Oct 142023
 
 October 14, 2023  Posted by at 5:15 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  8 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Old Man Sitting 1631

 

 

Benjamin -Bibi- Netanyahu has always been a warmonger. He thinks he, and his people, are superior to the Palestinians, and come to think of it, to Muslims in general. And when he first appeared on the scene some 30 years ago, he might have had a point, at least from a military point of view.

But he does not today, and that is very dangerous for his people. Bibi lives in the past, because he liked that past – he could feel superior. He does not recognize to what extent the world, including his, has changed. But change it did, while he was dreaming of winning warfare.

He is not unique in this. The entire US political system suffers from the same “affliction”. There has never been a better reason to introduce term limits in Congress and the Senate. Politicians like Pelosi and Feinstein are just about crying out for help: please get me out of here! Enter Joe Biden stage left. At least Joe has the excuse that he can’t find the exit.

Bibi is not 85 or 90 yet. He’s “only” 73. But he’s been around long enough to get stuck (rusted) in his own preferred ideas and view of the world. Bibi thinks he can do with the Palestinians whatever he sees fit. But, again, the world has changed. And Israel’s alleged military superiority has changed with it.

It didn’t have to be this way. Bibi is more or less the successor to Yithzak Rabin, who was elected PM in 1992 (he had earlier been PM from 1974-77) , and murdered in 1995. Rabin had entirely different ideas about his country. He rejected the use of force in favor of peace negotiations with the Palestinians (1993 Oslo Accords, 1994 Nobel Peace Prize).

That’s why he was murdered. Bibi first became PM in 1996. He had several stints in the job and kept floating to the top. And now Bibi threatens to raze the Gaza strip, and potentially kill 100s of 1000s of civilians. But there is no place in the world for people like him.

The Arab world around Israel has become much stronger and richer and more united. If Israel attempts to kill that many Muslims, it’s not just the Gaza strip that is under threat, but Israel itself is.

The Saudi’s have started talking to Iran, and there are many more such initiatives underway. Dividing the Arab world is no longer a feasible plan of action. Watch Turkey! But exactly like Bibi, the US political system doesn’t understand that either.

They could have though; the Ukraine war could have told them that. But Washington does not want to face its own diminishing role in the world any more the Bibi wants to in his part of it. Russia and China have advertized it loud enough through the BRICS, but the old US system wants nothing to do with multipolarity. They want things back to what they were 30 years ago, when those in charge today could still understand what was happening, and were the “masters”.

It’s not just Pelosi and Biden, Donald Trump doesn’t get it either. If he gets re-elected, he’ll move another embassy to Jerusalem. Bobby Kennedy also has a blind spot on Israel. They are all blind. They should go talk -a lot- to Putin and Xi. If there is to be peace in the Middle East, it will come from them.

Xi Jinping is 70, Putin is 71. Not the youngest either. But there is one main difference. They did not grow up in positions where they were kings. China and Russia 30 years ago were poor countries, perhaps desperately so. Therefore, the architects of the multipolar world have seen the changes they implemented, come to fruition.

That makes for a completely different world view from the Bibi’s and Pelosi’s etc etc who’ve only seen their positions shrink, and are trying to deny and counter that development. Growing at 70 is not the same as shrinking at 70. Or 80.

Yes, Bibi might well be crazy enough to drop a nuclear bomb. It’s up to Israel to get rid of him, and that threat. And it’s up to Xi and Putin to help them do that.

 

 

 

 

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Oct 122023
 


Pablo Picasso Self portrait with palette 1906

 

Israeli Assault on Gaza is Doomed to Fail (Scott Ritter)
Western Virtue Signaling Goes Hypersonic Over Israel (Marsden)
The Silence Of The Bears – Russia Is Reorienting Towards The Arabs (Helmer)
Russia Always Supported Establishment Of Palestinian State – Putin (TASS)
How A US ‘Peace Plan’ Brought War To Israel’s Doorstep (Fomenko)
Source of Dubious ‘Beheaded Babies’ Claim Is Israeli Settler Leader (GZ)
Extensive Gas Reserves Off The Gaza Coastline (Monotti)
Scott Ritter: Untracked US Arms to Client Regimes Land in Terrorist Hands (Sp.)
Western Political System Doesn’t Bring Smartest People To The Top – Putin (RT)
Zelensky ‘Starting To Annoy’ Everyone In US, Europe – Peskov (TASS)
Elon Musk Predicts ‘Civil War’ In Europe (RT)
Biden Classified Doc Scandal Deepens (ZH)
VP Biden Emailed About Son’s Business 29,000+ Times (Fed.)
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) May Undermine Fundamental Rights (BR)

 

 

 

 

Nap/Ritter

 

 

Assad

 

 

 

 

Rand Paul
https://twitter.com/i/status/1712108710909091959

 

 

RFK

 

 

 

 

“The Israeli military today is more comfortable making TikTok videos and posting Instagram photographs..”

Israeli Assault on Gaza is Doomed to Fail (Scott Ritter)

Israel has amassed some 300,000 troops, armed with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and artillery, and supported by helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Their mission is to secure the perimeter around Gaza to make sure that Hamas fighters are not able to sortie forth and commit atrocities against the citizens of Israel like those that occurred on October 7 and 8. At some point it is estimated that these troops will be ordered into Gaza for the purpose of destroying Hamas as an organization. But the sad fact is that the Israeli Army today is not up to such a mission. It lacks the training and fortitude for a task like that, regardless of outcome, and will cost Israel thousands of lives if seen to fruition. Any Israeli assault on Gaza is doomed to fail before it even begins.

A short look back at the preparedness and training of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) helps underscore the reasoning behind such a bleak assessment. Earlier this year, over the course of two weeks, stretching from late May through early June, the IDF carried out a massive exercise, code named “Firm Hand,” which tested the Israeli capability to wage war on multiple fronts. Like a similar exercise held the year before, code named “Chariots of Fire,” the “Firm Hand” event focused on a major air campaign being waged against Iran, and a major ground war being waged against Hezbollah, in northern Israel/southern Lebanon. Both exercises envisioned that there would be outbreaks of localized violence in the West Bank and along the Gaza Strip that would need to be contained by forces allocated to the Central and Southern military commands, respectively.

The focus of effort for both exercises was the Northern Command, and more specifically, the border with Lebanon. There, beyond the border, were located the forces of Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party which maintained a militia larger, better trained, and better equipped than most armies. Israel fought a 34-day war with Hezbollah in August 2006, pitting a force that had grown to over 30,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft, against a lightly armed unit of around 3,000 fighters. The war was an unmitigated disaster for the IDF. Hezbollah commanders found that Israeli troops were by and large poorly organized and disciplined, with very little training that was relevant to the rigors of modern war. Israeli tank operators were unfamiliar with tactics relevant to the terrain they were operating in, leaving themselves open to Hezbollah attacks that ended up destroying 20 of Israel’s vaunted Merkava tanks.

Israel has been struggling to overcome the stain of its 2006 defeat at the hands of Hezbollah. In 2016, the IDF embarked on Project Gideon, a five-year plan designed to reconfigure and retrain the Israeli Army so that it would not repeat the mistakes of 2006. When Project Gideon was completed, Israel then embarked on what it called the “Tnufa” (“Momentum”) plan, intended to build on the changes effected under Project Gideon. Part of the Tnufa plan is something called Ground Horizon, a series of technical innovations designed to make Israeli ground forces more effective. The IDF forces participating in both the Chariots of Fire and Firm Hand exercises had been at the receiving end of the Project Gideon/Tnufa/Ground Horizon changes. Two of the IDF’s premier units, the 91st “Galilee” Division, responsible for defending against Hezbollah from Lebanon, and the 36th Ga’ash (“Golan”) Armored Division, which is responsible for the Syrian border, took the lead in the exercises.

They carried out a multidivisional exercise where they conducted combined arms training against a Hezbollah-like foe. The Central Command and Southern Command practiced several counterterrorism exercises which emphasized the security of residents in Judea and Samaria. When the Firm Hand exercise was completed, the IDF high command declared it a success. They had not exercised against an event like the Hamas attacks of October 7-8 of this year. Urban combat is extraordinarily difficult. It is made even more so when a defender can settle in amongst the rubble of a destroyed city. Ask the Germans at Stalingrad. Ask the French, British, Indians, and Poles who fought at Monte Casino. Ask either the Ukrainians or Russians about Mariupol and Artemovsk (Bakhmut).

The Israeli military today is more comfortable making TikTok videos and posting Instagram photographs than they are in perfecting the skillsets needed to close with and destroy your enemy through firepower and maneuver. This is a military that, with a few exceptions found in the elite reconnaissance units of the IDF, has grown accustomed to a peacetime ritual more akin to the life of a corrections officer than soldier. The IDF has become experts at arresting children, beating up women, and murdering unarmed men. Digging a competent enemy out of the rubble of a destroyed city, especially when they have prepared and organized for such a battle, is deadly work. The Israeli troops who have been assembled outside of Gaza are not ready for this fight. They are not trained or equipped for this fight. They are not psychologically prepared for this fight.

Read more …

“..some egghead in Brussels is watching coverage of all the gas guzzling pickup trucks used by Hamas to raid villages and kidnap people and asking, “What’s the carbon footprint on those?”

Western Virtue Signaling Goes Hypersonic Over Israel (Marsden)

“Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel,” tweeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, effectively blessing a carte blanche response by the notoriously measured and restrained Israeli leadership in response to the Hamas attacks. “Who do you think you are? You’re unelected, and have no authority to determine EU foreign policy, which is set by @EUCouncil,” replied Irish MEP Clare Daly. “Europe does NOT ‘stand with Israel’. We stand for peace. You do not speak for us. If you’ve nothing constructive to say, and you clearly don’t, shut up.” In a single tweet, von der Leyen managed to position all of Europe as more militant than even the editorial staff of one of Israel’s main national newspapers, Haaretz, which placed blame for the attacks squarely on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of “annexation and dispossession” which “openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.”

The implication is that no action occurs in a vacuum absent the risk of sparking a reaction. The danger of Europe’s unelected Queen Ursula unilaterally launching hypersonic virtue signaling missiles in a knee-jerk emotional response is that it can’t possibly substitute for foreign policy decided in more sobering moments. Yet these days, more often than not, it’s the only kind of foreign policy we get, on everything from Israel to Ukraine. In yet another example of symbolism getting ahead of policy pragmatism, the EU announced withdrawal of its support for Palestine … before walking back the move just hours later. On Monday, Israel’s defense minister announced that the IDF was going to blockade Gaza even more than usual by preventing any entry of water, food, fuel, and electricity.

And just a couple hours later, EU Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said the bloc was joining the cause – by withholding its humanitarian funding for the Palestinian people. Germany and Austria were the first to get the ball rolling on funding withdrawal. However, a few hours later, the EU aid freeze was reversed by the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, after an apparent epiphany that it would only end up “punishing all the Palestinian people” and would have “only further emboldened terrorists.” There’s no way Brussels may have been inadvertently funding those terrorists in the first place, is there? [..] Or maybe, given all the climate-conscious verbiage attached to the aid, the EU just got angry that Hamas’ hang gliders were motorized. You just know that some egghead in Brussels is watching coverage of all the gas guzzling pickup trucks used by Hamas to raid villages and kidnap people and asking, “What’s the carbon footprint on those?”

All the virtue signaling in the world can’t now compensate for a lack of due diligence that the schizophrenic withdrawal and subsequent reinstatement of Palestinian funding suggests. It wouldn’t be the first time that innocent people suffered because of Brussels’ incompetence. Just ask the people of the entire European bloc currently facing seemingly endless economic hardship so their leaders can keep patting themselves on the back for supporting Ukraine. And just like in Ukraine, Brussels doesn’t seem too interested in availing itself of an opportunity to play any kind of a mitigating or thoughtful role amid this conflict, but is rather taking its usual seat in riding shotgun to the US neocons on whatever the current thing happens to be.

While even Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that there’s no “smoking gun” tying Iran to the latest Hamas attacks, that hasn’t stopped the usual neocon warmongers on the American side of the Transatlantic alliance from substituting sloganeering for actual policy, either – in favor of Iranian regime change, of course. “This is one of history’s best cases for regime change,” said former US National Security Advisor John Bolton. Because, when it comes to drumming up Iranian regime change, neocons are suddenly willing to take Hamas’ word to the bank as their trustworthy source for Iran’s involvement. “The Biden Administration should get a spine and pin the blame on Tehran where it belongs,” Bolton later added. It “belongs,” facts and policy be damned, because it fits the radical neocon narrative, even if it ends up being to the detriment of American lives and interests.

Read more …

“..Erdogan and Putin are contemplating a Turkish ship convoy of aid to Gaza, protected from Israeli attack by the Russian Navy from its Tartous base on the Syrian coast, and by the Russian Air Force from Hmeimim..”

The Silence Of The Bears – Russia Is Reorienting Towards The Arabs (Helmer)

From a policy of equivalence and equivocation between Israel and the Arabs, Russia has reached the policy of engagement on the Arab side. The driver has been the US war to defeat and destroy Russia through the Ukraine. The longer the new Palestinian war lasts, the more clearly Russian military and political strategy in the Middle East will pursue a new anti-American line. The consequences are as great as the defeat of the US and NATO which Russia is now inflicting in Europe, and of the western sanctions war in the global commodity markets and the trading lanes at sea. “We are witnessing a sharp deterioration of the situation in the Middle East,” Putin said in his public welcome for Iraq’s prime minister, Muhammed Shia al-Sudani, at the Kremlin on Tuesday morning.

