elections. “Seizing the foreign head of state’s plane is unheard-of for criminal matters. We’re sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions,” an unnamed Washington official told CNN, which first reported the story on Monday. According to CNN, the plane is worth around $13 million and was seized in cooperation with Dominican authorities. The US outlet did not identify the airplane, saying only it was seized in the Dominican Republic and flown to Miami, Florida. The departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, and Justice were involved in the seizure.

The Miami Herald identified the jet as a Dassault Falcon 900EX, a French-built corporate jet that has previously visited Cuba, Brazil and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, “often with Maduro on board.” It appears to be registered in San Marino. The Herald cited records from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) showing that a Florida-based company sold the plane to a company in St. Vincent, which then resold it to San Marino. The US government alleges that the reseller was a Venezuelan shell company and that the sale violated its sanctions on Venezuela. American officials described the jet as Venezuela’s equivalent of the US “Air Force One,” noting that Maduro has flown it to a number of places. It was unclear how it ended up in the Dominican Republic, as Venezuela suspended commercial air travel with the island after the July 28 presidential election.

According to CNN, the US intends to confiscate the plane through asset forfeiture process. This means Venezuela could theoretically challenge it in court – if it can find a way around the sanctions to do so. This is the second Venezuelan jet to be seized by the US this year. In February, Argentina sent the US a Boeing 747-300M cargo plane confiscated in 2022, because Caracas allegedly bought it from a sanctioned Iranian company. Maduro called the seizure “a blatant theft” on part of Argentinian President Javier Milei’s government. Washington has seized $2 billion worth of Venezuelan bank accounts and assets in recent years, one unnamed official told CNN.

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“..Fauci and others used their positions during COVID to enforce “totalitarian controls that were not science-based.”

• RFK Jr: “A Reckoning” For “Immoral, Homicidal” COVID Criminality Needed (MN)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that individuals who engaged in “criminal” behaviour during the pandemic still need to be held accountable. Kennedy, who is in line for a health related position in Donald Trump’s administration should he be elected, declared recently that there needs to be a “reckoning” brought upon those responsible. Speaking at the Limitless Expo, Kennedy explicitly referenced Anthony Fauci, noting “I wrote a book about Fauci. It’s a great book. There are 2,200 footnotes in the book… I invited people to find problems with the book… And nobody ever told us any factual error in that book.” He charged that Fauci and others used their positions during COVID to enforce “totalitarian controls that were not science-based.” “It’s a story, really, of people involved in really terrible, immoral, homicidal criminal behavior,” Kennedy urged.

He noted that effective treatments were repressed, stating “Ivermectin was a very, very devastating cure for COVID. It literally obliterated COVID.”“By depriving people of Ivermectin, many, many people, millions of people around the globe, died, and they didn’t need to,” Kennedy added, charging that Fauci and others pressured the FDA to discourage such treatments in favour of relentlessly pushing unproven and untested vaccines. “There were cures for COVID from day one, very effective cures. But they didn’t want that. They wanted the vaccine only,” Kennedy posited, adding “if they admitted that any of [the treatments] were effective, the whole vaccine project would have fallen apart.”

Kennedy added that after the vaccines, myocarditis cases among young people, particularly athletes, exploded. “On average, it was, I think, 29 a month globally, athletes who died on the field. We’re getting down to hundreds a month now,” Kennedy emphasised. He concluded that “the science is out there now, and it’s devastating.” After endorsing Donald Trump last month, RFK Jr. declared that he is ready to help “make America healthy again.”

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“The Media Matters lawsuit directly challenges the ability of media outlets to create false narratives to advance a political agenda..”

• Why Musk’s Lawsuit Against Media Matters . . . Matters (Turley)

[..]But Musk’s lawsuit may be the most defining for our age of advocacy journalism. He is suing Media Matters, the left-wing outlet founded by David Brock, whom Time described as “one of the most influential operatives in the Democratic Party.” Although Brock is no longer with the site, Media Matters has long been accused as being a weaponized media outlet for the left. After Musk dismantled the censorship system at Twitter, he became something of an obsession for Media Matters, which targeted his revenue sources. The outlet ran a report suggesting that advertisements of major corporations were being posted next to pro-Nazi posts or otherwise hateful content on the platform. As I discuss in my new book, this effort mirrored similar moves by the anti-free speech movement against Musk to force him to restore censorship systems. Companies including Apple, IBM, Comcast and Lionsgate Entertainment quickly joined the effective boycott to squeeze Musk.

The problem is that it is hard to squeeze the world’s richest man financially. Musk told the companies to pound sand and told his lawyers to file suit. The allegations in the lawsuit read like a textbook on advocacy journalism. Media Matters is accused of knowingly misrepresenting the real user experience by manipulating the algorithms to produce the pairing alleged in its story. The complaint accuses Media Matters of running its manipulation to produce extremely unlikely pairings, such that one toxic match appeared for “only one viewer (out of more than 500 million) on all of X: Media Matters.” In other words, the organization wanted to write a hit piece connecting X to pro-Nazi material and proceeded to artificially create pairings between that material and corporate advertisements. It then ran the story as news. Indeed, two defendant employees of Media Matters did not deny that they were aware of the alleged manipulation and that they were seeking to poison the well for advertisers in order to drain advertising revenues for X.

Although the media covered another judge blocking an effort by state officials to sue Media Matters over the anti-Musk effort, there has been comparably less coverage of the green light for the lawsuit in Texas. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas rejected an effort to dismiss the case on jurisdictional and other grounds. Musk will be able to continue his claims of tortious interference with existing contracts, business disparagement and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. Musk is also suing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which also targeted advertisers to choke off targeted sites. Not surprisingly, although the media has heralded lawsuits like the one by Dominion Voting System against Fox News (which led to a large settlement), they are overwhelmingly hostile toward the Musk lawsuits.

It is not hard to see why. The Media Matters lawsuit directly challenges the ability of media outlets to create false narratives to advance a political agenda. As with the CNN and New York Times cases, it can expose how the media first decides on a conclusion and then frames or even invents the facts to support it. While rejecting the longstanding principles of journalism such as objectivity, these media outlets are citing the cases and defenses secured by those now-outdated media organizations. They want to be advocates, but they also want to be protected as journalists. These cases still face tough challenges, including challenging jury polls in places like New York. However, they are exposing the bias that now characterizes much of American journalism. In the age of advocacy journalism, a bill has come due. That is why Musk’s lawsuit against Media Matters . . . well . . . matters.

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We don’t need Kyle Bass to tell us that. Moreover, not only does oil “move” our world, at least half of it is built from oil.

• Kyle Bass Says ‘Green’ War To Blackball Oil Was Doomed To Fail (ZH)

Hayman Capital Management founder and CIO Kyle Bass explained in a Bloomberg interview that the mounting backlash against environmental, social, and governance investing in recent years is primarily a response to the extreme demands of radical climate activists, or “green” defenders. Bass argued that these activists were so disconnected from reality that their uncompromising stance on blackballing the fossil fuel industry—without acknowledging that energy transitions can take upwards of half a century—has fueled the backlash. He said plans to moderate fossil fuel usage over decades from the start would’ve possibly prevented the backlash. Bass said the ESG backlash derives from climate activists’ demands that fossil fuels be abandoned immediately. He said the demands were never realistic.

“There were all of these idiots that were just saying, if anyone is doing hydrocarbons, we’re going to blackball them from doing business or from receiving capital,” Bass said, adding, “And so Texas lashed back and said, if you’re going to blackball someone that’s producing hydrocarbons, we’re not going to do business with you either.” He said, “Energy transitions take 40 or 50 years,” pointing out that people “think we can just turn hydrocarbons off and turn on alternative power. But they have no idea how the grid works and no idea how business works.” Bass said the focus should now be on efficiency and electrification. He said the long-term goal should be the energy transition to nuclear. Until then, he noted, fossil fuels and renewable energy sources are “going to coexist for decades and decades to come.”

In a separate interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in 2022, Bass said, “The desire for the world to engage in alternative energy is one that I think we all would love to see happen, but there are certain scientific realities, and there are certain narratives that get pushed by NGOs and teenagers. And I think we’ve been taking policy cues from NGOs and teenagers for a long time.”

Bass pointed out that a proper energy transition takes upwards of a half-century. In the interview with CNBC, he said, “The move from coal to natural gas took forty years. They take a very, very, very long time. We can’t just flip a switch.” In his most recent interview with Bloomberg, Bass said, “Skirting hydrocarbons is like bringing politics into investing,” adding, “If you’re willing to give up returns for that, then so be it. But I think that’s naive and it’s a breach of fiduciary duty.” The latest Bloomberg data shows that about half of the US power grid is powered by natural gas generators. This summer, renewable energy power has slid, with coal now producing more power than wind and solar.

In recent years, ESG policies have discouraged investment by banks, funds, pensions, and other entities in the natural gas and coal industries. The problem with this is that unreliable solar and wind can’t power artificial data centers 24/7. We’ve noted that the financial industry’s initial rush to commit to net zero carbon footprints has hit a reality check in a note titled “ESG Frustration And Backlash In The Banking Sector Continues.” The big takeaway is that anyone who puts their climate crisis or woke religion first ahead of rational decision-making is doomed to fail.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

RFK measles
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830264332178907244

 

 

RFK seed oils

 

 

Ozempic
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830688829344489522

 

 

Puppies
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830352407928229915

 

 

1 month
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830560345557016842

 

 

Speeding

 

 

Wallace Line
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830574367933112788

 

 

SNL 1998
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830470874740441513

 

 

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Debt Rattle July 24 2024

Jul 242024
 
 July 24, 2024  Posted by at 8:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  74 Responses »


Salvador Dali Spain 1936-38

 

• Blinken Dubiously Hails Harris As A ‘Leading Voice’ Of US Foreign Policy (ZH)
• Harris Starts Race Down 9 Points, Even Worse Than Biden (ZH)
• US Lawmaker Seeks to Impeach Harris Over Handling of Border Crisis (Sp.)
• Harris Would Purge Biden’s Team – WSJ (RT)
• Kamala Harris Lost 92% Of Her Staff In 3 Years – Watchdog (RT)
• “He’s Alive!!” (Quoth the Raven)
• Democratic Bigwigs Threatened Biden With 25th Amendment
• Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Resigns (ZH)
• The Party Of ‘Democracy” Will Now Choose Your Candidate For You (McMaken)
• Trump Asks Appeals Court to Overturn $454 Million Civil Fraud Judgment (ET)
• UK Military Problems ‘Much Worse Than Thought’ – Defense Secretary (RT)
• Almost Half of EU Members Wanted to Hold Top Diplomats Meeting in Hungary (Sp.)
• Hungary Issues €6.5bn Ultimatum To Ukraine (RT)
• EU May Not Be Right Fit For Hungary – Finnish FM (RT)
• Israel Has Reduced Water Access in Gaza by 94% Since October (Zhang)

 

 

 

 

Colbert Trump

 

 

Student visas

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s going to dump little Blinkie…

• Blinken Dubiously Hails Harris As A ‘Leading Voice’ Of US Foreign Policy (ZH)

At a moment President Biden hasn’t been seen by anyone – or even photographed – in about a week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday is seeking to assure the public that the president will remain “intensely focused” on work that remains in the next since months, chiefly foreign policy issues. Blinken cited Biden’s work on “bringing peace to the Middle East and dealing with Russia’s ongoing aggression” – though we can imagine the reality is that admin officials and a teams of staffers, and not Biden himself, will be handling these things. The other dubious statement from Blinken concerned Vice President Harris’ supposed foreign policy credentials…

“Blinken, speaking to reporters, said Vice President Kamala Harris has been a leading voice for U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy, adding that she was a very strong, effective and deeply respected voice for the United States around the world,” as cited in Reuters. This begs the question: is she a “deeply respected voice” around the world? A clip of Harris previously weighing in on the Ukraine crisis from 2022 has resurfaced and is going viral. We should look no further than this…

https://twitter.com/i/status/1815166419731972451

Is this something that Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping respects? Or are they laughing? Blinken on Tuesday continued to claim that somehow she’s a foreign policy heavyweight. “I’ve seen her not only around the world, but I’ve seen her on the most critical foreign policy questions of our time, in the Situation Room at the White House, at the Oval Office with the president,” he told a press briefing. And now the endorsements are rolling in from Democratic national security insiders, per The Washington Post: Some of the most senior foreign policy leaders in the Democratic Party endorsed Vice President Harris’s bid for president on Tuesday, declaring in an open letter that she has more international experience than most recent incoming presidents and expressing confidence that she is the “best qualified person” to lead the country.

The more than 350 signatories to the letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post, add to voices within the Democratic Party seeking to cement Harris’s role as nominee following President Biden’s withdrawal from his reelection bid on Sunday. They include former national security advisers Susan Rice and Thomas E. Donilon; former secretaries of state John F. Kerry and Hillary Clinton; former secretaries of defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta; and former top intelligence officials Michael Hayden and James Clapper. Let the Democratic deep state’s crowning begin. But Trump actually previously summed up her experience and ‘statesmanship’ more accurately in the following clip. But we are being told she is going to “stand up to dictators” and command respect around the world. Perhaps more accurately she would serve as a useful puppet for the Washington foreign policy blob, in continuation of the same ole interventionist and neocon policies which have marked the past couple decades, much like Biden.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1808504862386049227

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There are already polls that cast her as the winner…

• Harris Starts Race Down 9 Points, Even Worse Than Biden (ZH)

Democrats’ enjoyment of the Kamala Harris campaign’s “new car smell” may prove short-lived, as a brand new poll shows the vice president trailing former President Trump by a whopping 11 points among likely voters — matching up even worse than President Biden, who trailed by 10. The Forbes/HarrisX survey was conducted July 19-21 — that’s after the Republican convention but before Biden was forced to withdraw from the race. “Kamala Harris starts her 2024 battle behind Trump, who is enjoying a strong post-convention bump,” said HarrisX chief pollster Dritan Nesho. “If the polls don’t start to close and show better traction for her, Biden’s decision to step aside for Harris may be a case of ‘too similar, too late.’ That said, Vice President Harris alleviates concerns among the democratic base and is better able to sway undecided independents and suburban women, showing some promise.”

In an ominous note for the Harris campaign, aside from her worse margin against Trump, in her head-to-head matchup, fewer voters were undecided than they were in a Biden-Trump scenario. Among likely voters, Trump led Biden 49%-39% with 12% undecided. However, versus Harris, Trump led 51%-40%, with 9% undecided. “Democrats are jumping out of the frying pan into the fire,” Trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller told Fox News. “They may have gotten rid of one problem with Joe Biden, but they’ve inherited a whole new problem with Kamala Harris.” Continuing a well-established trend, Harris’s job-approval rating is as bad as Biden’s: both scored a dismal 38% approval. She did a little better than Biden among younger voters, with 42% of those between age 18 and 34 approving of her performance, compared to 36% for Biden. So far, there are few single-state polls gauging a Trump-Harris contest, and none that were taken since she became the presumptive nominee.

While the numbers are bound to change after Americans are subjected to a Harris-friendly media blitz, they still give some insight into where she’s starting from: An Atlanta-Journal Constitution poll has Trump winning Georgia by 4.6% over Harris, compared to 3.5% over Biden. In a result that shows Democrats clearly on the defensive on the 2024 chessboard, a New Hampshire Journal poll has Trump up 0.9% in Granite State — where the GOP hasn’t won in 24 years. In a glimmer of hope for Democrats, Harris is doing better than Biden in Pennsylvania, but still trails Trump in the pivotal state by 2%. Conversely, Harris is polling worse than Biden in Nevada, losing to Trump by 10%. The results are sure to grind the gears of the many Democratic mega-donors who favored a “mini-primary” to select Biden’s replacement atop the 2024 ticket, rather than simply coronating Harris, a demonstrably terrible candidate who didn’t even make it to the Iowa caucuses in 2020.

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“Her breathtaking incompetence as Border Czar has allowed a crisis of drugs, rape, and murder to flood the streets of America,” the Daily Caller reported..”

• US Lawmaker Seeks to Impeach Harris Over Handling of Border Crisis (Sp.)

US Congressman Andy Ogles introduced articles of impeachment against US Vice President Kamala Harris for her handling of the border crisis and her role in covering up President Joe Biden’s lack of fitness to serve. “Time and again, Kamala Harris has refused to uphold her oath to the US Constitution, and she must be impeached. Her breathtaking incompetence as Border Czar has allowed a crisis of drugs, rape, and murder to flood the streets of America,” the Daily Caller reported Ogles as saying. Moreover, Harris breached the public’s trust by failing to invoke the 25th Amendment after it became clear that Biden was mentally and physically unfit to serve as president, Ogles reportedly said. The resolution calls to impeach Harris for high crimes and misdemeanors.

US Congresswoman Elise Stefanik also introduced a resolution on Tuesday to condemn Harris’ handling of the border crisis. “House Republicans will vote on my resolution to condemn Kamala Harris’ failure as Joe Biden’s border czar. Kamala Harris’ failed leadership led to the most catastrophic open border crisis in history,” Stefanik said in a statement. Stefanik’s resolution condemns Harris’ failure to secure the United States’ borders, affirms the American people deserve elected officials who will execute policies to fix the border crisis and states that the continuation of the Biden administration’s border policies would be disastrous for the United States.

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“..national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wouldn’t likely be extended in their current roles..”

• Harris Would Purge Biden’s Team – WSJ (RT)

Kamala Harris is unlikely to keep the current crop of national security officials, should she win the US presidential election in November, according to sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal. President Joe Biden dropped out of the re-election race on Sunday, endorsing his vice-president for the top of the ticket. While the Democrats still need to officially confirm Harris as their nominee, media speculation about her presidency is already rampant. “Key Biden appointees, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wouldn’t likely be extended in their current roles,” the Journal claimed late on Monday, citing anonymous current and former US officials. While Harris “hasn’t had an opportunity to define her own brand of foreign policy,” the Journal claimed that she “might ultimately align herself more closely with the progressive elements” of the Democrats and put some conditions on US support for Israel.

The Journal described Harris as the current administration’s “most ardent senior-level advocate of securing a cease-fire in Gaza,” citing a passage from her speech in Selma, Alabama in March when she criticized the “inhumane conditions” in the Palestinian enclave. Arab American Institute founder Jim Zogby told the outlet that he spoke with Harris by phone last October and believed that she has shown “far greater empathy” for Palestinians than Biden or the rest of the White House. According to NBC News, Harris is “widely expected to continue” Biden’s foreign policy if elected, but “appears more willing to publicly criticize” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “express empathy for the plight of Palestinian civilians” in Gaza. Having Harris run might help the Democrats with Arab-Americans, younger voters and progressives, an anonymous source told NBC, as she is not associated with Biden’s support for Israel. Biden picked Harris as his running mate in August 2020, reportedly as part of a deal to secure the nomination. She had dropped out of the race for nomination herself in late 2019, before the primaries even started.

Blinken was Biden’s long-time foreign policy and national security adviser before his current appointment as head of the State Department. Sullivan spent three years advising Biden during the administration of Barack Obama, before joining Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Austin reportedly struck up a friendship with Biden’s son Beau, who had served in Iraq as his staff officer in 2008-2009, and later briefed Biden as the head of US Central Command. A “central role” in a Harris administration would be played by Philip Gordon, who is currently her national security adviser, the Journal said. He is a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, who worked at both the National Security Council and the State Department, notably as Victoria Nuland’s predecessor at European and Eurasian Affairs. He has also been a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1815780103969808868

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“..she could be far less competent” than Biden, “which is hard to believe.”

• Kamala Harris Lost 92% Of Her Staff In 3 Years – Watchdog (RT)

US Vice President Kamala Harris has a staggering staff turnover rate of 91.5%, transparency watchdog OpenTheBooks reported on Monday, citing disclosures from the Senate. The revelation came days after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris as his replacement. An NGO that monitors government spending, OpenTheBooks has analyzed the list of titles and names of the staffers at the Office of the Vice President that was lifted from the semi-annual report of the Secretary of the Senate. “As of March 31, 2024, only four of the initial 47 staffers from the first year are still employed – consistently and without interruption – by the vice president,” the group said.

The turnover rate for Biden’s staffers is 77%, as only 127 of his initial 560 White House employees have remained in their position since 2021, OpenTheBooks said. Harris’ problems with retaining staff have been reported in the past, with The Hill describing her team as a “revolving door.” The political news website said in the summer of 2022 that more than 13 “high-profile aides” had left the vice president in less than a year. Axios has cited “burnout, better opportunities and concern about being permanently branded a ‘Harris person’” as some of the reasons behind the high turnover rate at the vice president’s office.

Biden announced that he was leaving the race on Sunday, after weeks of growing concerns among Democrats and their supporters over his declining health and the ability to defeat former President Donal Trump in November. Although Biden and multiple prominent Democrats have backed Harris as the party’s candidate for the presidency, the nominee will be officially decided at a convention next month. During her first campaign rally on Tuesday, Harris accused Trump of wanting to “take our country backward,” and spreading “chaos, fear and hate.” Trump, in turn, has accused Harris of failing to tackle the illegal immigration crisis at the US border with Mexico, suggesting that “she could be far less competent” than Biden, “which is hard to believe.”

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“We’ve gone from Biden saying he won’t run again to Kamala Harris securing his delegates, fundraising cash and the backing of the entire party in less than 72 hours. Why can’t government display this shocking level of efficiency all the time?”

• “He’s Alive!!” (Quoth the Raven)

After six days of darkness, the leader of the free world has made a physical appearance, exiting a vehicle, mumbling incoherently at reporters, and carefully ascending the stairs of the smaller AF1… “He’s Alive!!” Unless this is a ‘cheap fake’? We’ll wait to hear from KJP for confirmation. [..] Before I even start with my analysis, I want to make the point that I hope President Biden is doing fine and on the path to recovery from Covid, as his doctor claimed in a letter (I’ll discuss below) that he was. I hope we can take the administration at their word, but I also think it’s helpful to not ignore mounting critical questions for our country. I don’t want to start the morning off with hyperbole or sensationalism, honestly, but rather with what, in my opinon, has developed as a legitimate question over the last 24 to 48 hours: is the current President of the United States still alive and/or fit to lead?

Ever since dropping out of the presidential race on Sunday via a letter with a signature that has been in question and conspicuously lacking the seal of the White House or President of the United States, President Joe Biden has failed to turn up anywhere in person. The swift decision to drop out of the race, combined with the announcement last week that Biden tested positive for Covid and would “self-isolate” —which incidentally came out after Biden said he would consider dropping out if it were due to a ‘medical condition’—combined with endless unproven rumors swirling on social media about a medical emergency, have left people no choice but to sadly consider a worst-case scenario. Since Biden was last spotted on July 17 exiting Air Force One, he hasn’t been seen publicly, though reports have put him at his home “recovering” in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

As questions about Biden’s health began to swirl more and more over the last 48 hours, Biden‘s doctor released a note supposedly claiming Biden is on the path to recovery from Covid and had been administered Paxlovid. He wrote: “President Biden completed his eighth dose of Paxlovid [an antiviral COVID-19 medication] this morning,” O’Connor wrote. “His symptoms have improved significantly. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature remain absolutely normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear. “The President continues to tolerate treatment without any difficulty and will continue Paxlovid as planned. He continues to perform all of his presidential duties.” There was one little peccadillo I found interesting enough about this letter that I wanted to point out.

Maybe it is overanalyzing and reading too much into things, but as an English major who sat through hundreds of hours of linguistics courses, I can’t help but notice things sometimes. The use of the word “absolutely” before “normal” in the above paragraph is a filler word. It’s unnecessary. It doesn’t add anything to the point that the sentence is trying to make, namely that Biden’s temperature is normal. I have found that in some cases people add filler words when they’re trying to be overly convincing. I’m not saying this is the case in this instance, but every single news anchor who gave Donald Trump shit for constantly using the words “tremendous,” “strong,” “powerful,” and “big league” should tap back into that instinct, read this letter from Biden’s doctor, and let me know if I’m onto something or not.

Then we had Biden calling into a Kamala Harris campaign event yesterday. His scratchy voice boomed from the sky while a staffer hurriedly affixed a Presidential seal to the podium, as if he were there in person. Bizarre. During the same endorsement, Kamala Harris appeared to almost admit Biden was on a recording (as opposed to being on the phone live). Also bizarre is that the whole power structure of the Democratic Party and the 2024 campaign has shape-shifted without the presence of the current President of the United States in about three days. We’ve gone from Biden saying he won’t run again to Kamala Harris securing his delegates, fundraising cash and the backing of the entire party in less than 72 hours. Why can’t government display this shocking level of efficiency all the time?

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“That debate was a set-up(!) to convince Democrats that he (Biden) couldn’t run for president..”

“..party members “will be strongly encouraged” to instead support Arizona senator and former astronaut, Mark Kelly, for president at the DNC in Chicago..”

