Apr 292025
 


Piet Mondriaan Trees by the Gein at Moonrise 1908

 

Stop the Digital Control Grid – Catherine Austin Fitts (USAW)
David Sacks Warns DOGE Will All Be For Nothing, Unless… (ZH)
Russians ‘Are Not Our Enemy’ – Trump Adviser David Sacks (RT)
Ukraine Won’t Win – J.D. Vance (RT)
Ukraine Eyes Teens And Women As Cannon Fodder (RT)
Forget Land – This Is Russia’s Main Demand From The West (Lukyanov)
Putin Announces 72-hour Victory Day Ceasefire (RT)
Ukraine Issues Ceasefire Demand To Russia (RT)
Ukraine Shows No Sign It Is Ready To Talk – Kremlin (RT)
Canadians Should Expect Disaster With Carney In Charge (ZH)
Federal District Courts Piling on Injunctions to Stop Trump (Turley)
Now You Know (James Howard Kunstler)
America Funded China’s Rise (Morrison)
Liberals Loathe Arrival of ‘MAGA Media’ Inside the White House (DS)
Make America Healthy Again Movement Extends Beyond RFK Jr (ET)
A HUGE Win for the Make America Healthy Again Movement (Margolis)
Robots Will Outperform Human Surgeons In Five Years – Musk (RT)

 

 

 

 

Don’t miss

Homan

Bessent
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1916879751240630535

Zel

19

 

 

 

 

She lost me a few years ago when she was endlessly talking about HUD. But this is good.

Two video’s. She was on Tucker Carlson too.

“Stop with the control grid, and we can do this. . . . If we can face it, God can fix it all.”

Stop the Digital Control Grid – Catherine Austin Fitts (USAW)

Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), publisher of “The Solari Report,” is back to update us about the “Fast-Approaching Digital Control Grid.” (CAF) told us last time here on USAW, “There is no bigger ongoing battle for lovers of freedom than the battle taking place over the freedom killing idea of digital ID.” But it’s more that just ID, it’s an entire control grid that is being quietly built that is like a frog being put into pot and the water being brought to a boil. CAF explains, “You know our goal at Solari is each person has a free and inspired life. So, we have been working for several years to stop financial transaction control. If you get the ability to track each person and control their transactions, so if they don’t do what you say, they can turn off your money.

That is game over for the Constitution and for human liberty. If you look at how the control grid is coming together, there are many different pieces. There is digital ID, all digital currency or transaction system to a social credit system to the management to certain kinds of data and back-up energy. There are many different pieces. We look at the pieces, and we look at them as one-off things such as, oh, I don’t mind having a ‘Real ID’ because I can see why they might want a federal ID, or a passport or whatever. Each one of these things looks nonthreatening and even convenient, but when they snap together, they are in a control grid, and it’s completely something else. When Trump was elected, I was shocked to see, almost immediately, the President announce the Stargate AI initiative with the mRNA vaccines, which to me is the internet of bodies.”

CAF put together a long list of Trump Administration actions that are speeding up what looks like a control grid. It’s called “The Fast-Approaching Digital Control Grid.” It lists things such as crypto friendly currency actions, private Central Bank Digital Currency, shrinking banking sector, DOGE, undisclosed Epstein files and many more red flag items that could be used to allow crime to continue and build a digital prison for “We the People.” While the Trump Administration brings change at a record pace, not a single thing has been done to find out about the “$21 Trillion Missing Money” that has been well documented by CAF and Michigan State Professor Dr. Mark Skidmore. The money has been stolen from America, and the silence about this is deafening.

CAF says, “We know there has been tremendous fraud in the financials of the US government. We know that has happened. If you look at all the things that you or I would do to figure out what had happened, where the money went and how do we get it back, that’s not what they are doing. . . . If you look at how we would do a successful operation to reengineer government and identify the real fraud and stop it, I don’t see any indication that they are doing that. I do see some selected efforts that are probably sincere. . . . They are shutting things down lots of us would like to see shut down. . . . We know how to stop the death and disabilities that come from the Covid 19 vax injection, but you go the CDC website, and they are still recommending the Covid injections.”

The massive crime going on with government accounting makes it necessary for the control grid. CAF explains, “What happened in the last Trump Administration is they adopted FASAB 56. FASAB 56 basically said they could take the books of the US government dark. A secret group of people, by a secret process, could remove operations from the financial statement, and they don’t have to tell people what they removed. So, we have no idea what is in the financials. . . . This includes the big banks and contractors who do business with the government. So, looking at the US stock market and bond market, I have no idea what is true or not. . . . We are flying blind.”

CAF still likes gold for an investment. She is also very bullish on silver as it takes about 100 ounces of silver to buy a single ounce of gold. The gold/silver ratio is at record spreads. CAF says, “At some point, the gold/silver ratio will revert to something more sensible.” In closing, CAF says, “Everyone tell your Senator and Congressman and President Trump on X or Truth Social stop the control grid. Stop with the control grid, and we can do this. . . . If we can face it, God can fix it all.”

Tucker CAF

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Time for Congress to step up.

David Sacks Warns DOGE Will All Be For Nothing, Unless… (ZH)

AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks warns that Elon Musk’s efforts to expose waste and abuse at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may be futile unless Congress significantly reduces federal spending. “What we really need is for Congress to now embrace all of the corruption that Elon has found and eliminate it from the budget, because at the end of the day, in order to capture the savings here, we do need those appropriations eliminated from the budget,” Sacks said on the All-In podcast. Sacks warned that the real danger isn’t Musk backing down, but Congress slipping back into its entrenched pattern of reckless spending. “These old bulls in Congress who control the appropriations process—are they going to basically backslide and just put the spending back in because it’s easier to engage in this logrolling, or do we take advantage of this?” he asked.

Sacks emphasized the immense personal cost Musk has borne to reveal systemic corruption, citing the widespread protests targeting Tesla properties. “This has cost him enormously. One of the reasons why Tesla is down is because you’ve had crazy leftists engaging in terrorism, firebombing Tesla dealerships,” the Trump official said. “We’ve basically learned that this whole NGO thing is a giant scam where the people in government give enormous amounts of money to their friends, probably with the expectation that when they leave government, they’re going to be next in line at the trough.” Since Musk took the helm at DOGE, Tesla has been under siege from a wave of protests and brazen acts of vandalism across the U.S. and beyond, with far-left activists resorting to arson, gunfire, and defacing dealerships, vehicles, and charging stations with hateful graffiti.

The so-called “Tesla Takedown” movement has orchestrated demonstrations at hundreds of Tesla locations, pushing an anti-DOGE agenda to tank Musk’s company by calling for mass sell-offs of Tesla stock and boycotts of the brand. Sacks then stressed that while Musk has laid bare the government’s dysfunction, without decisive action from Congress to slash spending, his efforts risk being squandered. “Elon’s done an enormous service exposing this. But it’s not entirely up to him. In order for us to realize the benefit, we need Congress now to act on that. I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” he warned.

In March, President Donald Trump threw his support behind a rescission package to implement major spending cuts spearheaded by DOGE. “It would be great. I think we’re going to do that,” Trump told reporters. According to a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) obtained by the New York Post, the administration is pushing two proposals to slash $9.3 billion. “The first includes a rescission of $8.3 billion in wasteful foreign aid spending (out of $22 billion) that does not expire in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The second is a separate rescission of all Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — which funds the politically biased public radio and public television system,” the Post said.

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“Russians are not our enemy. We shouldn’t be helping to kill them..”

Russians ‘Are Not Our Enemy’ – Trump Adviser David Sacks (RT)

The White House crypto csar has rejected the notion that Ukraine is aiding the United States against its enemies by fighting Russia. Kiev has consistently asserted that it is “defending” Western nations from Russia. Vladimir Zelensky reiterated the point in a recent interview with conservative journalist Ben Shapiro, where he urged the US to act as an arms supplier rather than a diplomatic mediator and stating that Ukrainians “are fighting against your enemies, the Russians.” “Russians are not our enemy. We shouldn’t be helping to kill them,” countered David Sacks, a venture entrepreneur and White House advisor on crypto and artificial intelligence, who responded on social media on Sunday to a clip from the interview.

Sacks has long criticized US support for Kiev, characterizing it as an attempt to transform the Ukraine conflict into a “forever war.” Zelensky has argued that modern Russia shares the same agenda as the former USSR and considers the US its “main enemy.” He accused Moscow of collaborating with Tehran and Pyongyang to undermine American interests. Conversely, he stated that Kiev views the US as a “strategic partner” and “friend.” However, he cautioned that any attempts to pressure Ukrainians could “turn them around very quickly.”

US President Donald Trump has claimed that Zelensky has undermined his efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Kiev and Moscow by publicly dismissing his proposals. In their latest meeting, held on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral last Saturday, the Ukrainian leader requested more weapons, the US president told the media, adding that “he has been saying that for three years.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told CBS last week that Moscow is interested in a relationship with the US which is based on “an equal, mutually respectful dialogue heading to finding a balance of interest.” With that approach, “everything is possible,” he added.

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“You could have millions of more people killed if this thing goes on for another few years, and it could risk escalating into a nuclear war. It has to stop…”

Ukraine Won’t Win – J.D. Vance (RT)

Ukraine is not poised to win the conflict with Russia, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said. He added that it was naive to expect Russia’s collapse if the fighting continues for several more years. “If this doesn’t stop, the Ukrainians aren’t winning the war,” Vance said during an interview on conservative organizer Charlie Kirk’s podcast on Monday. “I think there’s this weird idea among the mainstream media that if this thing goes on for just another few years, the Russians will collapse, the Ukrainians will take their territory back, and everything will go back to the way that it was before the war. That is not the reality that we live in,” the vice president said.

“You could have millions of more people killed if this thing goes on for another few years, and it could risk escalating into a nuclear war. It has to stop,” Vance added. He also said that, despite the challenges of dealing with both sides, American negotiators were “making progress.” “Sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with Ukrainians. Sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with the Russians,” Vance said. “And sometimes you just want to throw your hands up, but that’s what President Trump doesn’t let us do.”

Vance’s remarks came as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian troops would observe a three-day ceasefire starting on May 8, marking the celebrations of victory in World War II. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky responded by accusing Moscow of “manipulation” and called for an immediate 30-day ceasefire. According to Russia, Ukraine violated both the 30-day ‘energy truce’ brokered by the US last month and the 30-hour Easter truce, despite having promised to respect both arrangements. Putin has argued that, for a comprehensive ceasefire to succeed, Ukraine must halt its mobilization campaign and the West must stop delivering weapons to Kiev.

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This is what it’s come to. This is what we support. Since at least 2014. Trump can say it’s Obama/Biden’s war, but he’s not exactly fully innocent. Repair it now.

Ukraine Eyes Teens And Women As Cannon Fodder (RT)

As Ukraine’s manpower crisis deepens, Kiev is resorting to increasingly desperate measures to fill the thinning ranks of its army. With conscription drives failing and volunteer numbers dwindling, authorities are now preparing to force ever-broader sections of the population – including women and barely adult men – into the front lines. Despite brutal mobilization efforts, Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) remain critically understaffed. Even aggressive recruitment campaigns and tightening draft laws have failed to produce the needed surge in enlistments. Now the government is moving toward slashing the minimum conscription age from 25 to just 18 – sending teenagers straight into a bloody and grinding conflict. At the same time, serious discussions are underway about mobilizing women en masse, a step that would mark a historic escalation in Kiev’s attempts to prolong the war.