“I think that many will agree with me that this is a clear example of the United States’ failed policy in the Middle East, which tried to monopolise the settlement process, but, unfortunately, was not concerned with finding compromises acceptable to both sides, but, on the contrary, put forward its own ideas about how this should be done and put pressure on both sides, truly both — first on one, then on the other. But each time without considering the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people, bearing in mind, first of all, the need to implement the decision of the UN Security Council on the creation of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.” The Foreign Ministry followed Putin later in the afternoon, when the regular weekly briefing by Maria Zakharova was advanced several days early in order to report there have been direct negotiations with the leaders of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Arab League, Iran, and Turkey – not with Israel.”*

“The US bet on the ‘freezing’ of the status quo and the promotion of ‘economic peace’, as well as the use of collective formats tailored for crisis response, has not justified itself,” Zakharova said. “Everyone sees the result…The statements of American politicians and public figures calling for ethnic cleansing in the region look monstrous. They openly call for one group of people [to be] near-doomed to complete destruction. Once again, aggression, violation of the rule of law, and the caveman’s hatred have emerged on the surface of the American declarations of good looks and human rights dogmas.” In the first direct Russian warning to the US Navy force in the Eastern Mediterranean, Zakharova added: “So far we see that the situation is developing along the path of escalation. There is a great risk of involving third forces in this conflict. And this is fraught with long-term consequences for the region and for the world.”

Putin followed in the evening on the telephone with the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The need for an immediate ceasefire by both sides and the resumption of the negotiation process was emphasised,” according to the Kremlin’s communiqué. “Mutual readiness to actively contribute to this was expressed…Separate issues of Russian-Turkish cooperation in various fields were also touched upon.” Erdogan’s press release was more revealing. He and Putin had “touched upon what initiatives can be taken to meet humanitarian needs in the region, as the Turkish president told Putin that targeting civilian settlements is worrying and Türkiye does not welcome such move.” Erdogan’s twitter announcement adds: “President Erdogan and President Putin of Russia also exchanged views on potential initiatives to meet humanitarian needs in the region.”

This is a hint that Erdogan and Putin are contemplating a Turkish ship convoy of aid to Gaza, protected from Israeli attack by the Russian Navy from its Tartous base on the Syrian coast, and by the Russian Air Force from Hmeimim. This humanitarian operation by sea would aim at breaking the blockade of the coast by the Israelis, and running the gauntlet of the USS Gerald Ford and its squadron further offshore. If this operation, a reminder of the Gaza Flotilla of 2010, is in planning now – the open signals are warning Washington and the US Navy to expect it – then the confrontation, and the risk to the US and Israel of strategic defeat at sea, are unprecedented.

Read more …

“..those who have been trying for decades to solve this problem by force have the upper hand. Unfortunately, this leads to such tragic events as we are witnessing now..”

Russia Always Supported Establishment Of Palestinian State – Putin (TASS)

Russia has always advocated the implementation of the UN Security Council’s decision on the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week. “We have always supported the implementation of the decisions of the UN Security Council, I mean, first of all, the creation of an independent Palestinian state. This is the root of all problems,” Putin pointed out. He also said that Russia’s position on the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict did not emerge as a result of the recent tragic events, but was formed over the past decades. “And this position is well known both to the Israeli side and to our friends in Palestine,” the Russian president added.

He noted that the Palestinian-Israeli issue has been accompanied and aggravated by “mediation activities” of a number of countries in recent years. According to the Russian president, there are still political figures and experts in these countries today who believe that it is necessary to follow the path of creating an independent state. “And there are such people in Israel. But those who have been trying for decades to solve this problem by force have the upper hand. Unfortunately, this leads to such tragic events as we are witnessing now,” Putin said.

Read more …

Abraham Accords. Trump, Kushner, Pompeo.

How A US ‘Peace Plan’ Brought War To Israel’s Doorstep (Fomenko)

Conflict between Israel and Palestine is about as common as the sun rising in the East, but this time it is different, not only because of the frightening number of victims on both sides over just a few days, but because such conflicts have not constituted a formal war since 1973, and the legally recognized territory of Israel has not been invaded by an enemy since 1948. The stakes are huge, but one might question, how exactly did it come to this? Why is this happening now? And how does it relate to the broader context of not only the Middle East, but the world? Two words: Abraham Accords. The United States’ push to create a one-sided, unbalanced and effective appeasement of Israel’s actions, coupled with an attempt to use such to isolate Iran, has led to the calculation by Hamas that the only way to salvage its cause is to unleash a full-scale armed struggle.

In doing so, the militants’ goal is not to destroy Israel head on, because we must acknowledge that such an outcome is not possible. Rather, it is to turn the diplomatic and political tide in the region against Israel and the US in the name of a new Jihad. The Abraham Accords are a peace initiative started in 2020 by the Trump administration that seeks to get Arab countries to unilaterally recognize the State of Israel, without West Jerusalem itself making any concessions regarding the issue of Palestinian statehood. Through the accords, driven by the pro-Israel fanaticism of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the US was successful in getting the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco, and Bahrain to open up diplomatic relations with Israel. The US typically incentivized this by making unilateral concessions to these countries as part of a deal, such as removing Sudan from the State Sponsor of Terrorism list or recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara.

The Abraham Accords were not a serious peace initiative because all they did was bribe countries to effectively side with Israel and abandon Palestine, instead of seeking peace in one of the most prominent simmering conflicts in the region. Moreover, the accords’ true geopolitical intention was to facilitate the diplomatic isolation of Iran by weakening and splitting the anti-Zionist cause. The grander strategy, by extension, was to facilitate American hegemony over the Middle East, given Israel’s very close relations with the US. Opposition to the US in the region has always gone hand-in-hand with opposition to Israel, be it through Arab nationalism (Syria, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and, historically, Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt) or Islamic fundamentalism (Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas).

In line with this, the US hoped that, by diplomatically isolating Iran, imposing tough sanctions on it and attempting to force it to capitulate on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Washington could sustain its order over the Middle East and maintain its favourable security relationships in the region. The Abraham Accords, to this end, encouraged appeasement of Israel, rather than making a mutually acceptable compromise which sought to move towards a two-state solution. In promoting this, the US was happy to allow Israel under Netanyahu to continually move the goalposts towards a “one-state solution” and to effectively ignore Palestinian resistance, which it now describes as “unprovoked.”

Read more …

”..who incited riots to ‘wipe out’ Palestinian village..”

Source of Dubious ‘Beheaded Babies’ Claim Is Israeli Settler Leader (GZ)

After an Israeli reserve soldier named David Ben Zion told a reporter Palestinian militants “cut [off] heads of babies,” Biden, Netanyahu, and the international media amplified the dubious claim. The Grayzone has identified Ben Zion as a fanatical settler leader who incited riots by demanding a Palestinian town be “wiped out.” An international outcry erupted when Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that Palestinian militants from the besieged Gaza Strip had killed 40 “babies,” and beheaded several of them during an incursion into Kfar Aza, a kibbutz on the Gaza border. President Joseph Biden repeated the inflammatory claim during an October 10 White House Rose Garden address, while networks across the West carried the story without a shred of critical scrutiny.

According to CNN correspondent Nic Robertson, apparently citing Israeli military sources, Palestinian militants carried out, “ISIS-style executions,” in which they were “cutting the heads off of people,” including babies and pets. The Grayzone has now identified a key source of the claim that Palestinian militants beheaded Israeli babies. He is David Ben Zion, a Deputy Commander of Unit 71 of the Israeli army who also happens to be an extremist settler leader who incited violent riots against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank earlier this year. In an October 10 interview with reporter Nicole Zedek of the Israeli state-sponsored i24 network, Ben Zion stated, “We walked door to door, we killed a lot of terrorists. They are very bad. They cut heads of children, they cut heads of women. But we are stronger than them.” He added, “We know that they are animals,” referring to Palestinians, “but we found that they don’t have any heart.”

Hours after his interview with i24, still in the village of Kfar Aza, a uniformed Ben Zion could be seen repeatedly grinning ear-to-ear in a video posted to his Facebook – an odd disposition for a supposed witness to the methodical butchering of babies. Earlier that day, i24’s Zedek declared during a live report from Kfar Aza, “About 40 babies were taken out on gurneys… Cribs overturned, strollers left behind, doors left wide open.’” Zedek’s report has been viewed tens of millions of times on Twitter and promoted by Israel’s Foreign Ministry – which underwrites her network. Hours later, she qualified her statement, stating, “Soldiers told me they believe 40 babies/children were killed. The exact death toll is still unknown as the military continues to go house to house and find more Israeli casualties.” Yet the unverified tale quickly made its way to the highest levels of leadership, as if by design.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman stated unequivocally that babies and toddlers were found with their “heads decapitated,” while President Joe Biden himself vaguely gestured towards “stomach-churning reports of babies being killed.” Likewise, cable news has flown into a frenzy, breathlessly reporting the story despite the IDF walking back its initial confirmation. Meanwhile, some reporters who initially carried the official Israeli allegations about beheaded babies began issuing qualifications of their own. Oren Ziv, an Israeli reporter who joined the military’s official tour of Kfar Aza, commented on Twitter, “I’m getting a lot of question about the reports of ‘Hamas beheaded babies’ that were published after the media tour in the village. During the tour we didn’t see any evidence of this, and the army spokesperson or commanders also didn’t mention any such incidents.”

Read more …

X thread.

Extensive Gas Reserves Off The Gaza Coastline (Monotti)

Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline: “It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine. The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine’s gas reserves could be much larger.

Who Owns the Gas Fields?
The issue of sovereignty over Gaza’s gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine. The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza’s offshore gas reserves. British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields.

In 2006, British Gas “was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt.” (Times, May, 23, 2007). According to reports, British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on behalf of Israel with a view to shunting the agreement with Egypt.

Gaza and Energy Geopolitics. The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law.”

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“We do that everywhere we go. We just give the weapons away and we walk away…

Scott Ritter: Untracked US Arms to Client Regimes Land in Terrorist Hands (Sp.)

US military aid to its client regimes goes unaccounted for — and often finds its way to terrorist groups, says a former UN weapons inspector. Video emerged this week of a Hamas guerrilla thanking the US for the rifle he carried in the groups incursion into Israel, saying it came from a shipment of weapons to Ukraine that had found its way onto the black market. Scott Ritter told Sputnik that Washington is lackadaisical when it comes to keeping track of arms it gifts to its foreign proxies. “We’ve seen the weapons some of the Hamas assault squads are making use of American-made M4 rifles,” Ritter noted. “So it’s not a question of whether or not they have them. We know they have them. The question is, where did they get them from?” “Historically we tend to flood a client state with weapons as part of our security agreement,” Ritter said.

“The American calculation is never about the quality of the assistance being provided, but the quantity, because the quantification is linked to a dollar figure that the US Congress has established.” “That dollar figure needs to be translated into a deliverable that could be reported back to Congress, saying that we have provided this much money for this and that. And so weapons is the easiest thing we will send in,” he added. He recalled how during the Western occupation of Iraq, advisers to the new police force asked for rifles and handguns from the US — which corrupt officers then sold on the black market. The firearms ultimately ended up in the hands of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)* militants in neighboring Turkiye, where they were captured by police and traced back to the US.

“We do that everywhere we go. We just give the weapons away and we walk away,” Ritter said. Washington’s failure to keep track of its arms handouts to the Kiev regime is also being felt acutely in West Africa.”We see the same thing in Africa, where weaponry that we provided to Ukraine, in particular handheld anti-tank missiles, are showing up in the Lake Chad region in the hands of Boko Haram, the Islamist terrorist group that’s using them against Niger forces, the forces from Chad, forces from Nigeria, forces from Cameroon, many of these forces whom we train,” Ritter said. “Our weapons that we send to Ukraine get in the hands of the people that are fighting the forces that are ostensibly friendly to us. So this is a big problem.”

The former US Marine said government officials seemed unconcerned where the billions of dollars’ worth of military aid ends up. “There’s literally no accounting for these weapons,” Ritter warned. “There’s no quality control in terms of being able to tell Congress or tell anybody, American policymakers, what the status of these weapons is.”

Read more …

“Europe could have just said: ‘Open this route now. We need it to support our economy. But no..”

Western Political System Doesn’t Bring Smartest People To The Top – Putin (RT)

Russia sees absolutely no sense in the EU’s current policy of forgoing Russian energy supplies, particularly gas, President Vladimir Putin told the Russian Energy Week forum on Wednesday. He added that “the modern political system in [the West] obviously sometimes brings not the smartest people to the top.” Speaking about the issue of Russian gas exports to Europe, he pointed to what he called a lack of common sense in some European capitals. “There is no sensible explanation to why some European economies, including Germany’s, should behave like this,” the president said, referring to the situation in the European energy market. He called it “surprising” that European nations did not demand that Kiev reopen one of the Russian gas pipelines going through Ukraine after it was shut down.

Ukraine halted Russian gas transit along one of the routes running through its territory back in May, arguing that it had lost control over one of the gas compressor stations. The station in question is located in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which voted to join Russia last year. The Ukrainian pipeline operator claimed that Russian forces controlling the compressor station were somehow “interfering” with its technical processes and shut down its part of the line. Moscow denied the allegations and warned that Russian gas exports could not be effectively re-routed to other pipelines to compensate for the shutdown. In July, Kiev said that it might cut Russian gas supplies to Europe altogether as it does not intend to renew the transit deal with Moscow. “I believe, by the winter of 2024, Europe will not need Russian gas at all,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Politico.