• Democratic Bigwigs Threatened Biden With 25th Amendment

Joe Biden had to withdraw from the US presidential race late last week after threats by high-ranking Democrats to forcibly remove him from office – the New York Post (NYP) reports, citing unnamed sources. The well-orchestrated “palace coup” has been in place for weeks, with Biden fighting it “every step of the way,” the sources claimed, referring to “anger, paranoia and frustration” allegedly shown by the 46th US president, as the party elite piled pressure on him. The top Democrats had threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to stop Biden from seeking re-election, the insiders argued, recalling that the document authorizes the vice president, and members of the Biden administration, to declare the president unfit for service. According to the insiders, part of the “elaborate” strategy to remove Biden from the presidential race involved permitting him to debate Republican candidate and former US President Donald Trump last month.

“That debate was a set-up to convince Democrats that he (Biden) couldn’t run for president,” one source insisted. POTUS’ disastrous performance during the 90-minute event shocked many in his party, prompting them to urge the 81-year-old to withdraw from the race. In the wake of the debate, POTUS’ son, Hunter Biden, suddenly became more involved in his father’s day-to-day business, insisting on attending every official and unofficial meeting, per the insiders. With Biden already endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, the party members “will be strongly encouraged” to instead support Arizona senator and former astronaut, Mark Kelly, for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago slated for August, the sources added.

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Failed murder. Loose ends everywhere.

• Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Resigns (ZH)

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned, one day after a contentious session with House lawmakers over security failures that facilitated the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, both NBC and ABC News report. Her resignation comes after a bipartisan grilling on Monday, with numerous Republicans and at least one Democrat lawmaker demanding she resign, as her agency fell short of its “zero-fail mission.” Cheatle’s testimony came after a Sunday night announcement from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the DOJ was forming an independent review panel charged with examining the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Of course, Mayorkas and Biden are ‘grateful’ to Cheatle for her ‘decades of public service,’ which was great aside from that whole almost getting Trump killed thing.

In one notably heated exchange on Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told Cheatle that she was ‘full of shit today,’ after Cheatle continued to give vague, or no, answers to pointed questions. We also learned yesterday that the Secret Service has no recordings of radio communications from the 13th. She also admitted to using encrypted apps on her personal phone to conduct official business. During one exchange with California Democrat Ro Khana, Cheatle didn’t realize that a former Secret Service Director in charge during the Reagan assassination attempt stepped down. The unusual Sunday night announcement from Mayorkas came about 12 hours before Cheatle’s 10 am Monday appearance before the House Oversight Committee, which Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has touted as “must-watch TV,” telling CNN, “She’s got a lot to answer for. And those concerns are bipartisan.” Underscoring that notion, Oversight Committee member and Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle has already demanded that Cheatle resign, via a statement released Saturday.

That panel has been given 45 days to perform its review. While new experts may be added shortly, it initially has four members:
• Obama Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
• Fran Townsend, a homeland security advisor to President George W. Bush
• Mark Filip, who was deputy attorney general to George W. Bush
• David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware

Damning information about the Secret Service’s handling of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania continues to emerge. On Saturday, the agency was caught in a lie: Having repeatedly denied that Trump’s campaign was denied additional security resources it had requested, the agency was exposed as having done just that, via a report from the Washington Post. On Friday, the world learned that would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was able to fly a drone over the event site just a few hours before he opened fire. The Secret Service typically bans drone flights at secured sites; but it’s unclear if such a prohibition was at least nominally imposed at the rally.

Crooks was identified as a suspicious individual more than an hour before he opened fire from a rooftop only about 450 feet from Trump’s podium. At the time, he’d already been observed in possession of a range finder and carrying a duffel bag. Later, he was spotted on a rooftop 20 minutes before all hell broke loose. As it did, female agents assigned to the DEI-focused protective detail appeared to falter under fire — even struggling with holstering a weapon. In the aftermath of the shooting, Cheatle’s credibility took a sharp downturn when, asked why no Secret Service agent was posted atop ideal sniper roost used by the shooter, she told ABC: “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.”

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“..it’s not the GOP that’s claiming to be the guardian of the vox populi while conspiring to undermine that vox at every turn..”

• The Party Of ‘Democracy” Will Now Choose Your Candidate For You (McMaken)

On Sunday, July 21, President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign via a text-only post on Twitter/X. Less than an hour later, Biden – also via a text-only post on Twitter/X – endorsed vice president Kamala Harris for the presidency. Thus, in just a few minutes, the ruling party in Washington completely erased the primary election process from one of the country’s major parties.That is, the same Democratic party that tells us it is the party of “democracy” just completely cut ordinary voters out of the selection process for the Democratic nominee. Instead, the Democratic nominee in 2024 will be chosen by a small group of elite party insiders. We’re told there will be an “open convention” in Chicago to choose the nominee, but all that means is that that there is no pre-determined nominee going into the convention. In any case, however, the nominee will be chosen by delegates and superdelegates (i.e., wealthy party elites like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) behind closed doors.

The Democratic party’s efforts to circumvent the primary process are quite remarkable for a ruling coalition that lectured the general public endlessly in 2020 about how Donald Trump was allegedly a “threat to democracy” and how “democracy is on the ballot.” Yet, this is what we’ve come to expect from political elites who use the term “democracy” as a propaganda term. For these people, the term has no objective meaning, it just means “something we like.” “Anti-democratic,” in contrast, just means “something we don’t like.” Moreover, its use as a propaganda term can be seen in the way that “democracy” is used in the same way as “revolutionary” by Marxist regimes. In such cases “revolutionary” is code for “in favor of the ruling elites” and “something we like.” Similarly, the opposite of “democracy” in a Marxist regime is “counterrevolutionary” or “bourgeois.” Those terms were essentially code for “against the ruling party” and “thing we don’t like.”

Such terms have no actual content in the usual sense of a word. Thus, the term “democracy” simply means “good” and “not democratic” means “evil.” For example, President Joe Biden delivered two major speeches in 2022 on how “democracy” will supposedly be abolished if his opponents win. In November of that year, former president Barack Obama solemnly intoned that if Republicans win in Arizona, “democracy as we know it may not survive.” This is repeated among the party’s media allies. One writer at Salon chastised voters for daring to let their votes be influenced by economic concerns when “democracy is under threat.” One New York Times headline bemoaned the apparent reality that voters don’t seem interested in “saving democracy” when it’s supposedly all so clear that “democracy is in peril.” At no point in these jeremiads is it ever explained how a vote for the out-of-favor candidate will actually end elections or universal suffrage or any other event or institution associated with democracy.

In Biden’s September 2022 speech in Philadelphia, he went on for twenty minutes about an imagined threat to democracy, without ever actually defining what democracy is. One was reminded of Fidel Castro howling in his multi-hour speeches about the threat to “the revolution” from insidious imperialists and counterrevolutionaries—by which he meant anyone who opposed his regime. The term “revolutionary” had no connection to actual revolution in this context. It simply meant “something my regime likes.” Meanwhile, the elites have gone to great lengths to ensure that no actual democracy—in the technical or traditional sense—has taken place in the nomination process. The Democratic Party made it clear that it would not allow any presidential hopefuls to challenge Biden to a debate. Early Democratic challengers Congressman Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson were told to get lost.

The most significant challenger within the party, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was effectively expelled from the party in October 2023. He was forced to declare his candidacy as an independent candidate soon after. So, after denying Democratic voters the chance to vote on Kennedy or anyone else, the party has now also denied the voters the chance to vote on Harris or whoever else the party elites will decide is the nominee in 2024. I don’t mention any of this to burnish the reputation of the Republican Party, by the way. Those of us who remember the Ron Paul campaigns in 2008 and 2012 remember how the GOP conspired to torpedo his campaign, going so far as to change the convention rules, ex post facto, to deny Paul a prime-time speaking position and to disenfranchise his delegates. Yet, it’s not the GOP that’s claiming to be the guardian of the vox populi while conspiring to undermine that vox at every turn.

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“..after Justice Engoron’s decision, it gives the state attorney general’s office “limitless power to target anyone,“ including ”political opponents..”

“..no company will want to come to New York to do business, and many businesses are fleeing,” his attorneys wrote. “The economic aspects of this decision are a disaster for New York.“

• Trump Asks Appeals Court to Overturn $454 Million Civil Fraud Judgment (ET)

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on July 22 asked a New York appeals court to overturn the $454 million New York civil fraud judgment that was handed down earlier this year. In court papers filed with First Department of the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, the state’s mid-level court, his lawyers wrote that Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 finding, that claimed former President Trump made false statements to insurers, banks, and other entities about his wealth, was incorrect. “Based on the ruling in this case, no company will want to come to New York to do business, and many businesses are fleeing,” his attorneys wrote. “The economic aspects of this decision are a disaster for New York.“ The New York Attorney General’s office ”has used the statute in a way never seen before,” they added. The lawyers said “there were no victims and no losses,” adding that the former president’s business partners “raved internally about their business with him and were eager for more.”

In their appeal, they contended that the judge made an “erroneous” decision and, during the case, “struggled to understand basic banking concepts” before he handed down the fine. They further said that he erred in rejecting an earlier appeals court decision regarding the statute of limitations for the case, arguing that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil lawsuit should have been dismissed. The former president’s team also contended that after Justice Engoron’s decision, it gives the state attorney general’s office “limitless power to target anyone,“ including ”political opponents,” according to the 116-page filing. “If Appellants’ conduct constituted ‘fraud’ […] then that word has no meaning, and [New York Attorney General’s] power to seize and destroy private businesses is boundless—and standardless,” the attorneys added.

Before the trial, Justice Engoron rejected many of the Trump attorneys’ objections as the case proceeded, at one point equating them to the plot of the movie “Groundhog Day” and fining some of the lawyers $7,500 each for “repetitive, frivolous” argument. The Appellate Division previously denied former President Trump’s bid to end the case on statute of limitations and other grounds. After the judge handed down the judgment, former President Trump posted a $175 million bond in April to halt its collection and prevent interest from accruing. The move also blocked Ms. James from seizing some of his assets in New York City while he appeals the matter. The Epoch Times contacted the New York Attorney General’s office for comment Tuesday. In a statement to multiple news outlets, Ms. James’ office said that the appeal filed Monday repeats some arguments that were already rejected. “We won this case based on the facts and the law, and we are confident we will prevail on appeal,” a spokesperson said.

Former President Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election in November, has maintained his innocence in the fraud case, saying he’s being unfairly targeted. Should former President Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, have to pay the entire judgment, it could imperil his cash reserves, although he might be able to recoup some of those losses due to his large stake in Trump Media, which owns his Truth Social platform. Earlier this year, he was ordered in a separate case to pay nearly $84 million in damages after a New York jury found that he defamed a writer, E. Jean Carroll. In May of this year, he was convicted by a Manhattan jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to payments made during the 2016 campaign. Sentencing for that case is scheduled for September.

The Manhattan case may be the only one of four cases against former President Trump that goes to trial before the November election. A federal judge in Florida last week dismissed federal charges involving his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, arguing that the special counsel appointed in that case, Jack Smith, was improperly appointed by the Department of Justice. Mr. Smith has vowed to appeal the judgment. Two other election-related cases brought against him in Washington and Georgia have been stalled, and it’s not clear when either will go to trial, if ever. The former president had pleaded not guilty to all charges in the four cases.

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True across the board for NATO countries. Who still think that if you add up all these losing propositions, you end up with a winner.

• UK Military Problems ‘Much Worse Than Thought’ – Defense Secretary (RT)

The British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force are all struggling with “hollowed out forces, procurement waste, [and] low morale,” British Defense Secretary John Healey has warned. In a grim assessment of the state of the UK military, Healy told the British Army’s annual Land Warfare Conference in London on Monday that the nation’s armed forces face “very serious challenges,” according to Sky News. “We now also see that these problems are much worse than we thought,” added the defense secretary, who has been in office for just over two weeks as part of the new Labour government. Healey also said he wants to establish “a new era for UK defense” in the face of “rapidly increasing global threats.” The new British government launched a thorough defense review earlier this month after Labour’s general election victory. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted that Britain should be better prepared for “a more dangerous and volatile world.”

The government has set out a “roadmap” to spending 2.5% of national income on defense. Britain is a member of NATO, which requires that member states spend at least 2% of GDP on their militaries. The conference in London was also attended by the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, General Valery Zaluzhny, who delivered a speech claiming that a Third World War may be approaching as a result of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Zaluzhny was removed from his post as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces by Vladimir Zelensky in February following the failed 2023 counteroffensive. London has been a vocal supporter of Kiev since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. The British government has delivered almost £12.5 billion ($16.1 billion) in aid to Kiev as of the beginning of July.

Earlier this month, Starmer pledged to provide £3 billion ($3.87 billion) a year in military support to Ukraine until 2030/31 and “for as long as needed.” Zelensky visited London last week to meet with Starmer and attend a cabinet meeting. The British leader told Zelensky that London would speed up the delivery of aid to Kiev, claiming that “Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda.” London and Kiev also signed a framework agreement which included a £2 billion ($2.6 billion) loan to finance Ukraine’s defense needs. The Russian diplomatic mission in London warned that further support for Kiev would only worsen the conflict and the situation on the ground in Ukraine.

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Cracks in the unity?!

• Almost Half of EU Members Wanted to Hold Top Diplomats Meeting in Hungary (Sp.)

At this week’s EU Foreign Affairs Council, countries of the European Union were divided on the matter of where to hold the next gathering of the bloc’s foreign ministers, with almost half preferring Budapest instead of Brussels, which was picked by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Politico reported on Tuesday. On Monday, Borrell said that the next meeting of the foreign ministers would be held in Brussels, not Budapest, due to Hungary’s position on Ukraine. In total, 13 countries said that they preferred to meet in Budapest, while five others, especially states in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, said that they would boycott the gathering in the Hungarian capital, according to Politico. In the end, Borrell picked Brussels in a move that aims to “send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal,” to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the newspaper added.

The informal meeting of EU foreign ministers was initially scheduled to be held in Budapest in late August to mark the beginning of Hungary’s EU presidency. Earlier in July, Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of his diplomatic efforts to open up lines of communication to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. He also met with US presidential candidate Donald Trump. Some EU leaders protested what they see as Orban’s misuse of the bloc’s rotating presidency.

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“Ukraine stopped the flow of oil through the Druzhba pipeline last week..”

“Ukraine stopped receiving electricity from Slovakia and Romania as of midnight on Tuesday..”

• Hungary Issues €6.5bn Ultimatum To Ukraine (RT)

Budapest will block funds the European Union has earmarked for Ukraine until Kiev resumes the transit of Russian crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. Ukraine stopped the flow of oil through the Druzhba pipeline last week, citing its sanctions against Russian energy giant Lukoil, thus depriving the two EU members of an estimated 30-40% of their needs. “As long as this issue is not resolved by Ukraine, everyone should forget about the payment of the €6.5 billion of the European Peace Facility compensation for arms transfers,” Szijjarto announced on Tuesday. “Ukraine’s decision to not allow Lukoil to transit oil supplies through Ukraine poses a fundamental threat to the security of energy supplies to Hungary and Slovakia,” Szijjarto said, describing Kiev’s move as “unacceptable and incomprehensible,” as well as incompatible with its aspirations to join the EU.

Szijjarto also reminded the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell that Hungary – along with Slovakia and Poland – came to Ukraine’s aid in early July, sending enough electricity to stabilize Kiev’s energy system. Hungary supplied 42% of Ukraine’s electricity in June, Szijjarto noted. According to unconfirmed reports from Ukrainian local media, Ukraine stopped receiving electricity from Slovakia and Romania as of midnight on Tuesday. Kiev has had to resort to imports after Russian air and missile strikes disabled most of its domestic generation capabilities. Moscow has described the strikes as reprisal for Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.

Poland has already protested Hungary’s move, saying that it would deprive Warsaw of €2 billion it needs to modernize its armed forces. “This is a huge disappointment for me,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said. Kiev’s official explanation for embargoing oil deliveries was that Lukoil revenue could be used to support the Russian military. One Ukrainian lawmaker, however, suggested to Politico that the blockade has a secondary purpose, to pressure Hungary into changing its policy on arming Kiev. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long refused to send Ukraine any weapons, train any Ukrainian troops, or allow the use of Hungarian territory for EU or NATO arms shipments, insisting that Kiev should sue for peace with Moscow as soon as possible.

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If only you could push it into the ocean…

• EU May Not Be Right Fit For Hungary – Finnish FM (RT)

The EU may not be the “right reference group” for Hungary, considering the apparent divergence in views between Budapest and the bloc, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen has suggested. She accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of giving the impression that he was representing the EU during his recent visits to Russia and China to discuss the Ukraine conflict. Speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Valtonen stressed that Hungary – which currently holds the rotating EU presidency – is not entitled to represent the 27-nation bloc as its foreign policy views “do not correspond to the official line of the union.” “Of course, it is up to the individual country to do so,” Valtonen told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper. “But at some point, it may be worth asking whether the European Union is the right reference group if the ideas differ so fundamentally from our common values.”

Budapest took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council at the start of July. The body defines the bloc’s overall political direction and priorities. Hungarian Prime Minister Orban then embarked on what he called a Ukraine “peace mission,” aiming to find a resolution to the conflict by holding talks with its “five main actors” – Ukraine, Russia, China, the EU, and the US. As part of the mission, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, triggering the ire of EU leaders. Orban stressed he does not need a mandate from Brussels to promote peace and that his discussions cannot be considered official talks. The European Parliament last week condemned Orban’s visits, particularly to Moscow, describing them as “a blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy.” The EU has also been outraged by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto’s speeches to the UN Security Council, in which he has accused the bloc of pursuing a “pro-war policy” with its military and financial support for Ukraine.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has criticized Szijjarto by declaring that “the European Union is not at war,” and has called for a discussion on “what to do with Hungary’s presidency of the EU Council in the next few months.” In a rebuke of Orban’s solo diplomatic efforts on Ukraine, the EU’s next informal meeting of foreign and defense ministers will take place in Brussels instead of Budapest, Borrell said on Monday. He called the change of venue “a signal’ to Hungary. Moscow has said the EU’s criticism of Orban over his Ukraine peace initiative proves that Brussels has resolved to support Ukraine militarily, and that its pro-war policies will not change. Budapest is due to retain the EU presidency until January 1, 2025, when it will pass to Poland.

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“..cut water access in Gaza to 6 percent of levels that were already insufficient for regular life..”

• Israel Has Reduced Water Access in Gaza by 94% Since October (Zhang)

Oxfam has warned that Israel’s longstanding policy of using water as a weapon against Palestinians has reached its peak amid Israel’s genocide, with water access for Palestinians in Gaza now at a small fraction of pre-genocide levels as Palestinians die of dehydration, starvation and disease. According to a report on Israel’s water deprivation policies by Oxfam, Israel has reduced water access in Gaza by a whopping 94 percent since October. This means Palestinians only have access to an average of roughly 4.7 liters of water per person per day, or only about 1.2 gallons a day. In the supposed “humanitarian safe zone” in al-Mawasi — which Israeli forces have attacked relentlessly — Palestinians only have access to an average of 2.5 liters per day, the report said. This paltry amount of water must be used for all purposes: drinking, cooking, bathing, laundry, and more. It is far less than the minimum of 15 liters needed per day in emergencies, as determined by UN officials.

This dramatic reduction in water access is the result of Israel’s sustained attacks on Gaza’s water infrastructure, Oxfam said. Israel has destroyed 100 percent of wastewater treatment plants in Gaza and has destroyed all water desalination plants and water sanitation warehouses in Gaza City, while destroying the vast majority of infrastructure in other parts of the Strip. The report found that Israel has damaged or destroyed five sanitation sites every three days just since October. This amounts to nearly 70 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza being compromised by Israel. “The Israeli military’s operations in Gaza have repeatedly committed violations of international humanitarian law depriving people of access to water, an indispensable resource for their survival, by damaging or destroying water infrastructure, contaminating water sources, and blocking supplies needed to enable water production,” the report says.

Meanwhile, delivering water in humanitarian convoys is nearly impossible due to Israel’s aid blockade, the report says. Maintaining what is left of sanitation infrastructure is its own challenge, as Israeli forces have targeted maintenance workers within Gaza as part of their attacks on all systems supporting life in Gaza. “My colleagues and I have been living through a nightmare these past nine months, but we still feel it’s our responsibility and duty to ensure everybody in Gaza is getting their minimum right of clean drinking water,” Monther Shoblak, general manager of Gaza’s water utility, said in a statement. “It’s been very difficult, but we are determined to keep trying – even when we witness our colleagues being targeted and killed by Israel while undertaking their work.

Israel’s current attacks on water access are part of its decades-long campaign to exercise control over basic needs in Gaza in order to kill Palestinians through deprivation. As a result of Israel’s deprivation campaign, water access was already subpar in Gaza before October. Though the World Health Organization recommends a daily quantity of 100 liters per day for regular activities, as of March 2023, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only about 83 liters per day, while those in the occupied West Bank had access to 89 liters a day. Israelis, including those who live in illegal settlements in the West Bank, have access to almost 250 liters a day, by comparison. This means that Israel, over the course of its nine months of genocide in Gaza, has cut water access in Gaza to 6 percent of levels that were already insufficient for regular life.

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Orca great white

 

 

Log
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815659908815024506

 

 

Beethoven
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815679190546473075

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle June 14 2024

Jun 142024
 
 June 14, 2024  Posted by at 9:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  52 Responses »


René Magritte Mysteries of the horizon (a.k.a. The Masterpiece) 1955

 

 

 

 

 

• West Has Declared ‘War Without Rules’ On Russia – Medvedev (RT)
• Medvedev Urges To Turn Life In West Into ‘Permanent Nightmare’ (TASS)
• Use of F-16s On Russian Territory ‘Not Escalation’ – NATO Chief (RT)
• Biden, Zelensky To Sign 10-Year ‘Arm & Train’ Defense Deal at G7 (ZH)
• Biden Needs More Bloodshed In Europe To Stay In Power – Zakharova (TASS)
• Do The New US Sanctions Mark Russia’s Final Divorce From The Dollar? (Johston)
• Will Average Citizens Pay the Price for G7’s Theft of Russian Funds? (Miles)
• EU Now at a Crossroads: Reform or Self-Destruction (Jay)
• Macron’s Coalition Sees Him as Liability Ahead of Feared Snap Election (Sp.)
• Fine, Penalty For Hungary: 1 Million A Day For Detaining Asylum Seekers (RTL)
• Joe Biden Vows Not To Pardon Hunter (RT)
• WaPo Makes Last Plea to Keep Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive (Turley)
• Musk Wants Ukrainian NGO Designated As Terrorist Group (RT)

 

 

 

 

Alex Tucker Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1801444130796515593

 

 

 

 

AOC SCOTUS

 

 

RFK Trump

 

 

Massie Bragg

 

 

Hoax

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

“Moscow should “obliterate their energy infrastructure, industry, transport, banking and social services. Instil fear over an imminent collapse of all critical infrastructure..”

• West Has Declared ‘War Without Rules’ On Russia – Medvedev (RT)

Moscow should use every opportunity to inflict “maximum damage” on Western nations that have declared a “war without rules” on Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has argued.Every weakness of the US and its allies should be exploited to undermine them and obstruct life for their citizens, the Russian official said on Thursday, reacting to the latest round of sanctions announced by Washington earlier this week. ”Are they afraid that we would transfer our arms to the enemies of the Western world? We should send every kind of weapon, except nuclear (for now)!” Medvedev wrote on social media. “Are they afraid of anarchy and crime waves in large cities? We should help disrupt their municipal authorities!”

Russia could trigger a war in space, wage a psychological warfare campaign against Western citizens so that they “tremble under blankets in their cozy homes” and unleash a tsunami of fake news “to turn their life into a never-ending nightmare, in which they cannot distinguish reality from the wildest fiction.” Moscow should “obliterate their energy infrastructure, industry, transport, banking and social services. Instil fear over an imminent collapse of all critical infrastructure,” according to Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.

The latest round of American restrictions against Russian entities targets energy, metals and mining as well as the financial sector. Among other things, it has forced the Moscow Stock Exchange to suspend all trade in the US dollar and the euro. The package is one of the biggest since the Ukraine conflict escalated into open hostilities in February 2022, impacting over $100 million in trade between Russia and its foreign partners, according to estimate from the US Department of the Treasury. Medvedev claimed that a campaign of “maximum damage” as outlined in his post was preferable to simply ignoring the Western pressure, and urged Russian citizens to act accordingly.

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“We should try every day to do as much damage as possible to those countries that have imposed these restrictions..“

• Medvedev Urges To Turn Life In West Into ‘Permanent Nightmare’ (TASS)

Russia should get biblical with its response to Western sanctions by turning life in the West into a “permanent nightmare” and inflicting maximum damage on unfriendly countries, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said. “We should try every day to do as much damage as possible to those countries that have imposed these restrictions on our country and all our citizens. Hit them where it hurts,” the official wrote on his Telegram channel. “Do damage everywhere, paralyze the operation of their companies and government agencies. Find vulnerabilities in their critical technologies and attack them mercilessly. Literally destroy their energy, industry, transportation, banking and social services,” he said. “Let’s turn their lives into an ongoing permanent nightmare,” Medvedev concluded, referencing the Old Testament principle of “an eye for an eye.”