Interest in military service is declining sharply, especially among the youth. In mid-April, Pavel Palisa, deputy head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, revealed that fewer than 500 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 24 had enlisted – and currently, those under 25 are not subject to mandatory mobilization. Two months earlier, Ukraine had launched a new initiative offering 18 to 24-year-olds the option of contract service. Rolled out on February 11, this program offered recruits a contract bonus of one million hryvnias (around $24,000), monthly salaries up to 120,000 hryvnias, and other perks in a desperate bid to bolster AFU numbers. Since then, other military branches – including the navy, airborne forces, National Guard, and border troops – have opened their ranks to young contractors. Yet even with financial incentives on the table, recruitment remains sluggish.

Palisa admitted that the current conscription system is outdated and hinders mobilization efforts. He stressed that Ukraine has “a huge mobilization resource” but that the system in place prevents it from being effectively tapped. “In my opinion, we have more people available than we need for specific tasks at the front. The mechanism simply isn’t efficient,” he said, calling for sweeping reforms in recruitment and organization. However, as Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, pointed out in a conversation with RT, such optimistic estimates are little more than wishful thinking. In reality, Ukraine’s main mobilization base has long since fled the country. Official figures show over six million Ukrainian refugees registered across the European Union and more than two million in Russia. But according to Zharikhin, the true numbers are likely even higher.

“Roughly eight million have gone to Europe, about three million to Russia – that’s close to a quarter of Ukraine’s prewar population,” he explained. “In other words, Kiev isn’t drafting from the 50-plus million people who lived in Ukraine around the time of the Soviet collapse. It’s choosing from the 20-odd million who remain today. That’s why we’re seeing serious discussions about mobilizing yesterday’s schoolboys, women, and anyone else they can find.” Speaking about the dismal turnout among 18 to 25-year-olds, Palisa said that while many initially expressed interest, very few ultimately signed contracts. “People agreed in principle, but when it came to signing, they backed out,” he said. “Sometimes it was their parents’ influence; sometimes they believed peace was just around the corner. There are a lot of reasons.”

Former Ukrainian MP Vladimir Oleinik told RT that aggressive recruitment campaigns painted an overly rosy picture, falsely suggesting that enlistees would quickly become millionaires. Reality, however, tells a different story. Recruits receive 200,000 hryvnias, upfront, another 300,000 after completing training, and the remaining 500,000 only after their contracts end. “Parents would often take their sons to cemeteries, showing them the flags on soldiers’ graves,” Oleinik said. “Under these contracts, recruits must serve at least six months on the front lines – and everyone knows what the survival rate is.”

Nuland

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Military security. Leave us alone.

Forget Land – This Is Russia’s Main Demand From The West (Lukyanov)

Everyone is expecting news on a Ukrainian settlement this week. The diplomatic activity is real and intense, and the visible signs suggest something significant is underway. There is little point in trying to guess which of the leaked plans are genuine and which are misinformation. What is clear is that Russia is being offered a choice between “a bird in the hand and two in the bush.” The trouble is, the elements necessary for any sustainable agreement are still scattered among the various birds. Currently, discussions naturally revolve around territory. This is a sensitive subject, particularly since the territories under consideration are already under Russian control. The bird’s wings are clipped, however: legal recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over these lands seems unrealistic, at least in the near term. De facto recognition, with a pledge not to attempt to return them by force, could be the achievable result. In today’s global atmosphere, it is naive to view any legal agreement as genuinely final.

Yet territory was not the true cause of this conflict. The deeper issue was decades of unresolved security contradictions. ‘Demilitarization’ – so prominently featured in Russia’s original demands – encompasses both Ukraine’s neutral status and the broader limitation of its military capabilities, whether through curtailing domestic production, cutting off external supplies, or reducing existing forces. This demand is far from cosmetic. Fulfillment would overturn the international order that has reigned since the end of the Cold War – an order based on NATO’s unchecked expansion across Europe and Eurasia, without regard for Moscow’s objections. The military campaign thus became a way of exercising a “veto” that the West had long denied Russia. True demilitarization of Ukraine would, in effect, force international recognition of that veto. But many in the West remain unwilling to accept such a precedent.

As discussions have moved toward territorial issues, the central problem of military security seems to have been relegated to the background. Perhaps US President DonaldTrump’s administration – more skeptical of NATO itself – views it as less fundamental. Or perhaps it simply finds it easier to force Ukraine to cede territory than to make Western Europe recognize Russia’s security rights. Nevertheless, for Moscow, military security remains a matter of principle. Even if Washington offers major concessions – lifting sanctions, formalizing territorial changes – Russia cannot abandon this core demand. This creates a divergence in diplomatic tempo. Washington wants a quick deal; the Kremlin believes that haste will not produce a reliable settlement. Yet Moscow also knows that the political stars – especially in Washington – have aligned in a uniquely favorable way, and it does not want to miss the moment.

The outcome will be known soon enough. However, some important lessons from history should be remembered. First, achieving political goals often takes more than one campaign. A pause in fighting is not necessarily a resolution.Second, there is no such thing as an open-ended, unchangeable agreement. If a deal does not truly satisfy all parties, it will eventually collapse. The struggle will resume – though not necessarily through military means.Third, Ukraine is only one piece of a much larger process of global transformation in which Russia intends to play a central role. These changes are already underway, and will continue to deepen. Reaching some degree of understanding with the United States is important. Interestingly, the NATO issue might resolve itself over time, not because of Russian pressure but due to the alliance’s own growing irrelevance. But for now, that remains a matter for the future. In the immediate term, Russia faces a choice between the imperfect birds on offer – and must weigh carefully which to catch and which to let fly.

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Maybe the West should recognize what Victory Day means to Russia. Instead of erasing 26 million dead from history.

Putin Announces 72-hour Victory Day Ceasefire (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict for three days in honor of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The truce will last from May 8 to May 10th, the Kremlin has said. Putin is said to have announced the ceasefire based on “humanitarian considerations” and has ordered the suspension of all military action against Ukraine’s forces from midnight on May 7-8 to midnight on May 10-11. The Kremlin noted that Moscow expects the Ukrainian side to abide by the truce and warned that if Kiev’s forces violate it, the Russian military will give an “adequate and effective response.” “The Russian side once again declares its readiness for peace talks without preconditions, aimed at eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis, and for constructive interaction with international partners,” the Kremlin’s message concluded.

Putin previously declared a truce for Easter that started at 6pm on April 19 and lasted throughout April 20. The Russian Defense Ministry later said that while the Ukrainian side had violated the ceasefire several thousand times, the general level of military activity had significantly decreased across the front line. During a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff last week, the Russian president also reaffirmed that Moscow is ready to hold unconditional peace talks with Kiev. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has reportedly promised not to walk away from the Ukraine peace process. He had previously warned that Washington could abandon its efforts to mediate if it did not see progress in negotiations.

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The western press claims Russia violated its own last ceasefire. The Russian press does not. “Oh, that’s just propaganda!” Really? Which one?

Ukraine Issues Ceasefire Demand To Russia (RT)

Ukraine has criticized Russia’s announcement of a three-day ceasefire in May timed to coincide with the celebration of the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazism. Earlier on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a 72-hour ceasefire which will last from midnight on May 7-8 to midnight on May 10-11. It follows a similar unilateral pause during the Easter weekend. “If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga responded on X. He claimed that the Russian move was not “real” but rather “just for a parade.” “Ukraine is ready to support a lasting, durable, and full ceasefire. And this is what we are constantly proposing, for at least 30 days,” he added. The Russian military previously observed a 30-day moratorium on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which US President Donald Trump had proposed to Putin. According to Moscow, Kiev did not reciprocate despite publicly claiming support for the initiative.

The Easter ceasefire announced by Moscow was only partially successful, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which said there was a decrease in the intensity of Ukrainian attacks but not a full lull. When Putin ordered the measure, he instructed Russian forces only to engage Ukrainian troops in retaliation. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Russia’s failure to meet his demand for an unconditional 30-day truce proves that it does not want peace. Putin has pointed out that Kiev could use such a pause for rearmament and reinforcement rather than to engage in serious negotiations. Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that direct talks between Moscow and Kiev currently remain impossible due to a legal ban on such engagements issued by Zelensky in 2022.

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By their law, Zelensky still can’t talk to Putin.

Ukraine Shows No Sign It Is Ready To Talk – Kremlin (RT)

Ukraine is failing to take the necessary steps to initiate direct negotiations with Russia, while Moscow remains ready to engage at any time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Vladimir Zelensky prohibited direct bilateral talks in October 2022 for as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in office, asserting that the moratorium was necessary to “stop separatism” purportedly stemming from backchannel communications with Moscow not controlled by his administration. ”At the very least, Kiev needs to act, given its judicial ban” on talks, Peskov reminded journalists during a briefing on Monday.

Putin has repeatedly stated that Russia is prepared to commence negotiations with Ukraine “without any preconditions, aiming to pave the way for peace,” the official added. Indirect contacts between Kiev and Moscow have continued on some issues, such as prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of fallen soldiers. US President Donald Trump has criticized Zelensky for undermining his mediation efforts by publicly opposing ideas, reportedly included in a Washington-proposed peace plan. The two leaders had a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in the Vatican on Saturday.

“He told me that he needs more weapons, but he has been saying that for three years,” Trump said, recounting the engagement. “I want them to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal.” While Moscow has questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy since the conclusion of his presidential term last year, it does not view his removal from power as a goal in the conflict. However, Russia has concerns that “if an agreement were signed with Zelensky today, people could come forward later in Ukraine and legally challenge,” Peskov told the French media last week. Zelensky claims presidential powers, citing martial law that he first imposed in 2022.

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Mere weeks ago, the liberals polled just 10-20%. Then Canadian politics and media hit on Trump. Carney is a WEF globalist., worse than Trudy.

Canadians Should Expect Disaster With Carney In Charge (ZH)

Justin Trudeau’s far-left regime in Canada has finally come to an end as the politician exits leadership in disgrace. His legacy includes authoritarian governance during the pandemic, whereby he threw Christian church goers and pastors in prison for refusing to stop congregations. He called for mass forced vaccinations, and he locked the bank accounts of protesters speaking out against the covid mandates. His admin compared people donating to the cause to “terrorists”. His socialist economic policies helped to exacerbate Canada’s inflation crisis and his open immigration policies greatly expanded the the flood of third-world foreigners, driving up housing prices, crushing the labor market and straining social services. By most accounts, the majority of Canadians were ecstatic to see Trudeau exit the stage. But what if they still haven’t learned their lesson? How is that even possible?

According to recent polls for the 2025 election set for April 28th, it is likely that Canadians have very short memories or they’re gluttons for punishment. Why? Because Mark Carney and the Liberal Party are projected to make considerable gains. Carney has rebranded himself as a “centrist” in order to win public favor, but nothing could be further from the truth. Mark Carney is, in fact, worse than Trudeau on every level. What should Canadians expect under a Carney regime? More mass immigration, not less. Higher inflation and a suffocating housing market. Increasing political and economic tensions with the US, which Canada is dependent on for 75% of its export market (and there is no replacement). Policies pressuring Canadians into a cashless system. The detrimental institution of carbon controls and climate change rules for industry and energy. And, even less national sovereignty as Canada is made more beholden to the EU.