The 2019 transit agreement allows Russia to export some 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year via Ukraine until the end of 2024. A third of this volume should have reached Europe via a pipeline that Kiev has already cut off. “Europe could have just said: ‘Open this route now. We need it to support our economy. But no,” Putin said, commenting on Kiev’s actions. A similar approach could have been used when Poland terminated a supply contract with Russia ahead of its end-2022 expiry date. Warsaw rejected Moscow’s demand for ruble payments in May 2022 and started using its leg of the Yamal-Europe Pipeline to pump stored gas from Germany. The Yamal-Europe Pipeline, which links European customers to the natural gas fields in Russia’s north, used to carry nearly half of Gazprom’s westbound gas deliveries.

Moscow repeatedly stated that it was ready to restart supplies of natural gas to the EU via this route, adding that the shipments had been halted in the first place for political reasons. Germany might have pointed to the fact that it was the biggest donor to the EU common budget while Poland was the largest recipient of EU funds, Putin said, adding that Berlin might have told Warsaw “not to bite the hand that feeds you.” The German government could have also approved the use of the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Russian leader stated. One of the two pipeline strings remained operable after a series of underwater explosions that destroyed the other three strings of Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. “Nord Stream 2 is a direct [route] to Germany,” Putin said, adding that it could have “delivered 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.” Instead, Germany “opts to buy [gas] with a 30% premium and not use our energy resource. That’s their choice,” the president added.

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“People are starting to wonder: What is this man spending our money on if Ukraine is a country most famous for, you know, being such an oasis of corruption on Earth?”

Zelensky ‘Starting To Annoy’ Everyone In US, Europe – Peskov (TASS)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has found himself in a rather challenging situation, as he is getting on the nerves of everyone in the United States and Europe, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin TV program, an excerpt of which was posted on anchor Pavel Zarubin’s Telegram channel. “Zelensky is in a rather tricky position. First of all, he is starting to touch a nerve. He is starting to annoy everyone both in America and Europe,” Peskov said. “People are starting to wonder: What is this man spending our money on if Ukraine is a country most famous for, you know, being such an oasis of corruption on Earth?” the Kremlin spokesman said.

“Certainly, nobody likes it, and this dissatisfaction with Zelensky will grow,” Peskov concluded, pointing out that the Ukrainian president feels this and “is beginning to crack.” Moreover, the Kremlin spokesman continued, “he [Zelensky] still has that professional greed: How could the weapons promised to me be given to Israel?” “That is why things are not so easy for him. Things are not so easy. Traditionally, they are already spoiled and are used to this sort of mentorship. We will wait and see how [the situation] unfolds from here,” the Russian presidential spokesman added.

Read more …

Immigration.

Elon Musk Predicts ‘Civil War’ In Europe (RT)

US entrepreneur Elon Musk has suggested that European Union may face the prospect of civil war due to its immigrant-welcoming policies. Two weeks ago, he visited the US southern border, wading into the bitter debate over immigration in his home country. “If current trends continue, civil war in Europe is inevitable,” he claimed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. Musk was responding to a thread by Moscow-born British satirist and political commentator Konstantin Kisin. He denounced what he called “people celebrating rape and murder by a proscribed terrorist organisation as the police stand and watch in major European cities.” Kisin was referring to pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the wake of the deadly incursion by Hamas into southern Israel last week.

Some residents of European nations focused on condemning Israel for mistreatment of people in the West Bank and Gaza rather than condemning the killings and kidnappings of Israelis by the Palestinian militant movement. “We import more people who think this way every day,” Kisin noted, decrying the lack of “a sensible immigration policy” screening for people with “cultural values that match our own.” He was presumably referring to the EU rather than the UK, where Conservative governments have ramped up immigration controls since Brexit. Kisin concluded that British author Douglas Murray was correct when he argued that European civilization was committing suicide in his 2017 book ‘The Strange Death of Europe’. Immigration is a hot-button issue in the US as well, as critics of the administration of President Joe Biden accuse him of turning a blind eye to illegal border crossings for the sake of ideological and political goals.

Musk weighed in on the debate in late September, when he visited the border city of Eagle Pass in Texas. The US should “smooth out legal immigration and stop a flow of people that is of such magnitude that we’re leading to a collapse of social services,” Musk urged at the time. He declared himself “extremely pro-immigrant,” citing his own status as a naturalized citizen. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York attacked her colleague, Tony Gonzales of Texas, who gave Musk a tour of the border area. She said the Republican “decided to skip town to joyride with a billionaire” instead of staying in Washington DC and working on ways to avoid a government shutdown. Congress has since passed a compromise stopgap spending bill, prolonging the fight over budgetary priorities. Musk has previously branded Ocasio-Cortez “not very smart” on immigration issues.

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“There is no reasonable explanation as to why this many White House employees and lawyers were so concerned with retrieving boxes they believed only contained personal documents and materials..”

1/ He was not allowed at any time to have any of the -highly classified- docs. Period.
2/ He now says (paraphrased) that he didn’t know they were there.
3/ That only makes it worse.

Biden Classified Doc Scandal Deepens (ZH)

More than a year before White House lawyers claim to have ‘discovered’ classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in November of 2022, evidence has emerged that White House employees ‘inspected’ or ‘took inventory’ of them, while another official removed “a few” boxes containing Biden materials that October, according to the House Oversight Committee. According to a letter to White House counsel Edward Siskel from Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), the official timeline of events provided by the Biden team “omitted months of communications, planning, and coordinating.” Comer says that a Penn Biden Center employee told the committee that on March 18, 2021, senior White House aide Annie Tomasini “[took] inventory of President Biden’s documents and materials” stored at the center, where he established a private office after his vice presidency.

The same witness also said that on Oct. 13, 2022, Oval Office deputy director of operations, Ashley Williams, removed “a few” of Biden’s boxes. The White House has previously claimed that all relevant documents were either moved to the National Archives or the DOJ, while Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said that the documents were discovered on November 2, 2022 – a total lie. The committee, which has conducted three witness interviews, says on five occasions, White House employees, including former White House Counsel Dana Remus, and the president’s former assistant Kathy Chung, a current Department of Defense employee, went to the Penn Biden Center to take inventory, pack up or remove materials. These visits occurred between March 2021 and mid-October 2022. -CBS News

“There is no reasonable explanation as to why this many White House employees and lawyers were so concerned with retrieving boxes they believed only contained personal documents and materials,” said Comer in his letter. The letter requests transcribed interviews with Remus, Williams, Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, a top adviser to the first lady, and Katie Reilly, a West Wing aide, according to CBS News. It is also asking for documentation and communication related to the documents. The committee has already interviewed Chung, who was then-Vice President Biden’s assistant. Democrats, of course, have resorted to whataboutism…

“Former President Trump’s willful retention of hundreds of highly classified documents, his defiance of court-ordered subpoenas, his reported disclosure of our country’s most sensitive national security information, and false statements to law enforcement should worry the Chair of a congressional committee with jurisdiction over government records,” said a spokesman for Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. “Instead Chairman Comer is using the Committee to focus on President Biden whose complete cooperation with the Special Counsel’s investigation stands in stark contrast, including voluntarily participating in a two-day interview with the Special Counsel, and opening the doors to his Penn Biden Center office and private residence to investigators.”

As Jonathan Turley noted earlier, the ‘ultimate punchline’ here could be that Special Counsel Robert Hur may be in a sticky situation if he actually finds evidence of a crime. On its face, the President claims that he had no knowledge of these documents appears dubious at best. Some classified material reportedly goes back to Biden’s time as a senator — material that he would have had to remove from a sensitive compartmented information facility or secure room on Capitol Hill. More importantly, the documents from the Obama Administration were removed when Biden left as vice president. They were then divided and repeatedly moved to different locations. That suggests not just knowledge but a purpose. Why were they divided and some documents were found in his garage and possibly his library?

If Hur found fingerprints that contradict Biden’s statements, he could face not just some of the same charges brought against Trump but also possible false statement or obstruction charges. Notably, Biden used counsel to conduct searches and (as in the Trump case) additional classified materials were found after the Biden team said that they had finished their searches. There are serious questions over whether, in allowing uncleared counsel to search through these documents, evidence may have been lost in how they were stored or appeared in locations like the garage. Hur can bring charges against third parties, who would not be barred from indictment under the DOJ policy. But what does Hur then do if he has evidence against the President himself?

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4 years as VP is some 1450 days. That’s 20 mails per day, every single day. That’s a lot. Doesn’t mention the pseudonym accounts.

VP Biden Emailed About Son’s Business 29,000+ Times (Fed.)

President Joe Biden denied long before he was inaugurated that he ever discussed business with his son. A new FOIA obtained by America First Legal via lawsuit, however, revealed that Joe emailed his son Hunter Biden, his brother James “Jim” Biden, and their respective firms tens of thousands of times over the course of his vice presidency. In a joint status report published by the Washington D.C. District Court on Friday, the National Archives and Records Administration reluctantly admitted that it knew of 4,243 emails between then-Vice President Joe and Hunter Biden, another 1,751 emails between Joe and Jim, 19,335 emails between Joe and Hunter’s private equity firm Rosemont Seneca, and 3,738 emails between Joe and Jim’s Chinese-communist party connected consulting firm Lion Hall Group.

Joe, Hunter, Jim, and the firms listed in the court documents are at the center of the GOP investigation into the Biden family influence-peddling operation. “These damning numbers further confirm that there was never a wall separating the Office of the Vice President and Hunter Biden’s business endeavors. In fact, there was extensive commingling between them,” AFL wrote in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. It’s unclear what exactly the emails said since NARA claimed it would take more than 15 months to sort through the data requested by AFL. The existence of the emails, however, is proof alone that Biden has lied about his involvement in his family’s scheme to sell political favors to foreign oligarchs.

Biden insisted in 2019 that “there will be an absolute wall between personal and private [business interests] and the government.” “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period,” Biden said. From the October 2020 debate stage, the then-presidential candidate specifically denied that Hunter “made money” on China. At the time, the New York Post had already reported on emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop detailing how the younger Biden pursued business deals with one of China’s largest energy companies with hopes of cashing in “for me and my family.” Since then, receipts, White House visitor logs, testimonies from Biden business partners, text messages, and documents eviscerating Joe’s lies have surfaced.

Hunter’s text messages, obtained by the House Ways and Means Committee, indicate the Bidens saw Joe as the one and “only asset” of the Biden family “brand” that they sold to foreign businessmen in exchange for cash. This pay-to-play racket, receipts suggest, enriched members of the Biden family, including Hunter and Jim, by at least $20 million. Despite corporate media trying to cover for his flip-flop by claiming that his relationship with Hunter’s business partners has “long been known,” Joe’s involvement as the “big guy,” who would receive a cut from a deal with Chinese energy company CEFC and other foreign players, was apparent from the start.

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“Trusted Flaggers..”

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) May Undermine Fundamental Rights (BR)

The Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to provide a European solution to an important societal challenge: illegal content and misinformation online. These are real and significant problems, for which new legislation was needed indeed. The DSA was developed and approved during the pandemic. It is a lengthy and complex text, and I believe it has received insufficient political and public scrutiny. The DSA does contain highly valuable provisions, e.g. providing mechanisms for fighting child abuse and for enforcing transparency requirements in online advertising and recommendation systems. However, there are also concerning parts, which may undermine fundamental rights, especially freedom of expression and information, a cornerstone of European democracies and enshrined as Article 11 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Hereunder, I summarize my understanding of some key points in the DSA, omitting technical details and nuances, and emphasizing those potential risks.

• The DSA requires that online platforms make it easy for anyone to report allegedly illegal content. Online platforms (and providers of so-called ‘hosting services’ more generally), such as social media platforms, must provide user-friendly mechanisms that allow anyone to ‘notify’ (i.e. flag or report) content on the platform (e.g., a message on X) that they believe to be illegal (Art 16).

• Online platforms become liable for reported content. Once notified, platforms (e.g., X) become liable for the notified content, if it is indeed illegal (Art 6, and Art 16 paragraph 3). They then must quickly take appropriate action against it (suppression, removal of the content, suspension or blocking of the author…) (Art 16).

• Notices submitted by so-called Trusted Flaggers must be handled with priority. Trusted Flaggers are organizations that will be certified as such by the so-called national Digital Service Coordinators (DSCs) (see below and Art 49-51). Platforms must handle notices submitted by Trusted Flaggers as a matter of priority (Art 22). Trusted Flaggers that notify content too often inaccurately can lose their privileged status, but they risk nothing more than that (Art 22, par 6-7).

• Complaint and redress procedures must be established, but they will take time. Complaint and redress procedures must be established and clearly communicated (see e.g. Art 16 par 5, and Art 17 par 3(f)). Such procedures must include an internal complaint-handling system (Art 20), out-of-court dispute settlement bodies (Art 21), and judicial redress. However, these procedures can drag on for months, during which time the measure (suppression, removal, etc.) remains in force.

• Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) are used as a means against undesirable (but not illegal) content. Notifications can compel a platform to take measures for two possible reasons (e.g., Art 17 par 1):
1/ because the platform also deems the content to be illegal (or, perhaps more often, because it does not have the time or resources to investigate, and thus prefers to err on the side of caution), or
2/ because the content violates the platform’s T&Cs (but is not necessarily illegal).

