illegal aliens Archives - The Automatic Earth

Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Warns of Kamala Harris’ Imminent Rebranding Towards the Middle

“I GUARANTEE you that’s coming after August 7.”

Kamala, the chameleon, was once considered the most liberal senator, according to a 2019 ranking by GovTrack.

But O’Leary has been told,… pic.twitter.com/sf93UjjOTa

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 6, 2024

Byron Donalds

George Stephanopoulos was one of heads of Bill Clinton's 92 presidential campaign and Clinton's White House communications director.

He freaked out on Byron Donalds this morning because Dems have lost control of the narrative on Kamala's race hustling. pic.twitter.com/5bDoZ0RrDG

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) August 4, 2024

Orban Soros

The Damn Is Breaking. People in the UK are protesting. People in Britain are storming police guarding an immigration hotel

Remember we have UNDENIABLE PROOF George Soros paid off these elected officials to flood America & Europe with illegals

The Prime Minister of Hungary… pic.twitter.com/5TTFgfWHrh

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 4, 2024

Bukele

The President of El Salvador EXPOSES America’s Tax System

They might end him for this pic.twitter.com/NiBg4Re8um

— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) August 4, 2024

JD
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820281495879118921

Tucker Maine

How does a Cybertruck function in rural Maine? We found out. pic.twitter.com/M4DUTrTUic

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 5, 2024

“..the epic revaluation of everything humans make and own — with much of it losing value and quite a bit losing all value because it never really had any..”

• And Suddenly Things Change (Kunstler)

That two-by-four upside our country’s head you’ve been waiting to get whomped with? Looks like it’s landing now. We got a banger in 2008, but it didn’t make a much of an impression. Maybe you don’t even remember these people, but then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke came in like a code blue squad and hooked up the banks to an IV-drip speedball of cocaine and heroin, i.e., “money” that didn’t actually exist (a.k.a. “liquidity,” hallucinated capital), and that crew kept it coming for years. And then Janet Yellen and her posse kept it coming with never-ending zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) until the national debt canceled America’s future. And that left Jerome Powell pretending there was a way out of this doom-loop. Then came the repo market spasm in September 2019 that freaked out the blob so badly they shut down the whole world with Covid and locked-down economies.

And everything since then has been a waiting game. The financial world was in hospice. The wait is over. Everything that can break is breaking: stock markets, bond markets, the galaxy of derivatives — bets on this and that, which will never be honored. Banks are next. Gold and silver are hanging in there for dear life just now, because they’re actually worth something. (And because they are worth something, they‘ll eventually sell off some too, to cover margin calls on other stuff hemorrhaging value. But they will not go to zero like a lot of other stuff, and they’ll come back stronger.)

You understand this can’t play out like it did in 2008-9. The authorities are out of tricks and out of fake money. They can try the emergency interest rate cut, but it won’t change what is actually happening: the epic revaluation of everything humans make and own — with much of it losing value and quite a bit losing all value because it never really had any. The spooky catch is that there will be an attempt in this wild and terrifying process, for certain devious, unprincipled parties to take possession of many things shaking loose — what remains of collateral. . . real things. . . commodities. . . facilities. . . properties. . . chattels. . . artworks. . . and, of course, whatever securities still have a relationship to realities of production.

This brings a sharp end to the current political sitcom, especially the situation of the Democratic Party. They will get blamed for the economic carnage left behind by the shattered money system. They lied about everything for years, every number, every index, every supposed “policy”. Kamala Harris won’t be cackling her way out of this. It’s hard to see how she might remain the party’s nominee. She can’t even speak to the massive catalog of prior failures to govern our country coherently and effectively. And it’s equally hard to figure how “Joe Biden,” still presiding emptily over this fiasco, can get Twenty-fifthed out of the way for his feckless veep. More likely, the coming convention will be a desperate, bloody mass cage fight and somebody else will stagger out of it to go through the motions of campaigning in a hopeless cause. Hillary might even decline the roll in this horror show.

Little later.

• Apocalypse Now or Later? (Johnston)

It’s carnage out there in the markets, and things have been moving with the force of a tsunami. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged more than 12% on Monday in what was the biggest single-day drop since ‘Black Monday’ in 1987. As of this writing, the Dow has dropped some 1,000 points, while the Nasdaq has cratered nearly 4% in what has turned out to be a global market rout. The triggers for the selloff are clear enough and have been well covered in the financial media. Friday’s disappointing US jobs report ignited fears of a US recession. The once-hot but overly leveraged and overhyped AI trade has gone sour, which has led to a bloodbath for tech stocks.

Largely responsible for the latter development is the breaking of the massive dollar-yen carry trade – where investors were borrowing cheaply in yen and investing in higher-yielding US assets. This can be thought of roughly as a big interest-rate arbitrage: Borrow at low rates and lend (invest) at higher rates. But when the Bank of Japan raised rates on July 31 and, perhaps even more importantly, signaled more hikes to come, a massive capitulation in these carry-trade positions ensued. This has reverberated through markets and led to a lot of margin calls. And since investors often have to sell other assets to meet margin calls, it creates even more selling pressure.

Predicting where markets may be headed in the coming days and weeks is a hazardous endeavor that I won’t venture. Many investors are of course trying to catch the proverbial ‘falling knife’ – meaning buying in during or immediately after a sharp selloff. A number of analysts are already saying that the panic is overblown and things will soon stabilize. If I had high conviction about how things will shape up over the short term, I would simply trade the market, not write about it.

HODL.

• Bitcoin Falls Below $50,000 (RT)

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has shed more than 10% of its value in one day, amid a global stock market crash that has affected the cryptocurrency market, according to trading data. The price of Bitcoin has fallen below $50,000 for the first time since February, hitting a low of $48,126 at 08:41 GMT on Monday. It has recovered slightly since then. In late July, Bitcoin traded at above $62,000, and in March, it briefly touched an all-time high of $70,136. Since Friday, the cryptocurrency market has recorded its most significant sell-off in three days in almost a year, Cointelegraph said. The panic selling in Bitcoin and the overall crypto market was sparked by a wider crash in the financial markets, amid fears that the US could be heading for a recession. Stock markets went into a meltdown on Monday morning. Apart from the global stock market rout, the uncertainty regarding the fiscal policy of the US Federal Reserve, Bitcoin’s low liquidity, and soaring tensions in the Middle East have contributed to the slide, industry experts say.

“For Harris and Obama’s Democrat party, there’s no escaping that disastrous border issue.”

• Biden-Harris Released 99 Illegal Aliens On FBI Terror Watchlist Into US (ZH)

A new interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, published on Monday, highlights how the Biden administration, with ‘Border Czar’ VP Kamala Harris, facilitated the greatest illegal alien invasion ever on the United States. The report titled “Terror At Our Door: How The Biden-Harris Administration’s Open-Borders Policies Undermine National Security And Endanger Americans” revealed that the failed southern border policies of President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris have flooded the nation with more than 5.4 million illegal aliens. Additionally, at least 1.9 million known “gotaways” also entered, bringing the total to 7.3 million illegal entries. Fox News’ Bill Melugin, who also reviewed the report, said the border data that dates back between 2021-23 shows “at least 99 illegal aliens on the FBI terror watchlist were released into the US after being arrested by Border Patrol at the southern border, and another 34 watchlisted aliens are still in DHS custody.” And this.

More significant findings from the report: pic.twitter.com/K9OkRlJaQc

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 5, 2024

“With the border in chaos under the Biden-Harris Administration, the terrorist threat to the homeland has skyrocketed. This border insecurity has been the Administration’s choice, and it is a mistake,” the report stated. The report noted that 375 illegal aliens on the US Gov’ts terrorist watchlist have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents under Biden’s first term with VP Harris as Border Czar. The report continued, “That is a more than 3,000 percent increase of watchlisted alien encounters compared to all four years of the Trump Administration.” At the end of last month, leftist MSM spent days in an all-out propaganda media blitz to convince voters that VP Harris was never border Czar – that’s because the nation killing open southern borders pushed by Biden & Harris is such a disastrous topic during the election cycle.

Meanwhile, national security ‘experts’ have warned countless times that the Biden-Harris Administration’s open-border policies can only suggest it’s only a matter of time before a terror event unfolds in the US. [..] A majority of Americans care about two things ahead of the elections: 1) inflation and 2) the border. For Harris and Obama’s Democrat party, there’s no escaping that disastrous border issue.

“He assured reporters that the IOC was working to protect the athletes who failed gender tests from bullying..”

No no no, the IOC should protect women, not failed gender tests. Best way to do that: everyone who has a Y chromosome is not a woman. Perhaps that leaves out a few people, but at least not half the population.

• Scientific Consensus Needed in Sports Gender Debate – IOC

International Olympic Committee (IOC) communications director Mark Adams admitted on Friday that there was no scientific or political consensus on the gender test issue in sports after a controversial Olympic boxing match revived the debate. “On the wider issue, there is, there still is, the need of scientific or political consensus on this issue. It is not a black-and-white issue. And we would, the IOC, be very interested to hear of such a solution, such a consensus on this,” Adams told a news conference. He spoke a day after Italian female boxer Angela Carini surrendered after 46 seconds in the 1/8 finals with Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. The IOC approved Khelif’s participation in the Olympic women’s tournament despite that the boxer was disqualified from the 2023 World Cup for failing an unspecified gender eligibility test. The International Boxing Association (IBA) found the presence of XY-chromosomes and increased testosterone levels in her body.

Changing the rules during a competition is forbidden, Adams said. The IOC relied on the norms that were in effect during the last Olympic Games. He assured reporters that the IOC was working to protect the athletes who failed gender tests from bullying. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said after the match that athletes with male genetic characteristics should be barred from women’s competitions. The IOC previously suspended the International Boxing Association from holding a boxing tournament in Paris.