Lets start with immigration… While Carney claims he wants caps on immigration, his advisor choices suggest Canadians will get more of the same. The central banker has tapped Mark Wiseman, co-founder of the Century Initiative lobby group as part of his policy council. The Century Initiative under the former BlackRock executive publicly endorsed the Trudeau government’s moves to take in 500,000 new immigrants per year by 2025. It should be noted that as Canada increased immigration their economy suffered exponential decline. Between 2015 and 2024, Canada’s ranking in the Human Development Index plummeted from 9th to 18th, while the country fell behind Italy in the average growth of real GDP per capita. Canada’s housing market and social services are essentially broken. And how about individual freedom?

It’s no secret that the Liberal Party widely supported the lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations. However, where did Carney stand on the issue? Carney acted as an “informal adviser” to Trudeau throughout the covid event and supported the mandates wholeheartedly. In an opinion article for The Globe And Mail titled ‘It’s Time To End The Sedition In Ottawa By Enforcing The Law And Following The Money’, Carney wrote in reference to the Trucker Protests against the mandates: “No one should have any doubt…This is sedition. That’s a word I never thought I’d use in Canada. It means incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.” “The constant blaring of horns at all hours, the harassment of people, the culture of fear have been making residents’ lives hell, will bankrupt our businesses and if left unchecked would help achieve the Convoy’s goal of undermining our democracy…Anyone sending money to the Convoy should be in no doubt: you are funding sedition. Foreign funders of an insurrection interfered in our domestic affairs.”

These are the words of an authoritarian, using “democracy” as a cover to institute a sweeping crackdown on public freedoms. Where does Carney stand on the economy? Mark Carney is a long time Davo elitist, and as such he is an adherent of Klaus Schwab’s “4th Industrial Revolution” theory and the concept of the “Great Reset”. Specifically, Carney is an avid champion of the WEF’s climate change agenda and their efforts to make “climate consciousness” inseparable from business culture. Meaning, Carney will undoubtedly bury Canada in climate controls and carbon taxes, snuffing out their industry and energy base just as the globalists have been doing in Europe. Furthermore, Carney is deeply involved in the push for national and global Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

In his 2021 book ‘Values”, Carney calls for revolutionary centralization of the global monetary system and the launch of CBDCs as the new standard. He has actively campaigned against cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and any form of decentralized money, claiming instead that the future requires a global digital currency to replace the dollar system (NOTE: Carney did not come up with this idea, this has been a ongoing plan within the BIS and IMF for decades). “If properly designed, a CBDC could serve all the functions to which private cryptocurrencies and stablecoins aspire while addressing the fundamental legal and governance issues that will, in time, undermine those alternatives…” At bottom, Carney is calling for a cashless society controlled by the banking oligarchy. Without cash or an independent form of trade, all personal economic freedom dies. Carney licks his chops over this prospect when he states (in reference to the covid crisis):

“With fear on the march, people were willing to surrender to Hobbes’ ‘Leviathan’ such basic rights as the freedom to leave their homes. And so it is with money. People will support the delegation to independent central banks of the tough decisions that are necessary to maintain the value of money provided the authorities deliver monetary and financial stability…” This is not the man Canadians should be voting for if they have any interest in changing the current Orwellian path their country is on. Critics claim that it’s Donald Trump’s tariffs that are to blame for the shift in the polls in Carney’s favor. Yet, if Carney is elected he would be the most disastrous choice in negotiating a settlement with the US. The situation will only become more ugly for Canada in every way. This is not a “new boss, same as the old boss” scenario. Carney is far higher up on the totem pole of degradation than Trudeau and much more devious.

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Turley no longer states that the system is working so great.

Federal District Courts Piling on Injunctions to Stop Trump (Turley)

“Here we are again.” Those words of Senior U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick may be the only uncontested line in his opinion this week, enjoining the Trump Administration from withholding federal funds to “sanctuary jurisdictions.” In President Trump’s first term, efforts to implement sweeping changes on immigration and other issues were met by a slew of injunctions. In 2017, one of those orders was from Judge Orrick, an Obama appointee in San Francisco. Trump has already faced a record number of national injunctions by district courts. His administration has objected to forum- and judge-shopping by political opponents by bringing the majority of such challenges in overwhelmingly Democratic states like California. Such injunctions did not exist at the founding, and only relatively recently became the rage among district court judges.

Under President George W. Bush, there were only six such injunctions, which increased to 12 under Obama. Both Democratic and Republican presidents have complained about district judges tying down presidents like so many judicial Lilliputians. However, when Trump came to office, the taste for national injunctions became a full-fledged addiction. Trump faced 64 such orders in his first term. When Biden and the Democrats returned to office, it fell back to 14. That was not due to more modest measures. Biden did precisely what Trump did in seeking to negate virtually all of his predecessors’ orders and then seek sweeping new legal reforms. He was repeatedly found to have violated the Constitution, but there was no torrent of preliminary injunctions at the start of his term. Now, however, with less than 100 days in office, Trump 2.0 has already surpassed that number for the entirety of Biden’s term.

The Supreme Court bears some of the blame for this. Although a majority of justices, including liberal Justice Elena Kagan, have complained about district courts’ issuance of national injunctions, the high court has done little to rein in district court judges. On May 15, the justices are poised to consider the issue in a case involving birthright citizenship. Many hope that the justices will bring what they have consistently failed to supply to lower courts: clarity and finality. Some judges have already seen their stays lifted by appellate courts. However, in just one day this week, three more major injunctions were issued on sanctuary cities, voter registration, and deportations. Some of these orders appear premature and overbroad. Take Judge Orrick’s order. Again, Trump is targeting cities offering sanctuary to unlawful immigrants as imposing high costs on the country, including increasing burdens for federal programs and grants to these cities.

Orrick previously stopped that effort in the first Trump term, and he was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. However, the orders are not identical, and so far no action has been taken against these cities. Under one of the orders, titled “Protecting the American People against Invasion,” Trump has ordered the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to “evaluate and undertake any lawful actions to ensure that so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds.” Orrick noted that the term “sanctuary jurisdiction” was not defined and dismissed the express reservation that such actions can only proceed to the extent that they are allowed under law.

The irony is that the opinion itself is overly broad and imprecise. There are indeed cases limiting the ability of the federal government to “commandeer” states and cities into carrying out federal functions. However, there are also cases upholding the right to withhold federal funds that contravene federal laws and policies. The operative language in the order is the focus on sanctuary policies that “interfere” or prevent federal enforcement. There must be some accommodation for the federal government in refusing to pay for the rope that it will hang by.

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“Being mean or telling the truth is indistinguishable to far too many people.” —Mike Thompson on X

Now You Know (James Howard Kunstler)

Woke liberalism is exactly what Christopher Lasch predicted in The Revolt of the Elites, published in 1995 the year after his early death at 61. Lasch saw how the juvenile idealism of Boomer hippiedom would slide into the narcissistic, sado-masochistic degeneracy of open borders, drag queen story hours, Covid-19 despotism, DEI racism, showbiz Satanism, censorship, forever wars, and now, the legal insurrection of lawfare. In doing so, Lasch also predicted the “mass formation psychosis” described by Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet, spawned by a crisis of meaning and purpose in the thinking classes of Western Civ. And now you know exactly how come a place like Boston, with its concentration of “elites” in universities, computer tech, and medical research displays a batshit-crazy dedication to ideas bent on destroying our political culture: the American republic.

The word republic derives from the Latin, res publica: the public thing, the idea of a state dedicated to the common good. By “state” you can infer both a group of people in a certain place, but also the set of conditions they dwell in. You can’t have a common good without a common culture, which means a general agreement among citizens on values in that certain place — which is our country, the USA. You can’t overstate the importance of shared ideas and values in that enterprise of being a nation, we-the-people in our particular place. The juvenile idealism of Boomer hippiedom wrecked the crucial idea of a common culture, and I will tell you exactly how that happened. Two crusades: first, the civil rights campaign, and second, stopping the War in Vietnam, defined the era.

The first of these climaxed in twin landmark legislative acts designed to abolish Jim Crow racism: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination in public places, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited unfair obstacles to voting. The idealism in that moment of history was extreme. The dominant old-school Liberal ethos displayed a sense of triumph. Its cardinal belief in human progress was validated in the new law-of-the-land. We were supposedly entering a utopia of racial harmony. It proved to be a huge disappointment, a failure. In some fundamental ways, black and white America could not agree on certain values, especially language and behavior. These matters were so hypersensitive that discussing them became taboo, and when someone dared to — such as the rogue journalist Tom Wolfe in his book Radical Chic, which made fun of the cultural elites trying to socialize with the Black Panthers — he was buried in the most extreme censorious opprobrium by the elite good-thinkers of politics, academia, and the cultural media. They couldn’t believe old Tom dove clear through the Overton Window the way he did, head first.

In fact, a big segment of black America after 1965 became much more overtly separatist and oppositional, while white America became more frantically confounded and depressed by it. The result was the elite’s solution to that quandary: multiculturalism! Which basically meant: we don’t need a common culture in the USA. (We don’t need an agreement about values, language, and behavior.) Each group in America can have its own menu of these things. This accomplished two ends: it allowed criminal behavior to explode; and it allowed the elites to excuse themselves from any serious further attempts to manage the res publica. The people of the ghettos were free to do their thing; while the elites turned their full attention to Boomer careerism and Gordon Gecko style financial moneygrubbing.

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“..If we use the low estimate and do not adjust for inflation, the value of stolen technology would be at least $5.4 trillion.”

America Funded China’s Rise (Morrison)

The free trade brigade obsesses over economic minutiae—they cry that tariffs will raise the cost of plastic spatulas by 50 cents! What a disaster! Who cares? The reality is that trade with China is not in America’s interests because it funds our greatest rival. Here’s how America funded China’s rise, and why tariffs will help keep America safe and free. A Dragon Fed: How America Funded China’s Rise. Economists say freer trade benefits everyone—even trade with China. America gets cheap goods and China gets money. Win-win. Even if we assume America benefits, which is a false assumption as proven in my book Reshore, China has clearly benefited more. For example, China’s economy has grown by an average of 8.12% since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001—about four times greater than America’s. China and America benefited asymmetrically from trade.

Asymmetry may not be a problem economically, but it is a problem politically. Why? Power is zero-sum. The stronger China grows, the weaker America becomes relative to China. As such, trade with China is also a political issue. The question we should be asking ourselves is whether cheap goods are worth surrendering America’s political dominance. To be clear, trade is not the only way that America has funded China’s rise. There are three primary ways that America enriches and empowers China: investment, trade, and theft. First, America invested directly in China by building factories—offshoring 60,000 factories does not come cheap. The total value of American investment in China is unknown. According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, cumulative foreign direct investment (“FDI”) totalled $2.7 trillion in 2023. Just 2.1% of this investment was categorized as American.

The reason that this amount is so low is because American investment is usually routed through intermediaries, mostly Hong Kong, Singapore, and the British Virgin Islands. This is why Hong Kong—a city smaller than Shanghai—owns 68% of FDI in China. Not coincidentally, Hong Kong is a major recipient of FDI from the U.S. and from the British Virgin Islands—a tiny banking archipelago that is itself capitalized by the U.S. and the City of London. Because of this shell game, we cannot know the actual amount American companies have invested in China, but if we assume that FDI correlates with the relative size of China’s trade surpluses, then America’s investments total $972 billion. This estimate is probably low. Why? China runs trade surpluses with countries that clearly contributed no investment, such as most countries in Africa and the Middle East. Given the level of economic integration, I would hazard an estimate that most FDI ultimately originated in America or the City of London, funneled through their banking havens.