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Says who?

• Use of F-16s On Russian Territory ‘Not Escalation’ – NATO Chief (RT)

Ukrainian strikes anywhere inside Russia using Western-donated F-16 aircraft would not be an escalation of the conflict and would not make NATO member states parties to it, according to the military bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He was asked on Thursday whether restrictions should be imposed on how Kiev can use the US-designed fighter jets. Several European nations intend to provide dozens of the warplanes once Ukraine has pilots and ground infrastructure to fly them. Speaking ahead of a NATO defense ministers’ gathering in Brussels, Stoltenberg said “different allies have different types of restrictions on the use of their weapons,” and welcomed the recent relaxation of these rules by some member states.

Washington reportedly gave Kiev the green light to fire American weapons at targets outside of what the two nations consider Ukrainian territory, allowing strikes inside Russia’s Belgorod Region as part of the fight for the neighboring Kharkov Region. Some other Western nations have also said their weapons can be used in similar ways. Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and this includes “striking legitimate military targets” on the territory of Russia, Stoltenberg declared. “Self-defense is not escalation,” he added. “And we have the right to help Ukraine,” he continued. “By doing that, NATO allies don’t become party to the conflict.” Moscow perceives the entire conflict as part of a US-initiated proxy war against Russia. It considers NATO’s increasing military presence in Ukraine and its intention to eventually bring the nation into the fold as major national security risks.

NATO member states arming Ukraine, providing “mercenaries” to bolster its troops, and helping Kiev to plan and deliver attacks against Russia are de facto participants in the hostilities, senior Russian officials have claimed. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any attacks using Western weapons deep inside Russia will be retaliated against. Moscow could supply long-range weapons from its own arsenal to third parties, who would then use them against Western military assets, he suggested. Such tit-for-tat escalation could lead to a major disaster for all parties involved, Putin has warned.Andrey Kartapolov, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee, said last week that Moscow would consider any bases used by Kiev to fly donated F-16s as legitimate military targets regardless of what country they are located in.

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“..given the pledge is an “executive agreement” and not a formal treaty, it can be undone by future American administrations..”

• Biden, Zelensky To Sign 10-Year ‘Arm & Train’ Defense Deal at G7 (ZH)

As they meet on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy, President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are planning to sign a deal for long-term US military assistance for Ukraine. The deal commits Washington to ten years of arming and training the Ukrainian military, and which bolsters the military-industrial complex toward producing more of its own needs for the nation’s armed forces. However, given the pledge is an “executive agreement” and not a formal treaty, it can be undone by future American administrations. CNN previewed of the expected soon to be announced deal, “The US-Ukraine agreement does not make a specific monetary pledge to support Ukraine’s defense, two of the sources familiar with the agreement said.”

“An annex in the agreement will lay out how the Biden administration plans to work with Congress on the implementation of the security commitments, one of the sources said, specifically the long-term funding that will be needed to support Ukraine’s defense,” the report added. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had further previewed Tuesday that the US “will continue to be right up front and clear” at the G7, and that Washington “will take bold steps to show Mr. Putin that time is not on his side and that he cannot outlast us, as we support Ukraine fight for freedom.”

While the big decade-long security pact will provide “consultations” for Kiev in the event of another future Russian attack on Ukraine, there’s nothing in it that legally binds the United States to direct intervention in its behalf in the future. Despite the continued talk out of Brussels of future Ukrainian membership in NATO, European powers continue to line up their own separate defense pacts with Ukraine. NATO still wants to “Trump-proof” its future commitments to Ukraine… “The pledge the US and Ukraine are expected to sign will be similar to the 14 other bilateral agreements Ukraine has already reached with other allies, including the UK, France and Germany,” CNN writes. “The US-Ukraine agreement will be the 15th such deal signed, one of the sources said, and 17 other countries have committed to negotiating similar bilateral security pacts with Ukraine,” the report underscores.

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“..arms supplies to Kiev will become obligatory for all NATO member states and will be coordinated by US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli..”

• Biden Needs More Bloodshed In Europe To Stay In Power – Zakharova (TASS)

The administration of US President Joe Biden needs “to make Europe bleed even harder” to remain in power, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, wrote on her Telegram channel.”Do European Union countries realize that Washington is embroiling them into a direct confrontation with Russia under the NATO flag?” she wrote, commenting on NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s plans to make arms supplies to Kiev obligatory for all NATO members. “The West is hysterically feeding its public with claims of Russia’s alleged imminent aggression against Western countries, and it means only one thing – the Biden administration needs to make Europe bleed even harder to prevent the collapse of its own government and of the US economy.” Earlier, Stoltenberg said that arms supplies to Kiev will become obligatory for all NATO member states and will be coordinated by US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

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“..once a Russian entity falls under US sanctions it is seen as radioactive elsewhere and other institutions steer clear..”

• Do The New US Sanctions Mark Russia’s Final Divorce From The Dollar? (Johston)

The endless parade of Western sanctions on Russia barely makes the news anymore. But this week the US Treasury did manage to conjure up something that has generated attention. In what may be the most ambitious package since the initial wave back in February 2022, the American authorities greatly increased the scope for applying secondary penalties on foreign financial institutions found working with restricted Russian entities, and placed the Moscow Exchange and its clearing house under blocking sanctions, among other measures. The exchange subsequently announced that it was suspending all settlements in dollars and euros. It’s the latter that is the most interesting and has elicited the most chatter. But, before pursuing this train of thought, let’s dig into the nitty-gritty a little bit and sort out what is actually going to happen to currency trading in Russia.

To trade currencies on the Moscow Exchange, banks and other players send ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ bids to the exchange throughout the day. These buyers and sellers do not trade with each other directly but rather though the exchange’s clearing house, the National Settlement Center (NSC). In the evening, these trades would be settled by the clearing center, which had correspondent accounts in foreign banks for each currency. In other words, currency trading on the exchange involved the participation of foreign banks. It was not an enclosed system such as trading in Russian stocks (where the shares of Russian companies are bought and sold in rubles by investors without the involvement of any foreign entity). It is exactly this ability to clear currency trades that has been taken away by the new sanctions. American correspondent banks will now be barred from carrying out settlements with the NSC. From a technical standpoint, it is actually the sanctions against the NSC – rather than the exchange itself – that are most sensitive.

The Russian central bank has stated that currency trading will henceforth take place over-the-counter (OTC), meaning in decentralized fashion. But what is important to understand is that this is hardly a radical move – currency markets across the globe are conducted OTC, so this will in a sense merely bring Russia in line with standard practice. Russia was unusual in that currency trading primarily took place on a centralized exchange, whereas generally currencies are traded through a decentralized network of banks, a system much more flexible than relying on an exchange. The New York Stock Exchange, for example, does not host currency trading. Moving to OTC doesn’t mean that currency trading in Russia is going to resemble every other currency market. But it does provide a bit of a context to understand that this shift itself isn’t particularly radical. In fact, Russia is already essentially halfway there. According to the latest report from the Bank of Russia, 58% of currency trading in the country takes place off-exchange.

The central bank will use as its official rate some sort of average based on information obtained each day from banks. The new arrangement will almost certainly be a bit messy, especially at first: spreads will be wider, liquidity lower, transparency reduced, and price discovery in general harder. Transactional costs will be higher, a sensitive point for importers, for example. The market will be more prone to manipulation, and some analysts have posited that different exchange rates could emerge: an official central bank rate, the rates offered by various banks and a black-market, ‘street’ rate. However, on Thursday the Bank of Russia provided assurances that the exchange rate would remain market-driven and unified.

What exactly will happen to the ruble exchange rate remains to be seen, but there are strong grounds to believe that it will not move significantly from current levels. After all, the fundamental supply-demand structure of the market will not change in any dramatic way. The ruble’s exchange rate is determined by supply and demand from foreign trade and not on which platform trading takes place. Early indications are the market will largely shrug off the closure of dollar and euro exchange trading. There is another important angle to consider here. Formally, only American correspondent banks have been barred from working with the NSC. But experience has shown that once a Russian entity falls under US sanctions it is seen as radioactive elsewhere and other institutions steer clear. The increasingly bellicose rhetoric about secondary sanctions emanating from Washington will surely only exacerbate this tendency.

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“[Dedollarization] means the demise of American power, because American power is based on the ability to pay bills by printing money..”

• Will Average Citizens Pay the Price for G7’s Theft of Russian Funds? (Miles)

News of the development emerged Thursday, although the group of Western economies has yet to formally approve the action. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed the reports, drawing a distinction between the expropriation of earned interest and the outright seizure of Russian savings held in European banks. “We are certainly not talking about confiscating these assets,” Meloni claimed at the G7 meeting in Fasano. But the move is nonetheless highly controversial in the precedent it sets, claims analyst Dr. George Szamuely, and may be seen as a prelude to the wholesale theft of the funds. The analyst at the London-based Global Policy Institute joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program on Thursday to discuss how the development will harm financially strained Western citizens. “It doesn’t in any way conform to international law,” said Szamuely of the G7’s plan, “and let’s keep in mind this has never been done before.”

“It is customary to freeze accounts of your adversaries during wartime,” the author continued. “It is not customary to then help yourself to that money and put it to whatever uses you want and, in this case, the uses it’s being put to are for Ukraine to buy weapons in order to kill Russians. So Russian money is being used to kill Russians. That is just so beyond outrageous.” The majority of frozen Russian assets at play are held in European banks, noted Szamuely. Leaders across the continent have urged restraint as plans involving Russian funds have been discussed in recent months, fearing repercussions and reputational damage to European financial institutions. Yet, in a striking demonstration of the United States’ power over its NATO allies, Washington eventually prevailed and forced through the plan. The move carries significant risks in its weaponization of the Western financial system, with observers claiming the confiscation will likely convince global financial interests to further decouple out of fear of the safety of their own assets.

“China has a lot of American assets and European assets, and assets around the world,” noted host Angie Wong. “That could be seized at any moment. And the same treatment could be made of them if they don’t play the way the G7 wants them to play.” “Isn’t this going to backfire on the US and some of the G7 leaders?” Wong asked. “Because ultimately that just means you’re not going to get the foreign investments from Russia or China, maybe Saudi Arabia, whoever their next target is going to be.” “I would’ve thought so and I would’ve thought that it would elevate pressure on China, Russia, India, and other countries to set up their own alternative financial systems,” said Szamuely, referring to efforts that are already under way within the BRICS economic bloc.

But the consequences of the loss of dollar hegemony could prove even more disastrous. Observers point out that the trend is already well underway with Russia, China, India and other countries increasingly inking deals to pursue trade denominated in their own currencies. The BRICS bloc has also investigated the possibility of creating its own currency. The dollar’s role as the de facto global reserve currency is so crucial that it has helped drive US foreign policy, with analysts claiming Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s plans to create a gold-backed African currency provided impetus for his Western-backed overthrow.

“[Dedollarization] means the demise of American power, because American power is based on the ability to pay bills by printing money,” noted US economist Paul Craig Roberts. “That would mean a massive US inflation. It’d be a kind of inflation that results from currency collapse. There’s nothing monetary authorities can do about that. Those kinds of inflations are the real inflations, the real deadly ones.”

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“..Ursula von der Leyen represents the old guard and everything which is wrong with the EU: deluded, outdated views run by elitists who believe the only solution to the EU’s power problem is to take more..”

• EU Now at a Crossroads: Reform or Self-Destruction (Jay)

Ursula von der Leyen represents the old guard and everything which is wrong with the EU: deluded, outdated views run by elitists who believe the only solution to the EU’s power problem is to take more

The EU has just experienced a monumental change, following years of failed immigration policies, which has ushered in a massive number of far-right MEPs in the more powerful EU member states. It’s too early to say whether this will make too much of a change to policy decisions at the highest echelons of the European Union but certainly the European Parliament itself is, possibly for the first time ever, going to be an interesting place with now a quarter of all of the 720 MEPs coming from far-right groups. Traditionally most people who voted in EU elections were stalwart supporters of the project and the ethos of one Europe united by a policy of free movement of goods, services and people and, for many, a single currency. The few who voted against the mainstream parties – the main bloc made up of Christian democrats and socialists – were those who wanted to use their vote as a throw-away gesture to send a signal to their own elites that they want change. That protest vote in the past was always very small as the EU elite in Brussels always benefited from a voting system which was tilted in their favour. But no more.

The European Parliament, which most sceptics considered to be a fake assembly whose only real role is to rubber stamp draft legislation from either the powerful European Commission or member states (via the European Council), could now become suddenly relevant to the whole project. For the last five years, there has only been two Irish MEPs to take the floor and tackle the European Commission head on, on its genocide in Gaza or its phoney war in Ukraine. But now something like 180 MEPs will use their two minutes speaking time to tackle the commission on its failed foreign policy, immigration and trade deals with China, for example. The Ukraine war could be a central theme which will probably be a thorn in the side of the European Commission and its chief – whoever that might be as, despite supporting statements from the Christian Democratic group in the European parliament, it is not a certainty that Ursula von der Leyen will return as Commission chief.

If she succeeds and stays on as EU Commission president, she will have a tough time in parliamentary plenary sessions as Europe’s biggest countries – who pay the most into the EU budget – have picked up the most far-right seats. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National scored the most decisive victory, winning 30 of the country’s 81 seats, and more than double the votes of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renew party. That political slaughter pushed Macron to call a snap election. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy won 24 seats and increased her share of the national vote, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) came second in Germany and snapped up 15 seats. Presently the AfD doesn’t have a pan-European group to align itself to and, under EU rules, benefit from huge amounts of cash from the EU parliament as it was kicked out of one of the two ‘groups’, prompting fears that it will create one itself and invite others to join it.

In the European parliament both France’s and Italy’s far-right MEPs are in different groups, but in reality, when it comes to voting, for sure there will be a unified policy on most issues which will give them leverage with the European Commission that we have never seen in the short history of the EU. It’s important to note that far-right parties topped the polls in Austria and Hungary, too, with important gains in Spain and Cyprus. All of these countries have one thing in common: real immigration problems which neither the mainstream political groups nor the EU has addressed. But the real issue is the identity and survival of the European Union itself as this shake-up is certainly going to threaten the traditional power structure.. Unlike President Macron who wisely stated to the press that the far-right votes were a message which he is listening to, von der Leyen’s statements were more about fighting the new threat.

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“You won’t see Macron’s face on my campaign posters, I can tell you that..”

• Macron’s Coalition Sees Him as Liability Ahead of Feared Snap Election (Sp.)

French President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition fears that he could drag it down in the polls ahead of the snap legislative election that is itself seen as a disaster in the making, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing lawmakers and party staffers. Macron’s five-party Besoin d’Europe coalition was dealt a staggering blow in the European Parliament elections last week where it won 14.6% of the vote, against the far-right National Rally’s 31.37%. Macron called a snap parliamentary vote in the hope of wresting the initiative back from the right, but his party and coalition members now fear they will be the ones to pay for this mistake. “We are being thrown under the bus for a mistake that belongs to him,” an adviser in Macron’s own Renaissance party told the Politico online newspaper on condition of anonymity. “The more he talks, the more we lose points,” another adviser to a member of the French parliament from Macron’s party said.

Heavyweights in Macron’s coalition have been reportedly urging the president to take a step away from the campaign trail to give them a fighting chance of winning. Francois Bayrou, Macron’s key ally and leader of the Renaissance-allied Modem party, came to the presidential palace on Monday to tell Macron that he “mustn’t get too involved in the campaign,” the news site quoted a centrist lawmaker as saying. Other coalition lawmakers have been reportedly distancing themselves from Macron as they gear up for the first round of the legislative polls, due June 30 “You won’t see Macron’s face on my campaign posters, I can tell you that,” a member of parliament from the president’s coalition told Politico. An official with Macron’s Renaissance parliamentary group accused the 46-year-old of being oblivious to France’s “anti-president” mood.

The news outlet said that polls show that Macron is being perceived as aloof and out of touch. An Elysee staffer was quoted as saying that Macron was so “intoxicated by his own presence” during D-Day celebrations last week that the results of the European elections “hit him hard.” Despite calls from his friends and allies, Macron plans to get heavily involved in the campaign, which his coalition partners reportedly see as a huge risk. He is said to be planning to saturate the media with three appearances per week, starting with a major speech on Wednesday.

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Google translate from Dutch.

• Fine, Penalty For Hungary: 1 Million A Day For Detaining Asylum Seekers (RTL)

Hungary must pay a high fine and a penalty because the EU country continues to lock up asylum seekers, in violation of European rules. The country is ‘deliberately’ evading the right to asylum and that is an ‘unprecedented and extremely serious violation’ of European legislation, the European Court of Justice ruled. The court ruled three and a half years ago that Hungary, which has been pursuing a very strict migration policy for years, is not adhering to the rules. For example, the country does not give rejected asylum seekers the time to await an appeal against their rejection in Hungary. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has not adjusted that policy, the highest European court confirmed after a complaint from the European Commission.

Hungary must therefore pay a fine of 200 million euros. For every day that the government in Budapest continues with the contested policy, it must pay an additional penalty of 1 million. Such a high penalty is rarely imposed by the European Court of Justice. Poland was punished with a penalty of half a million euros three years ago. When that country refused to pay, the European Commission withheld the amount from EU subsidies for Poland.

Hungary is shifting its responsibility to the other EU member states, the court in Luxembourg ruled. “Including its financial responsibility.” The country is ‘seriously undermining the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility.’ Hungary has improved its life on one point after the 2020 verdict. The detention camps on the border with Serbia where the country locked up asylum seekers have been dismantled. Orbán finds the fine and penalty payment ‘scandalous and unacceptable’. Hungary is only defending the borders of the European Union, he says on X. “It seems that illegal migrants are more important to Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens.”

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Sacrificing Hunter to claim the system works for Trump, too?!

• Joe Biden Vows Not To Pardon Hunter (RT)

US President Joe Biden has promised not to pardon his troubled son Hunter Biden, who was recently found guilty of violating federal gun laws. A Delaware jury announced their verdict on Tuesday, several months before the 2024 presidential election where Joe Biden will face former President Donald Trump. “I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything – I said I’d abide by the jury’s decision. I will do that. And I will not pardon him,” Biden said at a news conference during a G7 meeting in southern Italy. Asked by reporters whether he would commute his son’s sentence, he replied, “No.” The president reaffirmed his support for his son. “I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest, the most decent men I know,” he said.

According to the prosecution, Hunter Biden violated gun laws by failing to disclose his addiction to crack cocaine when he bought a revolver in 2018. Hunter Biden has admitted to struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. His defense team, however, argued that he did not consider himself an addict at the time of purchasing the weapon. Hunter Biden could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000, according to CNN. The sentencing date has not been set yet. Last year, the prosecution attempted to reach a plea deal with the younger Biden. The potential deal fell apart, however, after it was criticized by the judge. Republicans and conservative figures have accused Hunter Biden of corruption and influence peddling on his father’s behalf. The Bidens have denied any wrongdoing.

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“We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation — even if they probably aren’t.”

• WaPo Makes Last Plea to Keep Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive (Turley)

Across the media, journalists have recognized that the Hunter Biden laptop is authentic and, as established early by American intelligence agencies, not “Russian disinformation.” With the authentication of the laptop in the Delaware trial as “real” and untampered, most media has chosen to walk away with a slightly embarrassed shrug. Not the Washington Post. Its columnist, Philip Bump, was one of the most prominent purveyors of what the U.S. government now calls a “conspiracy theory.” This week, Bump ran another column to assure liberals that they were right all along about the laptop story.In 2021, when media organizations were finally admitting that the laptop was authentic, Bump was still declaring that it was a “conspiracy theory.” Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Bump continued to suggest that “the laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence.”

After Bump had a meltdown in an interview when confronted over past false claims, I wrote a column about the litany of such false claims, including the laptop conspiracy theory. The Post surprised many of us by issuing a statement that they stood by all of Bump’s reporting, including the laptop conspiracy theory. That was in August 2023. Well, Bump is back. In his column, Bump takes after various people calling the media to account for burying this story before and after the election, including myself. In hitting Sean Hannity for a recent segment, Bump makes a common evasion among laptop deniers: “One is that he is conflating the laptop presented as evidence at the trial, the one obtained by the FBI in 2019, with the ‘laptop’ that was the source of the New York Post story.” For those of us who have covered the laptop since the story ran at the New York Post, it is as maddening as it is mendacious.

At the time of the story, some of us noted that the contents of the laptop could be confirmed since these emails and messages involved third parties. Some quickly confirmed the contents as authentic. The Bidens had long been accused of influence peddling and special dealing off of Joe Biden’s positions as senator, vice president, and president. Moreover, as the media was referencing the debunked letter of former intelligence officials on this possible likely Russian disinformation, American intelligence quickly confirmed that there was no such evidence to support that claim.The media ignored the actual intelligence agencies in favor of former intelligence officials who were organized by Biden campaign operatives to release the letter. Biden then cited the letter to refuse to answer questions about his son’s influence peddling and unlawful conduct.

Bump and others used the question over whether the laptop was an authentic copy or a tampered copy to avoid any serious investigation into the underlying emails. Many simply threw up their hands and said “oh well, what can we do.” To this day, the media has shown little interest in the influence peddling operation. Few people seriously argue that the media would have shown the same limited response if these emails tied Trump children to millions in foreign influence peddling schemes. But Bump was not done: “After Hannity lamented the media’s silence on the so-called “critical development,” Turley offered a theory for why that silence had ensued.‘If the laptop is authentic, if those files are real,’ he said, “then you have these detailed accounts of a multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation run by the Biden family. Those would also be authentic. But the media just simply doesn’t want to go there.’ Except that we already know that many of those files were real, because we got access to them and verified them.

The reason the media ‘doesn’t want to go there’ on breathless claims about a ‘Biden family’ influence-peddling operation is that the material doesn’t prove any such operation. It shows — as has by now been exhaustively explained — work done by Hunter Biden and his Uncle James that involved lots of money but did not demonstrably involve President Biden. The entire point of the House Republican impeachment effort has been to prove Joe Biden’s involvement; they have been unable to do so.” Once again, Bump makes it sound like the Post vigorously and quickly verified the laptop. The belated acknowledgement did not come much later. It was not until March 2022 that the Post finally admitted that the laptop was real, but then did comparably little to pursue the corruption and other unlawful conduct detailed on the laptop.Washington Post columnist Thomas Rid probably was the most honest when he wrote the quiet part out loud by telling the media: “We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation — even if they probably aren’t.”

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“..a supposed “ecosystem” of citizens and organizations in the US, whose narratives “echo key messages of Russian propaganda..”

• Musk Wants Ukrainian NGO Designated As Terrorist Group (RT)

A Ukrainian NGO has compiled a database of influential American citizens, who it claims hold positions that ‘mirror’ those of Moscow. One of the blacklisted individuals is billionaire Elon Musk, who has called for the organization to be designated as a terrorist group. The NGO, Texty.org.ua, produced a lengthy report last week, which detailed a supposed “ecosystem” of citizens and organizations in the US, whose narratives “echo key messages of Russian propaganda” regarding the Ukraine conflict. On Wednesday, Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee added a provision to the markup of the State Department’s 2025 budget that bans Texty from receiving US funding. “It’s a good first step. They should be added to the list of sanctioned terrorist organizations,” Musk said on X (formerly Twitter) in reaction to the news.

The prohibition was championed by Representative Jim Banks, who was also targeted by the Ukrainian NGO. He told fellow Republicans that “federal bureaucrats should not support or partner with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate and silence US citizens and lawmakers.” His message alluded to a link between the department and Anatoly Bondarenko, a co-founder of Texty. He is also an instructor for the ‘TechCamp’ program, which provides training to foreign journalists, NGOs, and activists, according to the Conservative Thinker. The group has said its report was a piece of “data journalism,” and described itself as the victim of “an attack on freedom of speech and a display of chauvinism against the citizens of Ukraine. “Our critics believe that we do not have the right to investigate the streams of false information they produce about our country and us, simply because they are US citizens and we are not,” it claimed.

The original report described people on its list as “forces in the US impeding aid to Ukraine,” ranging “from Trumpists to Communists.” Highlighted in the report was the renowned anti-war group CODEPINK, organizations funded by billionaire Charles Koch, popular conservative speaker Jordan Peterson, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Texty targeted Musk for supposedly allowing “Russian propaganda” on X, which he owns, and sharing with his followers a “highly skeptical view of the United States’ financial support for Ukraine.” Meanwhile, businessman Peter Thiel was accused of investing in Rumble, a free speech video sharing website. Unlike major platforms operated by US tech giants, it allows RT content. The report acknowledged that both entrepreneurs had contributed to Kiev’s war effort against Russia via Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system and Thiel’s Palantir big-data analysis platform, but placed them on its blacklist nevertheless.