“.. it is much safer for a country to produce every year a bumper crop of broccoli than to be cursed with a commodity coveted by the high and mighty of this world..”

• From The Glass House, A Hail Of Stones Rains Down On Venezuela (Karganovic)

Since the 1920s, Venezuela has been a very unlucky country. That was when vast oil deposits were discovered on its territory. Its misfortune began when global predators grasped that it was fabulously rich. It has the largest petroleum reserves in the world, exceeding those of Saudi Arabia, as well as huge amounts of gold and other valuable ores and minerals. Being a wealthy country, far from a cause for jubilation, when it is unable to effectively defend itself is a huge vulnerability. As Gerald Celente observed at the time when Libya was in the global predators’ cross-hairs in the way that Venezuela is being targeted today,. The torments Venezuela has experienced over the last two decades corroborate Celente’s point.

In 1998, the people of Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez over the assortment of stooges and grifters that previously had always been put forward by their imperial overlords for “democratic” approval by the inert populace. It turned out that on that occasion they had voted the wrong way, and that is when their troubles began. Since then, they have been subjected to punishing and increasingly devastating sanctions. The brutality of those sanctions was such that the program of redistribution of the nationalised national wealth to benefit the poor and the hitherto disenfranchised had to be abruptly curtailed. The vindictive assault on the Venezuelan people and their means of sustenance conducted over the last twenty years with cumulative ferocity can only be interpreted as the collective economic and political equivalent of the tortures inflicted individually in Abu Ghra it is much safer for a country to produce every year a bumper crop of broccoli than to be cursed with a commodity coveted by the high and mighty of this worldib.

On Sunday, 28 July, in Venezuela Presidential elections were held. The incumbent Nicolas Maduro of the United Socialist Party was declared by the electoral commission to be the winner, having received 51% of the votes, whilst the challenger, collective West’s favourite Edmundo Gonzales gained 44%, with the balance split by two minor candidates. The polls had barely closed and vote counting, in the presence of 910 international observers, was still in progress when a concerted campaign was launched abroad to dispute Maduro’s victory as fraudulent and to put forward the assertion that it was the opposition candidate who had actually won. Where had we seen such a sequence of events before?

The relatively close tally was a perfect ambush, the ideal scenario to activate Gene Sharp’s colour revolution playbook. Within hours of the results being announced, factually unsupported claims were issued, according to unverified exit polls, that Gonzales had received twice as many votes as officially conceded. Ancillary mechanisms were promptly put in motion. Exactly as it did following the 2020 elections in Bolivia, which were won by Evo Morales, a figure loathed by the imperialists as much as Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, the Organisation of American States duly issued a statement denouncing the Venezuelan vote as “unreliable.” The governments of several other dependencies, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, followed suit in even stronger terms and announced that they would not recognise Maduro’s election to a new six-year term. Ironically, the current Peruvian government is itself the product of a constitutionally irregular palace coup in 2022, in which the democratically elected President of that country, Pedro Castillo, was deposed. Yet the Peruvian coup regime sees nothing awkward in lecturing Venezuela on the fine points of democratic procedure.

The tragedy that has struck Venezuela is a clear illustration of the inherent vulnerability of relatively weak countries endowed with immense natural resources. They are fair game for plunder and from the moment they refuse to remain prostrate and decide to resist, as Venezuela did under Chavez and Bolivia under Morales, they become objects of subversion by the foulest of means, with the sole objective of reinstating the ancien régime and the system of neo-colonialist pillage that characterised it.

“..the opportunity for the West to fight Russia without committing one dead western soldier..”

• America’s Election Meddling Will Finally Be Its Own Sword To Fall On (Jay)

“Interventionism” could simply be called “western-backed coup”. Since the end of the WWII, the U.S., it is reported, has meddled with the elections of 81 countries and so it should come as little surprise that it tried its best to topple Nicolás Maduro, as it had previously in 2019 under Trump. U.S. election meddling though has changed considerably since the end of the Cold War. Previous to 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, the U.S. was quite brazen about toppling left-wing dictators it hated or supporting right-wing candidates with their campaigns. Most notably its dirty tricks were seen as early as 1948 when it did all it could in Italy to oust a communist government. Later on, in the 80s, while the Cold War was still running and Soviet troops were in Afghanistan, the U.S. gave the contras in Nicaragua 18m USD in profits from the illegal arms sales to Iran, which ultimately led to Daniel Ortega being overthrown in a 1990 election. In the same year, Vaclav Havel was backed to the hilt in Czechoslovakia to be enthroned as a western leader in the first democratic elections to be held there.

The U.S. also backs campaigns to reinstate their puppets, when they lose one in a fair, democratic election. In 1986, for example, in Haiti, the U.S. lost Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” who was the incumbent president and a great ally of the West. Later on, his successor was finally overthrown when another friend was installed after years of a nefarious campaign. Sometimes they threw money at their own favoured incumbents who would be useful idiots to them. In 1996, the Clinton government lent 10m USD to Boris Yeltsin for his own campaign, a staggering amount of money at that time. Other times, they would pump money into campaigns run by opposition groups to oust the incumbent who was considered an enemy of the U.S., disregarding any pretentions of democratic collective conscience.

In 2000, five years after the Serbs had been bombed into submission in the Yugoslav War by an illegal air strike campaign – which came about when Bosnian Muslims staged a false flag attack on their own people in a Sarajevo marketplace – the U.S. went all out to fund campaigns for all opposition groups in Serbia which finally led to those groups using the same dictator type tactics when the polls were counted by giving Milosevic to leave quietly with his life, or face the same consequences as Romania’s Ceausescu. The Serbian leader later was to mysteriously die in 2006 while held in prison at a specially convened war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands.

Arguably, the best example of U.S. election meddling, especially for one which has so spectacularly backfired on the U.S., has got to be Ukraine. Both in 2004 and 2014, the U.S. created a revolutionary movement and pumped an estimated 4bn USD into it, just to unseat the Russian-leaning incumbent Viktor Yanukovych. With Ukraine, there were not energy reserves to act as a catalyst but a bigger prize for those red in tooth and claw determined to have their glory fighting Russia: the opportunity for the West to fight Russia without committing one dead western soldier. It proved irresistible and to this day, the West’s economies continue to plunder as this foolish decision takes a grip on those economies pulling them down, while Russia’s gains.

While we don’t know all of the facts which drew the U.S. to the Ukraine, its fatal attraction may well be part of Joe Biden’s corruption escapades there, clearly the Ukraine stands out as the West’s greatest defeat with election engineering which started off as a “colour revolution” but ended up as full-on support of military intervention, shrouded by dirty aid and military deals. The U.S. usually can’t see election interference for what it is as its people have gleaned a certain self-righteous coping mechanism to messing up other people’s lives just for the charred profits from other people’s losses, often deaths. As a general rule, if we overlook Ukraine, in recent years these “colour revolutions” are, compared to the gruesome coup d’états in Central and South America during the cold war years, benign. But it’s where the thinking leads.

“.. this concept rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse”.

• The 1948 Irgun re-born? (Alastair Crooke)

Again, overlooked but not in the news: The situation at Sde Teiman was widely-known and said to be “more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo”. A UN report has detailed how Palestinians arbitrarily detained faced torture and mistreatment. The vigilantes from the settlements nevertheless described those committing the anal rape as “heroes” – and cast the IDF investigators as fifth columnists. Reports suggest that the perpetrators at Sde Teiman enjoy high level protection. This account of systematic torture followed earlier revelations that the Israeli army had marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system, called Lavender, with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties.

In the same vein, Right wing Cabinet ministers celebrated the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on social media Wednesday morning, as: “This is the right way to purge the world of this filth”, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, tweeted: “No more imaginary ‘peace’/surrender agreements, no more mercy for these dead men walking. The iron fist that will strike them is the one that will bring quiet and a modicum of comfort, and strengthen our ability to live in peace with those who seek peace. Haniyeh’s death makes the world a slightly better place”. What then is this ‘truth’ that the West ignores and silences reality, whilst amplifying its narrative frauds? It is that the Israel which they presume to understand is now something very different. And that it has an epistemology at odds with mechanistic rationalism.

An eschatological Right-wing cult now holds the majority in cabinet – and wields a vigilante militia ready to attack the military establishment, and the Israeli state. No one was arrested for the attack and take-over of the two bases. They do not dare. Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, former Chief of Staff of the IDF, who also served as Israel’s Defence Minister, had this to say in a video interview on the forces taking over in Israel: “When you talk about Smotrich and Ben Gvir: They have a Rabbi. His name is Dov Lior. He is the Rabbi of the Jewish Underground, who intended to blow up the Dome of the Rock – and before that the buses in Jerusalem. Why? In order to hurry up the ‘Last War’. Do you [not] hear them talking in terms of the Last War; or of Smotrich’s concept of ‘subjugation’? Read the article he published in Shiloh in 2017. First of all, this concept rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse”.

“My hair stands on end when I say that – as he said it. I learned and grew up in the house of Holocaust survivors and ‘never again’. It is Mein Kampf in reverse: Jewish supremacy: and therefore [Smotrich] says: “My wife won’t go into a room with an Arab”. It is anchored in ideology. And then actually what he aspires to – as soon as possible – is to go to a big war. A war of Gog and Magog. How do you start the flames? A massacre like the [1994] Cave of the Patriarchs? Baruch Goldstein is a student of this Rabbi. Ben Gvir has hung up Goldstein’s picture [in his house]”.