Second, America indirectly funded China’s rise through the trade deficit, buying more Chinese goods than we sold. The cumulative trade deficit with China since 2001 is roughly $6 trillion, after accounting for inflation. Not only were the Chinese able to spend these profits, but they were also able to borrow against the revenue, greatly multiplying their access to capital. Third, China has stolen an almost unquantifiable amount of American technology. In 2017, the Office of the United States Trade Representative estimated that China steals intellectual property worth between $225 and $600 billion per year, more than the value of the annual trade deficit. If we use the low estimate and do not adjust for inflation, the value of stolen technology would be at least $5.4 trillion.

Interestingly, the above numbers actually undervalue the quantity of this theft. Why? Because most of the technological and IP outflows are not stolen in a traditional sense. For example, the main vector of technological transfer is via Chinese companies using their profits from the trade deficit to buy shares in American companies, at which point they own the technology. Currently, foreigners own 17% of American equities, and the number is growing. The other vector is through Sino-American corporate partnerships. Basically, American companies that build factories in China are forced to partner with a local Chinese company, a corporate clone. The plant is staffed by Chinese workers, who are taught America’s industrial processes and how to replicate American technology.

Providing China access to American technology is actually the price to enter China’s market—American companies cannot operate in China without giving up their technological and industrial secrets. Yet they do it anyways because the Chinese make it worth their while. In my view, the value of America’s stolen technology was priceless. Remember, mainland China’s economy was largely preindustrial—about as productive and technologically advanced as the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. Now, China has reached technological parity with the U.S. Theft allowed China to skip 200 years of technological and economic development. America funded China’s rise. This has not only impoverished America, but it has also ended America’s superpower era. We now live in a multipolar world, bought and paid for by America’s corrupt politicians and Wall Street.

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“..the divide between the MAGA-friendly media and their more mainstream counterparts.” The extreme hatred of Trump is “more mainstream.”

Liberals Loathe Arrival of ‘MAGA Media’ Inside the White House (DS)

The New York Times recently published a hissy fit about the White House allowing reporters into the Briefing Room who didn’t vote for Kamala Harris. Here was the amazing protest sentence: “Longtime White House reporters say the result has been an erosion of their independence.” The presence of a reporter who didn’t vote Democrat doesn’t “erode” the anti-Trump animus (“independence”) of liberal activist journalists. It might balance it, suggesting journalism and liberalism are not exactly the same thing. This spurred a trend. Politico’s Ian Ward profiled these invaders under the headline “Meet the 8 MAGA Outlets Disrupting the White House Briefing Room.” It carried the usual labeling about “the divide between the MAGA-friendly media and their more mainstream counterparts.” The extreme hatred of Trump is “more mainstream.”

Then came CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, who loves to wade into MAGA crowds, trying to find the dumbest-sounding Trump supporter he can find. In this case, he went looking for the dumbest-sounding White House reporter. The headline over the video was “‘Do you consider yourself a journalist?’ CNN meets MAGA media at White House.” O’Sullivan showed clips of these pro-Trump reporters admitting their bias, and he proclaimed, “These are White House correspondents like you’ve never seen before.” Really? He spotlighted Cara Castronuova of Lindell TV asking if they’ll release Trump’s fitness routine, since he “actually looks healthier than ever before.” In 2009, a Washington Post reporter touted Barack Obama’s “chiseled pectorals.” Then O’Sullivan replayed Real America’s Voice reporter Brian Glenn asking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Why don’t you wear a suit?” He suggested to Glenn he was “trolling,” but it’s a question lots of Americans would ask.

Natalie Winters from Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast said, “If it were up to me, I’d kick a lot of these outlets out.” In other words, she has the same opinion as CNN, only reversed. O’Sullivan asked Winters, “Do you consider yourself a journalist?” He said many say, “You don’t deserve to be here because you’re not a real journalist.” She attacked the pro-Joe Biden media: “I’m pretty sure the people in there spent four years covering for someone who was essentially dead, and that’s being charitable. … You guys failed, and that’s why we’re here.” CNN exemplified the point last year when anchor Dana Bash was deeply troubled over bumbling-Biden videos. They were “amplified on conservative media that in some cases are just not right and in other cases are highly, highly misleading of President Biden.”

O’Sullivan lectured about the “new media” people: “A lot of them are more cheerleading President Trump than challenging him.” He ended by quoting White House Correspondents’ Association leader Eugene Daniels: The public “needs news produced by experienced, professional journalists who ask tough questions and produce fair coverage.” Under Biden, Daniels wasn’t known for asking “tough questions.” At the 2024 Kamala cuddlefest before the National Association of Black Journalists, Daniels began by gently asking if the American people were better off after four years. Daniels went on shows such as “Washington Week” on PBS and denied Kamala was ever “border czar” and insisted she was a victim: “We’ve already seen a lot of racism and sexism, and that’s going to be a huge part of this campaign.”

Then there’s CNN itself. One of the most memorable tongue-bath questions came in 2009, when then-New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny asked Obama what “enchanted” him about being president. Then-CNN anchor John Roberts praised the softball and Obama’s “thoughtful” answer. Zeleny was later hired by CNN. Reporters asking softballs at the White House is nothing new. It’s OK when the “mainstream” does it for Democrats.

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It’s nice that people start growing their own food. But the real big impact is in the supermarkets. The artificial dyes are just the start.

Make America Healthy Again Movement Extends Beyond RFK Jr (ET)

For avid supporters, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement itself is not new. It began long before Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign and subsequent confirmation as health secretary. “The principles of the MAHA movement were once a way of life all over the country decades ago,” Samantha Rayburn, a 40-year-old mother of two teenage sons, told The Epoch Times. “It’s encouraging to see more people adopting those beliefs and understanding that God gave us what we need to feed our bodies and heal our bodies. With how sick and unhealthy we are as a society, this return to the basics is needed.” Rayburn developed an interest in foraging for herbs and plants when she was a little girl and was inspired to make her first tincture when her oldest son caught whooping cough when he was 2. She describes the MAHA movement as “a return to the basics.”

“It’s getting back to when we knew what was in our food because we grew it and got what we didn’t have from local farmers,” said Rayburn, who lives in southern Ohio. “RFK Jr. and MAHA have made what many of us believe in more mainstream. People are now contacting me and wanting to learn more about herbs. I don’t seem so crazy anymore.” She was referring to her business, Hadassah’s Herbs for Health and Healing. When Kennedy delivered a speech in August 2024 announcing that he was suspending his campaign and backing then-former President Donald Trump, he said that Trump was giving him the opportunity to help make America healthy again. What followed was a social media frenzy with “Make America Healthy Again” and “MAHA” hashtags. MAHA the acronym was born. Samantha Rayburn has treated her sons, Holden and Wyatt, with herbal remedies since they were infants and believes in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again platform.

She now heads the Victory Garden Alliance, which encourages people, communities, and organizations to grow their own food. “There is a revival in growing our own food, supporting local farms, and knowing what’s in our food. Bobby and the MAHA movement have catapulted that interest,” Capriotti told The Epoch Times. “We need this. Our kids need this. It’s important they understand how food is grown and where it comes from. That will inspire healthier new generations because they will become smarter consumers.” She calls what is happening with the MAHA movement a “health revolution.” She is working to educate elected officials and political candidates. “Many of us who worked on the presidential campaign didn’t stop our objectives when it ended. That’s an example of how MAHA is a movement not tied to one person,” Capriotti said.

As health secretary, Kennedy has a mandate to fight chronic disease, improve children’s health, and address corporate influence on government agencies. He has pledged to remove toxic chemicals from the nation’s food supply, increase transparency, improve vaccine safety, and make significant changes to the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—operating divisions within Health and Human Services. These plans, along with encouraging Americans to grow their own food and buy meat and produce from farmers who do not use pesticides and toxins, are among the initiatives of the MAHA movement.

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PepsiCo cares only about the bottom line.

A HUGE Win for the Make America Healthy Again Movement (Margolis)

Score one for the Make America Healthy Again movement. After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called for a crackdown on artificial ingredients, PepsiCo wasted no time getting the message. On an April 24 conference call, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta announced that the company has already begun reducing artificial ingredients across its products. “We’ve been leading the transformation of the industry now for a long time on sodium reduction, sugar reduction, and better fats,” Laguarta said. Now, under pressure from a public fed up with chemicals in their food, PepsiCo is finally moving faster toward cleaning up its act — a clear sign that the Make America Healthy Again movement is already having a powerful impact. “Sixty percent-plus of our (portfolio) today doesn’t have any artificial colors,” Laguarta added, indicating that the company is “undergoing that transition.”

Fox News Digital has more. “Laguarta cited examples such as Lay’s and Tostitos, which “will be out of artificial colors by the end of this year.” He added, “So, we’re well underway.” RFK Jr. and Dr. Martin Makary, U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner, announced a ban on petroleum-based synthetic dyes from America’s food supply last Tuesday. As the HHS noted in its news release, among the steps to be taken are “establishing a national standard and timeline for the food industry to transition from petrochemical-based dyes to natural alternatives.” “Initiating the process to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings — Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B — within the coming months; and working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes — FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1, and FD&C Blue No. 2 — from the food supply by the end of next year.”

Certified nutritionist and Make America Healthy Again supporter Liana Werner-Gray celebrated PepsiCo’s move as a major step forward. “This is a huge win for public health and long overdue,” she told Fox News Digital. Werner-Gray, author of “The Earth Diet,” explained her philosophy as “all about going back to nature and eating foods from nature, eating real nutrition, eating foods that God provides us with naturally.” She also shared that she has long avoided artificial dyes, saying, “I’ve personally eliminated artificial dyes like Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and others from my diet over 16 years ago when I started The Earth Diet, living a natural lifestyle.” She added, “Once I removed these dyes and switched to natural, whole-food-based alternatives, those symptoms [frequent major mood swings, anxiety, skin breakouts, and energy crashes] went away, too.”

Werner-Gray believes the manipulation of food has gone unchecked for far too long, and it’s finally time for a course correction. “This move by the FDA under Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary’s leadership is a pivotal step toward restoring integrity in our food system,” she told Fox News Digital. “It’s time we raise the standard. Clean, natural and nourishing food should be the norm, not a luxury.” During the April 24 conference call, PepsiCo’s CEO emphasized that the company’s chips, puffs, and other snacks are still considered safe to consume and reaffirmed that PepsiCo stands by the existing science, according to reports. Still, there’s no denying the impact President Trump is already having in his second term. With leaders like RFK Jr. at the helm, the Make America Healthy Again movement isn’t just a slogan; it’s delivering real results and forcing even major corporations to change course.

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“.. in just a “few years,” robots will surpass “good human surgeons” and will beat the best doctors within about five years..”

“..the required speed and precision is “impossible for a human to achieve.”