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Vampire squid

 

 

Cuttlefish

 

 

Dogs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1712336414795334018

 

 

Turtle
https://twitter.com/i/status/1712120874944598105

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 112023
 
 October 11, 2023  Posted by at 8:47 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  35 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1972

 

US Support for Israel May Set Off Total Middle East Upheaval – Ex-Envoy (Sp.)
The War Has Started (Illaik)
The Israel-Palestine War Is Washington’s Fault (Inlakesh)
US Funding May be Diverted From Ukraine to Israel (Sp.)
Zelensky Blames Putin For Hamas Attack On Israel (HE)
Khamenei Distances Iran From Hamas Operation (ZH)
Saudi Arabia Expresses ‘Unwavering’ Support For Palestine (RT)
The Civilization Of The Antichrist (Alexander Dugin)
Special Counsel Hur May Prove the Ultimate Punchline in Washington (Turley)
Washington Moving ‘Illegal’ Bioresearch Operations To Africa – Moscow (RT)
EU Issues Ultimatum To Elon Musk (RT)
Finland-Estonia Undersea Pipeline In Baltic “Deliberately Damaged” (ZH)
The US Is On The Verge Of Becoming A Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

In what is only typical, I’ve seen stories about 40 beheaded babies everywhere. That is Putin eats babies territory. Don’t touch it. Reality is bad enough.

“Throughout the fake “Hamas beheaded 40 children” psyop, there wasn’t a single image of one of the supposed beheaded babies, no images of them when they were alive, no names nor ages, and no parents family members or came forward to say their child had been beheaded. It was all based on unverified claims and “beliefs” from the Israeli military.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blevins

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

Mental gymnastics”

More mental gymnastics:

@Thom_Hartmann Oct 8: “Hamas apparently knew how to get around Israel’s Iron Dome defenses. They probably learned this from Iran. Iran almost certainly got the information from Russia. And who gave it to Russia? Sure looks like it was Donald Trump, at the request of Putin..”

 

 

Rabbi

 

 

 

 

Pepe Escobar: “Israel bombed to smithereens St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza: built 1,616 years ago, the third oldest church in the world.”

 

 

 

 

“The Israeli-US “pipedream” fostered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that relations with Saudi Arabia are going to normalize is now also “gone” for the foreseeable future..”

US Support for Israel May Set Off Total Middle East Upheaval – Ex-Envoy (Sp.)

The United States will support Israel in all actions it takes against Hamas in Gaza after the killing of over 1,000 Israelis in Saturday’s incursion, but this will set off an anti-US wave across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman told Sputnik. Israel formally declared a state of war on Sunday, a day after Hamas invaded Israeli territory and committed the greatest slaughter of civilians in the 75 year history of the Jewish state. On Monday, Israel put the Gaza Strip under full blockade, with no food, gas or electricity supplies. Both Israel and Palestine have so far reported hundreds of dead and thousands of injured as a result of the escalation.

“The United States will support Israel reflexively but this will set off a much wider anti-US reaction across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world,” Freeman, who also served as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Clinton administration, said in an interview. The crisis is unlikely to be confined to Israel and Gaza and will metastasize to other neighboring countries, Freeman warned. “The geopolitical dangers could very well rapidly spread to Lebanon and Syria,” he said. The Israeli-US “pipedream” fostered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that relations with Saudi Arabia are going to normalize is now also “gone” for the foreseeable future, Freeman believes. The Biden administration itself appears to have been caught off guard by the ferocious suddenness and success of Hamas’ invasion, Freeman suggested. “National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan last week made the truly idiotic claim that the Middle East region had reached a reassuring level of stability,” he said.

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“.. the Americans sent messages to the Resistance Axis – specifically Iran and Hezbollah – saying, essentially: “We don’t want this to escalate. We want and need stability on the Lebanese border with Israel. We are urging you not to interfere in this war.”

The War Has Started (Illaik)

Hamas did not coordinate its military operation with any of its Resistance Axis allies. It also did not plan to achieve the stunning results that were soon to follow. The Qassam Brigades’ immediate goal was only to destroy Israeli army positions around the Gaza Strip and capture as many soldiers as possible, which they could later exchange for the thousands of Palestinian captives in Israeli prisons. But the Palestinian resistance forces were taken by surprise at the laxity of the occupation army. Contrary to expectations, they stumbled upon security vacuums and poorly guarded military sites in which a large number of enemy soldiers and officers were fast asleep. It was this unexpected opportunity that prodded the Palestinian fighters to reach for bigger gains.

Hamas’ military leadership planned to carry out this operation in complete secrecy. Just weeks earlier, their fighters had conducted military maneuvers/exercises that were observed by the Israelis. But Tel Aviv’s rather complacent intelligence assessment had been that “Hamas is training for what it does not dare to do.” The Israelis, in short, thought that Hamas was merely flexing in order to gain financial concessions for Gaza. No actual operation was ever expected by Israel’s military brass. The veil of secrecy over the operation also extended to the Hamas fighters who carried out the attack. Sources close to Hamas say that their cadres believed, until the morning of the operation, that they were assembling for a training exercise, not for the real thing.

Very few knew details of the comprehensive attack plan. Even Hamas’ allies in Lebanon and Iran learned of the operation at zero o’clock and not a moment before, according to well-informed sources in the Resistance Axis. Even for this axis, the Hamas operation went beyond all possible expectations. Although true that many of the Hamas tactics employed are shared among the Axis’ fighters in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, the innovation in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation was the signature of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and particularly its brilliant leader Muhammad Deif. The operation was coordinated with remarkable professionalism: accurate and detailed intelligence was amassed, high-level training exercises organized, secrecy was paramount, and superior coordination was established between the myriad drones, paratroopers, and vast majority of Hamas fighters who crossed into the occupation state, through tunnels and above ground.

Al Qassam also planned to target Israeli communications towers and all military sites surrounding Gaza. From a military perspective, this was a near-perfect operation that led to the destruction of all the facilities of the Israeli army’s “Gaza Division” and the annihilation of entire Israeli brigades. For Israel, this was a total humiliation – something it had never experienced before, even in the devastating 1973 Arab-Israeli war. With the support of the collective west, Israel is now assembling a plan to restore its deterrence. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood didn’t only affect the Israelis – it has also endangered western deterrence throughout West Asia and the Arab world. The decline in Israel’s deterrent capacity correlates directly with the weakening of western hegemony in the region.

While Israel has been scurrying around to mobilize its troops and equipment for a counterattack, the Americans sent messages to the Resistance Axis – specifically Iran and Hezbollah – saying, essentially: “We don’t want this to escalate. We want and need stability on the Lebanese border with Israel. We are urging you not to interfere in this war.” The messages were sent on 7 October, as events unfolded, and through more than one medium. Hezbollah’s response was seen on the ground the very next morning, when it bombed Israeli army positions in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms. This was a warning message, which was clarified further by Hezbollah’s Executive Council Chief Hashem Safi Al-Din when he said: “We will not remain neutral in this battle.” Neither will Washington, which immediately announced $8 billion in aid to Israel, and sent an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The US cannot afford for Israel to take more losses, but how far will they go to deter Tel Aviv’s adversaries?

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“..Biden has abandoned the idea of reviving the Iran nuclear deal and of ending the war in Yemen. He also decided to try and inflict a death blow on the Palestinian cause for statehood.”

The Israel-Palestine War Is Washington’s Fault (Inlakesh)

The Declaration of Principles, the first agreement in the Oslo Accords, was signed on the White House lawn over 30 years ago. The accords were supposed to solve the conflict in a span of five years, but failed due to America’s inability to function as a truly neutral peace broker. During the administration of US President Donald Trump, Washington abandoned the two-state solution altogether, through the pursuance of normalization deals between Arab nations and Israel. The issue of Palestinian statehood, which the UN agrees should be solved through a two-state solution, was sidelined as a non-issue and the one bargaining chip possessed by the Palestinians, Arab-Israeli normalization, began to be taken off of the table.

How did the Palestinian political parties respond to normalization in 2018? They overwhelmingly chose non-violent struggle, including in Gaza, where Hamas endorsed the ‘Great March of Return’, a mass protest movement which lasted around a year. Most of the protesters were peaceful, but it was the relatively small groups of Palestinians committing sabotage and anti-Israeli aggression at the border fence that made the news. In response, Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and injured almost 10,000. On the Israeli side, there was not a single dead soldier or civilian, while Israeli snipers targeted women, children, journalists, disabled people, and medical workers, according to a UN human rights report on the demonstrations. How did the US react to hundreds of thousands of unarmed Palestinian protesters marching on the separation fence between Gaza and Israel? It ignored them and continued to pursue Arab-Israeli normalization.

Under the Biden administration, the two-state solution was also sidelined and the plight of Palestinians was ignored as insignificant. Instead of seeking a solution to the violence which has been steadily escalating to levels not seen in 20 years, during the course of the past two years – especially in the West Bank – Biden has chosen to look the other way and has pursued Saudi-Israeli normalization instead. A deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel would also have the potential to collapse the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement, brokered earlier this year by China, in addition to potentially dragging Washington into an open confrontation with Yemen. Instead of seeking to fulfill the foreign policy pledges made at the start of his term in office, Biden has abandoned the idea of reviving the Iran nuclear deal and of ending the war in Yemen. He also decided to try and inflict a death blow on the Palestinian cause for statehood.

What Hamas just did from Gaza would never have happened if the US had pursued a somewhat rational approach to the region. It could even have been prevented if the US had presented a political plan to de-escalate rising tensions in the occupied territories. Instead, the American government decided to overlook the armed groups in Gaza while attempting to completely dismantle their cause. And all of this for what? A fancy photo op that Biden can use to steer the Democratic Party to victory in the presidential election in 2024, by claiming that he brought peace to the Middle East.

Due to the current conflict, normalization doesn’t seem to be on the table anytime soon anyway, which would mean Hamas’ offensive has not only dealt a blow to Israel, but also to the US. Now that Israel is at war with Gaza, what is the US doing? It is condemning one side, while arming Israel and greenlighting any action it takes. Initially, Washington even refused to urge a ceasefire, in contrast to the push for one from Moscow and Beijing. The White House refuses to acknowledge its role in creating the current violence and carries on with the exact same rhetoric and policy decisions that led to the horrifying war we see today.

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“The Republicans especially and the American people, frankly, have had enough of Ukraine..”

US Funding May be Diverted From Ukraine to Israel (Sp.)

The White House is seeking to attach Ukraine funding to the urgent package for Israel, in a hope that it will help circumvent House Republicans’ opposition to further assistance to Kiev, according to the US mainstream press. House Republicans have signaled strong support to Israel and speeded up efforts to elect a new House speaker. For its part, the White House has reportedly decided to capitalize on the momentum and pair urgent funds to Tel Aviv with a Ukraine military package. Biden officials are said to have held talks with top House and Senate figures to secure additional military supplies for Israel. Per the US press, the request could come to the US Congress as early as next week. “The funding is probably going to be diverted more to Israel,” Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the US Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik.

“And I think the American people see that the Ukrainians just were not able to muster a counteroffensive and billions of dollars were expended and nothing to show for it. So Europeans are thinking the same way. And as we approach a winter which promises to be much more severe than in previous years, they’re going to be looking more inward in the European countries to their needs that are critical needs to survive. So I think in terms of US funding, first of all, nothing is going to get passed because we can’t get a House speaker and the House cannot take up anything unless and until it has a permanent House speaker.” It is unclear how big the Israeli package would be. However, per Maloof, Israel’s lobby in DC appears to be much stronger than the Ukrainian one.

Prior to the Israeli-Hamas war, the Biden administration was considering seeking a $100 billion package for Ukraine. However, some Freedom Caucus Republicans have already signaled they are against merging Israel and Ukraine aid in one bill. “They shouldn’t be tied together. I will not vote to fund Ukraine,” GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia told the US press. “I think the White House proposal will be D.O.A. or dead on arrival unless the House and the Senate are in some kind of a mood whereby they give a bulk of stuff to funding to Israel and maybe a very small token portion to Ukraine. But I don’t know that. The Republicans especially and the American people, frankly, have had enough of Ukraine,” Maloof said. [..] Maloof suspects that the Israel-Hamas conflict could “explode into something much, much larger than just between Israel and the Palestinians.” “So we may be dealing with at least two conflicts at once,” he said, adding that the US is concurrently poking China over the Taiwan Island. It appears the US could easily outstretch itself.

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“..helping Russia in destroying freedom in Europe..” Sounds a bit desperate.. How would that get you your funding back anyway?

Zelensky Blames Putin For Hamas Attack On Israel (HE)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video on Monday blaming the attacks on Israel by Hamas on Russia and Vladimir Putin. The attacks have resulted in a war between the IDF and Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, mostly taking place in and around the Gaza Strip. He posted the video to X, with the caption: “We have data very clearly proving that Russia is interested in inciting war in the Middle East. So that a new source of pain and suffering would erode global unity and exacerbate cleavages and controversies, helping Russia in destroying freedom in Europe. We can see Russian propagandists gloating. We can see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly extending a helping hand to those who attacked Israel.

All of this represents a much greater threat than the world is currently aware of. The world wars of the past were triggered by local aggressions. We know how to counter this threat. We have already prepared the necessary steps. And our primary goal is to protect the need for maximum global unity.” Zelensky stated, “We see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly supporting those who attacked Israel… “We are preparing the appropriate steps. And most importantly, we are defending the need for maximum unity in the world,” he claimed. “I am grateful to all the leaders and states who are now fully aware of the danger and are ready to work together to keep the situation under control to give the obvious sponsors of terror from broader interference,” he continued, seemingly referencing Russia.

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“Lebanon is not yet a war zone. However, it’s an area of operation. But it seems it’s also a space for both sides to exchange messages..”