“This is what goes into the decision-making process in the Israeli government”. Rabbi Dov Lior has been described by Netanyahu as the “élite unit that leads Israel”, because of his influence and control over the settler forces. The 1948 Irgun, drawing heavily on the Mizrahim, is being reborn? Isn’t it time that the western ruling structures raised their eyes from their reverie, and read the runes that manifest all around them? Some serious players don’t think as you westerners do; they seek Gog and Magog (the prophecy that “the children of Israel” will be victorious in the battle of Armageddon). That is what you risk.

He gets uneasy.

• West Too Fearful Of Escalation With Russia – Zelensky (RT)

Ukraine is pushing NATO nations to create a coalition that would attempt to intercept Russian missiles, Vladimir Zelensky has said. The US-led military bloc has previously declined to do so. Kiev has long been pressuring its Western backers to become more involved in the conflict with Moscow and start shooting down Russian drones and missiles over Ukrainian territory. However, its efforts have been rebuffed by foreign powers reluctant to engage in a direct military confrontation with Russia. “[Western nations] are always concerned about possible escalation. We are fighting against that. We will work on it,” Zelensky told journalists on Sunday. The government in Kiev is considering “technical possibilities for neighboring nations to use military aircraft against missiles that strike Ukraine” after flying in the general direction of NATO countries, he added.

Zelensky has been calling for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine since the outbreak of hostilities with Russia in February 2022. Military experts pointed out that any realistic enforcement of Kiev’s wish would require NATO members to attack Russian planes in the air and at airfields inside Russia. The idea of a less ambitious shield over Western Ukraine was floated last month, as Kiev signed a bilateral security deal with Warsaw and ramped up its lobbying efforts ahead of a NATO leaders’ summit in the US. The Polish government indicated it was willing to answer the Ukrainian call, provided that NATO approved, although other nations, including the US, objected. Washington said it believed that supplying more air defense systems to Ukraine to operate on its own was the best way to counter Russian barrages.

Zelensky spoke to the press after confirming that sponsors had delivered US-designed F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Media reports have suggested that the new Ukrainian capability is too small-scale to become a gamechanger on the front line. It would likely be used to intercept cruise missiles delivering long-range strikes instead, defense experts have suggested. Moscow has been targeting Ukrainian military assets as well as some key infrastructure sites, such as power stations, which it considers crucial for Kiev’s war effort. According to Russian officials, the conflict is a US-led proxy war in which Ukrainian troops serve as “cannon fodder” for Western geostrategic interests. On Saturday, Zelensky said Kiev wants to attack targets deep inside Russia, a type of operation for which Ukraine is not allowed to use donated Western weapons and relies on domestically produced kamikaze drones instead.

Of course he did.

• Jailed US Reporter Knew He Was Handling Classified Russian Data (RT)

RT has obtained an exclusive video showing the moment Russian law enforcement detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, as he attempted to hide what appeared to be a flash drive with illegally obtained classified data. The journalist was among those exchanged in last week’s historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West. The previously unpublished clip released on Monday shows Gershkovich’s arrest in March 2023 in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg. The journalist is seen sitting in a restaurant with his ‘source,’ as the pair discuss in Russian how to hand over secret data on the country’s defense industry in a way that won’t allow the authorities to track the leak.

As Russian operatives swoop in, Gershkovich tries to hide what appears to be a flash drive containing the data under the table before being arrested. Commenting on the incident at the time, the Kremlin said the reporter had been “caught red-handed,” while Russia’s Investigative Committee claimed he had engaged in espionage on behalf of the CIA. Gershkovich has denied any wrongdoing and insisted he was merely doing his job as a reporter. While the administration of US President Joe Biden declared Gershkovich – the first American reporter arrested on espionage allegations since the Cold War – as “wrongfully detained,” a Russian court sentenced him to 16 years in prison last month.

The journalist, however, was among 16 Western prisoners included in the landmark swap deal last week. In exchange, Russia secured the release of ten of its nationals. Intelligence operative Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced by a German court for allegedly killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Chechen separatist with Georgian citizenship, in a Berlin park in 2019, was one of the most prominent Russian figures on the list. Some of the evidence against Krasikov was provided by German magazine Der Spiegel, US government-funded website Bellingcat, and Russian opposition outlet The Insider.

Good. Now break ’em up.

• In ‘Biggest Antitrust Case Of The 21st Century’, Google Ruled A Monopoly (CD)

A federal judge left no room for ambiguity Monday in a landmark ruling in a case brought by the Justice Department and states against tech giant Google, in which the government argued the company had illegally monopolized the search engine and advertising market. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” said Judge Amit Mehta, who sits of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In U.S. et al. v. Google, Mehta found that Google has “violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by maintaining its monopoly in two product markets in the United States—general services and general text advertising—through its exclusive distribution agreements.” The American Economic Liberties Project (ALEP) called the ruling a “tremendous win for consumers, innovation, and the entire tech industry.”

During a 10-week trial last year, the DOJ argued Google had used exclusionary contracts to block its competitors from reaching potential users. The company’s deals with web firms such as Mozilla and cell phone companies like Apple and Samsung have made Google the default search engine on millions of people’s phones and computers, as has its contracts with other major tech firms and service providers. The trial revealed that Google shares 36% of its search ad revenues from Safari with Apple and paid the company $20 billion in 2022 to ensure Google’s search engine would have default status for Apple customers. While paying billions of dollars per year to maintain its default status, Google has been using its dominance over ad space to collect more data about users and improve its search engine, while its rivals have been cut off from that ad space.

“If that’s what it takes for somebody to dislodge Google as the default search engine, wouldn’t the folks that wrote the Sherman Act be concerned about it?” asked Mehta. The Justice Department proved to the court that Google had ensured its search engine would conduct nearly 90% of all web searches. Vanderbilt University law professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth toldThe New York Times the ruling represents “a very prominent test of the Biden administration’s new antitrust enforcement agenda.” The DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have also sued Apple, Meta, and Amazon for monopolizing the smartphone, social media, and online selling markets.William Kovacic, former chairman of the FTC, told the Times in June that a victory against Google would create “momentum that supports [the government’s] other cases.” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) was among those who applauded the ruling, saying the unfair practices Mehta outlined “are the exact behaviors that hurt consumers, competition, and small businesses.”

Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at ALEP, said the ruling “strikes at the core of how hundreds of millions of Americans experience the internet.” “It illustrates how Google has become one of the most powerful companies in the world while undermining innovation and degrading the quality of its core product,” said Hepner. “The remedy must match the court’s striking verdict in this case. At a minimum that means an end to Google’s exclusive default agreements and breaking up business lines that have allowed Google to extend its monopoly into every corner of the internet.” Google is expected to appeal Mehta’s decision, but as it faces another antitrust case brought by the DOJ over its advertising technology business—set to go to trial September 9—ALEP interim executive director Nidhi Hegde expressed hope that Monday’s ruling “sends a resounding signal that the antimonopoly movement is here to stay.” “The promise of antitrust enforcement is that it will fully restore competition where it has been lost,” said Hepner, “and we’ll be advocating that the court use all of its power to do so.”

“..the independent judiciary … means that when you’re unpopular, you can get a fair hearing under the law and under the Constitution.”

• Neil Gorsuch Issues Dire Warning Over Biden’s Reforms (HUSA)

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch issued a stern warning about President Joe Biden’s proposals to reform the court system, which many have described as a desperate effort to thwart the conservative majority. Justice Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, declined to comment on specific proposals like age limits but cautioned against hindering the judiciary’s independence during a Sunday interview with Fox News Sunday with anchor Shannon Bream. “You are not in a bubble here at the courts. There are real world events happening. … How does the court feel about potential changes, term limits, ethics codes that are enforced by someone in ways that it isn’t now?” Bream asked. In response, Gorsuch said, “Shannon, you’re not going to be surprised that I’m not going to get into what is now a political issue during a presidential election year. I don’t think that would be helpful.”

He added, “I have one thought to add, it is that the independent judiciary … means that when you’re unpopular, you can get a fair hearing under the law and under the Constitution.” Gorsuch emphasized that the judiciary’s role is to protect Americans’ rights against government persecution. “Don’t you want a ferociously independent judge and a jury of your peers to make those decisions? Isn’t that your right as an American? And so, I just say be careful,” Gorsuch concluded. Gorsuch appeared on Fox News to promote his new book, Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law, where he scolds the unprecedented growth of laws and regulations in the U.S.

His remarks came less than a week after Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced a “bold plan” to reform the Supreme Court and “ensure no president is above the law.” The proposed changes include abolishing presidential immunity, imposing term limits on justices and radically reforming ethics codes. These changes are seen as a direct challenge to President Donald Trump and the six conservative justices currently on the bench. Last month, the court ruled that Trump enjoyed presidential immunity from prosecution, reaffirming long-standing legal theories and angering the Democratic Party. The proposed ethics code appears to target Justice Clarence Thomas, who faced criticism from ProPublica for allegedly failing to disclose gifts from friends. ProPublica is a leftist organization claiming to be a news organization.

“Given the judge’s overt biases, some believe the punishment will be disproportionate to the offense and likely to disrupt the ongoing presidential campaign.”

• House Judiciary Launches Probe into Loren Merchan’s Work for Kamala (HUSA)

The House Judiciary Committee launched a probe into New York Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter over her work for Vice President Kamala Harris—work that could present a conflict of interest for the judge given his role overseeing one of the cases against former President Donald Trump. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter last week to Loren Merchan asking for all documents and communications related to her work for Authentic Campaigns, a Democratic marketing firm that has been contracted by several of Trump’s top political rivals, including Harris. Jordan specifically requested all contracts or invoices the firm has sent to President Joe Biden’s campaign, which is now Harris’s campaign as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

So far this election cycle, Authentic Campaigns has provided the Biden–Harris campaign with “digital paid media, design and development, social media, mobile messaging, [and] artificial intelligence,” Jordan noted. “Experts have raised substantial concerns with Judge [Juan] Merchan, your father, refusing to recuse himself from President Trump’s case despite your work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the financial benefit that your firm, Authentic Campaigns Inc., could receive from the prosecution and conviction,” Jordan wrote. Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over New York v. Trump, in which Trump was found guilty on multiple felony counts for falsifying records in the first degree. Trump’s legal team has appealed the jury’s conviction, asking Merchan to overturn it.