Robots Will Outperform Human Surgeons In Five Years – Musk (RT)

Robots will soon replace human surgeons and are already capable of carrying out operations that are considered impossible for ordinary people to perform, Elon Musk has predicted. In a post on X on Saturday, the billionaire tech entrepreneur suggested that in just a “few years,” robots will surpass “good human surgeons” and will beat the best doctors within about five years. He noted that his Neuralink biotech company has already had to rely on robot surgeons to carry out the brain-computer electrode insertion of brain chips because the required speed and precision is “impossible for a human to achieve.” Musk’s comments came in response to a post by popular X influencer Mario Nawfal, who quoted an article about the rising success of robot surgeons such as the Medtronic ‘Hugo’.

It is reported that the robot has already been tested in 137 real surgeries such as fixing prostates, kidneys, and bladders. “The results were better than doctors expected,” Nawfal said, noting that the complication rates were 3.7% for prostate surgeries, 1.9% for kidney operations, and 17.9% for bladder procedures. “The robots got a 98.5% success rate, way above the 85% goal,” the post claimed, adding that out of the 137 surgeries, only two needed to be taken back over by real doctors due to a glitch and because of a “tricky patient case.” Previously, Musk suggested that brain-computer interfaces like those being developed by Neuralink would replace technologies such as cell phones.

Neuralink has already successfully implanted its brain chip – about the size of a coin – in three patients. After the procedure, they were able to control a computer cursor and play video games like chess and Counter-Strike using only their thoughts. One of the patients, who is non-verbal, was also able to use the device to communicate through an AI-generated voice clone. Musk has since announced plans to expand Neuralink’s clinical trials with the goal of implanting the brain chip in 20 to 30 more patients in 2025.

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Dim sun
https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1916602036361056379

Baby

Eyes


https://twitter.com/amzingnature1/status/1916669281288311066

Imagine

Gong
https://twitter.com/XPHOENIXDRAGON/status/1916504825019130021

13 years ago

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 022025
 


Pablo Picasso Sleeping girl 1935

 

‘Liberation Day’: Trump To Announce Tariff Plans In Rose Garden (Whedon)
Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)
Judges Block Trump Orders Targeting Firms Tied To Russia Collusion Hoax (JTN)
Warning Against Judges Intruding On Presidential Powers And Actions (JTN)
Ukraine Has Secret Nuclear Doomsday Plan (RMX)
Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Should Turn on Principle Not Politics (Turley)
Republicans Pad US House Majority With Two Florida Special Election Wins (JTN)
Trump Dials Back Putin Criticism, Renews Attacks On Zelensky (ZH)
DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme (ZH)
Trump ‘Investment Accelerator’ Fast-Tracks Investments Over $1 Billion (JTN)
France’s Courts Keep Sidelining The Establishment’s Political Rivals (Marsden)
Italy Calls Le Pen Sentence A Blow To Democracy (RT)
Trump Cites Grenell As Potential UN Ambassador Nominee (jTN)
Trump National Security Team Used Gmail For Government Matters – WaPo (RT)
Donald Trump Jr. Says Le Pen’s Verdict Proves Vance Right About EU (TASS)
NATO Will ‘Survive’ Trump – EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)
Germany To Target ‘Internal EU Enemies’ – Politico (RT)
BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Might Dethrone US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency (Sp.)
USAID and the Architecture of Perception (Stylman)

 

 

 

 

Marine

Lagarde Le Pen

Drenched in blood

Tucker Bukele

Benz Obama

 

 

 

 

Fluid till the last moment.

“..the President wants to ensure that all Americans make out well, particularly Main Street, that’s the focus of these tariffs.”

‘Liberation Day’: Trump To Announce Tariff Plans In Rose Garden (Whedon)

President Donald Trump is set to announce his decision on the implementation of an array of new tariffs Wednesday as some of the tariffs he has already announced will take effect. Trump has dubbed Wednesday “Liberation Day” and is planning an event at the White House’s Rose Garden to unveil his decision on broader tariffs. Trump announced tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier in his administration, but agreed to postpone both following negotiations with the leaders of those countries that led to agreements to bolster border security. Each tariff adds 25% on goods from the respective country. While those tariffs were part of border security negotiations, Trump is expected to unveil broader tariffs to achieve his stated goal of rebalancing American global trade. On Tuesday, he received reports from the Treasury, Commerce Department, and Office of the Trade Representative on possible tariffs and their potential impacts, though he reportedly has already made up his mind on what to implement. “I’ve settled, yeah,” he told the The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Ahead of the Rose Garden event, moreover, he unveiled a 25% tariff on auto imports that earned praise from union workers, including from United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders who opposed his candidacy. Trump notably feuded with UAW President Shawn Fain during the election, but Fain had high praise for the commander-in-chief after the auto tariffs. “We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working-class communities for decades,” Fain said. “Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions.” Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are expected to go much broader, though the details remain unclear as of press time and interested parties are expected to push for limited exemptions all the way to the deadline.

The point of conjecture at present is whether Trump will announce an across-the-board 20% tariff on all foreign imports, with few if any exceptions, or whether he will opt for a more targeted, reciprocal tariff policy of matching each nation’s respective rates and negotiating on an individual basis. During the press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to offer a preview of Trump’s exact decision, but spoke to broader tariff policy and the pledged foreign investments that the administration has already secured. “It’s simple. If you make your product in America, you will pay no tariffs. We have already seen a number of the largest companies in the world respond to this economic approach,” she said. “For example, Project Stargate, led by Japan-based Softbank and US-based OpenAI and Oracle, announced a $500 billion private investment in the United State-based artificial intelligence infrastructure.”

“Apple announced a $500 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing and training. Nvidia announced it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years in U.S.-based manufacturing, and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced a $100 billion investment in U.S.-based chips and manufacturing,” she added. “These are just a few of the investment announcements that have already been made, and it is clear that President Trump’s America First approach is already working.” In anticipation of Trump’s announcement, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed an order to remove all remaining import tariffs on American goods, subject to the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee, according to the Times of Israel. Trump himself has indicated he expects other nations to drop their tariffs on American goods in response to his moves and has stated that India would soon drop many of its tariffs. “I heard that India is going to be dropping its tariffs substantially. A lot of countries are going to drop their tariffs,” he told reporters on Monday.

Trump’s support for tariffs during the 2016 campaign was a substantial challenge to long-established Republican free-trade orthodoxy and his second term already threatens to rewrite the party dogma on global commerce altogether. Some lawmakers, however, are less than thrilled by the prospect, and an unusual coalition of moderate Republicans and conservative libertarians have joined forces to express their disagreements. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has led a resolution to end the emergency declaration that prompted Trump’s tariffs on Canada. So far, three Republicans have aligned with Democrats to back the measure, including Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C.; Rand Paul, Ky.; and Susan Collins, Maine, Politico reported. At least one more Republican would need to sign on to pass the measure, which would still likely fail in the House. Nonetheless, the vote will prove a metric for internal support for tariffs on the Republican side.

Some Republicans are enthusiastically on board with the tariffs. Speaking on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show on Tuesday, Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.V., pointed to how free trade practices had led to job losses in his own district. ”The American workers have been living in a trade war for over 40 years, and they’ve seen their jobs be decimated, like in my state of West Virginia, where just last year, because the Biden administration would not implement tariffs on 10-plate steel that was being dumped into the market by China and Canada and some other countries, we lost 1,000 jobs in my district alone, and we had to idle that steel plant,” he said. “That’s not putting the American worker first. It’s not putting America first,” he added. “So, President Trump is the first person in my lifetime who is really trying to reset this table and put us in a good position to be able to succeed here as a country,” Moore added.

Stock markets have reeled in the wake of some of Trump’s tariffs thus far, with key indices such as the DOW Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 plunging significantly in the subsequent days, though they have since stabilized to some degree. Should Trump opt for broader tariff options, equities are likely to witness a similar drop. Nevertheless, the White House offered its assurances on Tuesday that the markets would ultimately adjust to the changing state of affairs. “Yesterday, Dow futures were up, and there’s been a lot of talk about the market, and it was up yesterday,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “So look, the President wants to ensure that all Americans make out well, particularly Main Street, that’s the focus of these tariffs.” Leavitt also predicted that “Wall Street will be just fine.”

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Brilliant from John Kennedy. Dso watch.

“How can a federal judge issue an order that affects everyone else outside of that courtroom?”

Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)

By now, you know that I’m a big fan of Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and his unmatched ability to dismantle weak arguments with his signature Southern wit. On Monday, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he was at the top of his game, systematically exposing the complete lack of legal authority for district judges to issue universal injunctions — a favorite tactic of the left to block Trump’s agenda. Questioning Assistant Attorney General nominee Brett Shumate, Kennedy systematically dismantled any justification for these sweeping judicial orders. “Mr. Shumate, what’s a universal injunction?” Kennedy asked. Shumate explained, “Senator, a universal injunction is an order from a court enjoining the government in a way that goes beyond the parties to the case but applies nationwide or in some cases universally.”

Kennedy pressed further, asking, “What’s the statutory basis for a federal judge issuing an order that affects people other than the parties before the court?” “I’m not aware of a statutory basis, Senator,” Shumate admitted.”There is no statutory basis, is there?” Kennedy reiterated. “No, Senator,” Shumate confirmed. Kennedy then challenged Shumate to name a Supreme Court ruling that interprets the Constitution to allow such injunctions. “Can you name me that case?” he asked. “I’m not aware of one, Senator,” Shumate responded. “There isn’t one, is there?” Kennedy pressed. “I’m not aware of one, Senator,” Shumate repeated. Kennedy then laid out the fundamental issue: “You have a plaintiff and a defendant, and the plaintiff files a lawsuit in federal court. The judge has jurisdiction over those parties. How can a federal judge issue an order that affects everyone else outside of that courtroom?”

“Uh, it shouldn’t be possible, Senator, but district courts do it all the time,” Shumate admitted. “I think on the theory that courts need to enjoin a federal policy from going into effect, and they often will enjoin it nationwide so that all non-parties are protected.” “I thought that if you wanted to affect parties who aren’t in court, you had to file a class action,” Kennedy countered. “That’s correct, Senator,” Shumate agreed. Kennedy pointed out that instead of filing class actions, plaintiffs often seek universal injunctions, which have no legal foundation. “Does this encourage forum shopping?” he asked. “Yes, Senator. Not only does it encourage forum shopping, but also district shopping and filing multiple strategic lawsuits to find one judge who will enjoin a single policy nationwide,” Shumate said. “If you have five lawsuits, only one of those cases needs to be successful.”

Kennedy then turned to historical precedent. “Universal injunction is basically an equitable remedy. Did this exist in common law courts in England?” he asked. “I don’t believe so, Senator,” Shumate responded, citing Supreme Court precedent that equitable relief was traditionally limited to the parties in a case. Recommended: The Atlantic Caught Pushing Another Anti-Trump Hoax Story Kennedy then points out that judges issued only about 27 universal injunctions in the entire 20th century. “But 86 of them were issued against President Trump in his first term. Is that correct?” Kennedy asked. “I don’t know the specific number, but it was a high number,” Shumate conceded. “And so far in President Trump’s second term, 30 universal injunctions have been issued against him. Have they not?” Kennedy continued.

“Senator, I don’t have the specific number, but that sounds about right,” Shumate said. “The universal injunction has become a weapon against the Trump administration, has it not?” Kennedy asked. “Yes,” Shumate affirmed. In his closing remarks, Kennedy highlighted the constitutional issue at hand: “Tell me the basis for universal injunction in Article III. Where does it mention universal injunction?” “It does not, Senator,” Shumate said. “It says courts are to decide the case or controversy before them, which is based on the parties to the case.” Kennedy concluded, “So Congress could act and say, ‘Look, federal judges, you render a decision to a plaintiff or a defendant, but you can’t impact people outside of your courtroom other than through a class action.’ That’s why God created class actions, isn’t it?” “Yes, Senator,” Shumate agreed. Kennedy’s questioning explained that universal injunctions lack any basis in statutory law, Supreme Court precedent, or historical common law and exposed their use as a judicial overreach that disproportionately targets President Trump’s policies.