Khamenei Distances Iran From Hamas Operation (ZH)

The Israeli army has reportedly issued an order for citizens to evacuate the Metula settlement, which lies just along the northern border with Lebanon. This after a salvo of some 15 rockets was fired from southern Lebanon in a suspected Hezbollah operation. “In response to the launches identified from Lebanese territory toward Israeli territory, IDF soldiers are currently responding with artillery fire,” regional sources report. The IDF said it intercepted several of them, while most landed in open fields. Things are steadily escalating there: “A senior Israeli officer was killed in a confrontation with militants on the frontier with Lebanon on Monday, Israel’s military has confirmed. The [Israeli] military said troops and aircraft killed two “terrorist infiltrators” who had crossed into Israeli territory. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed that they were its members. Later, at least three militants from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement were killed as the military attacked sites in Lebanon in response to mortar fire.”

Still, both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have thus far narrowly avoided a spiral into all-out war at the Israel-Lebanon border. “What’s happening here seems to be a kind of contained tension. Lebanon is not yet a war zone. However, it’s an area of operation. But it seems it’s also a space for both sides to exchange messages,” an Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Ali Hashem, has observed. Iran, meanwhile, has been on the defensive after major US media, especially the Wall Street Journal, cited US sources who alleged Tehran supported, funded and helped plan Hamas’ deadly rampage across southern Israel on Saturday. There’s speculation that the Iranians fear Israel’s Netanyahu government could begin targeting sites inside Iran. A regional source reports Tuesday on the unprecedented softening of rhetoric from Iran’s leadership, related to Hamas and Israel as follows:

“Iran’s supreme leader has strongly rejected any involvement in the Hamas movement’s surprise attack on Israel. The public maneuvering, which involved Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strikingly repeating his rejection of an Iranian role three times in a 90-second span, follows controversial claims in US media that Tehran helped plan the Oct. 7 blitz. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a high-ranking Iranian source told Amwaj.media that Khamenei’s remarks—his first since the Hamas offensive—may have been sparked by “him seeing the direction of the Israeli public diplomacy campaign.” Rejecting concerns of an impending Israeli attack as Khamenei’s underlying motive, the source said the supreme leader’s comments are “pre-emptive” as opposed to reactive.”

Addressing the rare decision by Khamenei to be so vocal in his rejection of an Iranian role in the Palestinian blitz, a second senior source in Tehran told Amwaj.media, “Give me one reason why he should do otherwise.” Also speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of the matter, he continued, “Why should one give them the perfect justification they need for an attack?” At the same time, the source dismissed the notion that being so explicit in rejecting a role in the Hamas attack indicates a sense of weakness on the part of Iran.

The Pentagon has meanwhile warned both Iran and Hezbollah against jumping into the conflict in a fresh statement: “The senior US official said Iran, Hezbollah and other groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “should think twice” before joining in the war. “Iran-backed adversaries like Lebanese Hezbollah should not question the commitment of the US government to support the defense of Israel,” the official added. “We believe that the folks in the region understand what those capabilities are,” the White House’s National Security Council coordinator John Kirby, a former US Navy rear admiral, told reporters Monday evening. This as the following just came across the news wires: “US MAY DEPLOY A SECOND AIRCRAFT CARRIER NEAR ISRAEL: WSJ”

Read more …

The US tried to use the Saudi-Israel talks to tear apart the Muslim world. But Russia/China just brought Saudi and Iran together.

Saudi Arabia Expresses ‘Unwavering’ Support For Palestine (RT)

Saudi Arabia continues to support the “legitimate rights” of Palestinians, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call on Monday, Saudi media reported. The latest escalation in Gaza, which broke out after a surprise attack on Israel by the Hamas militant group over the weekend, poses a threat to security and stability in the entire Middle East, the crown prince said, according to the Saudi Gazette. The kingdom plans to take “proactive efforts” and collaborate with international and regional powers to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spilling over to other parts of the Middle East, bin Salman said, adding that his nation is also seeking to bring a “swift end” to the hostilities.

He further emphasized the importance of humanitarian law and refraining from targeting civilians, while insisting that Saudi Arabia stands by the Palestinians in their pursuit of a “dignified life… [the] realization of their hopes and aspirations,” as well as a “lasting peace,” according to the Saudi Gazette. Bin Salman also discussed the situation in Gaza with Jordanian King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Both conversations were largely focused on preserving regional stability and preventing the conflict from spreading, the outlet reported. Riyadh’s statements came amid the latest flareup of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, following a massive attack on Israel by the Gaza-based Hamas militant group. Militants fired thousands of rockets at Israel and launched a cross-border raid over the weekend.

More than 900 Israelis, including over 100 military personnel, died in the initial attack and follow-up clashes, Israeli authorities said. Israel responded with a massive bombing campaign against Gaza, also announcing a total blockade of the exclave, cutting it off from fuel, water, and food supplies. The Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 510 Palestinians had been killed and 2,751 injured in Israeli air raids as of Monday. The UN said on Tuesday it would launch an investigation into war crimes committed during the latest escalation, adding that it was in possession of “clear evidence” of violations by both sides. On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Israel and the Palestinian militants to refrain from further violence, and offered Ankara’s services as a mediator in any potential peace talks. He also said that his nation could facilitate a prisoner exchange if requested.

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“Muslims were not enemies of Ukraine and allies of Russia (with the exception of eschatologically awakened Iran and Syria), but now they will be..”

The Civilization Of The Antichrist (Alexander Dugin)

The escalation of Israel’s war with Palestine will undoubtedly consolidate the Islamic world. Conservatives in the West are again talking about defending the ‘Judeo-Christian civilization in the face of Muslims’, and the radical ideology of Hamas provides them with a convenient excuse for this. However, a society of deep atheism, materialism and legalization of all kinds of perversions, which has long since abandoned traditional theology and values (and orientations), cannot be considered either Christian or Jewish. If the West, as it is now, supports Israel, it is seriously guilty of something. After all, if the devil’s civilization is on your side, then you have done something wrong.

There is no such thing as a Judeo-Christian world, it just doesn’t make sense. The Islamic world, on the contrary, exists and in it, the traditions are still strong. It turns out that it is not the Judeo-Christians against the Muslims, but the Muslims against the satanic culture, against Dajjal. Biden’s idea of combining the theme of support for Ukraine with support for Israel, only underlines this: the West is always on the side of those who submit to its hegemony and serve it. Muslims were not enemies of Ukraine and allies of Russia (with the exception of eschatologically awakened Iran and Syria), but now they will be. Russia is the pole of a multipolar world. Islam is the pole of a multipolar world. Both poles oppose the West’s desperate attempts to save unipolarism and its global dominance at any cost, even at the cost of a world war.

The Palestinian conflict with Israel was not the frontline of a conflict of civilizations. Now it is. Just as the tensions between Russia and Ukraine were regional in character until the Nazis in Kiev were supported by the West, the war in Ukraine has become the frontline of a global confrontation between multipolarity and unipolarity. The scope of this confrontation is growing. The situation is becoming more and more sinister. Already, billions of people on the planet are convinced that the collective West and its allies are absolute evil and the civilization of the Antichrist. Democrats, globalists and neoconservatives are leading humanity straight into the abyss. Which, strictly speaking, is what demons are supposed to do.

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Hur’s job appears to be ‘under the carpet sweeper’.

Special Counsel Hur May Prove the Ultimate Punchline in Washington (Turley)

A neutron and Special Counsel Robert Hur walk into a bar and order two drinks. When Hur asks how much they owe, the bartender responds, “come on, for you guys, you know there’s never a charge.” Unfortunately, for the prosecutor tasked with investigating President Joe Biden, it may not prove a laughing matter. In many ways, Hur is the neutron prosecutor. He may have spent two days interviewing Biden on the discovery of classified material going back decades in various offices and home locations. But we already know that the Justice Department has long maintained a policy against the charging of a sitting president. There are no such problems for Hur’s colleague. Jack Smith was appointed to investigate former President Donald Trump. He is the ultimate proton prosecutor. Smith has aggressively pursued Trump in two different jurisdictions with a long litany of charges, including alleged criminal conduct tied to his removal and retention of classified material.

In comparison, Hur appeared to disappear. There was no word of any grand jury or the issuance of subpoenas. His interview this week was the sign of life for a prosecutor who seemed headed for milk cartons. I have long disagreed with the Justice Department policy as without foundation in the Constitution. There is no question that the best course in dealing with a felonious president is to first remove the president from office through the impeachment process and then indict the former president in the wake of the Senate conviction. However, even the Justice Department admitted in reaching this policy during the Clinton administration that “[n]either the text nor the history of the Constitution” is “dispositive” on this question.

It simply rendered an internal opinion against indictments of a sitting president as a matter of “considerations of constitutional structure.” That is particularly a problem in what could be a strong case. We still do not know whether fingerprints were taken off the documents found in various locations associated with the President. Unlike Smith’s investigation, there have been no strategic leaks from Hur’s investigation. On its face, the President claims that he had no knowledge of these documents appears dubious at best. Some classified material reportedly goes back to Biden’s time as a senator — material that he would have had to remove from a sensitive compartmented information facility or secure room on Capitol Hill. More importantly, the documents from the Obama Administration were removed when Biden left as vice president. They were then divided and repeatedly moved to different locations.

That suggests not just knowledge but a purpose. Why were they divided and some documents were found in his garage and possibly his library? If Hur found fingerprints that contradict Biden’s statements, he could face not just some of the same charges brought against Trump but also possible false statement or obstruction charges. Notably, Biden used counsel to conduct searches and (as in the Trump case) additional classified materials were found after the Biden team said that they had finished their searches. There are serious questions over whether, in allowing uncleared counsel to search through these documents, evidence may have been lost in how they were stored or appeared in locations like the garage. Hur can bring charges against third parties, who would not be barred from indictment under the DOJ policy. But what does Hur then do if he has evidence against the President himself? He could wait to see if Biden does not run for reelection or loses in 2024.

He could ask for a reconsideration of the policy, which was poorly supported during the Clinton Administration as a rationale for blocking any indictment for perjury by the Office of Legal Counsel. Absent such moves, the public may face the glaring contradiction of proton and neutron prosecutors where Smith pursues a former president with abandon while Hur is left with investigating with no possibility of an immediate charge. It is the type of question that Attorney General Merrick Garland should be eager to answer. Indeed, it should have been clarified at the outset with the mandate given to Hur. Garland, however, has maintained a position as a virtual spectator, disavowing any role in the ongoing investigations. He is neither neutron nor a proton. He is literally without mass. So the question is whether Hur can get anything other than free drinks in Washington. The answer to that question may prove to be the best punchline of all.

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There’s Metabiota again. Hunter Biden.

Washington Moving ‘Illegal’ Bioresearch Operations To Africa – Moscow (RT)

The US is transferring dual-purpose biological research activities to Africa, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday, citing Pentagon documents. According to Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who leads the Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces, the move is in response to Moscow’s efforts to expose Washington’s illegal military-biological operations. He also cited the worsening “epidemic situation near biosites in the European region.” “The documents at our disposal confirm the activities of key Pentagon contractors on the African continent – in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Uganda, and South Africa. Customers on the part of the US government are the DTRA [Defense Threat Reduction Agency], the National Security Agency, and the US Department of State,” Kirillov added.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the US of plotting biological warfare against it and other countries. Last year, Russian UN representative Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council that Moscow had discovered at least 30 Ukrainian laboratories engaged in disease research, including anthrax and cholera, funded and supervised by the US. In May, State Duma Deputy Speaker Irina Yarovaya expressed concern over Washington’s interest in biological weapons, describing it as a highly concealed and unpredictable form of mass destruction that could become a global issue. The US has denied the claims. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry reiterated its previous concerns about “unauthorized” sample collection by Metabiota, which it referred to as a “key Pentagon contractor” during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

According to the chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, the company’s lack of transparency, which prompted concerns from the World Health Organization, resulted in the illegal export of live Ebola virus samples to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infections. “Predictable deterioration of the disease situation near American biosites is forcing the governments of many African states to take another look at the necessity and expediency of co-operation with the United States. For example, in 2022, Metabiota operations in Africa were terminated because the company’s illegal practices raised too many questions at the level of national governments,” Kirillov claimed.

The San Francisco-based Metabiota was a partner in the $200 million USAID-funded ‘Predict’ epidemiological research project, which concluded in 2019. Several reports, including one by the Associated Press in 2016, claimed that during the 2014 Ebola outbreak the company made a series of “costly” mistakes in its efforts to combat the disease in Sierra Leone. Metabiota employees contributed to flawed laboratory results, disrupted collaborations, and put people at risk of the deadly virus, according to the outlet, which cited leaked documents and interviews with international health responders.

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“..list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them.”

“Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.”

EU Issues Ultimatum To Elon Musk (RT)

A top European Union official has demanded a crackdown on “disinformation” on X (formery Twitter), warning that the bloc would take action against site owner Elon Musk if he allowed “terrorist content” to circulate on his platform. In an “urgent letter” addressed to Musk on Tuesday, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton recalled the “very precise obligations” set out under the bloc’s internet regulation laws. He urged for stricter enforcement on X, claiming there had been a deluge of false information related to ongoing fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants. “Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU,” he said, adding that when X receives “notices of illegal content,” it must “be timely, diligent and objective in taking action and removing the relevant content.”

While Breton offered no examples of “violent and terrorist content” making the rounds on the platform, he went on to state that “public media and civil society organizations” had reported numerous cases of “fake and manipulated images,” including “repurposed” photos from unrelated conflicts and “footage that actually originated from video games.” The official said he expected a “prompt, accurate and complete response” from Musk’s team within 24 hours, and warned that “penalties can be imposed” if EU authorities find that X is not complying with the bloc’s primary internet regulation, the Digital Services Act (DSA). Musk later reacted to the letter in a social media post, asking Breton to “list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them.” He added that “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.”