However, he is also due to make a determination in early September on Trump’s sentencing. Given the judge’s overt biases, some believe the punishment will be disproportionate to the offense and likely to disrupt the ongoing presidential campaign. Trump’s lawyers have also called on Judge Merchan to recuse himself from the case given his daughter’s political work, noting that Authentic Campaigns was ranked as one of the top vendors in the country “in connection with the 2024 election.” Thus, Loren Merchan not only has a political interest in the outcome of her father’s case, but also a “direct financial interest in these proceedings by virtue of her ownership stake and leadership role at Authentic Campaigns, Inc.,” Trump’s team said.

“Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” Musk replied..”

• Downing Street In Row With Musk Over UK Riots (RT)

A heated back-and-forth has broken out between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with the bone of contention being the anti-immigration riots wracking the UK. More than a dozen cities and towns in the UK have been gripped by demonstrations, triggered by a deadly knife attack in Southport, England. Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a 17-year-old British boy born to Rwandan parents has been charged with stabbing three little girls to death and injuring eight other children and two adults in an attack on a Southport dance class last week. A Liverpool judge ruled on Thursday that Rudakubana’s name, whose identity was initially concealed due to laws protecting minors, be released to the public as he turns 18 this week. Despite the rapid spread of rumours that the suspect was a Muslim immigrant, the police have stated he appears to have no known links to Islam.

Musk had claimed that “civil war was inevitable,” commenting a video on X (formerly Twitter) that showed the unrest. The video was posted by a user that suggested the root cause was mass migration to the UK and open-border policies. Downing Street has hit back against the statement. “There is no justification for comments like that,” Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters, calling the unrest “organized, illegal thuggery which has no place on our streets or online.” The UK Prime Minister slammed the unrest as “pure violence,” promising to field a “standing army of public duty officers,” in response. “The criminal law applies online as well as offline, and I’m assured that is the approach that is being taken,” Starmer said in a statement released on X. “Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest. It is pure violence, and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” he stressed. The riots have seen mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers attacked.

“Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” Musk replied. The comment came as reports of counter-protester violence surfaced in the UK media. Police in Bolton clashed with 300 “mostly Asian” counter-demonstrators after two protests met and turned ugly, the Manchester Evening News reported on Monday. In a video circulating online, customers of a Birmingham pub could be seen violently assaulted. The Yardley pub, ‘The Clumsy Swan’ was attacked by “a group of Muslim youths, who broke away from the main demonstration and were wearing masks and carrying weapons,” the BBC wrote on Sunday. The UK’s top police official was pressed on double standards over the riots, which have allegedly been dealt with more harshly than other recent unrest and protests shaking the country. To a question about ending “two-tier policing,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley ripped the Sky News reporter’s microphone out of his hands and walked away. He took no questions from journalists.

I think they will.

• British Army Won’t Act Against Protesters – MOD (RT)

The British Army will not be involved in dealing with widespread rioting across the UK, Defense Secretary John Healey has said, insisting that police have the powers to protect the nation. Healey was speaking to Sky News on Monday in Rotherham, where protesters set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers. Dozens of British towns and cities have been rocked by right-wing protests and riots against immigration and Islam since last Monday, when a British teenager of Rwandan descent stabbed three children to death and injured ten others in the town of Southport, near Liverpool. Asked whether the army might have to be brought in to deal with any future riots, Healey replied: “No… it’s the police’s responsibility to respond first and currently they’ve got the means to do it.” “They will make sure that people are safe,” Healey added.

The remarks come after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage condemned the violence against police officers in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, saying he was “appalled” by the weekend’s unrest and that “deeper long-term problems remain.” He also urged the recall of parliament and said the government should consider deploying the army. At least 400 people have been arrested after riots rocked Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Hull, Belfast, Stoke, and other cities across UK over weekend, according to media reports. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday announced that a “standing army” of specialist police officers would be set up to prevent any further disorder.

The prime minister’s official spokesman told The Guardian that no requests had been made for army assistance to quell the riots. “The police are very clear that they’ve got the powers and resources they need to protect communities and keep people safe,” the spokesperson said. “There’s been no requests made for any military assistance, that I’m aware of.”

Sit down

amazing pic.twitter.com/sJypkAw5sn

— Enez Özen (@Enezator) August 4, 2024

Unclog

Unblocking the entire neighborhood

pic.twitter.com/2O0O08IrFD

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 5, 2024

Cat elevator

Cat elevator.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/KfkOhY8Rce

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) August 5, 2024

Service dogs

These service dogs got to meet their Disney heroes, and it's the most wholesome thing on the planet. 14/10 for all pic.twitter.com/iyhhEdrxRr

— WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) August 5, 2024

Landing
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820557150952837204

Friend guest
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820432123087700064

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Debt Rattle March 30 2024

Mar 302024

March 30, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: Aileen Cannon, Francis Scott Key Bridge, illegal aliens, impeachment inquiry, Jack Smith, NYPD, Skripal, Trump 38 Responses »

Ciseri Ecce homo (Behold the man) 1670

• New Yorkers Silently Worrying Over Ramifications of Trump Ruling (ET)

• Jack Smith’s Case Against Trump Appears to Be Falling Apart (Margolis)

• House Formally Invites Biden to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry (Turley)

• Elon Musk Accuses Democrats Of ‘Importing Voters’ (RT)

• NYC No Longer Differentiates Between Illegal Aliens and US Citizens (PCR)

• NYC Begs Supreme Court to Allow Over 800,000 Illegal Immigrants Vote (TH)

• The British Government Trips On A New Lie About The Skripals (Helmer)

• The West Has Created A Frankenstein Monster On Its Own Doorstep (Bhadrakumar)

• Imperium: Decline on the Way to Fall (Patrick Lawrence)

• Europe Is In ‘Pre-War Era’ – Polish PM Tusk (RT)

• Ukraine Being Destroyed from Within by Zelensky Government Corruption (Miles)

• Zelensky Changes Stance On Talks With Russia (RT)

• US Political Support for ‘Terrorist’ Ukraine Regime Evaporating (Miles)

• Oh Say Can You See? (Kunstler)

• It Could Take HOW LONG to Rebuild Francis Scott Key Bridge??? (Green)

• Why I Don’t Spend A Lot Of Time On The Republicans (Matt Taibbi)

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images

Trump NYPD

CHILLS: Slain NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller's Family guests share how room reacted when Trump arrived to pay his respects ❤️

"They gave him a rousing ovation. They clapped their hands and showed their gratitude for President Trump's kindness and for his compassion. It is a moment… pic.twitter.com/lDaHIghBzw

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 29, 2024

Benz

Google is a government business. It has been since the day it crawled out of the slime.

Google tells the government how "birds of a feather flock together" online. That's the very grant purpose of the very DARPA grant that birthed the company 30 years ago. As I said on Tucker: https://t.co/zN84QzDMiC pic.twitter.com/fT6iVkru42

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) March 29, 2024

Diddy

Disgraced billionaire hip hop mogul and Democrat party community organizer, Diddy, is panicking behind the scenes, as reports surface of the federal case against him expanding. Multiple corporations tied to the mogul are being dished out subpoenas, as he unloads his assets. His… pic.twitter.com/1ibxbIkfbh

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) March 30, 2024

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1773456314011689350

These people have no idea of the damage they’re doing. Completely blind hatred. Should not be allowed anywhere near a justice system.

“I have never heard of a victimless civil case that even won $500..”

• New Yorkers Silently Worrying Over Ramifications of Trump Ruling (ET)

Monday’s dramatic bond reduction for former President Donald Trump did nothing to dissipate the dark cloud that his civil-fraud case has cast over New York business deals. Although investors won’t publicly admit it, the case is having a chilling effect, said Charles Trzcinka, professor of finance at Indiana University-Bloomington. “If you talk to people in this market, they are very, very upset … and these are people who are neutral or even opposed to Trump,” Mr. Trzcinka told The Epoch Times. “They’re just angry about it.” In his role at the university, Mr. Trzcinka said he places students in the corporate lending market in New York, making him aware of trends in that sphere. An appeals court’s decision to slash the bond by about 60 percent, reducing it to $175 million, still left a massive penalty intact while President Trump continues a legal challenge of Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling.

Judge Engoron ruled that President Trump and his associates fraudulently overvalued their assets. But Mr. Trzcinka said anyone who thinks President Trump’s activities in that case were irregular or fraudulent may lack an understanding of typical New York business transactions. A source familiar with the case explained to The Epoch Times that, normally, business-related cases are handled in the New York courts’ commercial division. There, cases are decided by judges who have specific, “sophisticated” knowledge of commercial law and business practices. But the case didn’t go that route because New York Attorney General Letitia James found a novel way to use New York’s anti-fraud law. Researchers examined other alleged fraud cases in New York over a 70-year period and found the Trump case stands alone. The Trump Organization was the only company that confronted the possibility of being forced out of business despite no victim suffering major financial harm.

Because of Ms. James’ unusual application of the law, the case was channeled to a court that would rarely, if ever, handle business-related matters. Thus, the source said, “This case proceeded in just a highly irregular fashion from the start.” Legal scholar Jonathan Turley agreed the case is atypical and its repercussions far-reaching. “This has really done great damage to the New York legal system … Businesses are looking at this with a degree of horror—that a judge could come up with a figure so large you have to sell parts of your business just to get an appeal,” Mr. Turley told Fox News. However, people who dislike President Trump are cheering on Ms. James. She ran for election on a promise to prosecute the former president if she won the post of attorney general. Before the court-ordered bond reduction, the original $464 million bond amount included a $363 million judgment that Judge Engoron levied against President Trump and his associates, plus 9 percent interest.