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“..the FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.”

Judges Block Trump Orders Targeting Firms Tied To Russia Collusion Hoax (JTN)

Multiple judges have blocked efforts by President Donald Trump to hold “Big Law” firms accountable for their connections to lawyers closely tied to the Russia collusion hoax. The executive orders make allegations against some of the most powerful law firms in the nation: the WilmerHale law firm for previously employing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and two of his top prosecutors; against Jenner & Block in part for previously employing top Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann; and against Perkins Coie in large part for previously employing Democratic-party-aligned election lawyer Marc Elias, for helping Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign fund British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked anti-Trump dossier. Elias, who worked at Perkins for many years as the chair of the Political Law Group, went on to serve also as the general counsel for now-former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed 2020 presidential bid. Perkins announced in 2021 that Elias and others were leaving to form Elias Law Group.

Judges have blocked significant portions of Trump’s executive orders aimed at each of those firms, although the Paul Weiss law firm — targeted by Trump in part for employing former Mueller prosecutor Jeannie Rhee — acquiesced to Trump’s demands, with Trump announcing last week that the firm would now be “taking on a wide range of pro bono matters representing the full political spectrum; committing to merit-based hiring, promotion, and retention, instead of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies; [and] dedicating the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services during my term in office to support causes including assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in the justice system, and combating anti-Semitism.” Trump has used similar language in multiple executive orders addressing the “significant risks” posed by so-called “Big Law” firms which “engage in conduct detrimental to critical American interests.”

“Many firms take actions that threaten public safety and national security, limit constitutional freedoms, degrade the quality of American elections, or undermine bedrock American principles,” Trump said in these executive orders. “Moreover, law firms regularly conduct this harmful activity through their powerful pro bono practices, earmarking hundreds of millions of their clients’ dollars for destructive causes, that often directly or indirectly harm their own clients. Lawyers and law firms that engage in such egregious conduct should not have access to our Nation’s secrets, nor should such conduct be subsidized by Federal taxpayer funds or contracts.” The common thread in this batch of executive orders is that each of the firms targeted centers around the previous litigation and law enforcement activity executed against Trump. Those cases did not pan out.

An investigation by special counsel Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found huge flaws with the FBI’s investigation, criticizing the “central and essential” role of the dossier in the FBI’s politicized surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Special Counsel John Durham’s report concluded that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.” The special counsel noted that “the FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.” Trump’s executive order on “Addressing Risks from WilmerHale” was issued on March 27, and it included a heavy focus on Mueller and members of his team.

The Trump order said that WilmerHale “is yet another law firm that has abandoned the profession’s highest ideals and abused its pro bono practice to engage in activities that undermine justice and the interests of the United States” and argued that the firm “is also bent on employing lawyers who weaponize the prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process and distort justice.” “WilmerHale rewarded Robert Mueller and his colleagues — Aaron Zebley, Mueller’s ‘top aide’ and ‘closest associate,’ and James Quarles — by welcoming them to the firm after they wielded the power of the Federal Government to lead one of the most partisan investigations in American history,” the executive order contends. “Mueller’s investigation epitomizes the weaponization of government, yet WilmerHale claimed he ‘embodies the highest value of our firm and profession.’ Mueller’s ‘investigation’ upended the lives of public servants in my Administration who were summoned before ‘prosecutors’ with the effect of interfering in their ability to fulfill the mandates of my first term agenda. This weaponization of the justice system must not be rewarded, let alone condoned,” Trump said in the executive order.

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“..exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”

Warning Against Judges Intruding On Presidential Powers And Actions (JTN)

Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system, leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing. “As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”

More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in the deportation of people accused of being in gangs, in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app. Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.

Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.

Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth. “Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”

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Blackmail Kiev style. Blow everything up, including all the neighbors. Scorched earth. Let’s give them another $100 billion.

Ukraine Has Secret Nuclear Doomsday Plan (RMX)

Ukraine has a secret last-ditch “scorched earth” plan to render its entire territory uninhabitable in the event of a Russian victory in the war – and perhaps the rest of Europe with it. This is according to Oleksiy Arestovych, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In an interview with a Ukrainian journalist that he gave last month, Arestovych claimed that Ukraine’s current head of military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, has floated a plan to blow up all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, and possibly some of Russia’s as well, if all other defensive measures fail. Ukraine currently operates four nuclear power plants with a total of 15 reactors. One of them, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, is the largest plant in Europe and has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Russia, for its part, has 37 reactors divided among 11 power plants.

https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1903424504723829246?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1903424504723829246%7Ctwgr%5Edf7b04cdf48090001566b3c7db9961a15c2fa7c5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fukraine-has-secret-nuclear-doomsday-plan-according-to-former-zelensky-adviser%2F

If all or even some of these reactors were attacked and destroyed simultaneously, the destructive impact would be beyond calculation. The Chernobyl nuclear accident that occurred in Ukraine in 1986, and which remains the worst disaster involving nuclear energy in history, killed dozens and led to long-term health problems for thousands of others. It also led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and rendered the surrounding area permanently uninhabitable, spreading radioactivity over a large area and even into Western Europe. Moreover, the Chernobyl disaster required the combined resources of the Soviet Union, as well as the assistance it received from other countries, to contain it. In a scenario where several nuclear plants were destroyed simultaneously, it would likely exceed the ability of any nation to bring it under control.

The resulting casualties and damage to the environment would therefore be many times worse than what happened in 1986. Nor would this catastrophe be limited to Ukraine and Russia: Harmful radioactivity would undoubtedly be carried by the atmosphere and spread over the rest of Europe as well. Arestovych raised the alleged plan in the context of U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine’s nuclear reactors should be brought under American control. The White House reported that the president had proposed the idea to Zelensky in a phone call they had last month, arguing that this would offer the “best protection” for the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure. While some accused the American president of wanting to seize control of Ukraine’s energy resources for his own country’s benefit,

Arestovych asserted that the real reason was that Washington knows about Budanov’s apocalyptic plan. He said that the Trump administration sees the Ukrainian government as “apes with a grenade” and wants to “take these dangerous toys out of our control.” “They know about our plans to blow up all the nuclear power plants if Ukraine starts losing,” Arestovych said. “Budanov was running around with this [idea] a year and a half ago. Blow up everything, the Russian plants we can reach as well as our own, so that nobody gets them.”The rationale behind this doomsday scenario, the former adviser claimed, is “we all bite the dust, but so will they.” He referred to Zelensky and his senior staff as “a group of deranged people.”

Arestovych further stated that American efforts to gain control over Ukraine’s nuclear facilities actually date back to the Biden administration, when such plans were proposed under the guise of scientific research. The U.S. Republicans, he says, prefer a more direct approach. Arestovych also alluded to the efforts of Ukrainian banker Oleh Gorokhovsky to raise funds for a nuclear weapons program for the country following Trump’s explosive clash with Zelensky in the Oval Office last month. His fundraiser brought in more than half a million euros. Originally a military officer, Arestovych predicted in a video interview that he gave in 2019 that Russia would attack Ukraine between 2020 and 2022, and that the resulting war would be used as a pretext for Ukraine joining NATO. He was appointed as a government advisor on national security and defense in 2020.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Arestovych gave daily briefings at the president’s office. In January 2023, he claimed that what the Ukrainian government said was a deliberate Russian attack on a residential complex was in fact the result of an error by Ukraine’s own air defense forces. This angered many and he resigned from his position the same month. Arestovych has continued to comment publicly on the war and has been critical of Zelensky’s handling of it. He eventually left Ukraine out of fear of being arrested. He still has a significant social media following, and has said that he will run for president of Ukraine when the next elections are held. Several attacks have already been launched against both Ukrainian and Russian nuclear reactors since the current war began, although fortunately no significant damage has been caused so far. Each side has accused the other of being behind these assaults.

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Lost the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, but..

Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Should Turn on Principle Not Politics (Turley)

(Update 2210ET): According to multiple outlets, Democrat-endorsed Susan Crawford has won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, beating Republican-endorsed Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US history. The campaigns and their supporters spent more than $81 million, and drew the involvement of Elon Musk, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, and other political figures. Crawford’s win means that liberals will retain a 4-3 majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

***
Today, the voters of Wisconsin go to the polls in what may be the single most expensive and important judicial race in modern history. Both parties are spending millions with the balance of the state Supreme Court in the balance. If liberal Susan Crawford wins, the expectation is that she will vote with the Democratic majority to approve a gerrymandering of congressional districts to guarantee the loss of two Republicans and possibly flip control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats. The raw political pitch in the election is disturbing. It assumes that both candidates will blindly support the objectives of their respective parties. The real reason to cast a vote today should be on judicial ideology. Ironically, the United States Supreme Court made that plain in an important Wisconsin case argued just the day before the state election.

The case is Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. In the decision below, the Democratic-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Catholic Charities could not benefit from a religious exemption to the state’s unemployment tax because its charitable work was not sufficiently religious. Catholic Charities is one of the world’s oldest and most respected charities. However, the church believes that it has a duty to help people of every faith who are in need. Thus, the church does not proselytize in offering such aid and services. A state labor commission ruled that the charity’s lack of such religious expression and prayer makes it secular, even if it has religious motivations.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed and ruled that the charity is not operated primarily for religious purposes because it does not “attempt to imbue” beneficiaries “with the Catholic faith nor supply any religious materials to program participants or employees.” In other words, the fact that Catholic Charities helps everyone and does not proselytize worked against it. The Wisconsin Supreme Court essentially argued that it needs to pray more to offer such charity as a church. It is a disturbing ruling that would allow the state to choose between religions in weighing their relative manifestations of faith.

Even liberal justices cried foul over the standard. Justice Elena Kagan suggested it was “pretty fundamental that we don’t treat some religions better than others. And we certainly don’t do it based on the content of the religious doctrine that those religions preach.” Kagan noted, “Some religions proselytize. Other religions don’t. Why are we treating some religions better than others based on that element of religious doctrine?” She noted that the standard “basically puts the state on the side of some religions with some doctrine versus other religions with a different doctrine.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested that the Wisconsin Supreme Court was asking the wrong questions about what it means to be an organization “operated primarily for religious purposes.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch virtually mocked the standard of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, asking if Catholic Charities have to require the people receiving their services to “repent.” He then asked: “is mandatory church attendance versus optional church attendance, that’s the line?” Gorsuch then delivered the haymaker: “Isn’t it a fundamental premise of our First Amendment that the state shouldn’t be picking and choosing between religions, between certain evangelical sects, and Judaism and Catholicism on the other, for example?” The case shows that there are far more important issues dividing these candidates on judicial philosophy that should drive this election. I am not a fan of state elected judges and justices precisely because of the raw political element to these contests. The Catholic Charities case shows that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is divided along more than just a party line.

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..but this win may prove to be more important.