Breton declined to cite any particular cases of misinformation, instead stating that Musk is “well aware of your users’ – and authorities’ – reports on fake content and glorification of violence.” Under the DSA, websites and search engines can be fined up to 6% of their global turnover if they are found in violation of the rules. However, while the law will not be fully enforced until early 2024, sites designated as “very large online platforms” – or those with more than 45 million monthly users, such as X – were expected to meet the requirements starting in August. The violent flare-up in Israel erupted over the weekend, after Hamas – the Palestinian group that governs Gaza – sent waves of commandos and rockets into Israeli towns. The Israel Defense Forces have retaliated with heavy airstrikes on Gaza, which have continued into Tuesday night. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed on all sides of the conflict since Saturday, according to local officials, with thousands more injured.

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Finland has asked NATO to investigate. With a straight face.

Finland-Estonia Undersea Pipeline In Baltic “Deliberately Damaged” (ZH)

Months after famed journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh revealed the US blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 during a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise, yet another undersea gas pipeline, this time, connecting Finland and Estonia has allegedly come under attack. Gasgrid Finland and Elering, the Finnish and Estonian gas system operators, detected an “unusual” leak in the 77-kilometer (48-mile) interconnector in the early morning hours on Sunday. “Based on observations, it was suspected that the offshore pipeline between Finland and Estonia was leaking,” Gasgrid Finland said in a statement. “The valves in the offshore pipeline are now closed and the leak is thus stopped.”

ERR News reported that the Estonian Navy started surveying the pipeline with its equipment on Monday, while the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service will also be involved in the investigation. While the Finnish operator gave no reason for the suspected leak on Monday, Finnish officials, one day later, have now said their investigation of the leak will be on the premise of sabotage. “FINNISH DAILY ILTALEHTI, SWEDISH PUBLIC RADIO, CITING FINNISH GOVERNMENT SOURCES: ESTONIA-FINLAND SUBSEA GAS PIPELINE HAS BEEN DELIBERATELY DAMAGED” … queue Western media outlets who will likely place blame on Moscow – just as they did after the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream undersea pipeline that once connected Germany with cheap natural gas from Russia.

In early 2023, journalist Seymour Hersh published a bombshell report as his first Substack post that the US blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise. Last month, on the first anniversary of the bombing, he posted an article titled “A Year of Lying About Nord Stream, deals with motive. What was the United States’ motive?” His sources said told him: “Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas—and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe.”

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Interview. “..the US has no journalists, only propagandists, and the rule of law has been discarded. The United States is on the verge of becoming a tyranny. That is the American political crisis.”

The US Is On The Verge Of Becoming A Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

There are currently no legal proceedings against the Biden family. The US Department of Justice and the FBI have instead protected both Biden and his son despite the massive evidence in their hands, such as the incriminating information on Hunter Biden’s laptop and the classified national security documents dating from his days as Vice President found in Joe Biden’s homes, car, garage, and storage places. The legal charges brought against Trump are like all the others since 2016–Russiagate, impeachments, document gate, stripper gate, January 6 Insurrection. They have no basis in reality or in law. They are brought by Trump-hating black prosecutors in New York state, New York city, and Fulton County, Georgia, and are nonsensical on their face.

Trump and his co-defendants have to pay attention to the charges, because the prosecutors are known enemies of Trump and his supporters, the judges are Democrats who don’t want Trump as president, and the trials will be held in Democrat jurisdictions where the juries will be Democrat and largely black. There is no outcry against this legal atrocity from the legal profession, the law schools, the bar associations, and very little from Congress. So we face the possibility that Trump can be falsely convicted and forced to spend the rest of his life in appealing the convictions. How the American people will take this I do not know. It might make them very angry and unwilling to accept the use of law as a weapon against Trump and the traditional American electorate. On the other hand, the people might conclude that their country has been lost and nothing can be done, give up, and submit to the rule of unaccountable power.

Everywhere the people see the political use of law for punishment by every federal department in the Biden Regime. Mike Lindell, a Trump donor, has been slapped with five audits by the Internal Revenue Service. Lawyers cannot defend Trump without being punished. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York, has been slapped by the IRS with a tax and penalty bill of $550,000 and a lien on his home. Elon Musk is being investigated by the US Security and Exchange Commission for his purchase of Twitter. Democrats hate Musk, because he revealed that the FBI had secretly forced Twitter to censor all who disagreed with the Biden Regime’s narratives. The list is long. I will define for you American’s political crisis. The belief system has collapsed.

The elites no longer believe in the Constitution that defines the country. Students in law schools and journalism schools are taught that the US Constitution is a racist document and an instrument of white oppression of people of color. They are taught that the Constitution stands in the way of “social progress,” by which they mean the use of law not as a shield of rights but as a weapon for coerced change based on ideological beliefs and commitments. What it boils down to is this: In America you are no longer innocent until proven guilty. You are guilty because you are white, or because you are a Trump supporter. No other evidence is necessary. The Democrats have put 1,000 Trump supporters in prison because they attended a rally for Trump.

Traditionally, American liberals based their demands for reforms not on appeals to good will but on denunciation of existing society. This made it easy for the Cultural Marxists to march through the institutions and discredit Western civilization and the institutions that embody it. Today in American universities no student ever hears anything affirmatory about his country. Instead, they learn that it is something that must be reconstructed. Journalism students learn that objectivity is no longer the purpose of reporting and that news is a weapon to be used to remake society. Law students learn that law is not a protector of rights but a weapon to be wielded to revolutionize society. Consequently, the US has no journalists, only propagandists, and the rule of law has been discarded. The United States is on the verge of becoming a tyranny. That is the American political crisis.

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“Tigger is quite big enough,” said Piglet.
“He isn’t REALLY very big.”
“Well, he SEEMS so.”
Pooh was thoughtful when he heard this, and then murmured:
“Whatever his weight in pounds, shillings, and ounces,
He always seems bigger because of his bounces.” A.A.Milne

 

 

Lids

 

 

 

 

Leopard
https://twitter.com/i/status/1711988297596018975

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 102023
 
 October 10, 2023  Posted by at 8:07 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  40 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1896

 

Hamas’ Attack on Israel Is Puzzling (Paul Craig Roberts)
Will The Battle Of Gaza Strip Be Israel’s Iwo Jima? (Larry Johnson)
Race War Against The Palestinians Turns Into War Of The Worlds (Helmer)
Now We Have Your Attention (Craig Murray)
White House Hopes To Include Ukraine In Israel Aid (RT)
Military Operation ‘Will Take A Long Time’ – Israel (RT)
Moscow Blasts US Approach To Israel-Palestine Violence (RT)
US Has Enough Weapons For Israel, Ukraine And More – Pentagon (RT)
Hamas Using Weapons Given To Ukraine – Medvedev (RT)
Russia Throws Down the Nuclear Gauntlet (Scott Ritter)
RFK Jr Announces Independent Run for President (Sp.)
BIden Questioned In Classified Documents Probe (RT)
Investigations are Exposing the Bidens’ Influence-Peddling Dynasty (Turley)
Here We Go Loop-de-Loop (Jim Kunstler)

 

 

Editorial board of Haaretz, Israel’s leading newspaper

 

 

Tucker

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other Palestinians

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“In the US no one was held accountable for the security failures on September 11, which should have told us a lot. Not knowing, we can but speculate. We have a motive. Israel can now steal the rest of Palestine.”

Hamas’ Attack on Israel Is Puzzling (Paul Craig Roberts)

I am being asked about the Israeli-Palestine conflict, which seems to be taking attention away from the Ukraine-Russia conflict. People, by which I mean people who pay attention, are wondering why the Palestinians would attack Israel like this as it provides Netanyahu with an excuse to grab the remaining bits of Palestine and destroy the Gaza strip, thus disposing of the two-state solution by conquest. Who can blame Israel after Palestinians killed Israelis and took hostages? I have heard the official explanation of Palestinian perfidy, but I don’t have an explanation for the attack. It seems it would have to be more than perfidy. I do agree with readers that it seems a curious thing for Hamas to do as it plays into Israel’s hands. I also agree that there is something else strange about the attack. How did drones and so many rockets, allegedly from Iran, and some say Ukraine, get into the Gaza strip, and how did the Hamas attackers get into Israel?

The Hamas attack has something of 9/11’s flavor. Just as every aspect of the US National Security State failed simultaneously on September 11, 2001, Israel’s security system, including the Iron Dome the US constructed for Israel, simultaneously failed. Mysteriously, the Hamas fighters entered Israel on the ground and through the air and on the sea without being detected. Mysteriously, large quantities of weapons entered Palestine through Israel without being detected. This is too much convenient failure to be believable. It will be interesting to see if anyone in Israel is held accountable for the total security failure. In the US no one was held accountable for the security failures on September 11, which should have told us a lot. Not knowing, we can but speculate. We have a motive. Israel can now steal the rest of Palestine.

Another motive might be that Israel can expand the conflict into a wider war and succeed this time in grabbing the water resources of southern Lebanon. It could even get nastier with Israeli moves against Syria and Iran. Oil prices could go sky high causing world disruption. A victorious war and the end of the Palestinian problem would free Netanyahu from his legal and political problems. There is a lot to think about. But let’s move on to the security failure that made the attack possible. Why would Netanyahu enable Hamas to attack Israel by standing down Israel security? It seems a nonsensical suggestion, but isn’t as it creates the conditions in which Israel can absorb all that remains of Palestine, just as 9/11 created the conditions for the neoconservatives to launch the wars they had planned in the Middle East.

The difficult question is why would the Palestinians bring on their own destruction by attacking Israel when Hamas has no prospect of defeating Israel? Again, we can only speculate. It could be an Israeli operation from start to finish. Israel infiltrates Hamas, just as the FBI infiltrates Trump supporters and patriotic groups now called domestic terrorists. The Israeli agents play up Israel’s abuse of the Palestinians. Netanyahu helps them along by blowing up the sacred Mosque. The agents come up with an attack plan made possible with weapons from Iran and devices from Iran to jam Israeli security. They go about this carefully, relying on the decades of anger and hurt and the prospect of release from impotence to crowd out Hamas’ reason. I don’t say these speculations suffice as the explanation. But I would not be surprised if these speculations, if investigated, would prove to be closer to the truth than whatever official narrative emerges.

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“..this battle would likely endure for at least four months — perhaps longer. And Israel will suffer massive casualties..”

Will The Battle Of Gaza Strip Be Israel’s Iwo Jima? (Larry Johnson)

The Gaza Strip is the home base of Hamas, but there is not a single specific location in Gaza that can be targeted and destroyed in order to bring an end to Hamas. I believe that Israel is dangerously over confident in its bellicose declarations that it will wipe Hamas off the face of the earth. Short of using nukes, Israel will have to send its ground forces into the strip and fight house to house battles. I think many of Israel’s supporters labor under the delusions that Gaza is a small area that can be easily dealt with. It is not. Let me put this into perspective. The Gaza Strip is 141 square miles in size. Let’s compare it to Iwo Jima — that tiny island is almost 9 square miles. Unlike Iwo Jima — a small island — the Gaza Strip borders Egypt, which means it has a supply route that Israel cannot close unless Israel decides to go to war with Egypt as well.

Why do I bring up Iwo Jima? Because the Gaza Strip is ripe with tunnels and bunkers designed to protect Hamas fighters from aerial bombardment. Just as the United States Navy decimated the surface of Iwo Jima, Israel can flatten the dwellings and office buildings crowded into Gaza. But the U.S. Navy failed to destroy the Japanese force hiding below the surface with the naval fusillade. The U.S. Marine Corps had to land on the beaches and fight a bloody month long battle to clear the island. I think Israel is looking at the equivalent of fighting the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Gaza Strip. Only instead of a month long effort, this battle would likely endure for at least four months — perhaps longer. And Israel will suffer massive casualties. I believe the length of the battle hinges on two critical factors: 1) The ability of Hamas to get resupplied from Egypt with food, weapons and ammunition and 2) The skill and tenacity of Hamas in using anti-tank guided missiles and light artillery effective at short range.

If Hamas replicates the tactics Hezbollah employed against Israel in its 2006 incursion into Southern Lebanon then Israel’s chances of prevailing quickly are slim. Israel’s strategic position will be further complicated if Hezbollah decides to enter the fray in a significant way. Fighting a two front war over an extended period of time will sap Israeli resources. The problem this presents is that Israel’s traditional supplier of weapons and ammunition — the United States — is running on fumes having depleted its stores in order to support Ukraine. Let me give you some other urban combat battles that might provide some historical lessons for the campaign Israel is about to undertake — the Battle of Fallujah, the Battle of Hue City, the Nazi attack on the Jewish uprising in Warsaw. That should get the discussion going.

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“..the final Jewish solution to remove the Arabs from the territory according to the Basic Law, ratified by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2021, which legalizes the takeover of Palestinian territory as a “natural” Jewish right.”

Race War Against The Palestinians Turns Into War Of The Worlds (Helmer)

Between August 18 and September 1, the Soviet aircraft carrier Moskva passed through the Turkish Straits and into the Mediterranean, accompanied by two guided-missile destroyers. Over the next seven days the Soviet Navy gathered almost seventy surface ships – with uncounted submarines – and deployed between the Greek island of Crete and the point on the Libyan coastline where the Libyan and Egyptian border ran into the sea. That was fifty-four years ago in 1969. Ostensibly, the Soviet operation was to screen an amphibious troop landing exercise of Soviet, Egyptian and Syrian troops. In fact, the naval screen protected Libyan Army Captain Muammar Qaddafi and a dozen junior officer associates when, on September 1, 1969, they successfully toppled the regime of Libyan King Idris and ended US occupation and control of Libya through the Wheelus Air Force Base.