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Bhakdi

 

 

Hancock

 

 

Duckcat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1801293466665947209

 

 

Ice puppy

 

 

Dog touch

 

 

Tooth
https://twitter.com/i/status/1801305532407353827

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle June 12 2024

Jun 122024
 
 June 12, 2024  Posted by at 8:53 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  35 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Bridge in the rain (after Hiroshige) 1887

 

• Pelosi Admits Fault for the Lack of Jan 6 Security Precautions (Turley)
• Biden Campaign Claims Trump “Has Praised The Third Reich” (MN)
• NIH Scrambled After ZeroHedge Report On Fauci Beagle Experiments (ZH)
• New Jersey Announces Investigation into Trump Liquor Licenses (Turley)
• ‘We Are So Proud’: Bidens React To Hunter Verdict (RT)
• Israel and the Misjudgement of Reality (Alastair Crooke)
• How Russia Can Prevent WW3 (Dmitry Trenin)
• BRICS Must Prevent New ‘Cold War’ – China (RT)
• West ‘Losing Trust’ In Ukraine – FT (RT)
• Eastern NATO Club May Kick Hungary Out For Dissent – FT (RT)
• US ‘Flirting With Neo-Nazis’ – Kremlin (RT)
• Ukraine ‘Peace Conference’ Will Not Urge Withdrawal Of Russian Troops (RT)

 

 

I absolutely urge you to watch Steve Bannon talking to Tucker.

Tucker Bannon

 

 

 

 

Vucic

 

 

 

 

RFK Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800576436731781143

 

 

Telegram

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..a previously-unreleased video..”

The Jan 6 committee decided to hold it back so they could promote false allegations against Trump. They must be investigated.

• Pelosi Admits Fault for the Lack of Jan 6 Security Precautions (Turley)

For years, some of us have asked why the Capitol was so poorly prepared for the January 6th riot. As part of the coverage on that day, I remarked at the start of the protests that I had never seen the Capitol so thinly protected for a major demonstration. Some paths to the Capitol were protected by a handful of bicycle officers and thin barriers. Now, a previously-unreleased video taken on Jan. 6, 2021 shows then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., admitting that she was responsible for the lack of preparedness. The video was disclosed in a posting on X by a House Republican panel. The video shows Pelosi in an exchange with Chief of Staff Terri McCullough on the evacuation.

Pelosi states: “We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there. And we should have. This is ridiculous. You’re going to ask me in the middle of the thing when they’ve already breached…that, should we call the Capitol Police? I mean the National Guard? Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?…They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepared for more.” The video was never released by the J6 Committee, which was criticized for its highly choreographed and scripted hearings with little balance in the presentation of evidence. The lack of emphasis on the security issues was glaring and raised by critics throughout the hearings. While Democrats and the media dismissed the issue and claims that Trump offered to supply the national guard, it was later confirmed that those offers were made to Congress and rejected.

A report from Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton also found that Capitol police were told that they could not use critical riot materials and tactics in preparation for the Jan. 6th protests. What was so curious about the lack of precautions that morning is that the Capitol had just experienced the violence outside of the White House in the Lafayette Park protests. To this day, the media and many members continue to repeat false accounts of the Lafayette Park. Many still have stories posted that claim that Lafayette Park was cleared for Trump to hold a photo op in front of a church. I discussed those accounts in testimony before Congress and in columns on the clearing of the Lafayette Park area. NPR still has a story on its website entitled “Peaceful Protesters Tear-Gassed To Clear Way For Trump Church Photo-Op.” More officers were injured in the Lafayette Park protests than on January 6th.

As previously discussed in repeated columns, the House Democratic leadership refused to hold a single hearing with key witnesses on what occurred before the riot. After using a “snap impeachment,” weeks went by without calling such witnesses before the Trump impeachment trial. Such evidence would have challenged the narrative and raised questions over decisions made by Congress that left the Capitol vulnerable to such an attack.In the Lafayette Park protests, White House officials feared that the compound could be breached by violent protesters who had injured dozens of officers and engaged in arson and attacks around the White House during that weekend. They decided to clear the area to install fencing (which Congress only ordered after the Jan. 6th riot). They also deployed the National Guard and the “heavier, less lethal weapons” that the Inspector General found were denied to the Capitol Police.

Had Pelosi and others accepted National Guard support and installed fencing as was done at the White House, it is doubtful that the riot on January 6th would have occurred or any disruption would have been far more limited in scope. The fact that the J6 Committee downplayed this major factor in the riot further undermines how the investigation was framed by the Democratic leadership. Pelosi barred the GOP members selected for the committee, hand picking two anti-Trump Republican members.

The absence of any balance on the committee was evident from the start. There was little effort to present alternative explanations or defenses to critical issues raised in hearings. No opposing witnesses were called who might contradict the narrative put forward by the Committee, including witnesses who would debunk the much-repeated, false claim that Trump wrestled with his driver to gain control of the presidential limo to drive to the Capitol. With the Speaker admitting on tape that she bore responsibility for the lack of precautions, one would think that the J6 Committee, including then Vice Chair Liz Cheney, would consider that relevant for the public to understand the underlying facts. Instead, it was buried with much other countervailing evidence.

Tucker Jan 6
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800541468051804485

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“..the downward trend for Biden means that dropping out of the race is worth discussing, even though it “would be a big risk” for the Democrats..”

• Biden Campaign Claims Trump “Has Praised The Third Reich” (MN)

Biden campaign senior adviser Adrienne Elrod claimed Monday that Donald Trump has “praised the Third Reich” and intends to rule as a racist dictator. During an interview with CNN, Elrod was asked to comment on Republicans who “worship” Trump, and responded “I think that rhetoric speaks for itself.” “Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are focused on seeking revenge and retribution,” Elrod asserted, adding “They are running a negative campaign that is not focused on the American people, but is focused on themselves.” She continued, “Trump has made it very clear that if he steps back into that White House, he will rule as a dictator on day one. He will seek — he will use the White House to seek political revenge and retribution on his political enemies.” Trump actually said he won’t do that, but it doesn’t fit the Biden campaign’s narrative.

While she was at it, Elrod painted up Trump as an admirer of Hitler. “You know, he has said things that — you know, he’s praised the Third Reich. He has used, you know, racist rhetoric at every chance that he has,” she claimed. Praised the Third Reich? Presumably she is referring to this…

The desperation among the Biden campaign is palpable. His approval rating just hit a new all-time low of 37.4 percent. FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver noted that the downward trend for Biden means that dropping out of the race is worth discussing, even though it “would be a big risk” for the Democrats. “But there’s some threshold below which continuing to run is a bigger risk,” Silver commented, adding “Are we there yet? I don’t know. But it’s more than fair to ask.” “If I’d told you 10 years ago a president would seek re-election at 81 despite a supermajority of Americans having concerns about his age, and then we’d hit 8% inflation for 2 years, you wouldn’t be surprised he was an underdog for reelection. You’d be surprised it was even close!” Silver further wrote.

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Lock him up. Throw away the key.

• NIH Scrambled After ZeroHedge Report On Fauci Beagle Experiments (ZH)

Last week, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene took a detour from grilling Anthony Fauci over COVID-19, to confront him with photos of beagles who had been subjected to animal testing experiments widely reported to be funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH), following a 2021 investigation series by the group White Coat Waste Project. “We should be recommending you to be prosecuted,” Greene told Fauci. “We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. You belong in prison,” she continued, adding “That man does not deserve to have a license. As a matter of fact, it should be revoked and he belongs in prison.” This opened up a can of worms which includes a response from White Coat Waste, and triggered the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler to do a deep dive into ‘Beaglegage’ in an effort to debunk Greene.

“When we first saw Greene hold up the photo, we figured this would be easy to debunk — another in a string of misleading attacks against Fauci, who became the public face of the government’s response to the pandemic.” -Washington Post. Only to discover that the NIH appears to have lied about funding the experiment, which involved beagles between 6 and 8 months old obtained from the kennels of the Pasteur Institute of Tunis. In the study, the beagles were sedated and then exposed to hundreds of sand flies that had been deprived of food for 24 hours. This exposure took place as part of research into zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL), a disease carried by sand flies that can affect dogs and humans. After ZeroHedge amplified the White Coat Waste report (archived), there was a full blown panic.

In late October 2021, CNN asked Fauci to appear for an interview, and one of his staff members suggested late on Oct. 24 that Fauci pause any TV interviews “until we get a handle on this.” Early the next morning, Fauci emailed 12 officials and asked them to “tell me what grant or contract they are referring to.” Within two hours, one replied that they might have identified the grant. (Most staff members’ names are redacted.) “Let us find out for sure if it is that grant, and then let us take a look at what the experimental design is, and importantly whether it has received the appropriate ethical and animal care consideration,” Fauci replied in an email. “I want this done right away since we are getting bombarded by protests.”

Within two hours, one of the researchers involved, Abhay Satoskar, a professor of pathology and microbiology at Ohio State University, emailed to say that NIAID had been mistakenly cited as a funder of the study and that he would seek a correction from the journal. One NIAID official wrote in an email that Satoskar “stated that it was mistakenly cited because he was not clear of the true purpose of US funding acknowledgment” and that the program in question had been funded only by the Pasteur Institute. Satoskar, meanwhile asked Shaden Kamhawi, the editor of the journal, to correct the article. Kamhawi initially agreed, but noted internally that she may have a conflict of interest as a NIAID employee. She then sent an email in a panic over the ZeroHedge article potentially inviting “a lot of noise & unwanted attention for [Fauci]. They also called us an “illegitimate blog of no credibility,” which is high praise considering the source.

When the story broke in 2021, the NIH scrubbed it from its database and then fed WaPo disinformation: When The Post reported on the controversy in November 2021, the article noted: “The trapped-beagles study does not appear in a database of NIH-funded projects.” The emails show that, while it was removed before the publication of The Post article, the study had been listed in the database for months and was still listed as of the previous month, when Fauci first asked about the controversy. “We need that to be corrected too, ASAP please,” one NIH staffer wrote on Oct. 27. The anxiety level rose as officials realized it would take several days, until Nov. 1, before the project would be removed from the database — where reporters could not then find it. -WaPo.

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“..Platkin’s office has announced that it is “reviewing” whether to pull the liquor licenses for Trump golf clubs since he is now convicted of felonies in New York..”:

• New Jersey Announces Investigation into Trump Liquor Licenses (Turley)

Many of us have expressed alarm at the politicization of the criminal justice system in New York by figures such as Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. It now appears that New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is angling to get into the lawfare frenzy. The conviction of Trump on 34 felonies has either thrilled or repelled citizens. For many of us, it is a sign of the degradation of our legal system. Even the chief CNN legal analyst has acknowledged that Bragg contorted the law to bring the recent case against former President Donald Trump in an unprecedented prosecution. Yet, the use of the legal system for political purposes is clearly popular in New York where people were literally dancing in the street outside of the courthouse after the recent verdict against Trump.

Now Platkin’s office has announced that it is “reviewing” whether to pull the liquor licenses for Trump golf clubs since he is now convicted of felonies in New York. It appears that lawfare is nothing if not intoxicating for Democratic politicians. According to an article in the Hill, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control is “reviewing the impact of President Trump’s conviction” on his liquor licenses for the Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck, Lamington Farm Club, and Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia in Pine Hill. The latest effort is based on a vague standard governing crimes of “moral turpitude” under New Jersey law: “No license of any class shall be issued to any person under the age of 18 years or to any person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. A beneficiary of a trust who is not otherwise disqualified to hold an interest in a license may qualify regardless of age so long as the trustee of the trust qualifies and the trustee shall hold the beneficiary’s interest in trust until the beneficiary is at least the age of majority.”

A “crime of moral turpitude” is a familiar, though dated, standard in American law. I teach the standard in torts as one of the traditional “per se” categories for slander under the common law. It was generally used to denote conduct of immorality or serious offenses to norms of society. New Jersey defines it as including “any offense that carries the possibility of one year in jail and involves acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general. Even the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control handbook notes that in “some instances, it may be unclear whether a conviction involves an element of moral turpitude.” Yet, Trump has a way to bringing clarity for his critics whenever they must chose between politics and principle.

For most of us, it is hard to see how falsifying business records would constitute “acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general.” However, for Democrats, it seems that any act by Trump is by definition base, vile, and depraved. The piling on of investigations and charges by Democratic officials has reinforced Trump’s long narrative of a weaponization of the legal system against him and his supporters. Polling shows that most citizens view some of these cases as political prosecutions and that they are having diminishing impact on voter preferences. Yet, they remain thrilling for Democratic voters who lionize prosecutors who come up with novel or unprecedented avenues to hammer Trump or hit his businesses. It does not seem to matter that removing the liquor licenses of these clubs can endanger thousands of jobs of citizens or chill other businesses in considering investments in New York or New Jersey. In the end, the effort is hardly surprising. Lawfare is like binge drinking: the excess is the very measure of its success.

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“Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit..”

• ‘We Are So Proud’: Bidens React To Hunter Verdict (RT)

US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill love their son and intend to respect the judicial process, according to a statement released on Tuesday in response to a Delaware jury finding Hunter Biden guilty of federal gun crimes. Biden’s younger son was charged with three felonies based on a 2018 firearm purchase while being a crack cocaine addict and lying about it on a gun control form. Tuesday’s verdict made him the first son of a sitting president to be convicted in federal court. “Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” Biden said in the statement. “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.”

Joe Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977, five years after losing his first wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi in a car crash. Hunter and his older brother Beau were seriously injured in the accident. Biden was sworn in as US senator in their hospital room. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015. Hunter later ended up romantically involved with Beau’s widow Hallie. It was Hallie who found the illegally purchased Colt Cobra revolver in Hunter’s truck and threw it in the trash. Believing the gun had been stolen, Hunter set the Secret Service scrambling to recover it. The entire episode was revealed thanks to Hunter Biden’s laptop, which he left in a Delaware repair shop while high on crack and subsequently forgot about it. The laptop’s contents emerged during the 2020 presidential election, but social media companies censored the New York Post for publishing the story while Biden had current and former US intelligence officials denounce it as “Russian disinformation.” The trial confirmed that the laptop and its contents were authentic.

Hunter’s verdict came as his father was scheduled to appear at a gun control event in Washington, DC. At the end of May, a New York jury convicted Biden’s main rival for the presidency, Donald Trump, on 34 counts of “falsifying business records.” The Biden campaign rushed to declare Trump a “convicted felon” and argued no one should vote for him. While some Republicans gloated at the Delaware verdict, many pointed out that Hunter was not brought up on far more serious charges involving foreign bribery or tax evasion. Trump’s campaign called the trial “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine.” “Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit,” Trump campaign spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said.

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“..a ‘New War of Independence’ can be held aloft before the Israeli public as the metaphysical ‘vision’ of the way ahead..”

• Israel and the Misjudgement of Reality (Alastair Crooke)

On all fronts, the Israeli internal paradigm is fracturing; and externally, the West is itself fissuring, and becoming a pariah on the global stage. The western leaderships’ explicit facilitation of a bloody cleansing of Palestinians has incised the old spectre of ‘Orientalism’ and colonialism onto the skyline. And is gyring the West towards being ‘the world’s untouchable’ (along with Israel). Overall, Israel’s government objective looks to be to converge and then channel – multiple tensions into a wide military escalation disgorgement (a big war) – that somehow would bring a restoration of deterrence. Such a course concomitantly implies that Israel would thus turn its back to western pleas that it somehow act ‘reasonably’. The West mostly defines this ‘reasonableness’ as Israel accepting the chimaera of a passage to ‘normality’ arriving through the Saudi Crown Prince bestowing it, in return for a contrite Israel undoing seven decades of Jewish supremacism (i.e. accepting a Palestinian State).

The core tension within the Western-Israeli calculus is that the U.S. and the EU are moving in one direction – back to the failed Oslo approach – whilst polling underscores Jewish electors firmly marching in the other direction. A recent survey conducted by the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs shows that since 7 October, 79% of all Jewish respondents oppose the establishment of a Palestinian State on 1967 lines (68% were opposed prior to 7 Oct); 74% are opposed even in exchange for normalisation with Saudi Arabia. And reflective of the internal Israeli divide, “only 24% of left-wing voters support a [Palestinian] State without conditions”. In short, as the western institutional leadership clings to the shrinking Israeli secular liberal Left, Israelis as whole (including the young) are moving hard Right. A recent Pew poll shows that 73% of the Israeli public support the military response in Gaza – albeit a third of Israelis complained it had not gone far enough. A plurality of Israelis think Israel should govern the Gaza Strip. And Netanyahu, in the aftermath of the ICC arrest threat, is overtaking Gantz (leader of the National Union) in approval ratings.

It seems that the ‘western consensus’ prefers not to notice these uncomfortable dynamics. Additionally, a separate Israeli divide concerns the purpose of the war: Is it about restoring to Jewish citizens the sense of personal, physical security, which was lost in the wake of 7 Oct? That is to say: Is it the sense of Israel as a redoubt, safe space in a hostile world that is being restored? Or alternatively, is the present struggle one of establishing a fully Judaicised Israel on the ‘Land of Israel’ (i.e. all the land between the river and the sea) the prime objective? This constitutes a key divide. Those who see Israel primarily as the safe redoubt to which Jews could flee in the wake of European holocaust, naturally are more circumspect at the risking of a wider war (i.e. with Hizbullah) – a war that could see the civilian ‘rear’ directly attacked by Hizbullah’s vast missile arsenal. For this constituency, safety is a premium.

On the other hand, a majority of Israelis sees the risk of wider war as inevitable – indeed to be welcomed by many, if the Zionist project is to be fully established on the Land of Israel. This reality may be difficult for secular westerners to grasp, but the 7 October has re-energised the Biblical vision in Israel, rather than excite a surfeit of caution about war, or a desire for rapprochement with Arab States. The point here is that a ‘New War of Independence’ can be held aloft before the Israeli public as the metaphysical ‘vision’ of the way ahead, whilst the Israeli government attempts to pursue the more mundane path of playing the long game, leading to the full military matrix control over the land between the river and the sea, and the removal of populations that will not submit to the Smotrich dispensation of ‘acquiesce or leave’.

Sachs hostages
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800314333576196369

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“..a long period of confrontation with the West, led by the US, lies ahead of us for about a generation..”

• How Russia Can Prevent WW3 (Dmitry Trenin)

We can say that a new phase in relations between the world’s nuclear powers has begun. Many of us are still psychologically somewhere in the 1970s and 1980s. That is a kind of comfort zone. Back then, relations between the USSR and the US were based on the two superpowers’ strategic and political parity. In the military-strategic sphere, Washington was forced to deal with Moscow on an equal footing. After 1991, this parity disappeared. For the US, since the 1990s, Russia has been a declining power; throwing its weight around, always reminding itself of its former greatness, snapping back, even dangerous at times – but on a downward spiral. The difficult opening phase of the Ukraine conflict gave the Americans hope that the fields of that country would be the grave of the Russian superpower. They have since sobered up a bit, but equal status between Moscow and Washington is out of the question for them.

This is the main difference between the current state of relations and the ‘golden’ period of the Cold War – the 1960s and early 1980s. And Russia has yet to prove the Americans wrong. As they say, it is always difficult to predict anything, especially the future. But today we have to assume that a long period of confrontation with the West, led by the US, lies ahead of us for about a generation. The future of our country, its position and role in the world, and to a large extent the state of the global system as a whole, will depend on the outcome of this confrontation, the main front of which is not in Ukraine, but within Russia: in the economy, in the social sphere, in science and technology, in culture and art. Internally, because the enemy realises the impossibility of defeating Moscow on the battlefield, but remembers that the Russian state has collapsed more than once as a result of internal turmoil.

This may, as in 1917, be the result of an unsuccessful war. Hence the bet on a protracted conflict in which they know they have more resources. During the Cold War there were five nuclear powers, but then the only real poles were the US and the USSR, plus China with its then small nuclear arsenal. Now Beijing is moving towards (at least) parity with America and Russia, while India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel remain independent players (unlike NATO members Britain and France). The classic Cold War notion of strategic stability – i.e. the absence of incentives for the parties to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike – is not only inadequate but sometimes inapplicable when characterising relations between the great powers today.

Look at Ukraine: Washington is increasing arms supplies to Kiev, encouraging and providing for its provocative attacks on Russia’s strategic infrastructure (early warning stations, strategic airfields), while at the same time proposing Moscow resumes dialogue on strategic stability! In the emerging world order, strategic stability will have to mean the absence of reasons for military conflict (even indirect) between the nuclear powers. This, in turn, will be possible if the powers respect each other’s interests and are ready to solve problems on the basis of equality and the indivisibility of security. Ensuring strategic stability between all nine powers will require enormous efforts and the formation of a fundamentally new world order model, but it (strategic stability in the broad, i.e. real sense of the word) is quite realistic between pairs of states (Russia-China, the US-India, etc.). For Russia, only three of the other eight nuclear powers – the US, Britain and France – remain problematic.

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“.. the “collective West” is a minority whose worldview is not shared by the global majority..”

• BRICS Must Prevent New ‘Cold War’ – China (RT)

The BRICS countries should work together to promote peace and prevent the onset of a new Cold War, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said. Speaking at the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on Monday, Wang stated that some major powers still harbor a “Cold War mentality.” According to the diplomat, this attitude directly contradicts UN Security Council resolutions and undermines the authority of multilateral mechanisms. China is willing to work with Russia to maintain strategic cooperation, respond to external pressures, and promote the sustained progress of bilateral relations, he said. Describing BRICS as an important platform for unity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, Wang said the expanded BRICS mechanism will play a crucial role in creating a more just and reasonable global governance system.

He accused the West of the “politicization and excessive securitization” of economic issues, which has resulted in “rampant” unilateral sanctions and technological barriers for countries such as Russia and China. Wang urged the “big BRICS to “leverage” its political significance and transform the group into a new type of multilateral cooperation mechanism. The BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was joined by Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates in early 2024. “By expanding our membership, we have ushered in a new era of joint self-reliance for the Global South, with the influence and appeal of BRICS continually rising,” Wang stated.

He added that in a “contest” where some forces promote global multipolarity while others maintain a “unipolar hegemony,” the BRICS countries should “stand on the side of fairness and justice, and make the right choices.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed last week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Western governments are “obsessed” with the idea of global dominance. She argued that Western leaders continue to adopt “exceptionalism” at the expense of other ethnic and cultural identities. However, the “collective West” is a minority whose worldview is not shared by the global majority, which has already embraced the concept of multipolarity, Zakharova insisted.

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“..that Kubrakov’s ouster had been orchestrated by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, described as the “de facto head of state.”

• West ‘Losing Trust’ In Ukraine – FT (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky’s recent purges of government officials have damaged the confidence of Ukraine’s foreign supporters, the Financial Times has reported, citing multiple sources in Kiev.The head of the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, Mustafa Nayyem, tendered his resignation on Monday. He was followed by officials responsible for procurement and anti-corruption policy.Their departure is the latest in a series of personnel changes “that have shaken the confidence of western partners” in Vladimir Zelensky’s government, according to the FT. “The US and other western partners want a normal, predictable relationship with their Ukrainian counterparts,” one concerned Ukrainian official told the outlet on condition of anonymity. “Right now they are losing trust in Ukraine’s government because of personnel decisions that they do not understand.”

A spree of firings, resignations, and reassignments overseen by Zelensky in recent months has “caused tension” between Kiev and the countries financing Ukraine, six Ukrainian and Western officials told the outlet on condition of anonymity. They also said they had warned the Ukrainian leader about the “disruptive and inexplicable” moves. Nayyem’s resignation letter, seen by FT, said he was leaving due to “constant opposition, resistance and the creation of artificial obstacles” by Prime Minister Denis Shmygal. According to the outlet, Nayyem spoke to two dozen USAID and other Western officials two weeks ago, telling them he expected to be fired.

He urged Kiev’s foreign backers to continue working with his replacement, but one USAID representative was perturbed by changes to “ our most important partnership,” according to an audio recording of the meeting. Last month, Zelensky dismissed Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Alexander Kubrakov. He and Nayyem were in charge of both reconstruction and the building of defensive fortifications. Two Ukrainian officials told FT that Zelensky viewed Kubrakov as “too cozy” with the Americans. Nayyem had warned USAID to expect a government probe into Kubrakov. FT reported last week that Kubrakov’s ouster had been orchestrated by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, described as the “de facto head of state.”

“This situation is really bad for [the] perception of the Ukrainian government and Ukraine generally,” Gleb Vishlinsky, the executive director at the Center for Economic Strategy in Kiev, told FT. He added that the firing of Kubrakov and Nayyem’s resignation, “build an image of weak and unpredictable governance.” Kubrakov’s sacking in particular attracted “backlash” from the US and its allies. The US, German, French, and EU ambassadors in Kiev posted messages of support for the minister on May 9 and complained about his departure to Shmygal four days later. A meeting that was supposed to be about the dire condition of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure reportedly turned into an argument about the absence of Kubrakov and Nayyem.

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” Hungary is scheduled to take over the presidency in July.”