Republicans Pad US House Majority With Two Florida Special Election Wins (JTN)

Republicans padded their slim U.S. House majority Tuesday after winning two Florida special elections to replace a pair of members who resigned their seats. In the 6th Congressional District, state Sen. Randy Fine was projected to defeat Democrat Josh Weil with about 56% of the vote with 98% of ballots counted, according to unofficial results. The race was necessitated by the resignation of former U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican who became President Donald Trump’s national security advisor. Tuesday’s outcome was closer than Waltz’s last race, when he won by 34 points.

Florida Republican Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis was the projected winner over Democrat Gay Valimont with 56% of the unofficial vote tally with 93% counted to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida’s 1st Congressional District. Gaetz resigned his U.S. House seat after being nominated by Trump to be the U.S. attorney general, but he later dropped out of the running because the Republican firebrand and Trump ally faced a tough confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate due to a House ethics investigation. Trump instead nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was easily confirmed. With the wins, the GOP will pad their U.S. still slim House majority to 220 seats to 213 for Democrats.

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“..one wonders then: Why does the Trump administration even bother?”

Trump Dials Back Putin Criticism, Renews Attacks On Zelensky (ZH)

It was only on Sunday that President Trump declared he’s “very angry” at Russian President Putin, statements which featured the threat of secondary tariffs on Moscow, but now the US leader is already dialing back this criticism, Bloomberg observes. Instead he’s once again focused his ire on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warning of “big problems” if he doesn’t sign the controversial minerals agreement and tries to renegotiate. “I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump earlier told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’” “He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems,” Trump said.

Zelensky has signaled that Ukraine is positive about the deal but has complained that its conditions are “constantly changing”. Trump has still kept up some pressure on Putin, however, saying Monday of the Russian leader, “I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will.” He continued in Monday remarks from the Oval, “I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil, but I think, you know, something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job.” All of the weekend criticisms of Putin appeared to arise from the Russian president’s comments late last week declaring that Zelensky’s ‘illegitimacy’ could be fixed by a UN transition process guiding Ukraine to new elections. Only then would Moscow negotiate an end the war, Putin stipulated.

“He’s supposed to be making a deal with him, whether you like him or don’t like him,” Trump told reporters Sunday, referring to Putin. “So I wasn’t happy with that. But I think he’s going to be good.” But again, he reserved blunter criticism for US ally Zelensky: “I heard that they’re now saying, well, I’ll only do that deal if we get into NATO or something to that effect,” Trump had said. Bloomberg has concluded the following of this latest back-and-forth: The result is a geopolitical whiplash on the eve of Trump’s global tariff announcement on April 2 and shows US impatience with the process of securing a temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine more than three years after Putin’s invasion of its neighbor. Trump had vowed he would end the war within 24 hours of taking office but has found Russia to be a tough negotiator and able to wrest concessions from the US by exploiting Trump’s desire to get a deal done quickly.

On Sunday, Trump told NBC he was “pissed off” at Putin. Of course, this is also due to Russian forces rolling up several villages and towns on the battlefield in Ukraine’s east and south just this week alone. Putin has less incentive for a hasty deal, and is in the driver’s seat – but surely the White House knows this, which is perhaps why the pressure is ramping up on Zelensky once again. As for the apparently ever-changing draft minerals deal, Ukraine and its supporters have continued to charge that it’s tantamount to a big resource grab by Washington. Ukraine received its latest version of a new draft of the text on Friday, its foreign ministry stated. CNN writes that “The new proposal for a natural resources agreement, of which CNN has obtained a copy, was put forward by the US Treasury Department and goes well beyond the initial draft, particularly on future US rights and reimbursement for past assistance.”

Some independent geopolitical observes have said the deal effectively imposes ‘indentured servitude’ on Ukraine. “This ‘deal’ is pure extortion and robbery. It would bind Ukraine indefinitely. It would also discourage any investment in any natural deposits in Ukraine. There is no chance that any such deal will be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament,” Moon of Alabama writes. The source then questions, “one wonders then: Why does the Trump administration even bother?”

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I’ve seen some questions about this float by. To be continued.

DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme (ZH)

One day after Elon Musk and Antonio Gracias—founder and CEO of the Chicago-based investment firm Valor Equity Partners, and now a DOGE official—unveiled a “mind-blowing” chart showing a surge in Social Security numbers issued to illegal aliens over the Biden-Harris administration’s first term during an America PAC town hall in Wisconsin on Sunday, Musk’s America PAC hosted an online tele-town hall with Wisconsin voters on Monday night, where he provided more color on the SSN fraud. During the tele-town hall, one Wisconsin voter asked Musk: “You found a lot of fraud in Social Security. Do you know whether the Attorney General will investigate and prosecute that fraud?”

Musk responded: “I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow, because there’s someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database… And was selling Social Security numbers and all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security.” “This is a particular avenue of fraud for illegal immigrants and voter fraud – because the main way identification is established in the US is via Social Security. If you comprise the Social Security system, you can basically get people to get defacto registered to vote – even if they’re not citizens – and get a bunch of benefits and to milk the system – this is pretty insane,” Musk said.

On Sunday, Musk and Gracias showed the audience of a town hall a chart titled “New Non-Citizen Social Security Numbers Issued” …

Then again, Democrats are against DOGE’s efforts to find waste and fraud at Social Security. Wonder why? American citizens deserve full transparency, accountability, and swift reforms to ensure this kind of fraud is never repeated and used to game elections and drain resources of citizens by illegals. Also, handing out stolen SNNs is a national security threat and can end up in the hands of bad actors, such as members of transnational gangs or terrorist networks.

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“..the president has already secured more than $3 trillion in private investments so far.”

Trump ‘Investment Accelerator’ Fast-Tracks Investments Over $1 Billion (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that creates an “investment accelerator,” which seeks to facilitate and fast-track the approval of any investment into the United States of over $1 billion. The order creates a new office within the Department of Commerce that will speed up the approval process for investments, and encourage countries to invest in the U.S. by reducing regulatory burdens, and increasing communication about investor issues across departments. The new office will also be responsible for administering the CHIPS Program Office, which the White House claims will negotiate “much better CHIPS Act deals than the previous Administration.”

“President Trump believes it is in America’s interest that the Federal Government dramatically expand its assistance to companies seeking to invest and build in the United States,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “By streamlining processes, the Accelerator will attract both foreign and domestic investment, reinforcing America’s position as the premier destination for large-scale investment.” The White House also touted that the president has already secured more than $3 trillion in private investments so far.

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“Le Pen’s party got the most votes, and the anti-establishment left won the most seats – neither of which entitles you to actually govern France anymore, apparently..”

France’s Courts Keep Sidelining The Establishment’s Political Rivals (Marsden)

Earlier this week, the anti-establishment French political leader whom all polls suggest would easily win the presidency, if the vote were held tomorrow, was barred from running for office for five years. How convenient. Right-wing National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty in a Paris court of embezzling European Union funds. Accused of enabling a system whereby aides hired to serve in Brussels ended up doing work for the party, she was also fined an sentenced to two years of home detention under electronic monitoring. The allegations against Le Pen, dating back to at least 2014, were so old that they could have qualified for a French pension. But now the verdict conveniently takes her out of the 2027 election cycle. If you were looking for a foolproof way to supercharge support for Le Pen’s party, congratulations, French judiciary – you nailed it.

There’s no better way to fire up a political movement than to turn its leader into a martyr of a state that looks to be meddling with citizens’ democratic options. Just ask Romania’s Calin Georgescu, who was on his way to victory before getting politically kneecapped by the system: arrested, accused of foreign funding, then ultimately just dismissed for a paperwork technicality. And what happened next? His replacement, George Simion, is now surging in the polls. Who could’ve seen that coming? (Spoiler: Everyone.) Disqualifying candidates for crimes like corruption, fraud, and electoral violations wasn’t automatic in France – until Emmanuel Macron’s party conveniently made it so in 2017. Timing is everything: that law landed roughly three years after Brussels put Le Pen in its investigative crosshairs. Surely just a coincidence. The law’s biggest cheerleader? Macron ally and centrist leader, François Bayrou, who championed it – right up until he found himself accused of the exact same EU cash-grab scheme as Le Pen.

Awkward. He lasted a whole month as Macron’s justice minister before getting booted. But don’t worry, he bounced back. Acquitted last year, he was later handpicked as Macron’s prime minister, despite not running for anything. You know who actually won that election? Le Pen’s party got the most votes, and the anti-establishment left won the most seats – neither of which entitles you to actually govern France anymore, apparently. Meanwhile, leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is also under investigation for – you guessed it – precisely the same kind of disqualifying offense involving EU funding as Le Pen. It’s no wonder Trump looks at this mess and sees himself in Le Pen’s situation. “She was banned for five years and she was the leading candidate,” Trump said. “That sounds like this country.” If Trump had been French, and convicted on some of his own election-related charges, like those in Georgia, he wouldn’t have been able to run for president, either.

Hopefully the fashion capital of the world won’t set a trend with this one. Sure, convict someone. But let the people decide if the convict is still a better electoral option. Democracy means letting people choose – even if their top pick needs a parole officer instead of a campaign manager. There’s a distinct pattern here: every time a candidate starts looking like a real threat to the establishment, the legal system suddenly finds a reason to hit the brakes. It’s almost as if France has an unofficial “Incumbent Protection Act”. Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn? Back in 2011, as IMF head, he was basically measuring the drapes at the Élysée Palace for his imminent move in. Then – bam! – a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault. Career over. And just to make sure, French authorities later charged him with pimping. Yes, pimping. He was acquitted, but good luck running for office when “IMF President” and “Accused Pimp” are both on your CV.

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“..no one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens.”

Italy Calls Le Pen Sentence A Blow To Democracy (RT)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned the conviction of French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, saying it undermines the voice of millions of voters. On Monday, Le Pen, the former leader of the conservative National Rally (RN) party, was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement, two of them suspended, and barred from holding public office for five years. If the conviction stands, it effectively rules her out of the 2027 presidential race. Commenting on the verdict, Meloni told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday: “I don’t know the merit of the objections made to Marine Le Pen, nor the reasons for such a harsh decision. But I think that no one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens.”

Meloni joined a chorus of French and international politicians in criticizing the ruling, which many called undemocratic. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday described the verdict as a “declaration of war by Brussels.” US President Donald Trump also weighed in, saying the criminal prosecution of Le Pen reminded him of the legal challenges he faced under former President Joe Biden’s administration. According to Le Monde, prosecutors argued that Le Pen and several RN lawmakers misused European Parliament funds by diverting them from official duties to party activities in France. Le Pen denied any wrongdoing, called the verdict politically motivated, and said she would appeal.

Speaking on French television on Monday evening, Le Pen vowed to stay in politics and fight for her right to run. “I’m combative, I won’t let myself be eliminated,” she said. Le Pen has run for president three times, finishing second in 2017 and 2022. Her party currently holds the largest number of seats in the National Assembly. According to an Ifop poll published in Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday, 34-37% of those surveyed said they plan to vote for Le Pen in 2027 – over ten points more than her nearest rival, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. A longtime critic of NATO policy in Eastern Europe, Le Pen has opposed Ukraine’s accession to the military bloc and has spoken out against EU sanctions on Russia.

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Grenell is a very effective special envoy. But maybe Trump feels Witkoff can now do with he did.