Can the Palestinian operation, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which Hamas forces commenced on Saturday morning, continue for long enough to engage the Arab state militaries, the Iranian, US and Russian forces, to turn into a new war of the worlds, as the US and NATO war against Russia is on the Ukrainian battlefield? Will the US force, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford and its five cruiser and destroyer escorts, screen Israel as it orders emergency resupply of US arms and ammunition? Will it attempt to blockade the Arab coast – Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Egypt – to prevent resupply convoys from Turkey or Iran aiding the Palestinians? “This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation and the last apartheid regime of earth,” the Hamas military commander, Mohammed Deif, has declared.

Is this the final Israeli war of “mighty vengeance”, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared, forcing all Palestinians in Gaza “to leave now”, and in the phrase of the spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), “end the Gaza enclave”? Is this the final Jewish solution to remove the Arabs from the territory according to the Basic Law, ratified by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2021, which legalizes the takeover of Palestinian territory as a “natural” Jewish right. “The State of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People,” the constitution enacted in 2018 by the Knesset declares, “in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination. The exercise of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People”; and “the State views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value, and shall act to encourage and promote its establishment and strengthening.” Is this race war — is it now the war of the worlds?

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“I am sorry even for the deaths of individual Israeli soldiers, and more so for all the innocents who died and are now dying. But I will not condemn Hamas.”

Now We Have Your Attention (Craig Murray)

There have been decades of photos of dead Palestinian women and children, and kids being beaten, humilated and imprisoned by Israeli soldiers. The historic killing rate in this “conflict” has been fairly consistent at about 40:1. None of this ever caused more than a raised eyebrow and a mild tut-tut from the western “liberal” Establishment. I can’t recall camera crews ever pursuing any zionist politicians down the street demanding that they use the word “condemn” of the latest Israeli atrocity. The paroxysm of hatred in the political and media class, unleashed by a single day of the boot being on the other foot is instructive. It is particularly instructive in their near complete unanimity – what percentage of the discussion on broadcast TV or radio have you heard this last 48 hours given over to Palestinian or pro-Palestinian voices?

Yet it is very plain from social media that the public is by no means as unanimous in their support of Israel as are the political and media class. But then the public are not bought and paid for. Asymmetric warfare tends to be vile. Oppressed and colonised peoples don’t have the luxury of lining up soldiers in neatly pressed uniforms and polished boots, to face off against the opposing army in an equality of arms. A colonised and oppressed people tends, given the chance, to mirror the atrocities perpetrated on them by their oppressor. This of course feeds in, always, to the propaganda of the Imperialist. A paroxysm of resistance by the oppressed always ends up portrayed by the Imperialist as evidence of the bestiality of the colonised people and in itself justifying the “civilising mission” of the coloniser.

Thus the “Indian Mutiny” became a Victorian tale of rape and murder of British women and of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Thus the Mau Mau were evil butchers, and the IRA were terrorists, which is the modern term of art for those resisting evil and foreign rule. The Israeli Ambassador to the UN yesterday described the Hamas fighters as “animal like”. This of course is not true. They are people, but people who have been crazed by unbearable levels of injustice and oppression. I am extremely sorry for all those who die, as in all wars. I am sorry even for the deaths of individual Israeli soldiers, and more so for all the innocents who died and are now dying. But I will not condemn Hamas.

For this I do not even need to delve into the backstory of Hamas’ initial sponsoring by Israel to split Fatah. They have grown well past that. I do not condemn Hamas because the resistance of the Palestinian people is a reflex response to their slow genocide. Yes it is an inchoate and violent response. Of course I wish it did not have innocent victims. The people I do condemn are the political class internationally who, with one voice, put out statements supporting “Israel’s right to self-defence”. A right they grant to the oppressor but deny to the oppressed. Those are the people who need to be condemned.

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“..one anonymous official told the Post that the move would be wise because it “jams the far right”..

White House Hopes To Include Ukraine In Israel Aid (RT)

Top White House officials are considering whether to include more Ukraine funding in an emergency aid package for Israel, multiple news outlets reported. One staffer suggested the move would force “far right” lawmakers to authorize additional aid for Kiev. Though President Joe Biden already announced that military assistance was “on its way” to Israel following a surprise attack by Palestinian militants over the weekend, the White House has signaled that it would soon ask Congress to approve additional aid for the Jewish state. Lawmakers in both parties and senior administration officials have hinted that the aid package could also include provisions for Ukraine, unnamed sources told the Washington Post, NBC News and other outlets on Monday.

Though no final decision has been made, one anonymous official told the Post that the move would be wise because it “jams the far right”– referring to Republicans who vocally support Israel but are skeptical of continued aid to Ukraine. White House spokesman John Kirby, meanwhile, declined to say whether the two aid packages would be linked, only stating “We believe both are important.” While debate over the aid is likely to be contentious, the Pentagon has assured that it has plenty of weapons for all US partners. During a background briefing on Monday, a senior defense official told reporters that Washington could “continue our support both to Ukraine, Israel, and maintain our own global readiness,” noting that the US has been able to meet “every request that our Israeli counterparts have made.”

Israel is among the largest recipients of US foreign aid, taking in some $3.3 billion in American tax dollars in 2022 alone – a comparable amount to previous years – according to US government statistics. Since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022, Ukraine has also become a major beneficiary, with the White House approving at least $45 billion in direct military aid through 47 separate transfers. Both Republicans and Democrats have largely voiced support for Israel after the deadly Hamas attack early on Saturday morning, which has prompted harsh retaliation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and an intense bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip. More than 1,500 people have been killed on both sides of the conflict so far, while Palestinian fighters claim to have captured over 100 Israeli and foreign hostages during their raids.

Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have evacuated their homes due to the violent flare-up, while the IDF has called on 300,000 reservists as it mobilizes for a larger conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his country was in a state of “war” as the attack unfolded, and said on Monday that the military response was “just getting started.”

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“What was in the past will not be in the future.”

Military Operation ‘Will Take A Long Time’ – Israel (RT)

Israel will “never forgive” this weekend’s attack by Hamas and will take “a long time” to deal with the terrorist threat, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said on Monday. “It will take time. It will not take a few days. It will take a long time,” Cohen said during a video-link press conference from his office in Jerusalem, adding that such “inhuman terrorists” and “monsters” cannot be allowed to threaten Israel, the region and the world. Cohen called Hamas “the proxy of Iran” and accused the militant Palestinian group of carrying out “a historical massacre that the world will not forget.” According to Israeli authorities, more than 700 of their citizens have been killed since Saturday, when Hamas launched a rocket barrage against Israel and its militants crossed from Gaza into the surrounding Jewish settlements. “Israel will never forgive,” Cohen insisted. “What was in the past will not be in the future.”

Cohen also echoed the words of PM Benjamin Netanyahu that “Israel is at war” against Hamas, which he called a “vicious terror organization,” and vowed that Israel will “regain control, and win back security and stability.” The foreign minister claimed that Hamas only wants to “murder as much as they can” and that there was no land dispute between Israel and Gaza, because “we gave the Palestinians Gaza to the last millimeter.” As part of the 2005 “disengagement,” Israel paid some 8,000 Jewish settlers to dismantle 21 of their settlements in the Gaza Strip, which was then handed over to the Palestinian Authority. Israel remained in control of the sea, airspace, and all the utilities. In 2007, Hamas ousted the Fatah faction of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and became the de facto government in the territory. The UN still considers Gaza to be under Israeli military occupation.

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“Russia considers a two-state solution, as outlined in resolutions by the UN Security Council, to be the only viable way towards stability, but neither Israel nor Washington appear committed to it, Lavrov noted.”

Moscow Blasts US Approach To Israel-Palestine Violence (RT)

Moscow is deeply concerned at last weekend’s surge in violence between Israel and the Palestinian militant movement Hamas, but finds the US approach to the crisis problematic, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Washington’s position is questionable “because they say: stop it all immediately, Israel must win, destroy the terrorists, and that’s it,” the top diplomat said on Monday. There were many escalations in this long-running conflict, “and never after the situation calmed down were the necessary efforts to remove the main cause undermining stability in the Middle East undertaken,” he added, referring to the fact that Palestinians don’t have a nation state. Russia considers a two-state solution, as outlined in resolutions by the UN Security Council, to be the only viable way towards stability, but neither Israel nor Washington appear committed to it, Lavrov noted.

Quashing extremism without creating a viable Palestinian state cannot bring peace, he said. Instead “the Americans are trying to monopolize mediation efforts” and focus attention on security problems, which are genuine, and discussions of how daily conditions may be improved for Palestinians, according to the Russian minister. Lavrov reiterated that Russia considered violence directed at civilians unacceptable, regardless of which side perpetrated it. He condemned the practice of taking hostages, as Hamas fighters had during their incursion from Gaza into southern Israel on Saturday. Of particular concern for Moscow is the threat that Russian citizens living in Israel face amid the escalation, the diplomat added, offering assistance to those who may seek evacuation from the country.

The minister made the remarks during a joint press conference in Moscow with Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit. He said the organization has recently achieved progress in reducing tensions between various players in the Middle East and was in a position to play a “definitive role in the complex improvement of the regional situation,” including in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moscow will back the League’s effort, Lavrov pledged. Washington has declared its full support for Israel in the hostilities with Hamas and sought to make members of the UN Security Council condemn the group during an emergency session on Sunday. Many Arab nations stated that Israel was at least partially responsible for the violence, due to its treatment of Palestinians. Consecutive Israeli governments have been expanding Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law. The Gaza enclave, the domain of Hamas, has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.

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Yeah yeah.

US Has Enough Weapons For Israel, Ukraine And More – Pentagon (RT)

Washington can meet all of West Jerusalem’s requests for weapons, equipment and ammunition while continuing to support Kiev, a Pentagon spokeswoman told reporters on Monday. “We are able to continue our support both to Ukraine, Israel, and maintain our own global readiness,” a senior Defense Department official said in a background briefing. “While we are providing and will continue to provide a significant amount of support to Ukraine, we are careful about ensuring we can also respond to other crises and contingencies, support other partners and maintain our own military readiness and our ability to support others,” the official later added.

The US has been able to meet “every every request that our Israeli counterparts have made” and anticipate to see “continual delivery” on some of those requests, the official also said. While declining into specifics, the spokesperson said this does apply to ‘Iron Dome’ systems and other air defenses. The Pentagon is “working as fast as possible” to expedite the delivery of “critically needed” ammunition and equipment, as well as contacting military contractors to expedite pending Israeli orders. When reporters voiced concerns about how the US weapons might be used, the Pentagon official said there were “robust end-use monitoring practices and procedures” in place, and that the US was “in constant dialogue with the Israelis about their operational plans.”

US cargo planes have already begun landing in Israel, even as the government in West Jerusalem announced a “total siege” of Gaza in reprisal for Hamas incursions that began on Saturday. The conflict, which began on Saturday, is the bloodiest that Israel has seen since 1973. The Pentagon has described the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean as “an unequivocal demonstration in deed and not only in words of US support for Israel’s defense.” The carrier is supposed to “serve as a deterrent signal to Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, and any other proxy across the region who might be considering exploiting the current situation to escalate conflict,” the official said.

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Too late to start tracking them now. That was the plan?!

Hamas Using Weapons Given To Ukraine – Medvedev (RT)

The weapons Kiev’s Western backers have actively supplied to Ukraine have found their way to Hamas militants and are now “being actively used in Israel,”former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said in a Telegram post on Monday, adding that any future military hardware supplied to Kiev could end up on the black market as well. “It will only get worse from here,”Medvedev warned, predicting that the world should “expect missiles, tanks, and even planes from Kiev on the black market soon.” His words came amid rumors that Hamas militants that control the Gaza Strip had gotten their hands on some US-made weaponry before their attack on Israel over the weekend. No solid evidence confirming these claims has emerged so far.

However, an unverified video circulating online showed a Palestinian militant displaying assorted US-made pieces, including a standard-issue M136 anti-tank grenade launcher, while thanking Ukrainians for the weapons. According to Medvedev, “corrupt authorities” in Ukraine would not hesitate to trade everything they had received from their backers. “They would steal everything in sight,” the former president claimed, adding that the Western weapons sent to Ukraine would soon fuel conflicts in other parts of the world, just like the trove of weapons the Americans left in Afghanistan during their hasty withdrawal from the country in 2021. The aforementioned video has already sparked concerns in the US, with Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene saying on Sunday that its origins must be investigated.

The congresswoman also claimed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that some of the arms used by the militants might have come from Ukraine or Afghanistan. Washington has been Kiev’s biggest supplier of military aid since the onset of its conflict with Moscow. The US has poured a total of $46.6 billion into military assistance to Ukraine, including direct weapons and ammunition shipments, as well as grants and loans for weapons and equipment. Kiev has repeatedly faced accusations of misusing or selling off the weaponry, which it has vehemently denied. On Monday, the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) blamed the rumors about weapons supposedly coming from Ukraine to Hamas on Russia.

Moscow was allegedly waging a “discreditation” campaign against Ukraine in the Middle East, GUR claimed in a Facebook post, adding that the weapons that ended up in the hands of Hamas were “trophy weapons” captured by Russian forces from Ukrainian troops. Russia has not commented on these claims so far. The news came amid the latest escalation between Hamas and Israel, which began last Saturday when the Palestinian militant group launched a surprise attack on multiple locations along the Gaza border. Israeli officials have estimated that more than 700 people have been killed in the Hamas assault and over 2,200 have been injured.