• Eastern NATO Club May Kick Hungary Out For Dissent – FT (RT)

A club of Eastern European and Baltic NATO nations is considering forcing out Hungary, a member state, for refusing to take the same stance on Ukraine, the Financial Times has reported, citing sources. The Bucharest Nine was founded in 2015 and includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Senior officials from the regional group regularly meet to coordinate their foreign and security policy; a gathering of its leaders is scheduled to take place in Riga on Tuesday. Hungary, however, may be expelled from the club over its refusal to endorse joint statements of support for sending military aid to Ukraine and otherwise support Kiev in its confrontation with Moscow, insider sources told The Financial Times.

”We are likely meeting in this format for the last time,” one of the people familiar with the situation told the newspaper, calling the discussions “very serious.” All members of the Bucharest Nine were either Warsaw Pact nations or Soviet republics during the Cold War, and joined NATO during its expansion after the USSR collapsed. Hungary, however, is at odds with the other countries over the Ukraine conflict. Budapest opposes the continued arming of Kiev, saying this only prolongs the hostilities, and advocates for immediate peace talks instead. It is also highly skeptical of Western promises to eventually bring Ukraine into NATO and the EU. Supporters of Kiev have branded the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “pro-Russian” over the position, which he says is guided by his nation’s interests.

A similar push to ostracize Hungary is reportedly underway within the EU, where some members have called for suspending its voting rights. Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency in the European Council, believes that the future of the bloc may depend on it, Politico reported last week. ”This is a moment of truth,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told the news outlet, referring to the so-called Article 7 proceedings against Hungary. “If we go all the way with this mechanism, it must work. If it doesn’t work, we have to reform it. That’s the future of the European Union.” Hungary is scheduled to take over the presidency in July.

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Because they know what Russia thinks about that.

• US ‘Flirting With Neo-Nazis’ – Kremlin (RT)

Washington will stop at nothing, including the use of neo-Nazis, to damage Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, following a US decision to lift a ban on supplying weapons to Ukraine’s Azov Brigade. The unit has notoriously welcomed into its ranks people who espouse ultranationalist and neo-Nazi ideologies, and has been described by the Western press as a magnet for such individuals from across the world. On Monday, the US Department of State cleared the brigade to receive American military assistance, stating that it found no evidence of human rights violations by the group. “This sudden change of stance by Washington proves that [US officials] would stoop to anything in their attempts to suppress Russia, using the Ukrainian people as a tool. They are even fine with flirting with neo-Nazis,” Peskov told journalists during a media briefing. Azov was founded as a volunteer battalion of Ukrainian nationalists in 2014 by white supremacist Andrey Biletsky.

People who came to power in Kiev following the Western-backed armed coup that year used Azov fighters in an attempt to violently quash a rebellion against the new government in the east. The battalion was incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard the following year. In 2018, the US Congress banned the delivery of arms to the Azov Brigade, citing its ties to neo-Nazi ideology. Since the outbreak of conflict with Russia, Ukrainian officials and Azov members worked to rebrand the unit. Its insignia, which originally paid homage to Nazi symbology, was replaced with less offensive imagery, and its messaging changed to claim that the unit had distanced itself from its roots. Some former and serving US officials, such as ex-ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, helped Azov’s efforts by organizing events for them on American soil. However, Moscow insists that the nature of the unit has not significantly changed. It remains an “ultranationalist armed group,” Peskov stated.

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Not much left of Zelensky’s plan. Wonder why.

• Ukraine ‘Peace Conference’ Will Not Urge Withdrawal Of Russian Troops (RT)

A draft joint statement prepared for an upcoming ‘peace conference’ on Ukraine in Switzerland will likely fall short of demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from all territories claimed by Kiev, NHK has reported. The document also omits any mention of restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the Japanese news organization said on Tuesday after reviewing the draft statement. The agenda will reportedly address only three out of the ten points promoted by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, such as the safety of nuclear power plants, food security, the release of prisoners and the return of children evacuated by Russia from the conflict zone, NHK’s English-language news site said.

Zelensky’s topline demands when they were first floated in late 2022 included a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from all territories that Ukraine considers its own, that Russia pays reparations and submits its officials to war tribunals, all dismissed out of hand by Moscow. The points have been dropped from the draft joint statement because it took into account the stance of some Asian and Middle Eastern states that maintain ties with Russia, diplomatic sources told NHK. The draft also states that all parties should take part in the search for peace, and stresses the importance of Russia’s participation in future discussions, according to article. Russia has not been invited to the international gathering, due to take place on Saturday and Sunday at the Burgenstock Resort near Lucerne. Zelensky opposed the presence of a Russian delegation at the Swiss-hosted conference, saying it would enable Moscow to derail Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RT earlier that it was “absurd” to hold a meeting on settling the conflict between Russia and Ukraine without Moscow attending. “This conference is completely without prospects,” he stressed.The Russian authorities instantly rejected Zelensky’s ten-point plan as “unacceptable” when it was first presented. According to Moscow, the proposal disregards the actual situation on the ground, and is a sign of Kiev’s unwillingness to engage in negotiations.Last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow is ready to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but stressed that “fantasies” cannot be a basis for peace talks. “All negotiations are based on either military defeat, or military victory. Of course, we will win,” Putin said.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Biden still
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800361106520604994

 

 

Elon Xmas

 

 

Elon AI1

 

 

Eat

 

 

Jaguar

 

 

Kind

 

 

Friendship
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800223297256489410

 

 

Cheetah
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800570165580669162

 

 

Blue whale

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle May 3 2024

May 032024
 
 May 3, 2024  Posted by at 9:11 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  39 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Avenue of Poplars at Sunset 1884

 

• Justice in a Shithole Country (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trump Scores $1.8 Billion Windfall After Significant Increase In Truth Social Stake (ZH)
• Anti-Trump Prosecutor Pleads 5th As House GOP Probes Links To Biden DOJ (ZH)
• The US Constitution Is Another Victim of Genocide (Paul Craig Roberts)
• US Republicans Want To Oust House Speaker (RT)
• To Israel’s Horror, Hamas Brings ‘Two-state Solution’ Back Into Focus (Cradle)
• Of Journalists, Students and Power (Patrick Lawrence)
• Jews Did Not Kill Jesus – US House of Representatives (RT)
• Second Boeing Whistleblower Dies Suddenly (RT)
• Hungary Rejects €100-Billion Ukraine War Chest ‘Madness’ (RT)
• British Knight Unhorsed (Helmer)

 

 

 

 

Show trial

 

 

Lysander Lynx

 

 

Musk Tulsi Rogan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1785758824634499292

 

 

 

 

“Cohen has pleaded guilty to tax evasion, to lying to Congress, and a judge has said that it is likely that Cohen also committed perjury. Yet, Cohen is Bragg’s witness against Trump.”

• Justice in a Shithole Country (Paul Craig Roberts)

Russiagate, documentsgate, insurrectiongate, pornstargate and the phony civil and criminal trials being orchestrated against President Trump demonstrate that Democrat attorney generals, prosecutors, and judges have no integrity, no respect for law, and regard law as a weapon to be used against those who stand in the way of their agendas. Consider, for example, the 34-count indictment brought by black Trump-hater New York city district attorney Alvin Bragg solely on the basis of Bragg’s assertion that Trump falsified business records by reporting extortion payments to an aging pornstar, who apparently threatened to make accusations to disrupt Trump’s presidential campaign unless Trump paid her off, as a legal expense instead of a campaign contribution to his campaign. It is an absolute fact that business owners and business executives do not make decisions about how expenses are reported.

Such decisions are the responsibility of accountants and attorneys. All Trump did was to sign papers prepared by accountants and attorneys, but of course Bragg, a quota-hire, is too stupid to understand how business functions. Bragg claims, further demonstrating his stupidity and incompetence, that Trump interfered in the 2016 presidential election and got himself elected President by hiding his payment to the pornstar as a legal expense. Bragg’s contention is that otherwise the presstitutes would have used the unsubstantiated pornstar’s allegations to defeat Trump’s 2016 election as president. How did something this absurd get to be a court case. Clearly, this is NOT THE WAY A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY WITH A RULE OF LAW BEHAVES. It is the way a shithole country behaves. A shithole country is what Democrats have turned America into.

Bragg’s stupid case based on nothing but Bragg’s assertion of how an expense should be reported so that it can be used as a weapon against Trump–and Bragg is not an accountant–has as its only support Trump-hater Michael Cohen, who wrote a book that claims “Donald Trump is the mirror into the depth of the soul of government corruption. He is the standard bearer for corrupt dictator wannabes. He is the poster boy for fascism.” Cohen has pleaded guilty to tax evasion, to lying to Congress, and a judge has said that it is likely that Cohen also committed perjury. Yet, Cohen is Bragg’s witness against Trump.

Moreover, the fake charges against Trump are misdemeanor charges, NOT FELONIES. Yet Bragg is falsely presenting them as felonies, claiming that the alleged misreporting of the expense constituted “election fraud.” Bragg does not have to worry about not having a case. He knows that in NYC the jury will convict Trump even if the entirety of the evidence proves Trump innocent. All Bragg has to do is to bring an indictment. The jury will convict. Nowhere in America, not in the media, trials, medical science, or scholarship do facts any longer matter. All that matters are agendas upheld by official narratives. There you have it. This is justice in a shithole country. Be a proud American. “USA, USA, USA!”

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White House, Letitia and Engoron are discussing how to take it all away.

• Trump Scores $1.8 Billion Windfall After Significant Increase In Truth Social Stake (ZH)

Donald Trump has added roughly $1.8 billion more to his net worth after regulatory filings show that he increased his stake in Truth Social by a significant degree – bringing the former president’s ownership to nearly 65% in Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Trump secured an additional 36 million shares of TMTG, bringing his stake to 114.75 million shares, according to an April 30 filing with the SEC. According to the latest price of nearly $50 per share, Trump’s stake in TMTG is valued at around $5.7 billion. The additional $1.8 billion was secured through 36 million additional “earnout shares” granted if TMTG hit certain performance metrics over a certain period, according to an April 15 filing. That said, Trump can’t sell any shares due to a six-month lockup agreement. As the Epoch Times notes further, TMTG shares have been on a roller-coaster ride since the company listed on Nasdaq last month through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and was snapped up by Trump supporters and speculators.

Following the merger and initial public offering (IPO) at the end of March, market interest exploded in TMTG, which trades under the ticker symbol DJT. Its stock price soared above $79 per share on its first day of trading, sending the company’s market cap to over $7 billion. After the initial surge of interest, TMTG shares pulled back to around the $62 mark, where they traded until news broke on April 1 that, in 2023, the company suffered a $58 million loss. Word of the loss sent its stock price on a downward trajectory, to $22.84 by April 16, which marked a bottom. Since then, TMTG shares have rallied, with only one meaningful pullback between April 19–23, and are now trading at $49.90 per share, the highest since an April 3 close of $48.81. Much of the $58 million loss that sent the stock price falling on April 1 appears to be related to an interest expense of $39.4 million on its outstanding debt, according to the 8-K filing. In 2022, the company made a net profit of $50.5 million.

The former president said on April 4 that media fixation on the $58 million loss was misguided. He touted TMTG fundamentals—which he said include over $200 million cash and no debt—as “very solid.” TMTG CEO Devin Nunes echoed that in an April 1 statement: “Closing out the 2023 financials related to the merger, Truth Social today has no debt and over $200 million in the bank, opening numerous possibilities for expanding and enhancing our platform.” “We intend to take full advantage of these opportunities to make Truth Social the quintessential free-speech platform for the American people,” he added. TMTG’s meteoric rise and subsequent wobble sparked massive interest in shorting the stock—meaning betting money on its potential price decline.

Mr. Nunes recently asked Congress to investigate allegations that TMTG stock was being manipulated by traders betting on its downfall. In a recent letter to top House Republicans, Mr. Nunes urged lawmakers to open an investigation into “anomalous trading” and possible even “unlawful manipulation” of TMTG stock. Mr. Nunes expressed concern about “naked” selling of TMTG stock, which is the practice of traders selling shares of a company without borrowing them first, according to the letter. The tech CEO added that the company has become the “single most expensive stock to short in U.S. markets” as of early April, arguing that traders now “have a significant financial incentive to lend non-existent shares” of the stock.

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Self-incrimination.

• Anti-Trump Prosecutor Pleads 5th As House GOP Probes Links To Biden DOJ (ZH)

House GOP investigators are investigating several individuals related to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Trump, including one top prosecutor who was previously a senior DOJ official during the Biden administration, and a 2023 video of another prosecutor pleading the 5th (privilege against self-incrimination) when asked if he broke any laws while investigating President Trump. When asked by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) if he knowingly broke any laws while investigating President Trump, ex-Bragg prosecutor Mark. F. Pomerantz invoked the right during a May 1, 2023 deposition. “In a closed-door deposition, I asked Mark Pomerantz very simple questions regarding whether he committed crimes or violated the civil rights of any people in the course of his investigation of President Trump and his tenure at the Manhattan DA’s office,” Gaetz told Newsweek in a Thursday email.

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee is investigating another top prosecutor on Bragg’s team – Matthew Colangelo, who’s leading the “politicized” prosecution against the former President. wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) in an April 30 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, as part of the committee’s oversight of “politically motivated prosecutions.” “That a former senior Biden Justice Department official is now leading the prosecution of President Biden’s chief political rival only adds to the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized,” wrote Jordan. As the Epoch Times notes further, Mr. Colangelo, who delivered the opening statement in President Trump’s so-called “hush money” trial in New York last week, joined Mr. Bragg’s office in December 2022.

For a period of time, Mr. Colangelo also worked as Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives at the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led a separate case against President Trump that accused him of inflating asset values to get better loan terms and that ended in a $464 million judgment against the former president. During his time at the office of Ms. James, who has also been accused of political motivations in her prosecution of the former president, Mr. Colangelo was involved in the investigation into the Trump Organization. In his letter, Mr. Jordan is demanding that Mr. Garland provide various records related to Mr. Colangelo’s work in the Justice Department, as well as any communication between Mr. Bragg’s office and the DOJ related to President Trump or any of his businesses.

“Given the perception that the Justice Department is assisting in Bragg’s politicized prosecution, we write to request information and documents related to Mr. Colangelo’s employment,” Mr. Jordan wrote, while alleging that Mr. Colangelo’s recent employment history “demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime.” In the so-called “hush money” case, Mr. Bragg has charged President Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide nondisclosure payments that Mr. Colangelo alleges amounted to a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election. President Trump has maintained his innocence and has called the case a “political witch hunt.”

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“Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs points out the incongruity of a university, whose existence is based on freedom of speech, repressing freedom of speech.”

• The US Constitution Is Another Victim of Genocide (Paul Craig Roberts)

A 19th century plantation slave suffered less abuse than an American today and was less likely to have his head cracked open by a police baton than a Columbia University Student. [..] Republican US senators are no better friends of the US Constitution than the administrators at Columbia University, Netanyahu and the Israel Lobby, the NYPD, and the whore media. For example, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R, TN) labeled as “terrorists” students who protest against Israel’s destruction of Palestine. In order to protect Israel from students protesting genocide, Blackburn wants the students added to the terrorist watch list and prohibited from flying: “Any student who has promoted terrorism or engaged in terrorists[sic] acts on behalf of Hamas should be immediately be [sic] added to the terrorist watch list and placed on the [Transportation Security Administration] No Fly List,” Blackburn wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.

Senator Rick Scott (R, FL) accuses protesting students of violating Israel’s right to commit genocide and wants the US Justice (sic) Department to investigate the students for “conspiring to violate the civil rights of a religious minority.” US senators are falling all over themselves pimping for Netanyahu’s final solution to the “Palestinian Problem.” One can see American conservatives supporting these demands, not realizing that their own Constitutional rights are in the crosshairs. Today in America there is no thought. There is only manipulated emotion and the sale of Americans’ honor for campaign contributions. So what does voting fix? The 21st century began with the George W. Bush’s suspension of habeas corpus on suspicion alone, and American liberty has gone downhill continuously at increasing speed. Only a simulacrum of the country into which I was born remains.

Americans are not permitted to speak freely about Israel. Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs points out the incongruity of a university, whose existence is based on freedom of speech, repressing freedom of speech. Closing down voices is today the primary function of the Israel Lobby, media, universities and “education” in general. It applies to faculty as well as to students. The Israel Lobby was able to reach into a Catholic university and cancel the tenure awarded to Norman Finkelstein and into the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and cancel the tenured appointment of a recruit from the University of Virginia. One wonders If the Israel Lobby will order Columbia to fire Professor Sachs.

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They should have guessed what he would do.

• US Republicans Want To Oust House Speaker (RT)

A number of Republicans in the US House of Representatives are reportedly looking to oust Speaker Mike Johnson. They accuse him of betraying his party by striking deals with the Democrats to pass major bills, including President Joe Biden’s $95 billion foreign military spending legislation that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Wednesday that she would force a vote to vacate the Majority speaker’s position, arguing that “Mike Johnson is not capable of that job. He has proven it over and over again.” “I think every member of Congress needs to take that vote and let the chips fall where they may and so next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate,” she said. Taylor Greene had previously threatened to take action against Johnson when GOP lawmakers demanded the White House address the southern border crisis as a condition for their backing of Biden’s foreign aid bill.

Greene’s proposal has not gained the required majority support among fellow House Republicans, however. There were only two other Republicans, Reps Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul A Gosar of Arizona, who publicly backed her motion. Some lawmakers oppose it in the belief that “it’s not the time,” given the upcoming presidential election. Democrats, meanwhile, have also dismissed Greene’s attempt to oust the Republican speaker and have vowed to band together to protect Johnson by voting to kill the motion to vacate his position. “House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against MAGA extremism. We will continue to do just that. At this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction,” reads a statement issued by the legislators.

“We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed,” they said. J ohnson himself has also spoken out against attempts to have him removed, stating that “this motion is wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country.” Greene, however, has pointed to Johnson’s Democratic support as yet another reason for him to be removed. “Now we have […] the Democrats coming out, embracing Mike Johnson with a warm hug and a big, wet, sloppy kiss. And they are ready — they have endorsed him, they are ready to support him as speaker,” Greene stated, adding that “they want to keep it going, keep the band together. Why? Because Mike Johnson is giving them everything they want.” The congresswoman has not yet announced when exactly she will call the vote and whether she would force repeat votes on the issue if it fails next week.

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“Today, the two-state option is frantically being resuscitated in Washington, of all places, and by stalwart allies of Tel Aviv..”

• To Israel’s Horror, Hamas Brings ‘Two-state Solution’ Back Into Focus (Cradle)

After seven months of a brutal military assault on Gaza, it is abundantly clear that Israel has not succeeded in eradicating Hamas. Instead of delivering a decisive military victory, the occupation state finds itself being drawn kicking and screaming into negotiations over a two-state solution. Withstanding the impracticality of establishing a genuinely independent, sovereign Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, this scenario is becoming increasingly likely despite long-standing opposition from the Israeli government. It is an extraordinary development, particularly as Tel Aviv’s strategy, as articulated by foreign policy advisor Ophir Falk, was mainly to “destroy Hamas” and its military and governance capabilities entirely. Today, the two-state option is frantically being resuscitated in Washington, of all places, and by stalwart allies of Tel Aviv.

Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and staunch supporter of the occupation state, argues in Foreign Affairs magazine that far from being “dead,” the two-state solution now looks to be the only reasonable game in town: “The reason for this revival is not complicated. There are, after all, only a few possible alternatives to the two-state solution. There is Hamas’ solution, which is the destruction of Israel. There is the Israeli ultra-right’s solution, which is the Israeli annexation of the West Bank, the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the deportation of Palestinians to other countries. There is the ‘conflict management’ approach pursued for the last decade or so by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which aimed to maintain the status quo indefinitely – and the world has seen how that worked out. And there is the idea of a binational state in which Jews would become a minority, thus ending Israel’s status as a Jewish state. None of those alternatives would resolve the conflict – at least not without causing even greater calamities. And so if the conflict is to be resolved peacefully, the two-state solution is the only idea left standing.”

In widely publicized comments last week, Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas in Gaza, has appeared to endorse the 1967 borders for a future Palestinian state explicitly. In a recent interview with AP, Hayya spoke of “a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with the international resolutions” along Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Most significantly, though, he hinted that the resistance movement’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, could potentially dissolve itself and/or fold its cadres into a Palestinian national army: “All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their state, what have these forces done? They have turned into political parties and their defending fighting forces have turned into the national army.”

Instead of embracing these possibilities, Falk dismissed Hayya as a “high-ranking terrorist” and sought to redirect the conversation back to intransigent Israeli demands: “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government set a mission to destroy Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza, free the hostages, and ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel and the rest of the civilized world in the future,” he said, adding, “Those goals will be achieved.”

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“We watched Medea Benjamin of Code Pink get thrown out of the dinner for holding up a placard reading, “100 journalists killed in Gaza.”

• Of Journalists, Students and Power (Patrick Lawrence)

The American media are never short of red-letter days when it comes to its wonderful combination of superciliousness and irresponsibility. But last week the mainstream dailies and magazines went all the way to scarlet and alizarin crimson. The brighter the better, I say, when the derelictions of our media are on display such that readers can no longer miss the deceptions and distractions that are at this point their intent. I was reading along over breakfast last Thursday in search of the overnight news on the Israeli–U.S. genocide in Gaza when I came upon the headline in The New York Times, “Laundry Detergent Sheets Are Poor Cleaners.” Wow. This is a story The Times had been following since its April 5 opener, “The 5 Best Laundry Detergents of 2024,” but my friends on Eighth Avenue left me hanging. At last I could go forth into the day confident I was a well-informed American, altogether engagé.

Last Thursday, last Thursday: Wasn’t that the day the U.N. Relief and Works Agency reported that Israel’s military operations “continue from air, land and sea” and that “in northern Gaza only five hospitals remain operational, and in the south only six”? Yes, I read this on a U.N. website, but The Times didn’t have room for it. Then I was even better informed last Sunday, when The New Yorker published a long, delightfully inane conversation between David Remnick, who has very excellently overseen the ruination of what was once a good magazine, and Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian who always has a lot of important things to say. The occasion was … I shall let Remnick explain:

And now, for the first time, he has directed a movie. It is about a Russian Orthodox monk in the sixteenth century who starves himself to death rather than give in to the depredations of tsarist society. No, it isn’t. It’s about the race in the early sixties between Kellogg and Post to invent the Pop-Tart. Yes, really. It is called “Unfrosted” and will air on Netflix on May 3rd. It is extremely silly, in a good way. Extremely silly in a good way. I think I understand. Elsewhere in the news, as they say in the broadcast trade, the Israel Occupation Forces continued bombing Rafah as the Remnick item came out last Sunday—Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where the IOF had ordered Gazans to flee for their safety as they, the Israelis, bombed and bulldozed northern Gaza to the point of uninhabitability. But let us not allow brutalities of Medieval-style gore, savagery for which we pay, to disturb our psyches. With what shall our media fill our minds?

The dropping of American ordnance on Palestinian children or the history of Pop–Tarts, humorously told? We knew the answer by the time The New Yorker published the adolescent, time-wasting badinage Remnick and Seinfeld shared because we had watched—the caker over this past week—the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday evening. We watched a stream of reporters eager for some passing social connection to celebrity and power stride disdainfully by people demonstrating against the Israeli–U.S. genocide. We watched Medea Benjamin of Code Pink get thrown out of the dinner for holding up a placard reading, “100 journalists killed in Gaza.”

And we heard Colin Jost conclude his 23 minutes of sometimes-pithy humor with his ode to what was most conspicuously missing in that roomful of feckless poseurs. “Decency is why we’re all here tonight,” the television comedian said with unfeigned seriousness. “Decency is how we’re able to be here tonight.” By then Jost, at bottom a court jester, had already told his audience of narcissists, “Your words speak truth to power. Your words bring light to the darkness.” Yes, believe it, in the spring of 2024 people still say these sorts of things about corporate journalists. And the people so addressed take them to be true. Words. Words. Language, its use and misuse.

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They were there?!

• Jews Did Not Kill Jesus – US House of Representatives (RT)

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill aimed at combating anti-Semitism in American universities amid continuing student protests against Israel’s military operation in Gaza. The Antisemitism Awareness Act was approved by 320 votes to 91 on Wednesday, with 21 Republicans and 70 Democrats being among those opposing the legislation. The bill would require the US Department of Education to adopt a broad definition of anti-Semitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which describes the phenomenon as “certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” It also contains a list of “contemporary examples of anti-Semitism,” which have been shared online by social media users, including Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said.