Speaking to reporters after the March 25 appellate court’s decision, President Trump called Judge Engoron’s original decision a “disservice” to New York. “Businesses are fleeing,” he said. The case promises to continue discouraging investors from doing business in the Empire State, Mr. Trzcinka and two other knowledgeable sources told The Epoch Times. That’s not only because of the crippling dollar amounts involved, the sources said, but also because President Trump and his associates were behaving within the bounds of normal business practice and victimized no one. “All the parties under this civil case were satisfied,” Mr. Trzcinka said. Yet Ms. James “brought a case without a victim” and secured a judgment approaching $500 million. “I have never heard of a victimless civil case that even won $500,” he said.

Businesspeople are afraid to express concerns about the ramifications aloud. Doing so would paint targets on their backs—an underlying reason why President Trump was unable to persuade bonding companies or banks to cover the original $464 million bond, Mr. Trzcinka and the sources said. “I don’t think a bonding company [or a bank] is willing to be associated with Donald Trump … because the attorney general could turn around and sue them, go after them,” Mr. Trzcinka said. Judge Engoron ruled that President Trump and his associates committed fraud by overvaluing his properties. Parties involved in real estate transactions tend to exaggerate values in one way or the other, and they “hit each other over the head” with dueling appraisals, Mr. Trzcinka said. And, in a case such as this one, “everyone had the same information and just came to different conclusions” as to the valuations, he said. Then the parties negotiated figures and agreed to them. Even before interest was added, Judge Engoron slapped President Trump with “the largest penalty in history” for a case of its kind, said Mr. Trzcinka.

He had never heard of such a high penalty imposed for a “syndicated loan,” which involves civil contracts between a corporate borrower and corporate lenders. About $355 million of the total order specifically applied to President Trump. In addition, the judge ordered $4 million to be recovered from each of his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and $1 million from former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg. Even the ultra-wealthy would rarely, if ever, have rapid access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in liquid assets, Mr. Trzcinka and other financial experts say. Marshaling that much cash to post the bond in just 30 days proved to be a daunting task for President Trump; the appellate court’s ruling granted him 10 more days to post a reduced $175 million bond. That decision moved the amount from “the realm of the impossible” into a different category; “it’s expensive but it’s feasible,” a source said.

“Special Counsel Jack Smith could be blocked from using evidence against Donald Trump contained in grand jury investigation files, which were transferred to the former president’s Florida classified documents case,,”

• Jack Smith’s Case Against Trump Appears to Be Falling Apart (Margolis)

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s efforts to imprison Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents have hit a few snags recently, and the latest snag is, indeed, a big one. “Special Counsel Jack Smith could be blocked from using evidence against Donald Trump contained in grand jury investigation files, which were transferred to the former president’s Florida classified documents case this week, a former prosecutor has suggested,” reports Newsweek. “In 2023, a grand jury in Washington, D.C., heard evidence from witnesses—including Trump’s attorney, Evan Corcoran—while considering whether charges should be brought against the former president and others for hoarding classified documents. However, Trump and his co-accused were later indicted in Florida and, under federal rules, the grand jury files were transferred on Monday to Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon’s court.” According to former prosecutor Bill Shipley, the transfer of the case from D.C. to Florida gives Judge Cannon control over what evidence can be included—especially testimony that may have violated attorney-client privilege. More from Newsweek:

“On March 24, 2023, Corcoran was forced to testify before the classified documents grand jury in Washington D.C. It was his second time giving evidence. Corcoran was called to give evidence because he wrote a letter that was sent to the Department of Justice in June 2022 that stated that there had been a “diligent search” for classified documents. Along with the letter, he sent the Department more than 30 documents with classified markings that were found on Trump property. […] Department of Justice Special Counsel Smith announced on Monday that the Washington, D.C., court had transferred the grand jury files to Cannon. Trump is facing 40 federal charges over his handling of sensitive materials retrieved from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in January 2021. He is accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to return them. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.”

Leftists have been routinely triggered by Judge Cannon’s rulings—probably because she’s not a rabid leftist like Judge Engoron, who literally ruled that Trump should pay a civil fine of nearly half a billion dollars for a non-crime with no victim. Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump has been widely criticized as selective prosecution, especially in light of the release of the Hur report last month, which found that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” and that his actions “present[ed] serious risks to national security.” Despite Biden’s actions, former special counsel Robert Hur declined to prosecute Biden because he would present himself as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and it would be difficult to convince a jury he was guilty of a serious felony because to commit such a crime “requires a mental state of willfulness.” The report elaborated by pointing out that Biden couldn’t even remember when he was vice president and or when his son Beau died.

“Yet, the White House responded, again, with mockery — a sense of impunity that only exists due to an enabling media.”

• House Formally Invites Biden to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry (Turley)

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer has sent a seven-page letter to invite President Joe Biden to testify in the Republican impeachment inquiry. The letter is the latest, and best, reduction of the glaring contradictions in the President’s past statements on his family’s well-documented influence peddling operation. President Biden is not expected to testify. However, the media should be interested in his answering the questions presented by the Committee. It is now clear that the President lied during his campaign and during his presidency on his lack of knowledge of his son’s business activities as well as his denial of any money gained from China. Yet, the White House responded, again, with mockery — a sense of impunity that only exists due to an enabling media.

Chairman Comer reduces the past testimony and evidence acquired by the Committee in the corruption scandal. In the last hearing, Democratic members simply refused to acknowledge that evidence. There was a bizarre disconnect as members mocked the witnesses for not supplying evidence of the President’s knowledge or involvement. They then did so and the members declared that there was no evidence.

Various members also misrepresented my earlier testimony during the hearing on the basis for the impeachment inquiry. Members like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) stated that I joined other witnesses in stating there was nothing that could remotely be impeachable in these allegations. That is demonstrably untrue. My testimony stated the opposite. I refused to pre-judge the evidence, but stated that there was ample basis for the inquiry and laid out various impeachable offenses that could be brought if ultimately supported by evidence. I also discussed those potential offenses in columns. The purpose of the hearing was not to declare an impeachment on the first day of the inquiry. Unlike the two prior impeachments by many of these same Democratic members, this impeachment inquiry sought to create a record of evidence and testimony to support any action that the House might take.

Now, the Committee has laid out the considerable evidence showing that the President had lied, knowingly and repeatedly. Interspersed with specific evidentiary findings, the Committee presents ten questions that the President should be able to answer directly and unequivocally:

1) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Jonathan Li of Bohai Industrial Fund and/or Bohai Harvest Rosemont?
2) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Ye Jianming of CEFC?
3) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Henry Zhao of the Harvest Fund?
4) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Vadym Pozharskyi of Burisma Holdings?
5) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Mykola Zlochevsky of Burisma Holdings?
6) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Kenes Rakishev of Novatus Holding?
7) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Yelena Baturina?
8) Have you met, spoken to, or otherwise interacted with Yuriy Luzhkov?
9) Did you ever ask your brother James Biden about the source of the funds he used to pay or repay you?
10) Did Eric Schwerin have insight into all your bank accounts until December 2017?

“1. Get as many illegals in the country as possible. 2. Legalize them to create a permanent majority – a one-party state..”

• Elon Musk Accuses Democrats Of ‘Importing Voters’ (RT)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused the US Democratic Party of opening up the country’s borders in order to “import voters.” Earlier this week, Politico reported that President Joe Biden was considering offering permanent residency to millions of illegal immigrants. Commenting on the report, Musk declared on his X platform that “The Dem Party goal is to import voters.” According to Politico’s sources, Biden is considering expanding access to the US’ so-called ‘Cancelation of Removal Program’ for illegal immigrants who have lived in the US for more than ten years and whose removal would negatively impact their citizen or resident friends and relatives. The program is currently available to lawful residents who have been ordered to leave the US for various reasons, and for some illegal immigrants. A successful cancellation can take years to make its way through the legal system, and around 4,000 cancellations of removal are issued every year, according to the US Justice Department.

There are thought to be around 10.5 million illegal immigrants living in the US, according to data compiled by Pew Research in 2021. However, at least 6.3 million more have entered the US in the years since, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security, potentially bringing the total to almost 18 million. An earlier Pew study found that approximately two thirds of illegal immigrants in the US had been there more than a decade. Counting only those immigrants present in the country in 2021, the removal program reportedly mulled by Biden could result in around six million of them being made permanent residents. Only US citizens can vote in federal elections. However, permanent residents can apply for citizenship after five years, or three years if married to a US citizen. Biden’s first actions as US president included signing a raft of executive orders repealing almost all of former President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions.

He has since unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to pass a bill offering a path to citizenship for more than 10 million illegal immigrants, and sued the state of Texas for attempting to enforce federal immigration law. “Biden’s strategy is very simple,” Musk tweeted in February. “1. Get as many illegals in the country as possible. 2. Legalize them to create a permanent majority – a one-party state. That is why they are encouraging so much illegal immigration. Simple, yet effective.” In the US, racial minorities typically vote Democrat. Aside from potentially creating future voters, illegal immigration can give certain states greater representation in Congress, as the number of seats assigned to a state in the House of Representatives is determined by its overall population, which includes those present illegally.

“..before long the illegal population in America will exceed in size the actual citizens of the country..”