Trump Cites Grenell As Potential UN Ambassador Nominee (jTN)

President Donald Trump says about 30 people have expressed interest in becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations since he pulled the nomination of New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik for the position. Trump made the comment Monday. He also said David Friedman, who was the U.S. ambassador to Israel during his first administration, and Richard Grenell, who was the former ambassador to Germany, as potential nominees. “We have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it,” he said. Trump also said about 30 people are interested in the position.

“Everyone loves that position,” he said. “That’s a star-making position. And so we’ll see what happens.” Last week, Trump pulled Stefanik’s nomination to save House Republicans from losing another member and cutting further into their already narrow majority. House Republicans have already lost two members to Trump nominations, after winning control of the lower chamber in November.

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Unnecessary nonsense.

Trump National Security Team Used Gmail For Government Matters – WaPo (RT)

Members of the US National Security Council (NSC), including national security adviser Mike Waltz, have used personal Gmail accounts to discuss sensitive government information, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing obtained emails and three people familiar with the matter. The report comes after Waltz accidentally added a journalist to a Signal chat group where Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance and other senior officials discussed the upcoming US strikes in Yemen. According to the Post, a senior Waltz aide used Gmail for “highly technical conversations” with colleagues, which included “sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.” The Post cited officials as saying that Waltz had “potentially exploitable information” sent to his Gmail account and posted parts of his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions.

Officials are normally required to use secure government-issued means of communication. NSC spokesman Brian Hughes told the Post that Waltz “didn’t and wouldn’t send classified information on an open account.” He added that when “legacy contacts” were emailing Waltz, he always copied the messages to his government email “to ensure compliance with records retention.” Hughes said that NSC staff are instructed to use “only secure platforms for classified information.” In a statement to Fox News, Hughes said that he could not verify the Post’s claims because the journalist “refused to share any part of the document reported.”

The Democrats have criticized the Trump administration for using the Signal chat app when discussing the bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen last month. According to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, he was added to a group where Hegseth shared the timeline of the March 15 strikes, as well as the weapons systems used in the operation. Hegseth and other White House officials have denied that any classified information was shared in the chat with Goldberg. President Donald Trump has rejected the calls to dismiss Waltz. “I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” he told NBC News on Saturday.

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“..Europe is afraid of its own voters and is useless to the United States in this form..”

Donald Trump Jr. Says Le Pen’s Verdict Proves Vance Right About EU (TASS)

The sentence handed down to Marine Le Pen, the head of the parliamentary faction of the French National Rally party, proves US Vice President JD Vance is right about the EU, son of the American leader Donald Trump Jr. said on X. “France is sending Le Pen to jail and barring her from running?! Are they just trying to prove [JD Vence] was right about everything?” he wrote. Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, blasted the EU for censorship, including for blocking social networks. He said that Europe is afraid of its own voters and is useless to the United States in this form. He said that illegal migrants regularly commit crimes in the EU and advised to tighten border controls.

On Monday, a court in Paris found Le Pen guilty of embezzling EU funds and sentenced her to four years in prison, two of which she will have to wear an electronic bracelet (the remaining two years are suspended). The verdict, according to experts, means she will not be able to run for president of France in 2027. As explained by Le Figaro, Le Pen may retain her parliamentary mandate and the post of chairman of the party’s faction, but she will not be able to participate in possible early elections to the National Assembly (lower house) of the French parliament. The US State Department declined to comment. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS earlier that Le Pen’s verdict shows the “agony of liberal democracy.”

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If Kaja Kallas is your top diplomat, you have many problems.

NATO Will ‘Survive’ Trump – EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)

NATO will remain intact despite pressure from US President Donald Trump, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said. She warned, however, that some member states must be ready to make difficult choices to meet the required level of defense spending. In an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo on Monday, Kallas was asked whether “NATO [will] survive Trump’s term.” “I’m sure. It’s a strong alliance that’s alive and well”, she replied, adding that member nations have committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on defense by 2024 – a threshold that a significant portion of the bloc has yet to reach. “I hear the problems some countries are having, but I also think it’s illusory to get out of this situation without making difficult and unpopular decisions,” she said, citing her tenure as prime minister of Estonia during which the country raised taxes.

Pressed on why the EU does not propose direct subsidies for those lagging behind in defense spending, Kallas stated that the bloc must balance the interests of highly indebted countries and those that contribute the most to the EU budget. To address this, the EU has instituted “relief measures in the fiscal rules to give member states more room to operate,” which could give countries a number of options to increase spending, she added. Since his first term, Trump has been pushing European NATO members to spend more on their own defense. While the bloc’s members agreed to reach a 2% threshold, in February, the US president suggested that NATO members should consider spending as much as 5% of GDP on defense. Last month, he warned: “if they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said Trump was right to demand that European members step up defense spending. NATO leaders have insisted that the hike in military expenditure is aimed at deterring Russia amid the Ukraine conflict. Some officials have suggested that Moscow could launch a full-scale attack on the US-led bloc within a few years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the speculation as “nonsense,” arguing that Moscow has no interest in doing so.

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The new guy dreams of control. Inevitable.

Germany To Target ‘Internal EU Enemies’ – Politico (RT)

The incoming German government plans to play a larger role in EU decision-making, including by punishing nations that dissent against the bloc’s foreign policy, Politico has reported. According to the outlet, a draft coalition agreement targets Hungary, which has defied EU decisions on issues such as the Ukraine conflict and sanctions against Russia. Germany is set to have a new coalition government formed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democrats (SPD), likely led by Friedrich Merz of the CDU. The parties are currently finalizing agreements on key policy areas, including migration, climate, and EU relations. Merz is reportedly aiming to form the new government before Easter on April 20.

One of the documents reviewed by Politico outlines Berlin’s plans for a more assertive EU strategy. It proposes using the ‘Weimar Triangle’ – a trilateral alliance of Germany, France, and Poland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency – to influence the bloc’s direction and strengthen Germany’s use of its voting rights.The draft also states that Berlin plans to “defend” the EU against “internal and external enemies” by calling for punitive action against member states that allegedly violate principles such as the rule of law. Proposed penalties include withholding EU funds and suspending voting rights. “We will take even more consistent action against violations,” the document states.

“Existing protective instruments, from infringement proceedings and the withholding of EU funds to the suspension [of] membership rights such as voting rights in the Council of the EU, must be applied much more consistently than before.” The coalition has also proposed the creation of a “comprehensive sanction instrument” to rein in perceived dissenters, including replacing the EU’s foreign policy unanimity requirement with majority voting to prevent countries from blocking decisions such as sanctions. “The consensus principle in the European Council must not become a brake on decision-making,” the document states.

While Hungary is not mentioned by name, the draft agreement appears to be a clear reference to the country, which has long been at odds with EU policies, including over its approach to the Ukraine conflict and its sanctions policy towards Russia. Budapest has argued that sanctions have been detrimental to the bloc’s economy, and has exercised its veto right on several motions to delay or dilute measures. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly accused the EU of taking a “pro-war” stance and has pursued independent peace initiatives on the Ukraine conflict. The EU has previously threatened to suspend Hungary’s voting rights. It withheld around €22 billion in funds earmarked for Budapest in 2022, citing rights and judicial concerns, but ultimately released about half of that amount last year.

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“..amid “geopolitical fragmentation” of the world into competing blocs..”

BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Might Dethrone US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency (Sp.)

BlackRock’s Outlook 2025 called Bitcoin “a tactical hedge against specific risks, like gold.” Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, who had once labeled Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering,” experienced a notable change of heart last year amid inflationary pressures and the volatility of traditional markets. America’s mounting national debt, which is currently at $36 trillion, could prompt investors to start viewing the digital currency as a safer bet, Larry Fink has warned. “If deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing that position to digital assets like Bitcoin,” he stressed in his annual letter to investors.

Mandatory government spending and debt service will consume all federal revenue, creating a permanent deficit by 2030, Fink added. Initially, Fink was a skeptic, often dismissing Bitcoin as a speculative asset and referring to it as a “fad.” However, he gradually became more open to the idea of digital assets. In January 2024, BlackRock introduced the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a Bitcoin ETF that swiftly emerged as the largest cryptocurrency fund globally. BlackRock’s Outlook 2025 referred to Bitcoin as “a tactical hedge against specific risks, like gold” amid “geopolitical fragmentation” of the world into competing blocs.

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Cover all angles of a narrative, and you’re in control.

USAID and the Architecture of Perception (Stylman)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long portrayed itself as America’s humanitarian aid organization, delivering assistance to developing nations. With an annual budget of nearly $40 billion and operations in over 100 countries, it represents one of the largest foreign aid institutions in the world. But recent disclosures reveal its true nature as something far more systematic: an architect of global consciousness. Consider: Reuters, one of the world’s most trusted news sources, received USAID funding for ‘Large Scale Social Deception’ and ‘Social Engineering Defence.’ While there’s debate about the exact scope of these programs, the implications are staggering: a division of one of the world’s most relied-upon sources for objective reporting was paid by a US government agency for systemic reality construction. This funding goes beyond traditional media support, representing a deliberate infrastructure for discourse framing that fundamentally challenges the concept of ‘objective’ reporting.


Source: USASpending.gov database

But it goes deeper. In what reads like a Michael Crichton plot come to life, the recent USAID revelations show a staggering reach of narrative control. Take Internews Network, a USAID-financed NGO that has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive network, ‘working with’ 4,291 media outlets. In just one year, they produced 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘trained’ over 9,000 journalists. This isn’t just funding – it’s a systematic infrastructure of consciousness manipulation. The revelations show USAID funding both the Wuhan Lab’s gain-of-function research and the media outlets that would shape the story around what emerged from it. Backing organizations that would fabricate impeachment evidence. Funding both the election systems that facilitate outcomes and the fact-checkers that determine which discussions about those outcomes are permitted. But these disclosures point to something far more significant than mere corruption.

These revelations didn’t emerge from nowhere – they come from government grant disclosures, FOIA requests, and official records that aren’t even hidden, just ignored. As my old friend Mark Schiffer noted the other day, ‘The most important truths today cannot be debated – they must be felt as totalities.’ The pattern, once seen, cannot be unseen. Some may question DOGE’s methods or the rapid pace of these disclosures, and those constitutional concerns deserve serious discussion. But that’s a separate conversation from what these documents reveal. The revelations themselves – documented in official records and grant disclosures – are undeniable and should shock anyone who values truth. The means of exposure matter far less than what’s being exposed: one of the largest narrative control operations in history.

No domain is untouched – markets, tech, culture, health, and obviously, media – and you’ll find the same design. Intelligence agencies are deeply embedded in each domain because shaping how we perceive reality is more powerful than controlling reality itself Just as fiat currency replaced real value with declared value, we now see the same pattern everywhere: fiat science replaces inquiry with predetermined conclusions, fiat culture replaces organic development with curated influence, fiat history replaces lived experience with manufactured narratives. We live in an era of fiat everything – where reality itself is declared, not discovered. And just as they create artificial scarcity in monetary systems, they manufacture false choices everywhere else – presenting us with artificial binaries that obscure the true complexity of our world.

As Schiffer wrote elsewhere, reality no longer requires consensus, only coherence. But there’s a crucial distinction: real coherence emerges naturally across multiple domains, reflecting deeper truths that cannot be fabricated. The coherence imposed by perception management isn’t truth – it’s a controlled discourse engineered for consistency, not discovery. The USAID receipts now provide concrete evidence of how this manufactured coherence is built: a scripted reality where the appearance of logic is more important than actual substance.

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