Among the examples of hatred toward Jews mentioned in the document is “using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.” Marjorie Taylor Greene was among the lawmakers who voted against the bill. “Antisemitism is wrong,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, but added that she would not support legislation that “could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews.” Other anti-Semitic actions mentioned in the bill include “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel… than to the interests of their own nations,” making allegations “about a world Jewish conspiracy and or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government,” as well as “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

Since mid-April, students have set up protest camps at more than 40 colleges across the US, demanding a stop to the violence in Gaza and an end to Washington’s support of Israel. The demonstrations were initially peaceful, but clashes have erupted at Columbia University in New York, UCLA, and other colleges as police moved in to disperse the gatherings. Hundreds have been arrested amid the unrest. Israel is facing increasing international criticism over the rising death toll among Palestinians following its latest invasion of Gaza. According to the enclave’s health ministry, more than 34,000 people have been killed in the ongoing airstrikes and ground offensive. The campaign was launched in response to the October 7 cross-border attack on Israel by Hamas, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

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Boeing is just like the Clinton family.

• Second Boeing Whistleblower Dies Suddenly (RT)

Joshua Dean, a former Spirit AeroSystems employee who raised the alarm over lax standards in the production of Boeing’s 737 MAX jet, has died following a sudden and severe illness. In March, another Boeing whistleblower was found dead in a hotel parking lot in what authorities tentatively described as a suicide. The 737 MAX airliner has had a history of accidents, including two leading to multiple deaths. In October 2018, one of the aircraft went down in Indonesia, claiming the lives of all 189 people on board. Five months later, another Boeing 737 MAX – operated by Ethiopian Airlines – crashed soon after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers and crew. The two tragedies prompted a 20-month grounding of the airliner.

In January, a Boeing 737 MAX-9 operated by Alaska Airlines saw one of its doors and part of the fuselage break away in midair, soon after takeoff. An audit by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of Boeing and one of its key suppliers, Spirit AeroSystems, subsequently “identified non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control.” Dean’s family members revealed that the former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems passed away on Tuesday morning. His relatives said he had been hospitalized just over two weeks ago with impaired breathing. Dean was intubated, developed pneumonia, and contracted a fast-spreading antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus infection. The 45-year-old, who is said to have been in good health and leading a healthy lifestyle, was put on a life-support machine.

In October 2022, Dean said he had uncovered a serious manufacturing defect in the production of a key component that helps Boeing’s 737 MAX maintain normal pressure. He claimed that management chose to ignore his warnings, after which he filed a complaint with the FAA, alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line.”Spirit AeroSystems fired Dean in April 2023, accusing him of missing another major flaw. The whistleblower then filed a complaint with the Department of Labor, claiming his termination was in retaliation for his revelations. In March, former Boeing quality manager John Barnett, known for raising concerns about the firm’s production standards, was found dead with a gunshot wound days before he was due to give evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the aerospace giant.

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10-year plan in the US, 5-year plan in Europe. Forever war.

• Hungary Rejects €100-Billion Ukraine War Chest ‘Madness’ (RT)

Budapest is opposing a potential €100-billion ($107 billion), five-year NATO plan to fund Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. The draft plan on the military aid fund was presented to member states of the US-led bloc by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week, Szijjarto revealed. The minister made the remarks on Thursday to Hungarian broadcaster M1 before heading for a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in Paris.“On Tuesday, the NATO member states received the secretary-general’s proposal to raise 100 billion that NATO plans to spend on the war,” the diplomat said, adding that since the money is to be collected over five years, this means NATO “expects the hostilities to continue for this period.”

Budapest will oppose the initiative and is not planning to participate in arming Kiev or training its soldiers, Szijjarto stressed. The draft plan was presented to the bloc’s member states in its “first reading” and is still a subject to negotiations, the senior diplomat noted. In the coming weeks during negotiations we will fight for Hungary’s right to stay away from this madness, from collecting these 100 billion and siphoning them out of Europe. Budapest prioritizes the security of its own people before anything else and will do its best to “stay out of war,” Szijjarto explained, adding Hungary’s opinion remains that the conflict can only be resolved through negotiations. Nonetheless, Budapest acknowledges mounting global security issues and wants to be ready to face them, he said.

“We cannot ignore the threat of a new world war and the preparations for a nuclear war. This madness here in Europe must be stopped,” Szijjarto urged. Hungary has consistently expressed its opposition to the ever-growing involvement of the US-led NATO bloc – and of the EU – in the Ukrainian conflict, refusing to send arms to prop up Kiev or to train its troops, and forbidding use of its territory to funnel such shipments from third countries. Budapest has also publicly spoken out against the potential accession of Ukraine into NATO, which has long been one of the key goals of Ukrainian leadership.

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Helmer shouting match. For more see johnhelmer.net.

• British Knight Unhorsed (Helmer)

The kings of Europe used to pay clever men to pretend to be fools in order to make jokes to amuse the monarch and his court. They were called jesters. A man who pretends to be cleverer than he is, and who tells jokes in order to fool others into making himself rich – they are hucksters. In the Jewish garment trade their merchandise is known as schmattes. This means “rags”; it was a Polish word before it was picked up in Yiddish — something cheap to make to be sold dear. By extension, peddling anything cheap and fast on false pretences is schmatte business. The Gentile word for this is a hustle. For the merchandise Sir Lawrence Freedman of London has been selling, he has been well paid personally, and the corporation he used to run when he was a professor of “war studies” at King’s College is now a multimillion-pound business. To collect money for himself, and also for his son, Freedman has used company identities whose financial reports can be read at the UK Companies House registry.

The operation optimizes on its tax liabilities to the UK Inland Revenue by following the advice of Judith Freedman, a professor of taxation at Oxford; she is Freedman’s wife. The turnover, costs, tax, and profit lines of the Freedman businesses give a glimpse into how it possible for him to appear regularly in books, newspapers, and corporate conventions in order to announce, as he advertised last week in a London newspaper, that the new US military supplies for the Ukraine will give the allies time to “restore [Kiev’s] battlefield fortunes”; solve the Ukrainian “manpower problems…as new recruits don’t face the prospects of being sent to fight with insufficient ammunition”; “time before they will have the strength to start liberating substantial amounts of territory”; and time to compel President Vladimir Putin to “contemplate the possibility that [the war] might yet again swing towards Ukraine”. The subjunctive “might” on the punchline is Freedman’s slip – he reveals he isn’t sure of the value of what he is selling.

Freedman was the British government’s official historian of the Falklands War and then a member of the Chilcot committee of inquiry on the British war against Iraq. He has also been a career-long Russia threat faker and fighter of the war his side keeps losing, as he keeps insisting on the reverse. This isn’t jestering, it’s huckstering. Freedman is for hire through an organ called All American Entertainment (AAE), which describes itself as “a full-service talent booking agency, specifically focused on the needs of event professionals looking to book keynote speakers and corporate entertainment for their events.” His pro-US credentials for fighting the war against Russia, and his pro-Israel credentials for fighting the war against the Arabs and Iran have earned him an engagement at a Zionist-financed think-tank in Australia which calls Freedman “the foremost authority on modern war in the English-speaking world.” Small world, if viewed from Sydney, Tel Aviv, or London.

Starting with a PhD entitled “The definition of the Soviet threat in strategic arms decisions of the United States: 1961–1974” – that’s the US targeting version of Russia — Freedman has monetized his war-fighting line through incorporation of a company called King’s College Business Limited, UK company number 02714181. Founded in 1992 with the name KCL Enterprises Ltd, it said it was an investment and commercial trading company without an express purpose, apart from making money. Freedman became a director in 1998 when he gave a home address in Wimbledon. On Freedman’s street, local realtors value the average house price at the moment to be £1.9 million; this is down 15% from its peak in 2017. War with Russia has been much more profitable for Freedman. Losing the war, that’s to say.

In 2007 Freedman was chairman of the board of directors of KCL Enterprises when it was decided to make the King’s College brand name more visible. According to the audited financial report for that year, the purpose of the company was “to assist King’s College London to market its research and consultancy capabilities.” The report reveals that turnover in 2007 was £2.3 million; it then grew by 55% in 2008 to £3.5 million. “Administrative expenses” came to almost the same total, meaning the company was operating for tax and expense optimization through which directors and King’s College academics like Freedman were running their consultancy and other fees. When Freedman retired from King’s College at the end of 2008, he also left the company board. It has gone on to quadruple its turnover in 2023 to £12.6 million. War against Russia is very good for business.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Shar Pei

 

 

Blue whale
https://twitter.com/i/status/1786025591071732163

 

 

Russian bear

 

 

What lies beneath

 

 

 

 

Big bath
https://twitter.com/i/status/1786131306633424999

 

 

Puppies
https://twitter.com/i/status/1785783023029432757

 

 

Doorbell

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle December 19 2023

Dec 192023
 
 December 19, 2023  Posted by at 9:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  52 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Portrait of the artist’s mother 1896 (he was 15)

 

• They Can Wait at Leisure, Whilst Netanyahu Labours – and Errs (Alastair Crooke)
• US Prepares Its Ukraine War Coalition Fleet In The Red Sea (Helmer)
• Middle East ‘Totally Out Of Control’ – Trump (RT)
• Russian Policy Towards The Gaza War & Palestine Genocide Is Mistaken (Helmer)
• The American Political Crisis (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Impeachment: Biden Under Formal Investigation (Patrick Lawrence)
• Trump Attorneys Ask Fulton County Judge to Dismiss Indictment (ET)
• Yatsenyuk Suggests How West Could Pressure Russia (RT)
• EU May Strip Hungary Of Voting Rights To Seal Ukraine Aid Deal – FT (TASS)
• Brussels Launches Legal Action Against Elon Musk’s X (EN)
• In the Game of Strip Poker, Someone Ends Up Naked (Kunstler)
• Secret Pakistan Document Undermines Espionage Case Against Imran Khan (IC)
• Rolling Thunder Global Propaganda – Mark Crispin Miller (USAW)
• Pfizer Seeks To Treat Most TURBO CANCERS Caused By mRNA Vaccines (Makis)

 

 

 

 

Tucker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1736924390258782402
https://twitter.com/i/status/1736927284081107086
https://twitter.com/i/status/1736893927398015064

 

 

Water vs fire
https://twitter.com/i/status/1736723667927884211

 

 

 

 

Blair-Bush initiative..

• They Can Wait at Leisure, Whilst Netanyahu Labours – and Errs (Alastair Crooke)

In a small dimly lit room in Gaza, it was possible to discern first the museum-piece wheel chair, and then the crumpled, blanketed figure of the paraplegic figure who occupied it. Suddenly a high-pitched squeal seemed to emit from the wheelchair; it’s occupant’s hearing aid had gone wild, and was to continue to shriek at regular intervals during my visit. I wondered how much the chair-occupant could hear, with such a mal-adjusted ear-piece. Settled into discussion, I realised that disabled or not, his mental state was sharper than a knife. He was as tough as nails; had a dry humour and his eyes perpetually sparkled. He was clearly enjoying himself – except when wrestling with the whistles and shrieks from his hearing aid. How was it that such charisma was packed within such a slight figure? This man in the wheelchair and with the rickety earpiece – Sheikh Ahmad Yasin – was the founder of Hamas. And what he said to me that morning has come to upend the Islamic world today.

What he said was: “Hamas is not an Islamic movement. It is a liberation movement, and anyone, be they Christian, or Buddhist – or even I – could join it. We all were welcome”. Why was this simple formula somehow so significant and connected to today’s events? Well, the ethos of Gaza, at that time (2000-2002), was predominantly that of ideological Islamism. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was deeply embedded. It was not then a resistance movement per se – it was capable of violence, but its prime focus was social work and uncorrupted governance. It wanted to show how well it could govern. Yasin’s comment was revolutionary because liberation trumped dogma and the various ‘schools’ of political Islam. This ultimately was to become ‘Gaza Hamas’ – at odds with its conventional leadership resident in Doha. Sinwar and Dief are ‘Yasin’s children’.

‘Long story short’, a little while later, Yasin, on one of his Friday prayers’ wheel-chair trundles across the road to his adjacent mosque, was blown to pieces by an Israeli missile as he exited. The Muslim Brotherhood wing of Hamas did get their chance to show their hand at governance: They (fairly) won the 2006 Palestinian Authority elections in Gaza, and took a majority of seats – some in the West Bank too. President Bush and Condaleeza Rice were horrified. They had supported the elections … but they never once imagined …Thus, PM Blair and President Bush put together a secret (unacknowledged to the EU) plan in response: Hamas leaders – plus the movements’ social support NGOs – were to be eliminated.

And the Palestinian Authority would crack down on all and every Hamas activity – in close collaboration with Israel. The West Bank, in this plan, would be the recipient of large financial aid to construct a prosperous western-style consumer/security state, and Gaza explicitly was to be impoverished. It would be made to ‘stew in its own juices’ under 16 years of siege; to wallow in poverty. The Israelis gave the Blair plan its empirical basis – calculating exactly how many calories, per head, how much fuel and gas would be allowed to enter Gaza – that would just maintain a subsistence standard of living. And since this Blair-Bush initiative, Palestinians have been irredeemably divided, with no political project even faintly possible.

Read more …

Operation Prosperity Guardian..

• US Prepares Its Ukraine War Coalition Fleet In The Red Sea (Helmer)

On Monday, General Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, announced that the US is assembling a fleet of warships to defend Israel’s port of Eilat, the Gulf of Aqaba, and Israel’s Red Sea shipping route by threatening to attack Yemen if it exercises its Law of the Sea right to regulate military transit through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Austin fleet is to be assembled from the coalition of NATO states at war with Russia in the Ukraine. Austin’s call, announced by the Pentagon while Austin is in Israel, follows the failure of the USS Eisenhower and its squadron, with additional French and British warships, to prevent the collapse of commercial container and tanker shipping to and from Israel. “The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen,” Austin announced, “threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law.

“The Red Sea is a critical waterway that has been essential to freedom of navigation and a major commercial corridor that facilitates international trade. Countries that seek to uphold the foundational principle of freedom of navigation must come together to tackle the challenge posed by this non-state actor launching ballistic missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) at merchant vessels from many nations lawfully transiting international waters.” “This is an international challenge that demands collective action. Therefore, today I am announcing the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, an important new multinational security initiative under the umbrella of the Combined Maritime Forces and the leadership of its Task Force 153, which focuses on security in the Red Sea.

Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain, to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.” Bahrain on the Persian Gulf — the only Arab state included on Austin’s list — and the Seychelles, the island state in the Indian Ocean, are included to provide shore base facilities for the proposed Yemen-attack fleet. However, no country with naval bases on the Red Sea shore, territorial waters, and exclusive economic zones extending into the waterway — Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti — has publicly agreed to participate or approved this escalation of the Gaza war to benefit Israel. The Pentagon has also asked the Australian Navy for a frigate to join the Red Sea fleet, but the Australian government in Canberra is reluctant to agree, and Austin has dropped the country from his list.

All of the governments on Austin’s list, with the exception of the US, voted last week at the United Nations General Assembly for Israel to halt its operations in the Gaza war. In this context, none of these states recognizes Israel’s right to impose its blockade of Gaza’s ports extending into Palestine’s territorial waters, the Gaza Maritime Area, and Israel’s de facto military rule of the international waters of the Mediterranean, including the Gaza Marine gas field. “Freedom of navigation”, Austin’s version of the legal doctrine of his Operation Prosperity Guardian, does not apply to the Gaza Maritime Area.

Read more …

“I am the only candidate who can make this promise to you: I will prevent World War III..”

• Middle East ‘Totally Out Of Control’ – Trump (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has claimed that the current situation in the Middle East is “out of control” and suggested that, unlike Joe Biden, he could avert looming disaster in that region and globally. Trump, who is running for a new term in office, warned that a “catastrophe” could happen in the Middle East if the situation is “not handled with strength and precision,” in comments posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday. In similar remarks made during a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada, he accused the Biden administration of squandering his legacy in the form of the Abraham Accords, with which he claimed to have “made peace” in the region.

Under Trump, the US mediated a series of normalization treaties between Israel and Arab nations. Saudi Arabia was reportedly negotiating a similar arrangement when the October 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas took place. Israel’s response using overwhelming military action in Gaza has triggered mass outcry in the Muslim world, effectively making such a deal impossible for the foreseeable future. The former president is campaigning on the claim that, under his leadership, the conflict in the Middle East would not have erupted, and neither would the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he could stop the latter crisis in 24 hours. With Biden left in power for another four years after the 2024 election, the world faces an existential threat, Trump told supporters in Nevada. “I am the only candidate who can make this promise to you: I will prevent World War III,” he said.

Trump’s bid to regain the presidency is being undermined by dozens of charges filed against him in several cases, including one that alleges that he sought to defraud voters in Georgia in 2020 by subverting his election loss in the state. He claims to be a victim of political persecution. Biden has been supportive of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, but this position has alienated a large portion of Democratic voters. According to pollster YouGov, as of late November, just 22% of them sympathized with Israelis more than Palestinians, compared to 14% holding the opposite view. The same metrics for Republicans were 63% and 3%, respectively. A majority of American voters would support a ceasefire in both the Middle East and the Ukraine conflicts.

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“Constitution’s Article 18(3): “The exercise of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen shall not violate the rights and freedoms of other people.”

• Russian Policy Towards The Gaza War & Palestine Genocide Is Mistaken (Helmer)

In Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national address of October 28 he erased all differences between the Jewish religion, Zionist ideology, and Israeli state policy. He invoked this trinity in the “chain of heroes of Israel that has continued for over 3,000 years, from Joshua, Judah Maccabee and Bar Kochba, and up to the heroes of 1948, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War and Israel’s other wars. Our heroic soldiers have one supreme goal: To destroy the murderous enemy and ensure our existence in our land. We have always said ‘Never again’. ‘Never again’ is now.” And finally, he invoked the benediction of the Jewish God. “On your behalf, on behalf of all of us, I pray for the wellbeing of our soldiers: ‘May G-d make the enemies who rise against us be struck down before them! May He subdue our enemies under them and crown them with deliverance and victory.’”

If Netanyahu were a Russian Israeli, these remarks would be a Russian crime. In the constitution for the multi-ethnic and multicultural Russian Federation, every Russian has the Article 26 right “to determine and indicate his nationality”, and the Article 28 freedom of religious belief, including the right to no religious belief. Russians living in Israel and Palestine have the same rights, which is why the Foreign and Emergencies Ministries are doing everything they can now to evacuate them to Russia if that’s why they request. However, the Russians in Israel, like the Russians in Russia, cannot exercise their Article 26 and 28 rights without accepting the Constitution’s Article 18(3): “The exercise of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen shall not violate the rights and freedoms of other people.”

Speaking jurisprudentially, the one million Russians of Israel – about 90% of whom have taken Israeli nationality under Aliyah, the law of Jewish return – are violating their Article 18(3) duty if they profit from, collaborate in, or defend state and settler terrorism against the Palestinians, wherever and however this is occurring between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The Russians of Israel — if that is the nationality they choose in order to apply for evacuation to safe haven — may also be violating the Russian law against terrorism and extremism under Articles 205 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code depending on where they live, how they live, the arms and military training they have accepted, what they do for a living, and who they vote for in Israeli elections.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russians at home and also abroad may not support or participate in terrorism propaganda, plans, or acts, whether of the Arab, Muslim, Israeli, Zionist, or Jewish variety. It is not yet settled in Russian foreign policy whether the rights of national liberation and self-defence apply as equally to Palestine state groups like Hamas, Fatah and their associated armed units as they apply to Israel state groups like the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and their associated armed settler units.

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“The Democrats welcome the invaders as they have ways to add them to Democrat votes. The Republican businessmen welcome the invaders, as they provide cheap labor and hold down US wages..”

• The American Political Crisis (Paul Craig Roberts)

It is necessary to understand that Congress and the President are not accountable to the voters. More important than votes is the campaign contributions that lead to election. The House and Senate and President are elected on the basis of large sums of money contributed by the rich and powerful financial and economic interests, such as the military/security complex, Wall Street, the pharmaceutical, energy, agribusiness and other industries. Elected officials have to comply with the interests of those who provide the money, or next election the money goes to their opponents. The Jewish billionaire George Soros uses his money to put in office aggressive partisan Democrat state attorneys general who target Republicans. The result is that the Republicans cannot defend Trump, because the establishment doesn’t want Trump defended.

It is necessary to understand that the US is not a nation. It is a Tower of Babel. Untold millions of immigrant-invaders enter the country illegally every year, for year after year, and nothing can be done to stop the invasion. The Democrats welcome the invaders as they have ways to add them to Democrat votes. The Republican businessmen welcome the invaders, as they provide cheap labor and hold down US wages. The two political parties serving their short-term interests are destroying America. The immigrant-invaders overwhelm the school systems, medical facilities, police, and support systems of affected states and localities, making it difficult for them to service the interests on their municipal bonds. So, you see, it matters not how many votes this or that poll shows this or that candidate has.

Trump is being prosecuted by Democrat prosecutors in courts presided over by Democrat judges in jurisdictions where there are black Democrat juries. Law is being used as a weapon to remove a president and presidential candidate perceived by the establishment to be a threat. Trump will not be permitted to be President. If he is not imprisoned, he will be assassinated, unless the Establishment thinks it can control Trump by controlling his appointments and continuing to harass him. Perhaps the Establishment thinks that 8 years of high stress on an elderly man has done its damage and a little more stress will finish Trump off.

On top of it all, US living standards are falling. Middle class jobs are disappearing and the middle class with them. Many Americans work 2 or 3 part time jobs with no pension or medical benefits. After the Soviet collapse, US corporations began offshoring manufacturing jobs to China and Asia. The Federal Reserve, the central bank, serves the interests of the large banks at the expense of everyone else. In short, the US has become a dysfunctional country. But the foreign policy is still in the hands of the aggressive neoconservatives, who still cling to their agenda of US hegemony, principally to constrain Russia and China and to open the Middle East to Israeli expansion. As I hope this makes clear, the US is unstable across the board. The notion that an election can correct the situation is absurd.

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“The Biden family will stay as far outside the corridors of justice as it can in coming months, avoiding hearings, courtrooms, and legal proceedings for the simple reason it cannot win in any such context..”

• Impeachment: Biden Under Formal Investigation (Patrick Lawrence)

Six days before the House vote, the Justice Department unsealed a nine-count indictment charging Hunter Biden with tax evasion, failure to file returns, and “false or fraudulent” returns when he did file them during his dissolute, influence-peddling years, 2016 to 2019. Three of the violations are felonies. In my read the new indictment is more of the same from David Weiss, the corrupt special counsel who has been protecting the Bidens for years: The document is full of rip-roaring language but makes no mention of Hunter’s violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which is the front door leading to Pop’s collaboration as Hunter sold vice-presidential access to the Ukrainians, the Chinese, the Kazakhs, and others. It will be interesting nonetheless to see how this sop to demands for justice plays out.

My prediction: The new indictment is Weiss’s groundwork for another excessively lenient plea bargain such as the one he fashioned last summer but failed to get past a conscientious judge. The question is whether such a plan would withstand sharpening congressional scrutiny — or whether it would worsen the mess that now surrounds the Bidens and their allies. The House Oversight Committee had subpoenaed Hunter Biden to sit for closed-door questioning by the time the grand jury indictments were made public. This session was scheduled for last Wednesday, hours before the House impeachment vote. Hunter is now threatened with a contempt of Congress citation for failing to appear. The younger Biden instead gave a press conference in front of the Capitol during which he got two things done.

One, he altered the Biden regime’s story for the second time. As readers will recall, the president’s first claim — he never discussed Hunter’s business with him — evolved some time ago into, “The president was never in business with Hunter.” Last week Hunter had it this way: “Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business.” If you net this out, it amounts to an implicit admission that Pop lied in his earlier versions of the Biden family story. It was on this point that a Fox News reporter sent Jean–Pierre into near hysterics last week. Two, during his appearance at the Capitol with microphones before him like bouquets of flowers, Hunter Biden lapsed into the tinniest of Pop’s many public-relations ploys: He played the pity card by pimping his personal difficulties. “They ridiculed my struggle with addiction; they belittled my recovery,” he complained of those running the impeachment proceedings. “And they have tried to dehumanize me — all to embarrass and damage my father, who has devoted his entire public life to service.”

I don’t see how much of this spaghetti will stick to the wall, but the tableau tells us something important. The Biden family will stay as far outside the corridors of justice as it can in coming months, avoiding hearings, courtrooms, and legal proceedings for the simple reason it cannot win in any such context. I have not yet heard of a court of public opinion trumping a court of law, but, desperate as the Bidens are at this point, it seems the only strategy available to them.

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“Instead, it directly targets core protected political speech and activity. For this reason, it is categorically invalid under the First Amendment.”

• Trump Attorneys Ask Fulton County Judge to Dismiss Indictment (ET)

Former President Trump’s Georgia attorneys submitted a court filing on Dec. 18 arguing that the former president’s comments were political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment in the aftermath of the 2020 election. “Every single alleged overt act listed and count charged against President Trump seeks to criminalize content-based, core political speech and expressive conduct,” President Trump’s team wrote.
The former president and more than a dozen other people were indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, by District Attorney Fani Willis, who accused them of conspiring to overturn the election in the state. Several defendants in the case have pleaded guilty in exchange for more lenient punishment, although President Trump and the remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty.