• NYC No Longer Differentiates Between Illegal Aliens and US Citizens (PCR)

The New York City Council is begging the New York state Supreme Court to permit the council to ignore the New York state constitution that only permits citizens to vote. The city council says that allowing illegal immigrants to vote can only strengthen democracy “by increasing civic engagement.” Think about this for a moment. For the NY City Council, the only difference between an American citizen and an illegal alien is that the alien is discriminated against by not being allowed to vote. It was obvious from the beginning that this is what happens when a country allows immigrant-invaders to settle among the legal population. The illegals become part of the population and, thus, denying them the vote is discrimination. It was totally obvious from the beginning that accepting illegal entry would create an untenable situation: a population partly illegal and party legal.

As it has proved impossible to prevent entry of multi-millions of immigrant-invaders and impossible to remove them, before long the illegal population in America will exceed in size the actual citizens of the country. It is curious that the US, whose government is so anxious to go to war over the borders of foreign countries has no concern for its own borders. So what is the purpose of US national defense? Is it only to protect Ukraine’s border and Israel’s border, but never America’s border? That seems to be the case. It is extraordinary that if you ask this sensible question you are branded a racist. In the United States it is now racist to defend the US border. And of course, the Democrats do not defend the border which is so porous that it doesn’t exist.

The federal government, the government of America, is using the judicial system to prevent Texas from defending its and America’s border. The obvious question is: why does the federal government represent immigrant invaders instead of American citizens, and why do federal courts come down on the side of eliminating any difference between an American citizen and an illegal invader? Why are long-established websites such as vDare.com being suppressed by government authorities simply for pointing out what is at stake? Something is seriously wrong with the mentality of the American people who clearly are incapable of recognizing that their country is being stolen from them to the point that many offer to sponsor immigrant-invaders.

“There is nothing more important than preserving the integrity of our election system, and in today’s age, the government should be working to create more trust in our elections, not less..”

• NYC Begs Supreme Court to Allow Over 800,000 Illegal Immigrants Vote (TH)

The New York City council is asking the state’s Supreme Court to allow illegal immigrants to vote in the city’s municipal elections. In 2021, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a law that would have allowed 800,000 non-citizens with green cards, visas, and work permits to vote as long as they have resided in the city for at least 30 consecutive days. However, the controversial law was struck down last month by an appellate court. New York City Council spokesperson Rendy Desamour arrived in court on Tuesday to beg the Supreme Court of the State of New York to override the rulings and allow the council to start authorizing illegal immigrants to vote.

“Today’s filing to appeal the Second Department’s recent decision seeks a determination from the state’s highest court that the law is consistent with the State Constitution, Election Law, and the Municipal Home Rule Law,” Desamour said. “Empowering New Yorkers to participate in our local democratic process can only strengthen New York City by increasing civic engagement.” The council argued that illegal immigrants living in the city should be able to vote because they pay taxes and make contributions to the community. Breitbart News noted that: The ordinance was set to massively influence local elections while diluting the votes of American citizens living in the city.

In 2021, for instance, Mayor Eric Adams (D) won the Democrat mayoral primary by less than 7,200 votes. Former councilman Rev. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) said that the ordinance would dilute the votes of citizens while shifting electoral power to foreign nationals with ties to the United Nations, Wall Street, and the global financial system which has long been based in New York City. Staten Island President Vito Fossella is challenging the case, stating that, according to the New York State Constitution, only U.S. citizens have the right to vote in elections. “There is nothing more important than preserving the integrity of our election system, and in today’s age, the government should be working to create more trust in our elections, not less,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said.

The Skripals are back! Or are they?

• The British Government Trips On A New Lie About The Skripals (Helmer)

For the first time in six years, the British Government has officially told Moscow that Russian citizen Yulia Skripal, one of the victims of a nerve spray attack in Salisbury on March 4, 2018, has “rejected the offer of consular assistance” from the Russian Embassy in London. A British diplomatic note, delivered to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow this week and made public by the Ministry spokesman, also claimed “the Russian woman has the contact details of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in London in case of need.” Omitted from the document is that the British have not allowed Yulia Skripal to sign a document, send an email, or make a telephone call since 2020. The new Foreign Office paper failed to identify the whereabouts or wishes of Yulia’s father, Sergei Skripal, a dual Russian and British citizen who was also the target of the 2018 attack.

The calculated omissions, and the record of subterfuge and faking which British officials, coroners, and judges have been making since 2018, indicate that, in fact, Yulia Skripal is imprisoned and incommunicado, and that Sergei Skripal is dead. “The British authorities,” said Maria Zakharova at her ministry briefing on March 27, “do not say a word about the fate of Sergei Skripal. It is completely unclear why. I would like to ask the British if he is alive? Can you at least tell me that?” After years of stonewalling in London, the new lie appears to indicate that Sergei Skripal has died in British captivity. Since the Skripals slumped unconscious on a Salisbury town bench and were kept in hospital under police guard, three British prime ministers — Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak — have continued the story that three Russian military officers attacked the Skripals with a Novichok nerve agent they had brought by plane into England, and sprayed on to the door handle of Sergei Skripal’s home; that was several hours before he and his daughter showed sudden symptoms and collapsed.

The British have presented no evidence of Novichok on the Skripal door handle; in the blood, skin, and urine testing of the Skripals in hospital; or in subsequent court proceedings. The alleged Russian attack weapon – a perfume bottle atomiser – did not materialize for months until July 2018, when police claim to have found it on a kitchen bench in the home of another alleged victim, Dawn Sturgess, ten days after exhaustive police searches of the premises had failed to find it. Sergei Skripal has not been seen in public since the day of the alleged Novichok attack, March 4, 2018. He has not been heard on the telephone by family members since June 26, 2019. Yulia Skripal was last seen in a government-directed interview at a US bomber base in England in May 2018; her last telephone call was heard on November 20, 2020.

The full story of what happened and didn’t happen, and of the High Court and coroners’ court hearings which have followed since 2018, has been documented in the book published in 2020; then in reports of the ongoing cover-up by a retired Appeal Court judge, Lord Anthony Hughes. In March 2022 Hughes announced he had appointed a London lawyer, Adam Chapman, to represent the Skripals; but the judge, his spokesman, and the lawyer have repeatedly refused to confirm how the Skripals communicated to them, if at all. The lawyer refuses to answer press questions; in court he has said nothing on the Skripals’ behalf. Timed earlier this month on the sixth anniversary of the disappearance of the Skripals, the Russian Embassy in London sent the Foreign Office a new request for what the Embassy had described last June as a “demand that the British authorities allow us to ascertain they are safe and sound. London carries full responsibility for their well-being.”

Zakharova revealed the reply on Wednesday. “It’s hard to believe,” she said, “but the Russian Foreign Ministry has received a response from Britain to the request on the Skripals. The Russian side continues to make efforts to clarify the circumstances of the incident that occurred in Salisbury in March 2018, with the participation of citizens of our country: S.V. Skripal and his daughter Y.S. Skripal. It’s been almost six years. All this time, the Russian Foreign Ministry has been sending dozens of diplomatic notes. In response, we received nothing but ‘non-subscriber notices.’ For the first time since mid-2018, a response note was finally received from the British Foreign Ministry in response to another note from the Russian Embassy in London. With some reservations, it can be considered a kind of belated official reaction. They say they have been waiting for the promised three years. It took twice as long here.”

“In this note, it is reported that Y.S. Skripal allegedly took note of the offer of consular assistance, but rejected it…According to the assurances of the British Foreign Ministry, the Russian woman has the contact details of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in London in case of need. In addition, responding to the demand to provide information on the official results of the investigation into the incident in Salisbury, British diplomats said they would not comment on this topic, since ‘the relevant legal procedures are still ongoing.’”

“The British authorities do not say a word about the fate of Sergei Skripal. It is completely unclear why. I would like to ask the British if he is alive? Can you at least tell me that? We consider the forced reaction of the British side as an unsuccessful attempt to justify itself for the inexplicable and unlawful long-term concealment of information about Russian citizens. This is another information manipulation. We will continue to methodically seek comprehensive information about the fate of Russian citizens who disappeared without a trace in Britain six years ago, clarify all the components of the Salisbury incident and, in general, insist on justice in this case.”

“Simply put, the storyline that this was an ISIS attack won’t fly..”

• The West Has Created A Frankenstein Monster On Its Own Doorstep (Bhadrakumar)

With hindsight, it was not a coincidence that the retirement of US Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was announced on March 5 so soon after her return to Washington from Kiev, where after consultations with top Ukrainian security officials she announced dramatically: “I leave Kyiv… more confident that, as Ukraine strengthens its defenses, Mr. [Vladimir] Putin is going to get some nice surprises on the battlefield and that Ukraine will make some very strong success.” Nuland did not divulge what those “nice surprises” might be, but her superiors in DC were certain to have been curious to know since they know her ingenuity is limitless. At any rate, we now know that within hours of the superhawk’s premature retirement on March 5, instructions went out from Washington to the American embassy in Moscow to issue an advisory that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts” and warning US citizens to “avoid large gatherings.”

The wording of the March 7 advisory suggests that Washington was in possession of some information credible enough in terms of its source. Meanwhile, the UK embassy in Moscow also issued a similar advisory cautioning British citizens against visiting shopping centers. However, the State Department scrambled to issue a statement within two hours of the horrific attack on the mall in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on March 22, declaring that Ukraine was not responsible. Yet, the very next day, President Putin stated in his address to the nation that what happened was “a premeditated and organized mass murder of peaceful, defenseless people,” harking back to the Nazis – “to stage a demonstrative execution, a bloody act of intimidation.” Importantly, Putin disclosed that the perpetrators “attempted to escape and were heading towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary information, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”

Plainly put, the perpetrators’ Ukrainian mentors or handlers gave them instructions to exit Russian territory after their mission through a particular route. What remains in the realm of the ‘known unknown’ pertains to the chain of command. Precisely, does the trail end with Kirill Budanov, the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) since August 2020, who had previously served as deputy director of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service and specialized in covert operations inside Russia? Or – the big question is – does it go all the way to President Vladimir Zelensky, considering the far-reaching, explosive nature of the operation? This is the first thing. Secondly, the perpetrators did not behave like vintage ISIS killers on suicide missions nor were they answering the call of ‘jihad’. They were ethnic Tajiks who admitted that they were lured by money.