On Dec. 18, the former president’s lawyers said that even if the facts that the prosecutors have alleged are true, a judge should dismiss the indictment as a violation of his core First Amendment rights. “This Court should hold that the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech, when applied to the core political speech and expressive conduct alleged in the indictment against a President of the United States, demands a pretrial remedy and that remedy is dismissal of the indictment,” the lawyers said. But Ms. Willis’ case “does not merely criminalize conduct with an incidental impact on protected speech,” they said. “Instead, it directly targets core protected political speech and activity. For this reason, it is categorically invalid under the First Amendment.”

Ms. Willis has said she is seeking an August trial date for President Trump and the remaining co-defendants, a time frame that would put the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in court defending himself in the months, weeks, and even days leading up to the November general election. Trump lawyer Steve Sadow has said that if the former president is the nominee, this would be “the most effective election interference in the history of the United States.” Ms. Willis’s team has also said they want to have a single trial for the rest of the defendants. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the case, has expressed skepticism about the idea of trying too many people at once. He said earlier this month that even 12 people at once could be a stretch.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have been exchanging evidence. Pretrial motions for most of the defendants are due early next month. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ms. Willis said she believes more of the co-defendants will take plea deals, although she did not elaborate. Attorney Sidney Powell, Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, and bail bondsman Scott Hall have taken plea deals in exchange for guilty pleas. Last week, Ms. Powell issued a 13-word apology, which was part of the plea agreement. “I apologize for my actions in connection with the events in Coffee County,” she wrote.

Read more …

How to start WWIII.

• Yatsenyuk Suggests How West Could Pressure Russia (RT)

Meaningful negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will only be possible if the West demonstrates readiness to fight Russia and secure NATO membership for Ukraine, former Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has said. In an interview with Espreso TV on Saturday, Yatsenyuk, who headed the government in the first two years after the Maidan coup in 2014, acknowledged that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the current format are “unrealistic.” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has insisted that the conflict should be settled based on his so-called ten-point peace plan, which calls for Russia’s withdrawal from all territories claimed by Kiev, reparations from Moscow, and a war crimes tribunal. Zelensky also officially banned any talks with Putin last year.

Yatsenyuk, who now chairs the Kiev Security Forum, said he can “hardly imagine” a scenario in which talks between Kiev and Moscow would lead to Russia’s withdrawal of its troops and the payment of reparations, while Ukraine joins NATO and the EU at the same time. He recalled how Russia submitted proposals for long-term security guarantees to the US and NATO in December 2021, shortly before the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow’s demands included preventing the further eastward expansion of NATO, denying accession to the alliance of the former USSR states, and limiting the bloc’s military activities close to Russian borders. However, the West refused to discuss the Russian proposals.

According to the former prime minister, NATO and EU member states should play the “very same game” as Russia did back then and tell Moscow that “we’ve made a political decision, Ukraine will be a member of NATO. Full stop. We are not discussing this decision with you.” “Within this decision, we invite you to sign a new agreement between Russia and NATO, a new agreement on conventional arms control in Europe, a new START agreement on the limitation of strategic nuclear weapons, a new agreement on cybersecurity,” Yatsenyuk continued. He agreed when the host pointed out that Moscow would never agree to such terms, but insisted that the move would still put Kiev and the West in a stronger position. “To the world’s publicity, we will say this: ‘We wanted exactly this kind of negotiation with Russia, we offered them what we could, and Russia refused it too,’” the former PM explained.

Yatsenyuk then said peace talks would only make sense “if the West was ready to demonstrate such political will,” calling it “the establishment of a new world order.” “I want the West to theoretically agree to this model and reaffirm the readiness to fight for the new member [Ukraine],” he concluded. Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it is ready for a dialogue with a view to ending the conflict in Ukraine, so long as Russia’s core interests are respected. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said any talks would have to account for “Russia’s legitimate interests,” and must mean “putting an end to attempts to build [one’s] own security at the expense of others,” referring to Ukraine’s efforts to join the NATO bloc.

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“Maybe Hungary can create more trouble. Maybe Hungary can force us to use a few different tools. But ultimately Hungary cannot stop us providing money to Ukraine..”

• EU May Strip Hungary Of Voting Rights To Seal Ukraine Aid Deal – FT (TASS)

EU member states are considering the possibility of stripping Hungary of its voting rights in order to conclude an agreement on allocating funds to Ukraine, The Financial Times has quoted European diplomats as saying. According to the officials, the EU may apply Article 7 of the 2007 European Union Treaty, which allows for depriving a country of the right to vote due to a violation of European legislation. This process can be blocked by any other EU member, but as the daily notes, after Poland’s recent elections, “Hungary no longer has a guaranteed protector” the EU. Despite this, some EU members are wary of the idea of imposing restrictions on Budapest. Instead, they intend to demonstrate to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban the “full costs” of isolating the country within the EU in order to force him to change his mind regarding the allocation of funds to Ukraine.

If that fails, the FT says, the EU’s 26 other members could strike a deal on their own, although “it would take time and only offer a short-term fix.” “Maybe Hungary can create more trouble. Maybe Hungary can force us to use a few different tools. But ultimately Hungary cannot stop us providing money to Ukraine,” said another EU senior official present at the summit. On December 15, Orban said that Budapest did not intend to support the idea of financial aid to Ukraine from the EU budget. He confirmed that at the EU summit in Brussels he had blocked an amendment to the EU budget that envisaged the allocation of 50 billion euros to Ukraine in 2024-2027.

Fico
https://twitter.com/i/status/1736426519004627400

Read more …

“We take any breach of our rules very seriously. And the evidence we currently have is enough to formally open a proceeding against X..”

• Brussels Launches Legal Action Against Elon Musk’s X (EN)

The European Commission has launched legal action against social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, under its landmark rules for online platforms, the Digital Services Act (DSA). The executive said Monday it would probe whether X may have breached EU rules “in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.” The move represents the first-ever proceeding under the DSA, which was designed to create a safer space online, and adds further turmoil to a company that has struggled to find a stable footing since the $44-billion acquisition by Elon Musk. It follows a request for information sent by the Commission to X in October after it received indications the platform was spreading illegal content and disinformation, particularly terrorist and violent content in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.

Since August 2023, X is one of 17 platforms designated under the DSA as a “very large online platform,” which makes it subject to new, stringent norms on the dissemination of illegal content, the protection of fundamental rights and public security. “We take any breach of our rules very seriously. And the evidence we currently have is enough to formally open a proceeding against X,” said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice-president. The opening of the proceeding makes it clear that “the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ has come to an end,” said Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the internal market, promising an “in-depth investigation.” The executive will continue monitoring the platform’s compliance with all other obligations under the DSA and could take further action if any wrongdoing is detected, said a Commission spokesperson. The Commission has urged the company to “cooperate” on the probe, the spokesperson added.

Four potential infringements: The Commission said on Monday its investigation would focus on alleged breaches under four articles of the DSA related to: • The dissemination of illegal content, including measures taken to identify and swiftly remove illegal content and to allow users to flag such content. • Measures taken to combat information manipulation, such as the so-called “community notes” introduced in 2021 to debunk misleading posts. • Measures to increase transparency, amid suspected failures to provide researchers with adequate access to X’s publicly accessible data, including on paid ads. • The suspected deceptive design of X’s user interface, such as the so-called “blue checkmark,” a paid-for continuation promoted by Elon Musk that designates a user as an “active, notable, and authentic” member of the platform.

Read more …

“..the law against “obstructing official proceedings,” is about to be adjudicated in the US Supreme Court involving convicted J-6 defendants..”

• In the Game of Strip Poker, Someone Ends Up Naked (Kunstler)

The blob’s weakness and idiocy are clearly on display in the four court cases against Mr. Trump, which look like a cartoon of thieves throwing stuff out of a hijacked furniture truck at the cars in pursuit behind them. There’s DA Alvin Bragg’s joke case in Manhattan around the dead-on-arrival Stormy Daniels business. End-of-story, as T0ny Soprano always liked to say. New York’s AG, Letitia James, vowed to get Mr. Trump on something, anything, while electioneering, and delivered a bullshit case to Judge Arthur Engoron that is sure to get tossed on appeal — and will eventually get both Ms. James and the Judge disbarred (and possibly prosecuted) for their trouble. There’s Fulton County (GA) DA Fani Willis’s laughable RICO rap against Trump, Guiliani, et al,. for complaining about the obviously janky ballot-counting activity there in 2020.

And then, there are US AG Merrick Garland’s two cases against the former president. The DC case brought under Special Counsel Jack Smith, claiming that Mr. Trump somehow led an “insurrection” at the US Capitol on 1/6/21. This turkey was rehearsed in earlier House J-6 Committee hearings, so shabbily staged that Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) arranged to have all the evidence destroyed (including witness deposition transcripts) as soon as the hearings wrapped. Mr. Trump’s defense is probably immaterial in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s DC courtroom. But one of the case’s main predicates, the law against “obstructing official proceedings,” is about to be adjudicated in the US Supreme Court involving convicted J-6 defendants. If the court tosses it, Jack Smith’s case goes out the window too. If not, and Mr. Trump is successfully railroaded by Judge Chutkin, you can be sure the appeal will be expedited to SCOTUS and die there. If there even is a trial before the election of 2024. In any case, Mr. Trump will still be on the ballot next November.

The second Garland / Jack Smith case is the most interesting. That would be the Mar-a-Lago documents case. According to the reporter who styles himself as “Sundance” at The Last Refuge news site, the purpose of the August 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid was not to seek classified documents at issue in a dispute between the former president and the National Archives — as the public has been given to understand by the blob’s news media. The actual purpose was to find a 10-inch-thick dossier of documents collected over many months by Mr. Trump’s deputies to be used in future prosecutions of DOJ, FBI, and other officials and private persons (including Hillary Clinton, the DNC, the DNC’s law firm Perkins Coie,) who were implicated in the Russia collusion hoax, especially after the failure of Special Counsel John Durham to even depose many of these parties and persons.

There were apparently many copies made of Mr. Trump’s dossier, and distributed among anti-blobsters, but these were all heavily redacted — names were all blacked out. The binder at Mar-a-Lago was unredacted and this was what the FBI was after in the August 2022 raid. Is there any chance by now that the FBI hasn’t disposed of 10,000 emails and documents that were in its possession pertaining to the Russia hoax and other crimes? Do you suppose that the unredacted Trump dossier was the only copy? I wouldn’t. So far, Mr. Trump and his lawyers have not mentioned this. Why wouldn’t they play this hand close to the chest? Will it be consequential in the long and tortured course of things? What do you think?

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The US wants him gone..

• Secret Pakistan Document Undermines Espionage Case Against Imran Khan (IC)

A crucial document from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, undermines a major plank in the high-profile prosecution of the country’s former prime minister, Imran Khan. Khan remains behind bars while he faces trial for allegedly mishandling a secret document, known as a cypher, which the prosecution claims compromised the integrity of the encrypted communication system used by the state’s security apparatus. But according to an ISI analysis leaked to The Intercept, that claim is entirely false. Internally, the agency concluded that the leak of the text of a cypher could in no way compromise the integrity of the system, an assessment contrary to public claims made repeatedly by prosecutors.The main charge against Khan relates to his handling of a diplomatic cable describing a key meeting in March 2022 between U.S. and Pakistani officials in Washington.

Khan, while prime minister, had repeatedly alluded to the existence of a cypher that outlined U.S. pressure on Pakistan to remove him from power in a vote of no confidence. Though he never disclosed its full contents, at times, in public speeches, he quoted statements recorded in it from U.S. officials promising to reward Pakistan for his ouster. At one rally, Khan even waved what he said was the printed text of the document, without revealing its exact contents. Prosecutors assert that Khan damaged Pakistani national security by exposing the text of this encrypted document, contents they say could potentially be used by rival intelligence agencies to crack the code of a wide range of other secret Pakistani communications. A criminal complaint against Khan alleges that he “compromised the entire cypher security system of the state and secret communication method of Pakistani missions abroad,” through his alleged mishandling of the cypher.

The former prime minister faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty under Pakistan’s Official Secrets Act and could face the death penalty if charged with treason in the case. On August 9, 2023, The Intercept published the text of the cypher outlining U.S. pressure against Pakistan to remove Khan. Shortly afterward, Pakistan’s own intelligence agency issued an assessment addressing the very question of how damaging publishing such a text would be. The internal conclusion of the ISI was crystal clear: No threat to Pakistan’s encryption existed.On August 11, two days after The Intercept story was published, an internal request for information was sent to the ISI by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The question at hand: Does the revelation of the plain text of such a cypher compromise the integrity of the system’s encryption?

The response, filed by the Inter-Services Intelligence Secretariat under the heading ISI-Policy Matters, and titled “Breach of Crypto Security,” determined that contrary to the present charges against Khan, revealing the text of a cypher poses no risk to the government’s encrypted communications network. “If plain text of an encrypted message (cryptogram) … is leaked it has no effect on security of encryptor,” the analysis, which was filed on August 23, concludes. “Leakage of a plain text message does not compromise the algorithm.”

Concern about the security of an encryption system is not entirely unfounded. Some encryption systems can theoretically be compromised by what is known as a “plaintext attack,” in which an attacker has access to a copy of both the plain and encrypted versions of a document’s text and can use the two versions to determine the encryption system.But the spy agency’s conclusion in the days following The Intercept’s publication of the secret cypher was that the disclosure of the short piece of text alone — without the encryption key — did not pose a risk. “If plain text of an encrypted message (cryptogram) using DTE is leaked, it has no effect on security of the encryptor due to following,” the analysis reads, referring to “an offline encryption device.”

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“It’s the perfect crime because there is a long delay between the pulling of the trigger and the collapse due to the bullet. You see what I mean? Sometimes it can take people two years to succumb to the consequences of taking the shot..”

• Rolling Thunder Global Propaganda – Mark Crispin Miller (USAW)

New York University (NYU) Professor Mark Crispin Miller (MCM) is an expert in propaganda. Dr. Miller says from infection to injection, Covid 19 was a global “propaganda masterpiece.” Propaganda on this level has never happened before in human history. Dr. Miller explains, “The media has been crucial to this entire operation, and I would take that a little further. I would say since the beginning of 2020, we have been subjected to a ‘Rolling Thunder of Propaganda’ drives one after another. First, there was the (CV19) virus panic. Then, there was the George Floyd moment. Now, there is a new documentary that shows George Floyed was not actually murdered. . . . It’s called ‘The Fall of Minneapolis.’ . . . . There was the 2020 Election. There was the so-called ‘insurrection.’ That was a wave of crackpot hysteria . . . because it was not an insurrection . . . or coup attempt.

Then, there was Ukraine, and the entire back story of Russia’s invasion was completely missing from all the coverage. . . . This is all the result of the media doing the opposite of what it is supposed to do. The ‘Framers’ (of the Constitution) realized the absolute necessity of having a free press. . . . This was before the corporate media cartels, which is what we have now. . . . The Framers knew . . . to offer a counterforce to federal power, we absolutely had to have a free press. . . . The reason why the press has First Amendment protections is it . . .tells truths the federal authorities does not want us to know. To say the press has failed abysmally is actually giving them too much credit. They have been instrumental throughout this nightmare, whose aim is radical depopulation and destruction of democracy. . . . if you just tell the other side of the story, you are public enemy #1.”

With more than 700 million mRNA CV19 bioweapon injections in the US alone and more than 13 billion CV19 injections globally, the implications of this depopulation agenda is the biggest story ever short of a global thermal nuclear exchange. This, too, was part of the “Rolling Thunder Global Propaganda” campaign. Dr. Miller has dedicated his Substack to reveal mounting and massive deaths and injuries one person at a time. Many doctors are revealing data and sources proving the CV19 vax did not help a single person. Dr. Miller calls the CV19 so-called vaccine “the perfect crime.” Dr. Miller explains, “It’s the perfect crime because there is a long delay between the pulling of the trigger and the collapse due to the bullet. You see what I mean? Sometimes it can take people two years to succumb to the consequences of taking the shot. It’s the perfect crime. I also liken it to the infamous mass murders of mid-century. . . . This had much more sophistication than those mass murders.

It’s not just the bigger numbers, but they got people to take this willingly. Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot were all coercive. . . . This is the first mass murder that is the result of getting people to clamor for it. The panic over the Corona virus was so successful that people were craving vaccination—craving it.” The good news from Dr. Miller is that it appears people are waking up at a fast pace. He points to the low uptake of more CV19 boosters in a range of only 3%. Dr. Miller is dedicated to waking people up to the mass propaganda psyop that has led people in a disastrous direction. Dr. Miller says, “People can subscribe to my Substack, and you can do it for free. I am doing this for the public good. I am always grateful for paid subscribers because I am on disability now as a professor at NYU, but I am not doing it for that reason. I am doing it because something really, really evil is going on, and people have to snap out of it. People have to wake up. I do believe people can wake up, and there are indications that people are waking up.”


From the comments on the Mark Crispin Miller article.

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X thread.

• Pfizer Seeks To Treat Most TURBO CANCERS Caused By mRNA Vaccines (Makis)

Pfizer completes $43 Billion acquisition of Seagen on Dec.14, 2023 – becomes largest oncology company to treat most TURBO CANCERS caused by mRNA Vaccines – deep dive into the sinister aspects of this very bizarre deal. Pfizer OVERPAYS $43 billion on small Cancer Drug Company that barely makes $2 billion a year. Pfizer doesn’t need the cash. It will also issue $31 billion in debt to purchase it. Everyone is taking this at face value. But something very sinister lurks in the details of this deal. Pfizer (and Moderna) COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines cause Turbo Cancers. Based on my published description of 100s of Turbo Cancer cases in over 30 articles: Here are the Top 5 Turbo Cancers we will see by numbers in mRNA Vaccinated people:

• Lymphoma (various types) • Brain Cancers (mostly glioblastoma) • Breast Cancer (mostly triple negative, Stage 3/4) • Colon Cancer (Stage 4) • Lung Cancer (Stage 4). Rounding out the Top 10 Turbo Cancers by # of people affected (no particular order): • leukemias (worst prognosis) • melanomas (Stage 4) • sarcomas (Stage 3,4) • testicular/ovarian (rapid progression, Stage 1-4) • kidney (RCC Stage 4). Pfizer’s new acquisition takes them from being able to treat 2 of these Turbo Cancers, to being able to treat 7 out of 10. Not bad. But there’s more. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla did a media interview tour about the $43 Billion Cancer drug deal and this is what he has to say:

– 33% of people WILL get cancer (he’s certain)
– entire families WILL be affected (he’s certain)
– The new cancer treatments are like “missiles” that will target “most” cancers
– he will produce them AT A SCALE THAT HAS NOT BEEN SEEN BEFORE.
– 2025
– “We have a Global Network”
– ” we have very quick way of completing clinical trials”
– will be produced “AT SCALE”, “just like mRNA”

Think about what he is telegraphing. Read the above again. Why would any company need to produce cancer treatments “AT SCALE”? Seeking Alpha analysis theorizes it would take Pfizer at least a decade just to break even from this deal. Financially, this $43 billion Acquisition makes NO SENSE for Pfizer. Unless something else happens…

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Be kind
https://twitter.com/i/status/1736743114524520451

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1737001536591462815

 

 

 

 

Lucky chops
https://twitter.com/i/status/1736821687411257744

 

 

China students

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle May 1 2023

May 012023
 
 May 1, 2023  Posted by at 8:31 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  39 Responses »


“Flora” (Roman Goddess of Spring), Villa di Arianna 1st Century A.D.

 

• Ukraine Isn’t Ready For Its Big Offensive, But It Has No Choice (Sunday Times)
• CNN: Russia Not Ready For Counterattack From Ukraine (Az.)
• Russian Defenses Will Be Tough Task For Ukrainians – CNN (RT)
• Now Is Not The Time For Ukraine To Join NATO – Lithuania (RT)
• Hungary Issues NATO Rebuke To Zelensky (RT)
• Xi ‘Personally Intervened’ In Saudi-Iran Talks – Diplomat (RT)
• Key Nations Resist US Pressure Regarding Russia – WaPo (RT)
• Key Nations Sit Out US Standoff With Russia, China, Leaks Show (Az.)
• US Air Force Moves Strategic Air Tankers From Germany To Poland (RMX)
• Russian Embassy In Warsaw Ready For Any Decisions After School Seizure (TASS)
• You Should Read Tucker Carlson’s Last Speech Before Fox Fired Him (Schwarz)
• Blinken Lied Under Oath To Senate About Hunter Biden – Sen. Ron Johnson (RT)
• Hunter Forced to Appear in Arkansas Over His Child’s Name and Support (Turley)
• US Dollar The “Biggest Financial Terrorist In The World” – Indian Banker (TASS)
• Fitch Downgrades France’s Credit Rating (RT)

 

 

 

 

RFK Class Action
https://twitter.com/i/status/1652845124387258374

 

 

 

 

Elon Maher

 

 

Turkey Japan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1652745749262749699

 

 

Depopulation
https://twitter.com/i/status/1652685936168149004

 

 

 

 

The bombings last night appear to make sure they’re now a whole lot less ready. Russia hit a train with 200 tons of ammunition, plus at least one large ammo depot.

• Ukraine Isn’t Ready For Its Big Offensive, But It Has No Choice (Sunday Times)

President Zelensky has managed the West with great skill, but to maintain its support he has to show what Washington insiders rather tastelessly call a “return on investment”.He must also balance domestic politics. Hawks such as Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, prevent any meaningful talk about negotiations, even though some in the government think now is the time to put out feelers. One western diplomat in Kyiv described a “surreal parallel experience” as his interlocutors “discuss potential formats for negotiations one evening” and then “shout that there can be no talks with Russia” in public the next day.There are also sharp limits to what the West can do. While there are calls for new and more weapons to be provided, from ATACMS (Army Tactile Missile System) long-range missiles to F-16 jets, it is not just caution or parsimony that holds the West back.

One of the key issues is that of ammunition: sending more weapons systems is of little value without the shells, bullets or missiles that they are consuming at a prodigious rate. At present, for example, the Ukrainians expend more 155mm shells in a month than America produces in a year. The West is investing in new production capacity, but this takes months or years. Ammunition cannot be conjured out of the air and Paris is blocking the EU from buying supplies outside the bloc. Kyiv will have to attack regardless, probably aiming at some ambitious target, such as the southern city of Melitopol, a road and rail hub whose liberation would cut the so-called land bridge between Crimea and Russia. Moscow knows this. Beyond the continued grinding assaults on the cities of Bakhmut and Vuhledar, it is already moving into a defensive mode.

Ukrainian estimates, endorsed by the British Ministry of Defence, suggest that the Russian casualty rate has fallen by almost a third as a result. They are digging in, with satellite photos showing a growing array of trenches and fortifications, especially along the likely lines of Ukrainian attack in the south. It is, of course, possible that Kyiv will strike elsewhere, such as at the city of Donetsk, but while this would be symbolically powerful, it would be a tough fight, and of much less practical value.

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They’ve had 6 months to prepare.

• CNN: Russia Not Ready For Counterattack From Ukraine (Az.)

Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive appears imminent – and the way each side is preparing speaks volumes about their readiness, Repor informs, citing CNN. “Kyiv’s frontlines are abuzz with vehicle movement and artillery strikes, with regular explosions hitting vital Russian targets in occupied areas. “Its defense minister has said preparations are ‘coming to an end’ and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has assured a counteroffensive ‘will happen,’ while demurring on any exact start date. “It may have already started; it may be weeks away. We don’t know – and that fact is a strong measure of Ukraine’s success as this begins,” CNN said. “That has happened, with vast trench defense networks that can be seen from space. That recognition of their enormity is not necessarily a compliment in 2023. They are big, yes, but they are also something anyone can peruse on Google. That’s not great in an era of precise rockets and speedy armored advances.

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“..CNN described the Russian defenses as “elaborate” and spanning “hundreds of miles.”

• Russian Defenses Will Be Tough Task For Ukrainians – CNN (RT)

The Ukrainian military will have a hard time breaching Russian defenses built in Zaporozhye Region over the past six months, CNN has predicted. The media outlet cited satellite imagery apparently showing an extensive system of anti-tank ditches, obstacles, minefields and trenches. In its report on Saturday, CNN described the Russian defenses as “elaborate” and spanning “hundreds of miles.” The media outlet claimed that they would likely “present a huge challenge” to Kiev’s forces during the much-anticipated counteroffensive. According to the report, citing images shared by Maxar Technologies and analysis by Reuters, “Russia’s positions are most concentrated near the front lines in the south-eastern Zaporozhye region, in the east and across the narrow strip of land connecting the Crimean Peninsula to the rest of Ukraine.”

The Russian military has dug some 30 kilometers (19 miles) of anti-tank ditches near the town of Pology, with extra fortifications built around strategically important towns such as Tokmak, CNN noted. The media outlet quoted a Maxar employee as saying that similar defensive structures have appeared over large swathes of Crimea and parts of Donetsk Region. The construction work began last November, soon after Russian troops retreated from the city of Kherson, according to CNN. To succeed in their counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces would have to break through these defenses swiftly, which may prove to be challenging, CNN claimed. Ukrainian officials quoted in the article acknowledged that it would likely be more difficult to take the Russians by surprise this time around.