Expert opinion based on the published videos is also that their movements inside the mall during the operation did not show battle skills characteristic of well-trained fighters, and they had ‘poor muzzle discipline’, which means they had only minimal rifle training. Simply put, the storyline that this was an ISIS attack won’t fly. It is intended as a red herring to confuse dumb-witted folks abroad.

“Moscow, perfectly aware of these connections, now concludes that the CIA, along with Britain’s MI6, were behind the Crocus Town Hall attack..”

• Imperium: Decline on the Way to Fall (Patrick Lawrence)

However long the Biden regime goes on saying the war in Ukraine is “at a stalemate,” and however faithfully our corporate media repeat this nonsense like ventriloquists’ dummies, if the Kyiv regime is losing ground daily and there is no realistic hope of regaining it, the word we are looking for is “lost.” The question it is time to ask: What will the U.S. and its European vassals do when the make-believe wears out and defeat, while never admitted on paper, is too obvious to deny? Nothing good. As a negotiated peace on any terms acceptable to Moscow is out of the question, and as subverting “Putin’s Russia” remains the objective, the U.S. is likely to intensify the sorts of covert ops and “hybrid warfare” that have been on Washington’s menu for decades. This stands to get very dangerous very fast. Did we have a preview of messes to come with the shocking attack on the concert auditorium and shopping arcade near Moscow on Mar. 22? This is my read.

The U.S. “intelligence community” was quick to make public an “assessment”—a flimsy term that commits no one to anything—that the attack was the work of a group of militant Islamists and there was no evidence Ukraine had anything to do with it. Soon enough an offshoot of the Islamic State, ISIS–Khorasan, claimed responsibility. President Putin, who had been cautious from the start about assigning blame, eventually declared that Islamic terrorists were indeed culpable for the deaths of 137 innocent Russians and for setting the Crocus City Hall ablaze. Identifying ISIS–K as responsible is a complicated business, we must bear in mind. After the collapse of Washington’s client regime in Kabul three years ago, many members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, finding themselves suddenly homeless, joined ISIS–K as shelter from the storm. These were CIA–trained intelligence and counterinsurgency operatives, and they reportedly went over in considerable numbers. There were subsequent reports, never verified, suggesting that the CIA was using unmarked helicopters to supply ISIS–K with weapons and matériel.

A year ago last week, Foreign Policy described it as “arguably the most brutal terrorist group in Afghanistan.” Moscow, perfectly aware of these connections, now concludes that the CIA, along with Britain’s MI6, were behind the Crocus Town Hall attack, with the Kyiv intelligence agency, the SBU, playing a supporting role on the ground. The chief of Russian intelligence unpacked all this last week as he outlined Moscow’s findings. “We think the act was prepared by the radical Islamists, but, of course, the Western special services have aided,” Alexander Bortnikov, the FSB’s chief, asserted. “And the special services of Ukraine have a direct hand in this.” There is too much circumstantial evidence supporting this case to dismiss it. The CIA’s “assessment” assigning responsibility to ISIS can be taken as perfectly true but only half the story. The same day Bortnikov spoke, Russia sent a hypersonic missile—the kind that eludes standard air defense systems—to destroy the SBU’s headquarters building in Kyiv. This is what I mean by things getting very dangerous very fast.

Graceful loser.

• Europe Is In ‘Pre-War Era’ – Polish PM Tusk (RT)

Europe has entered a “pre-war era” in which any scenario is possible and the threat of war is no longer a thing of the past, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in an interview with European media outlets on Friday. Tusk was asked whether war is inevitable in light of recent remarks from a number of Western politicians about Russia potentially attacking NATO. He replied that “literally any scenario is possible.” “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a thing of the past. It is real and in fact it started over two years ago,” Tusk said. “I understand that it will sound devastating, especially to the younger generation, but we have to mentally prepare for the arrival of a new era. We are in a pre-war era. I am not exaggerating.” The Polish prime minister went on to say that the West needs to do everything it can to provide Kiev with equipment and ammunition, because the world is now in the most critical moment since the end of World War II.

“The next two years will decide everything,” Tusk said, adding that if the bloc does not provide enough arms for Ukraine and it is defeated, “no one in Europe will be able to feel safe.” While urging the cultivation of “transatlantic ties” regardless of who the next US president is, Tusk argued that the EU should be more independent from NATO and self-sufficient in terms of defense. “We will be a more attractive partner for the United States if we are more self-sufficient in defense,” he said. Claims by Western officials that Russia may attack NATO are “nonsense,” President Vladimir Putin stated on Wednesday. He noted that Kiev’s backers have tried to drum up support for additional aid by claiming that Russia will not stop if Ukraine is defeated on the battlefield.

US “satellites” in Eastern Europe have no reason to be afraid, Putin said. Talk of a potential Russian attack on Poland, the Czech Republic, or the Baltic states is just propaganda by governments that seek to scare their citizens “to extract additional expenses from people, to make them bear this burden on their shoulders,” he added.

“..people have no other choices than to flee the country – not from the war, but to save themselves because they have nothing to feed themselves on.”

• Ukraine Being Destroyed from Within by Zelensky Government Corruption (Miles)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made comments recently acknowledging Ukraine’s declining birthrate, which is now the lowest in the world. “We need not only financial incentives, because in my opinion, finances help, but they do not stimulate birth itself during war,” said the embattled leader. “Help, yes. But as for births, it seems to me that it’s mainly a matter of security.” Zelensky called for more foreign assistance to rectify the problem, claiming Ukraine needs “the latest technologies when it comes to air defense.” The comments provoked discussion on Sputnik’s Fault Lines program Friday, where host Jamarl Thomas noted Ukraine’s population has been in steady decline since its independence in 1991. Former Ukrainian diplomat Andrii Telizhenko joined Thomas to discuss the issue. “Ukraine’s population, first of all, dropped not only since 2014, it dropped dramatically since 1991 when Ukraine got its independence,” noted Telizhenko. “We had 52 million people living in Ukraine, and then within almost the 25-year range it dropped to… 45 million people. 7 million people died or left Ukraine within 25 years of its independence.”

The same trend emerged in other post-Soviet nations as governments implemented so-called “shock therapy” economic policy under advisement of the West. Populist leaders maintained significant support, but US-backed political interference broadly ensured neoliberal policy was implemented. Populations sharply declined as a result as Western capital bought up assets at fire sale prices. “Now, of course, there’s much, much less people,” Telizhenko continued. “Eight million left to Europe, 1.5 [million] went to Russia… and Belarus. So this is a huge, staggering number of people leaving because, first of all, they don’t see prosperity, they don’t have security – not only because of the war, but, first of all, from the government itself.” “Pensions are not being paid,” the former diplomat explained. “They’re asking that money to be paid from abroad. Zelensky – when he was going into this war agreeing not to support the Minsk agreements, the Istanbul accords, the peace deal – he should have understood that the country doesn’t have the money, the capacity, the economic capacity to sustain itself.”

“Now he’s asking for US taxpayers’ money to [finance] Ukrainian pensioners, Ukrainian government officials, and more than 25%, 30% of pensioners in Ukraine are basically not getting their pensions,” Telizhenko emphasized. US aid to Ukraine has become highly controversial in the United States as Americans are asked to fund the basic government services of a country halfway across the world. But even with American largesse Ukraine’s government has found itself in a state of near-constant collapse. Critics warn that millions of dollars in foreign aid is likely being pocketed by corrupt officials; Ukraine has long been identified as the most corrupt country in Europe in international rankings. “They can’t even feed themselves anymore,” said Telizhenko. “So they have no other choice [but] to leave or to just die in Ukraine. This is what Ukraine has become. It was getting worse and worse throughout the last 30 years and over the last two and a half years it’s being destroyed totally,” the ex-diplomat stressed.

“The salary of a teacher is $100 and they’re cutting it to $50 right now,” he added. “Can you imagine? This is what is happening in Ukraine today. The teachers aren’t getting paid, the pensioners aren’t getting paid. And this is just destroying the country from within and people have no other choices than to flee the country – not from the war, but to save themselves because they have nothing to feed themselves on.”

Sort of.

• Zelensky Changes Stance On Talks With Russia (RT)

President Vladimir Zelensky has indicated that a return to Ukraine’s 1991 borders is no longer a precondition for holding peace talks with Moscow, even as he continues to push forward with his so-called peace formula, which has been dismissed by the Kremlin as absurd. Zelensky banned all negotiations with the current leadership in Moscow back in 2022, after four former Ukrainian regions overwhelmingly voted to join Russia. Since then, he has been rallying Western support for his 10-point ultimatum, which includes the full withdrawal of Russian troops and a return to Ukraine’s 1991 borders, including Crimea, holding Moscow accountable and forced to pay reparations, among other conditions. However, in an interview with CBS this week, Zelensky suggested there was no need to recapture the territory “exclusively by military means,” claiming that the Ukrainian forces should at least restore the 2022 status quo.