Another factor which, according to CNN, could impede Kiev’s efforts to regain lost territory is Moscow’s continued air superiority. Earlier this week, The New York Times published a report claiming that Ukrainian troops on the frontline are concerned over the Russians’ advantage in terms of artillery, tanks and aircraft. The servicemen quoted by the newspaper said they needed “heavy equipment on the ground and support in the air” to turn the tide. While claiming that the country’s military is all but ready to strike, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov has lamented a shortage of missiles for Soviet-designed air defense systems. Meanwhile, Mikhail Podoliak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, has contradicted claims by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the head of US European Command, Christopher Cavoli, that Kiev’s backers had delivered 98% of the weapons pledged to Ukraine.

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No country can join that is in an active armed conflict.

• Now Is Not The Time For Ukraine To Join NATO – Lithuania (RT)

Ukraine’s aspirations of NATO membership should not materialize while the country remains locked in a military conflict with Russia, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has said. He noted, however, that a “definite road map” should be developed by mid-summer for Kiev’s eventual accession. In an interview with Italy’s La Repubblica published on Saturday, Nauseda said letting Ukraine join the US-led military bloc right now “would be too difficult.” The leadership in Kiev is also well aware of this fact, he added. Instead, the alliance needs to “define stages and formulae of how to act after” the conflict is over, Nauseda continued. He expressed hope that this could be done during the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 and 12, 2023.

He acknowledged that the issue of Ukraine’s possible accession “will be the most complicated element to deal with” during the event. According to the Lithuanian head of state, some member states are still reluctant to send “strong signals” to Ukraine. Last week, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius asserted that “this is now not the time to decide” on Ukraine’s possible future within NATO. Echoing the Lithuanian president, he said this issue could be “carefully” considered only after Kiev succeeds in “repelling this attack.” The decision should be made “with a cold head and hot heart, and not the other way round,” he stated.Around the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban tweeted “What?!” in response to an article reporting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s remarks in Kiev last Thursday.

During a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the military bloc’s chief said: “Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.” Stoltenberg added that “over time, our support will help to make this possible.” However, he stopped short of offering any timeframe for Ukraine’s possible accession to the alliance. Commenting on Stoltenberg’s remarks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stressed that preventing Ukraine from joining NATO remains one of the key goals of Russia’s military campaign against its neighbor. Explaining the need for military action against Ukraine last February, President Vladimir Putin cited the country’s possible accession to the alliance as one of the reasons for the move.

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“..Budapest has repeatedly said it will not support Ukraine’s applications to either NATO or the EU..”

• Hungary Issues NATO Rebuke To Zelensky (RT)

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has rebuked statements by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who has publicly accused Budapest of behaving “inappropriately” for a NATO member state. It was “fortunately” not for Zelensky to decide on Hungary’s behavior, Szijjarto said in a Facebook post on Sunday, suggesting also that Budapest already provides enough support for Kiev. “Hungarian people have already paid an extremely high price for this war,” Szijjarto wrote, adding that multiple representatives of Ukraine’s Hungarian ethnic minority had persisted in the ongoing hostilities between Kiev and Moscow. “If this statement means ‘I respectfully thank the Hungarians for letting in and taking care of more than a million refugees from Ukraine, and I respectfully thank you for continuously sending aid’ then [the response is] ‘You are welcome and can count on us in the future as well.’”

The sarcastic remarks by Hungary’s top diplomat apparently came in response to statements made by Zelensky in an interview with Nordic media outlets on Friday. The Ukrainian president accused Budapest of siding with Russia in the ongoing conflict and of treating NATO as an “adversary” altogether. “It seems to me that confusion reigns among the Hungarian political elite. This is a very strange situation. Can a NATO country simultaneously be with Russia and against NATO?” Zelensky stated, adding that Budapest has been displaying “inappropriate behavior” for a member of the US-led NATO alliance. Hungary has taken a reserved stance on the ongoing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, which have been raging since February 2022. The country has opposed EU sanctions against Russia, particularly those harming its own interests, such as restrictions in the nuclear and conventional energy fields.

Apart from that, Budapest has repeatedly said it will not support Ukraine’s applications to either NATO or the EU. Hungary has also refrained from providing military aid to Kiev and has refused to allow such shipments from elsewhere to flow through its territory. Hungary and Ukraine have long been at odds over the fate of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine. Some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, living primarily in the Transcarpathian region of the country, have been affected by the Ukrainianization efforts undertaken by the authorities of post-Maidan Ukraine. While the crackdown has primarily focused on Russian speakers, it affected other minorities as well. Kiev, for its part, has long accused Budapest of meddling in the country’s domestic affairs, with its practice of issuing Hungarian passports to Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarians resulting in multiple diplomatic incidents.

Kiev pharma

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Huge.

• Xi ‘Personally Intervened’ In Saudi-Iran Talks – Diplomat (RT)

President Xi Jinping played a key role in helping to persuade the leaders of regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore ties and end their seven-year diplomatic rift, a senior Chinese diplomat told newspaper People’s Daily on Saturday. Xi “personally persuaded the leaders of the two countries and supported Saudi and Iran to develop a friendly relationship as neighbors,” the director of the Chinese foreign ministry’s Department of West Asian and North African Affairs, Wang Di, told the government-linked newspaper. Wang added that Beijing’s efforts to promote regional stability in the Middle East come amid “some large countries outside the region causing long-term instability” for what he described as their own “self-interest.”

He also indicated that Beijing will be a “fair mediator” and that it will continue to be a “promoter of peace and stability in the Middle East.” The talks between Tehran and Riyadh were notable for the non-involvement of the United States. For around 75 years, Washington was a key diplomatic player in the region. Last month’s Beijing-brokered accord between Saudi Arabia and Iran was heralded as an important foreign-policy win for China. It also led to the kingdom launching peace talks designed to end the eight-year conflict in Yemen. It also signaled that Beijing’s “diplomatic credibility” in the region is gaining foothold with its economic influence, said Oliver John of Washington-based think tank Middle East Influence, according to Saturday’s South China Morning Post.

On Friday both Saudi Arabia and Iran announced they’ll reopen embassies in each other’s capitals “within days” for the first time in seven years. In 2015 relations between Tehran and Riyadh became increasingly strained following the intervention of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the Yemen War. Previously, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels had seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa from the Saudi-aligned government. These tensions subsequently sparked several conflicts in the region and were among the contributing factors for the Syrian civil war – a conflict, Wang added, to which Beijing is keen to seek a diplomatic remedy.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Syria in February 2012, joining the US in backing the militants that sought to overthrow President Bashar Assad. With the backing of Russia and Iran, the government in Damascus eventually prevailed over the collection of rebel militias that included terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). Beijing has also proposed a two-state solution to Israel and Palestine, Wang said, and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said this month that it could play an “active role” there in mediating peace talks. The country’s efforts to promote stability in the Middle East also serve a dual purpose of anchoring existing energy deals, Oliver John added in SCMP’s report. Saudi Arabia is a key supplier of energy to Beijing, with China accounting for about one-quarter of its oil exports in 2021.

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Two different write-ups over the same leaks.

• Key Nations Resist US Pressure Regarding Russia – WaPo (RT)

India, Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan and other major emerging economies have rebuffed the Biden administration’s attempts to make them team up with the US against Russia amid the conflict in Ukraine, the Washington Post has reported, citing leaked Pentagon files. According to classified US intelligence documents, which investigators believe were released online by US Air National Guard serviceman Jack Teixeira, India has no intention of taking sides in the standoff over Ukraine, the paper reported on Saturday. One of the documents seen by the Post suggests that during a meeting in February, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval told the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, that New Delhi was resisting pressure to support a Western-backed UN resolution on Ukraine.

India “would not deviate from the principled position it had taken in the past,” Doval reportedly assured the Russian official. Another leaked file suggested that Brazil was more interested in playing a mediation role in the conflict than supporting Washington and its allies. Russia favours the idea of a “world peace bloc” to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, put forward by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his visit to China earlier this month. Moscow believes it would counteract the West’s “aggressor-victim” narrative about Kiev, according to the document. In late February, Brazil welcomed two warships from America’s arch foe Iran, with one of the files suggesting that Lula likely allowed the port call “to bolster his reputation as a global mediator and burnish Brazil’s image as a neutral power.”

The leaks also revealed that when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Africa last year and raised the Ukraine issue, he was told by local officials that Pretoria would not be “bullied” into making decisions that go against its interests, the Washington Post wrote. An intelligence file from February 17 reportedly described discussions between Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his subordinate about an upcoming UN vote on Ukraine. It said the aide pointed out to the premier that support for the Western-sponsored resolution would signal a shift in Islamabad’s position, after its earlier abstention on a similar draft. Such a move would jeopardize important trade and energy deals with Russia, he warned, as cited by the Post. Pakistan was among 23 abstaining nations when the vote at the UN General assembly took place a week later. As for Central Asian countries, their leaders were “eager to work with whoever offers the most immediate deliverables, which for now is China,” another leaked document, seen by the newspaper, suggested.

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“It’s unclear who will end up in a pole position in 10 years’ time, so they need to diversify their risk and hedge their bets..”

• Key Nations Sit Out US Standoff With Russia, China, Leaks Show (Az.)

President Biden’s global agenda faces significant challenges as major developing nations seek to evade the intensifying standoff between the United States, Russia and China and, in some cases, exploit that rivalry for their own gain, classified American intelligence assessments show, Report informs via the Washington Post. The documents, among a trove of US secrets leaked online through the Discord messaging platform, provide a rare glimpse into the private calculations by key emerging powers, including India, Brazil, Pakistan and Egypt, as they attempt to straddle allegiances in an era when America is no longer the world’s unchallenged superpower.

The leaked intelligence findings, which have not been previously disclosed, also offer new insights on the obstacles Biden faces in securing global support for his efforts to reject the spread of authoritarianism, contain Russia’s belligerence beyond its borders and counter China’s growing global reach — as influential regional powers try to remain on the sidelines. Matias Spektor, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said developing nations are recalibrating at a moment when America faces potent new competition, as China projects new economic and military clout and Russia, though weakened by President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, demonstrates its ability to deflect Western pressure. “It’s unclear who will end up in a pole position in 10 years’ time, so they need to diversify their risk and hedge their bets,” Spektor said.

This is apparent in Pakistan, which received billions of dollars in US economic and security aid following 9/11 but now is heavily reliant on Chinese investment and loans. According to one of the leaked documents, Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, argued in March that her country can “no longer try to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States.” In an internal memo she titled “Pakistan’s Difficult Choices,” Khar, who previously served as Pakistan’s foreign minister, cautioned that Islamabad should avoid giving the appearance of appeasing the West, and said the instinct to preserve Pakistan’s partnership with the United States would ultimately sacrifice the full benefits of what she deemed the country’s “real strategic” partnership with China.

Another document, dated Feb. 17, describes Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s deliberations with a subordinate about an upcoming UN vote on the Ukraine conflict, and what the government anticipated would be renewed Western pressure to back a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion. The aide advised Sharif that support for the measure would signal a shift in Pakistan’s position following its earlier abstention on a similar resolution, the intelligence document says. Pakistan had the ability to negotiate trade and energy deals with Russia, and backing the Western-backed resolution could jeopardize those ties, the aide noted.

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Poland role-plays the center of Europe.

• US Air Force Moves Strategic Air Tankers From Germany To Poland (RMX)

Nineteen American in-flight refueling aircraft will be stationed at the Powidz Air Base in western Poland. According to the U.S. magazine Stars and Stripes, this is the latest sign that U.S. Armed Forces are shifting combat resources to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank. The U.S. Air Force command in Europe confirmed that on March 10 of this year “American air tankers began working in their new main location in Poland.” This was done as part of operation “Copper Arrow,” which demonstrated the efforts of the U.S. military command in Europe to “strengthen security on NATO’s eastern flank through forward deployed and stationed forces.” “The cooperation of American air tankers with our NATO allies clearly shows how much we value our partnerships and how important it is to increase our interoperability,” said Colonel Timothy Foery, advisor to the U.S. Air Force Reserve Commander.

Foery noted that interoperability is evident when looking “at any photo of a KC-135 refueling a Polish F-16 or a KC-46 refueling a Finnish F/A-18.” American air tankers KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-10 Extender and the newest in the U.S. Air Force fleet, KC-46 Pegasus, could all be sent to the Powidz Air Base. The aircraft currently stationed at the Spangdahlem base in Germany, will be transferred to the Powidz air base as Unit 1. As emphasized by the U.S. Air Force leadership, this relocation also demonstrates “the ability of U.S. command to quickly deploy large, credible combat forces and equipment throughout Europe.” The tankers stationed in Powidz can be used for refueling combat aircraft, including the world’s most advanced fighter jet, the F-35A Lightning II, which extends the range of NATO air missions.

Stars and Stripes notes that eight F-35 aircraft of the Dutch Air Force have been stationed in the Malbork air base in Poland for several months. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the presence of U.S. forces in Europe has increased, with the number of U.S. military personnel on the continent growing from 80,000 to 100,000. U.S. Ambassador to Warsaw Mark Brzezinski recently stated that over 10,000 American soldiers are in Poland. “The U.S. military’s shift to the east is another example of the United States’ efforts to create a permanent presence in the former Warsaw Pact country, an important member of NATO, which has over 300 miles of border with Ukraine,” said reporter Jennifer Svan in Stars and Stripes.

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This story’s not finished.

• Russian Embassy In Warsaw Ready For Any Decisions After School Seizure (TASS)

Russia’s embassy in Warsaw is ready for any decisions made by Moscow after the seizure of the building of the Russian school by Polish authorities, Russia’s Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev told TASS on Sunday. “The center takes the decisions. Let it be so as our leadership decides,” he said when asked about possible severance of diplomatic relations. “Today the staff of the school and support personnel are involved in moving equipment out. <…> We will officially submit the note after the weekend ends on Tuesday. Today and tomorrow are days off,” Andreyev pointed out. The teaching and learning activities will resume after the May holidays in one of diplomatic buildings, the diplomat said. “I think starting May 10 classes will be held as usual,” he noted.


On Saturday morning, Polish authorities began seizing the building of the Russian embassy school in Warsaw by force. The teaching staff were told to vacate the building by 07:00 p.m. Moscow time of the same day. Russia’s embassy to Poland described the Polish authorities’ steps as illegal. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow deemed the Polish authorities’ intrusion into the Russian embassy school in Warsaw as a blatant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention and another encroachment on Russian diplomatic property in Poland. The ministry pledged that Warsaw’s steps would not remain without Moscow’s firm response and consequences for Poland.

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“..Carlson is now going to seize an incredible opportunity to be the 1 man in 10 with the courage to defy the herd to their faces!”

• You Should Read Tucker Carlson’s Last Speech Before Fox Fired Him (Schwarz)

I’ve found it difficult to choose snippets of Carlson’s words to quote. It’s like trying to explain the perfection of Michelangelo’s David to someone, but being only able to show them its fingers, nipples, and wrinkly foreskin. You need the whole experience, to see how the parts fit together to express a larger truth, to genuinely understand its magnificence. So if you possibly can, I urge you to read the entire transcript. Even better, watch the whole thing. Then we can reconvene below for an in-depth discussion. As you see, Carlson’s speech is about the “two conclusions” to which he’s come during the past, dark decades. The first is that he perceives a dangerous phenomenon in which Americans are “going along with a new, new thing, which is clearly a poisonous thing, a silly thing, saying things they don’t believe because they want to keep their jobs.”

This is because “the herd instinct is maybe the strongest instinct … not to be cast out of the group, not to be shunned. … It’s harnessed, in fact, by bad people in moments like this to produce uniformity.” Huge swaths of Americans, then, have “become quislings, you see them revealed as cowards.” Because of this, says Carlson, America’s institutions are “all run by weak people.” And “weak leaders cause an angry country.” His second conclusion is better news: For every 10 cowards, there is one shining individual who has, in Carlson’s words, stood up to say, “No, I’m not doing that. … It’s a betrayal of what I think is true. It’s a betrayal of my conscience, of my faith, of my sense of myself, of my dignity as a human being, of my autonomy. I am not a slave. I am a free citizen, and I’m not doing that. And there’s nothing you can do to me to make me do it.”

Moreover, Carlson proclaims, “The truth is contagious. Lying is, but the truth is as well. And the second you decide to tell the truth about something, you are filled with this — I don’t want to get supernatural on you — but you are filled with this power from somewhere else.” Here’s what you might assume Carlson would say next, if you’re the kind of dreamer who’s filled with an irrepressible hope that words can have meaning: Carlson would have confessed that he himself is one of these shameful cowards. As everyone in the room surely knew, Carlson collected huge checks from Fox even as it encouraged its audience to believe what Carlson and everyone there knew was false: that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Carlson would have explained that he’d been a quisling to the truth and gone along with a new, new poisonous thing because he wanted to keep his job.

He’d have apologized for being part of the herd trying to punish heretics, since he wanted Fox to fire a reporter who was reporting on the topic accurately. In other words, he is one of the weak leaders creating an angry country. He knows these things because he was personally tested — and failed. And that would have been merely the start of Carlson’s electrifying, manly truth-telling. He was speaking to all the potentates of the Heritage Foundation, one of the most powerful forces in U.S. politics supporting the capitalist depredations and hawkish foreign policy that we know Carlson hates with such passionate sincerity. Scarred by his moral collapse after the 2020 election, Carlson is now going to seize an incredible opportunity to be the 1 man in 10 with the courage to defy the herd to their faces!

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“There’s a lot of truth that has to be uncovered here yet that’s being covered up by the Deep State..”

• Blinken Lied Under Oath To Senate About Hunter Biden – Sen. Ron Johnson (RT)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “lied bold-faced” in congressional testimony about his contacts with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has claimed. Then a campaign aide to President-elect Biden, Blinken agreed to testify voluntarily to a Senate committee investigating the Biden family’s business dealings in December 2020, Johnson said on Sunday in a Fox News interview. At the time, Joe Biden had picked Blinken to become America’s top diplomat, an appointment that would require Senate confirmation. “He wanted to be secretary of state,” said Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican. “And now, because of more information that’s come out, we know that he lied bold-faced to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden. My guess is he told a bunch of other lies that hopefully we’ll be able to bring him and his wife back in.”

Johnson suggested that Blinken and his wife should preserve their records for legal reasons. “You cannot trust Joe Biden. You cannot trust Hunter Biden. You can’t trust the Biden family. You can’t trust so many of the people that they have surrounded themselves with.” At the time of Blinken’s voluntary testimony, Joe Biden had just won the 2020 presidential election despite controversy surrounding his family’s business dealings in Ukraine and China. The scandal surfaced just three weeks before the election, when the New York Post reported on the contents of a laptop that Hunter Biden had allegedly abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. Former CIA director Mike Morell testified to Congress earlier this month that shortly after the laptop bombshell came out, Blinken nudged him to organize an open letter claiming that the story was the product of a Russian “disinformation campaign.” Morell, who was among more than 50 former US intelligence officials who signed the letter, admitted to Congress that he was motivated by a desire to help Biden win the election.

Asked by Fox host Maria Bartiromo to clarify whether Blinken lied under oath, perjuring himself, Johnson said, “Yes, he did. He said he did not email Hunter Biden, and now we have those emails. We also know that his wife, using her private email address when she was an employee of the State Department, was basically a conduit between her husband and Hunter Biden as well.” Johnson called for further investigation of the matter, including issuing a subpoena to force Blinken to testify again. However, Biden’s Democratic Party controls the Senate and its subpoena power. “There’s a lot of truth that has to be uncovered here yet that’s being covered up by the Deep State,” Johnson said. “Let’s face it: The Deep State knows what it did. These co-conspirators inside the agency know exactly what they did. They don’t give up their secrets very easily. They know how to hide things, they know how to slow-roll everybody.”

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It’s as much Joe as it is Hunter. Both are shameless,

• Hunter Forced to Appear in Arkansas Over His Child’s Name and Support (Turley)

On Monday, Hunter Biden will finally make it to Arkansas. The Natural State is not a Biden family favorite but there is one thing that would ordinarily be an attraction: Biden’s daughter Navy Joan. In the Biden family, the four-year-old girl remains “she who must not be named” literally. Not only has President Biden refused to refer to her as a grandchild or even include a Christmas stocking with the other children, her father Hunter is fighting to prevent her from using the Biden name. Indeed, the only reason that Hunter is coming to the same state with his daughter is to seek to limit his child support. The viciousness of the Biden family in dealing with this little girl is only matched by that of the media. Reporters who profess to support women and denounce deadbeat dads have either ignored this story or belittled her mother, Lunden Roberts.

Roberts is widely dismissed as a “former stripper.” That appears how she met Hunter, but it is often used to paint her in the same way that the media gleefully reported Hillary Clinton denouncing women involved with her husband as mere “bimbo eruptions.” The media ignores Roberts because it wants to ignore what the Bidens have done collectively. This is one single mother’s story that is not considered fit to print. Yes, Roberts was an exotic dancer. She used that job to go to one of the most expensive colleges in the country, George Washington University where I teach. When she became pregnant, she decided to have her child and raise her on her own. She has raised this child without a father and fought one of the most powerful families in the world. When Navy Joan is older, there is every reason for her to be proud of the struggle that her mother went through in seeking a college education and raising her against all odds.

Despite Joe Biden long campaigning against deadbeat dads, his son refused to acknowledge that he was the father of Navy Joan and, after a court forced him to confirm his paternity through DNA testing, he continued to fight support for his child. Hunter’s delay and evasion of filings and depositions led a court to repeatedly threaten sanctions. However, the effort to bar this child from using the Biden name has moved this scandal from the realm of hypocrisy to monstrosity. It is hard to imagine the pain that this child will experience upon learning of how the Bidens erased any reference to her and fought even her ability to claim to be a member of their family. (Even the Biden’s dogs and cats got stockings at Christmas but not their granddaughter who they have never asked to even see, let alone support).

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“..it is high time for India to make the rupee a reserve currency for the whole world..”

• US Dollar The “Biggest Financial Terrorist In The World” – Indian Banker (TASS)

Asia’s richest banker and chief executive of Kotak Mahindra Bank Uday Kotak said on Sunday that the US dollar as a reserve currency has disproportionate power. “In a recent discussion on US dollar I inadvertently used words “financial terrorist” which I would like to correct. What I meant was that a reserve currency has disproportionate power, whether it is nostro account, 500 bps rate increase, or emerging countries holding dollars for liquidity,” he wrote on his Twitter page. Uday Kotak who believes that the Indian rupee may become a world reserve currency, named the dollar the “biggest financial terrorist in the world” while speaking at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence on Friday. The billionaire suggests that the world is searching for an alternative reserve currency now, noting that such changes occur once in a century, and that it is high time for India to make the rupee a reserve currency for the whole world.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1652881185452990464

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““Political deadlock and (sometimes violent) social movements pose a risk to Macron’s reform agenda..”

• Fitch Downgrades France’s Credit Rating (RT)

Rating agency Fitch has downgraded France’s sovereign credit rating, warning that public resistance to a recent pension reform could take a toll on the economy. The agency lowered the rating from “AA” to “AA-,” with a stable outlook. The downgrade means France is considered a more risky venture for investors, which could lead to higher borrowing costs. “Fitch believes that social and political pressures illustrated by the protests against the pension reform will complicate fiscal consolidation,” the agency wrote. It added that the government’s decision to bypass a parliamentary vote to push through the pension reform will “likely further strengthen radical and anti-establishment forces.” “Political deadlock and (sometimes violent) social movements pose a risk to Macron’s reform agenda and could create pressures for a more expansionary fiscal policy or a reversal of previous reforms,” Fitch warned.


French President Emmanuel Macron signed the unpopular pension reform into law in mid-April, despite months of nationwide protests and resistance in parliament. The measure raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. Following its enactment, the political opposition and unions vowed to continue contesting the move. Analysts have warned that as the president’s party does not have a parliamentary majority, it may be difficult for it to deliver on other reforms due to the public unrest. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, however, pledged that Paris will continue structural reforms despite Fitch’s warnings. “I believe that the facts invalidate the assessment by the Fitch agency… We are able to implement structural reforms and we will continue to implement structural reforms for the country,” Le Maire told AFP on Saturday. The official vowed to accelerate the country’s debt reduction, to restore the public finances, reduce deficits and make faster cuts to public expenditure.

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Patrick Moore

 

 

Codo

 

 


The 3 smallest bones in the human body–malleus, incus, and stapes–are located in the middle ear. At 3 x 5 mm in size, the stapes is the smallest bone in the human body. All 3 bones are essential for hearing

 

 

Sand tiger shark
https://twitter.com/i/status/1652613137051394050

 

 

Red wolf
https://twitter.com/i/status/1652594290793775105

 

 

Orca
https://twitter.com/i/status/1652813056400060416

 

 

 

 

Gibbon

 

 

Kiwi

 

 

 

 

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