“We will not have to de-occupy all of our territories exclusively by military means… I am sure when he [President Vladimir Putin] loses what he has occupied since 2022, he will fully lose the confidence even of those countries which are still in doubt whether they should support Ukraine or not,” Zelensky said. The Kremlin has repeatedly stressed that it remains open to meaningful discussions and has blamed the lack of a diplomatic breakthrough on the Ukrainian authorities, who refuse to accept “reality on the ground.” Despite the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive last year and recent gains made by Russian forces along the frontline, Zelensky claimed that once Russia suffers battlefield setbacks, Putin will “lose the power within his country” and will be forced to seek dialogue. “And when he will be ready for the dialogue, undoubtedly the international conditions should be the liberation of our territories, the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Zelensky added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba suggested on Friday that Kiev could engage in diplomacy with Moscow following the Swiss-hosted peace summit, a date for which is still to be announced. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kiev is contradicting itself, and that Moscow will not accept a set of rules “developed by someone else.” The last meaningful negotiations between Moscow and Kiev were held in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 but broke down, with each side accusing the other of making unrealistic demands. President Putin said the Ukrainian delegation had initially agreed with some of Moscow’s terms, but then abruptly reneged on the deal – allegedly after then-UK PM Boris Johnson advised Kiev to reject a truce and “continue fighting,” promising full Western support. Ukraine’s Western backers insist that a peace settlement can only be achieved on Kiev’s terms and have vowed to continue weapons deliveries for “as long as it takes.” Russia, meanwhile, has stressed that no amount of foreign aid will change the course of the conflict.

“..the US will not be in a position to say no to Russia and will have a very hard time continuing its political support of Kiev..”

• US Political Support for ‘Terrorist’ Ukraine Regime Evaporating (Miles)

Russian media has revealed new links between the Ukraine regime and last week’s horrific terrorist attack at a concert venue outside Moscow. “Investigators have verified information that large amounts of money and cryptocurrency that the perpetrators of the terrorist attack received trace back to Ukraine,” reported the Tass news agency Thursday. “The funds were used in preparing the crime.” As the increasingly desperate Kiev regime launches attacks on Russian civilians in Belgorod and other regions, speculation has intensified that elements within Ukraine’s military and intelligence service may have played a role in last Friday’s incident. Independent journalist Dan Lazare joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Friday to weigh in on the claim.

“I look forward to the Russian government laying this evidence out – I hope they do,” said Lazare. “To me, the fact that four of the accused were apprehended while making a dash for the Ukrainian border and were caught just a short distance away – I mean, to me that speaks volumes. It’s not absolute proof, but it certainly strongly suspects that there were collaborators on the Ukrainian side, and that Ukrainian bodies were helping them with this crime.” “We can’t help but harken back to the assassination of Darya Dugina in 2022. That was the daughter of the Russian political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin,” the author added. “She was killed in a car bomb in Russia. At first the Ukrainian government denied any involvement whatsoever, and the US backed it up. And then a few weeks later the US admitted that the act was done by the SBU, the Ukrainian intelligence service.”

The incident prompted little attention in the West, where Dugin is a highly vilified figure. But a terrorist attack killing almost 150 people is significantly harder to ignore. “I strongly suspect we’ll learn the same thing here,” said Lazare, suggesting Ukrainian officials may have played a role in the “act of brutal terrorism.” “And, if that is true, if my suspicions prove correct, this will be a real game changer.” “Russia will feel justified in responding… and the US will not be in a position to say no to Russia and will have a very hard time continuing its political support of Kiev,” he claimed.

“The fluttering wings of this black swan already throw a chill on spring’s incoming zephyrs..”

• Oh Say Can You See? (Kunstler)

While the awesome spectacle of the bridge collapse traumatized the country, it also brought to mind the fantastic flow of ten-thousand illegal border crossings a day, stage-managed by the “Joe Biden” Homeland Security team. Did you kind of wonder how many in that 10K-a-day flow might be the same species of Central Asian mutts who volunteered to slaughter over 150 (so far) Russian concert-goers? Nobody is checking who they are, you realize. They just step on US soil, get issued smartphones, loaded debit cards, walking-around cash money, airplane and bus tickets and, voila, there they are in your home town tomorrow, looking for something to occupy themselves. Thanks a bunch, Alejandro Mayorkas! Are you wondering what sort of mayhem they might be capable of unleashing any place from Bangor to Burbank in the weeks and months ahead? (And, while you’re at it, think about all the food processing plant fires, train wrecks, and other mysterious tribulations around the country the past couple of years.)

Consider that this very week alone, following the SSK Bridge disaster, absolutely nothing has been done by our government to stem that flow of countless potential saboteurs into the country. The news media isn’t even talking about it (of course). The prospects might look a bit unnerving, wouldn’t you agree? Things catching fire, blowing up, and falling down here, there, and everywhere. . . more of those thousand cuts adding up. Just maybe, the dazed-and-confused (possibly hypnotized) American public, a.k.a., the “voters,” might put together that “Joe Biden” and the Party of Chaos that owns him, are actually responsible for the on-going take-down of our country. After a certain point — now apparently passed — sheer incompetence is no longer a plausible explanation for what you are seeing.

Oh, one other thing, look out for on-the-ground economic reverberations from the FSK Bridge disaster. For instance, Baltimore is the USA’s top port for importing and exporting automobiles. Also, earth-moving and large farm equipment, fertilizer, lumber, coal, and steel. Other arrangements must be made, for years ahead, considering the trucking links. It’s especially an interruption for trucking between the mid-Atlantic / New England states and much of Dixieland. It will affect the transport of fruits and vegetables to the Washington-Boston corridoer. Things are going to cost more and we are already in an inflationary trouble-zone. How will this thunder elsewhere through an economy which, despite the japes of “Joe Biden’s” statisticians, is actively disintegrating? The fluttering wings of this black swan already throw a chill on spring’s incoming zephyrs.

“Welcome to 21st Century America, where everything is needlessly time-consuming, expensive, stupid, or (most likely) all three..”

• It Could Take HOW LONG to Rebuild Francis Scott Key Bridge??? (Green)

Could it really take twice as long and four times as much money to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge than it did to build it in the first place? The Key Bridge was built at a cost (adjusted for inflation) of about $200 million. Replacing it could take a decade and cost $400 million to $800 million dollars, according to experts in what has become a dismal field. “To actually recreate that whole transportation network” could take a decade or more, structural engineer Ben Schafer told USA Today on Wednesday. Huge projects, Schafer said, now take “rarely less than 10 years.” Well, they didn’t use to. By comparison, the Apollo program that put a man on the moon required seven years, eight months, and 23 days. And — this is the really exciting part — everything about Apollo, from the massive Saturn V rocket to the “tiny” flight computer, had to be created from scratch. Those seven-and-a-half years included a monthslong delay following the tragic loss of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee during an Apollo 1 dress rehearsal that ended in a deadly crew capsule fire.

Construction began on the Hoover Dam on July 7, 1930, and five years later, it was complete. It started generating electrical power on Sept. 11, 1936 — exactly six years, two months, and four days after the first shovelful of dirt was moved. The Empire State Building was fully erect (heh) after just one year and 45 days of construction. But those were all 20th Century projects, back when we used to get things done. Welcome to 21st Century America, where everything is needlessly time-consuming, expensive, stupid, or (most likely) all three. The timing “all depends on factors that are still mostly unknown,” the AP explained. “They range from the design of the new bridge to how swiftly government officials can navigate the bureaucracy of approving permits and awarding contracts.”

Let me help you out on this one, fellas. You have the original plans stashed somewhere, I’m sure. Those plans have already been run through the bureaucratic torture test — and the bridge stood without any problems for almost 50 years until a massive container ship struck one of its vitals. So just get started ASAP building the same bridge, but with concrete “dolphins” or fenders around the new supporting piers to avoid future disasters like the one that collapsed the original.

X thread.

• Why I Don’t Spend A Lot Of Time On The Republicans (Matt Taibbi)

1) There is a enormous army of MSM reporters already going after them from every angle, with most major news organizations little more than proxies for the DNC, to the point where stations hire Biden spokespeople as anchors;

2) The Republicans have very little institutional power nationally. It’s not their point of view prevailing in schools, on campuses, in newsrooms (where over 90% of working reporters vote blue), and especially in the intelligence and military apparatus, which has openly aligned itself with Democrats. Even if Donald Trump were a “threat to Democracy” he lacks the institutional pull to do much damage, which can’t be said of Democrats;

3) The Democrats’ ambitions are significantly more dangerous than those of the Republicans. From digital surveillance to censorship to making Intel and enforcement agencies central players in domestic governance — all plans being executed globally as well as in our one country — they are thinking on a much bigger and more dangerous scale than Republicans. I lived in third world countries and the endless criminal indictments of people like Trump and ongoing lawfare efforts to prevent even third party challenges are classic authoritarian symptoms. The Republicans aren’t near this kind of capability;

4) Last and most important, the Democrats are being organized around a more potent but also much dumber, more cultlike ideology. People like Yuval Harari and his Transhumanist “divinity” concept scare me a lot more than the Rs, and I was once undercover in an apocalyptic church in Texas. Ask your average Russian or Cuban what overempowered pseudo-intellectuals are capable of.

I have a pretty good record of picking dangerous phenomena ahead of time. I feel confident on this one, and that’s before we get to the demographic/class shifts in the parties.

Guyana

A must watch!

This is my hero!

He is Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana. #Oil #Guyana pic.twitter.com/j0KAwRwWgr

— Anas Alhajji (@anasalhajji) March 29, 2024

Deer
https://twitter.com/i/status/1773819922860388366

Elephant

After seeing this I realized that Elephants are more powerful than i imagined. pic.twitter.com/uo8JIfLLdA

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 29, 2024

Welcome
https://twitter.com/i/status/1773524476275405285

Girl dog
https://twitter.com/i/status/1773472621767573579

Best friend
https://twitter.com/i/status/1773609345449664745

Smol
https://twitter.com/i/status/1773404943745184144

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