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“..no matter where it comes from—from any point of the world ocean or from any territory—such a number, so many hundreds of our missiles appear in the air in a retaliatory strike that there is no chance of survival..”

“Russia won’t be the first to resume testing of nuclear weapons. But if the United States were to go down that path, then Russia would respond immediately..”

“If the United States were to resume a nuclear arms race by returning to nuclear testing, Russia would begin such a race with an insurmountable lead in nuclear delivery systems. Game, set, match—Russia.”

Russia Throws Down the Nuclear Gauntlet (Scott Ritter)

In the audience at the Valdai Discussion Club was Sergei Karaganov, a well-known Russian political scientist who, in an article titled “A Difficult but Necessary Decision,” published on June 13, 2023, in the journal Russia in Global Affairs, articulated in favor of Russia moving away from a nuclear posture based upon assured nuclear retaliation to one that favored pre-emption. “We will have to make nuclear deterrence a convincing argument again,” Karaganov wrote, “by lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons set unacceptably high, and by rapidly but prudently moving up the deterrence-escalation ladder.” According to Karaganov, “If we correctly build a strategy of intimidation and deterrence and even use of nuclear weapons, the risk of a ‘retaliatory’ nuclear or any other strike on our territory can be reduced to an absolute minimum.

Only a madman,” Karaganov argued, “who, above all, hates America, will have the guts to strike back in ‘defense’ of Europeans, thus putting his own country at risk and sacrificing conditional Boston for conditional Poznan.” If such a madman did, in fact exist, then, Karaganov noted, “we will have to hit a bunch of targets in a number of countries in order to bring those who have lost their mind to reason. Morally, this is a terrible choice as we will use God’s weapon, thus dooming ourselves to grave spiritual losses. But if we do not do this, not only Russia can die, but most likely the entire human civilization will cease to exist.” President Putin, using the prerogative that is accrued through his position, called on Karaganov to ask a question. This was no accident, given the outcry that had followed the publication of Karaganov’s article, which led to much speculation that Putin was considering adopting a nuclear posture along the lines proposed by Karaganov.

The Russan academic did not disappoint, asking the Russian President whether it was not time for Russia to change its approach to nuclear arms and restore its deterrent strength in the eyes of Western elites who repeat endlessly that Russia is weak. It was a trap. “I have read your article,” Putin responded, before laying out a detailed answer that made it clear to all who listened that the Russian president did not agree with Karaganov’s thesis. “From the moment the launch of missiles is detected,” Putin said, “no matter where it comes from—from any point of the world ocean or from any territory—such a number, so many hundreds of our missiles appear in the air in a retaliatory strike that there is no chance of survival there will be no single enemy left, and in several directions at once.” Putin urged America to understand that any threats against Russia are “absolutely unacceptable for any potential aggressor.”In short, President Putin was reinvigorating the Cold War-era nuclear posture of mutually assured destruction as Russia’s go-to nuclear doctrine.

Moreover, Putin noted, Russia would launch a nuclear attack against any country or countries that threaten its continued existence as a sovereign state, regardless of whether the threat posed is by nuclear arms or conventional arms. Since there is no such existential threat to Russia today, the Russian President concluded, there is no reason to threaten the use of nuclear arms. However, Putin said, there was one aspect of Russian nuclear policy that could, and indeed should, be changed—Russia’s ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The United States, Putin noted, had signed the treaty, but had never ratified it. Given Russia’s modernization of its nuclear arsenal, which included, in addition to the Burevestnik cruise missile, the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, the Poseidon nuclear torpedo, and hypersonic delivery vehicles, many in the Russian military were demanding that Russia resume nuclear testing to be sure that the new cutting-edge strategic weapons systems that constitute the heart of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces perform as intended.

Putin observed that this very same question had been discussed in the United States by its military officials, who were, de jure, unrestrained by a treaty that had not been ratified, and as such never entered into force. Thus, the big news out of the Valdai Discussion Club isn’t a new Russian missile or nuclear posture. The big news is that the Russian president will be sending a bill to the Russian Duma that would revoke Russia’s ratification of the test ban treaty. Russia won’t be the first to resume testing of nuclear weapons. But if the United States were to go down that path, then Russia would respond immediately. The important point here is that any US testing would be done in support of either legacy nuclear weapons that are in dire need of being replaced, or future nuclear weapons which have yet to be developed and fielded.

Russia, as Putin underscored, has already modernized its nuclear force. If the United States were to resume a nuclear arms race by returning to nuclear testing, Russia would begin such a race with an insurmountable lead in nuclear delivery systems. Game, set, match—Russia.

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“..in an era where figures on all sides of the ideological spectrum have found success running against establishment politics..”

RFK Jr Announces Independent Run for President (Sp.)

The unorthodox political figure declared he is running as an independent candidate Monday morning in a speech that called for national renewal via a rejection of America’s political order. “We declare independence from the two political parties and the corrupt interests that dominate them and the entire rigged system… that have turned government officials into indentured servants for their corporate bosses.” It’s a statement that could have come from Bernie Sanders or, if not for the vaguely anti-capitalist rhetoric, perhaps Donald Trump. But in an era where figures on all sides of the ideological spectrum have found success running against establishment politics, it instead came from activist and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy has made his name in public life as a highly idiosyncratic figure. After a brief stint as an assistant district attorney in New York City, he drifted towards environmental activism. Followers of online anti-vaccine discourse may know him for his prominent activism around that issue, which critics say trends towards conspiracy theory. On Monday, the heir to the influential Kennedy political brand cast himself as a champion of those estranged from US politics over a wide array of issues. “Most of us agree that we should take care of our veterans,” said Kennedy. “Most of us agree that we should seek peace abroad instead of war. We all agree that teachers should receive decent salaries and respect. We all agree that housing should be affordable and corporations should pay their fair share.”

“And yet these universal yearnings stand alongside a broad agreement that our country has lost its way.” Kennedy seems to believe the political party of his father and uncle has lost its way as well. Since first announcing his presidential bid under the Democratic banner half a year ago, Kennedy registered as high as 20% in voter intention surveys for the party’s primary. But party figures, fearing his candidacy would weaken presumptive nominee President Joe Biden, strongly rejected him. Spurned by liberal media, Kennedy instead turned to independent online outlets, as well as Fox News. In the process Kennedy gained a following among political conservatives, to the extent that Republicans now seem most fearful of the candidate’s spoiler potential.

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That concludes the investigation?!

Unlike in Trump’s case, there are zero legal reasons why Biden would have classified docs at home. Pretty simple.

It takes impressive legal gymnastics to accuse a president and leave a vice-president alone for the same thing.

Biden Questioned In Classified Documents Probe (RT)

sUS President Joe Biden met with federal investigators multiple times in recent days, as the Justice Department seeks to determine how classified documents wound up in Biden’s home and personal office without proper approval. The president sat down with special counsel Robert Hur to discuss the documents case on Sunday and Monday, the White House confirmed, noting that the interviews had “concluded” and were strictly “voluntary.” “As we have said from the beginning, the president and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement, vowing to be “as transparent as we can” while preserving “the integrity of the investigation.”

The Justice Department launched the documents probe last November, after the president’s lawyers reported that a trove of secret files had been found in one of Biden’s private offices. Additional material was later turned up at Biden’s Delaware home, and in January Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur to lead an investigation into “the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.” Hur has reportedly questioned Biden’s “closest aides and advisers” as part of a “quiet inquiry” over the last nine months, including top officials such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, according to the New York Times.

Investigators have worked to determine the chain of custody for the sensitive documents, and whether Biden’s team “adhered to security protocols in handling and packing up official documents and private notes from his vice presidency,” the outlet added. Until Monday, it was unclear whether the president would submit for an in-person interview, with the White House declining to comment on the matter previously. Hur’s team has similarly offered few details about the investigation to the public. The Biden probe coincided with another major classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump, who was indicted on 37 felony counts linked to the alleged mishandling of secret files in June. Federal agents previously raided the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and turned up a large number of classified papers, though Trump maintains he was authorized to possess the documents and denies any wrongdoing.

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“The Bidens had only one family business. They did not make furniture or sell groceries. They sold influence and, as Biden associate Devon Archer explained, Joe was their “brand.”

Investigations are Exposing the Bidens’ Influence-Peddling Dynasty (Turley)

There is a sharp disconnect between the public persona long maintained by the press and what is becoming more apparent to the public now. Although the image of a “unifier-in-chief” quickly collapsed, the most lasting portrayal is that Joe Biden cares. Unlike Trump, he is portrayed as acting not out of greed, but an overwhelming desire to do good. In a typical article, a contributor to Forbes gushed about “How Empathy Defines Joe Biden.” The article explained that “Biden feels empathetic because that is who he is.” That is not the image that emerges from the growing evidence about Biden and his family. The Bidens are suffering from legal exposure in actions concerning everything from withholding child support to peddling influence to federal felonies.

The investigations and inquiries often turn on questions of intent for actions taken by Biden family members, including the president himself. The motive is often all too apparent. Hunter Biden left a long trail of emails and texts seeking millions in exchange for access to his father. He is shown in messages invoking his father’s power, threatening foreign figures to send him money. In one message, he allegedly makes a demand for an immediate transfer of cash from a Chinese businessman by saying that his father is sitting next to him to make sure the payment comes through. Hunter Biden was burning through a fortune on drugs, prostitutes and high living. There were many eager to have the son of the vice president dependent on their largesse. While Hunter is often portrayed as a human wreck, salvaged by influence-seekers, his uncles generated their own controversies.

James has been a well-known figure among alleged influence peddlers for years in cashing in on access to his brother, Joe. Joe’s younger brother, Frank, has also been long identified as involved in the family influence peddling. Like Hunter, Frank appears to have been in dire financial straits due to his careening lifestyle and lack of any appreciable skills. Frank’s need for money was not only great but known to his brother. In 1999, at age 43, Frank was involved in a car crash in Cardiff-by-the-Sea near Encinitas, California. He was accused of responsibility for the death of single father Michael Albano and then of evading service and responsibility in lawsuits by Albano’s surviving children. He only recently began paying what he owes. [..] The Bidens had only one family business. They did not make furniture or sell groceries. They sold influence and, as Biden associate Devon Archer explained, Joe was their “brand.” As these investigations and prosecutions continue, the public may conclude that it is not empathy but avarice that defines the Bidens.

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“Reality is finally asserting its rugged old self to say that our country is as broke as broke can be..”

Here We Go Loop-de-Loop (Jim Kunstler)

I’m confident that Congress will sort out this new Speaker business in short order, now that the world appears to light up. But what of its current projects? For instance, the inquiry into the darkish business ventures of the Biden Family, Inc., and what to do about it? That look-see is tending toward a picture that shows an appalling connection between the Bidens’ lustful chasing of global main chances and the horrifying demolition of Ukraine currently ongoing. If it’s not already obvious to a majority of USA adults that “Joe Biden,” the cats-paw in the White House, must go, it will be in a matter of weeks as the bank records step into the spotlight and speak for themselves.

Are you ready for President Kamala and government-by-word-salad? E.g.: “It’s very important, as you’ve heard from so many incredible leaders, for us at every moment in time, and certainly this one, to seize the moment of time in which we exist, in our present, and be able to contextualize it, understand where we exist in history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future,” she said. Doctoral dissertations will be penned explicating that mouthful for years to come (where and whenever those years might be located on time’s mystifying spectrum).

As for Congress and its grim duties, there is also the matter of the current laughable budget resolution running out again just before Thanksgiving. Work to do! The USA is in such a desperate debt and bond issuance dilemma that it’s like a trapped wild animal faced with having to chew off its own leg to escape death. And the cause of that dilemma is our legislature’s failure to control the nation’s spending. As America’s Venerable Bede, Sen. Everett Dirksen (d. 1969) used to say: “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” Well, that game is drawing to a close. Reality is finally asserting its rugged old self to say that our country is as broke as broke can be and there has to be a painful adjustment. It will be presented as a Hobson’s choice: you can have no money… or you can have plenty of money that’s worthless. What’s it gonna be?

I’d guess that the new Speaker will have to be Mr. Jordan of Ohio, because at this time Congress badly needs to be led by someone who at least appears to be muscular and confident. One has to wonder, though, that even muscles and confidence might not be enough in the current situation — that moment of time in which we exist, as the Veep put it so well. And yet, so many things are happening at once that it feels like someone up there is monkeying with time itself. Or perhaps a giant blob has gummed up its wheels. But, really, I must ask: are you not a little tired of being a country that doesn’t know what it’s doing?

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“Most of us have small, sad places in our hearts. My father felt deeply but kept his feelings to himself. Or rather, being a writer, he let them escape in his writing. And so such sadnesses as there were put on cap and bells and emerged as Eeyore.”~C.R.Milne

 

 

Goat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1711101692710633853

 

 

1 in every family
https://twitter.com/i/status/1711382255380074992

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 082023
 


Leonardo da Vinci A Copse of Trees 1508

 

Biden Blames The Press For Bad Poll Numbers (RT)
Biden Mulls Asking $100 Billion Check For Ukraine – Telegraph (RT)
Will Donald Trump Win by Waging War on American Institutions? Sp.)
Appeals Court Rules for Trump Amid NY Fraud Trial (ET)
Judge Who Will Hear Trump’s Jan 6 Case Is the Pot Calling Him Black (Kelly)
Western Officials Pressure Media On Ukraine’s Battlefield Failures – WaPo (RT)
Medvedev Blames US for Israel-Hamas Fighting (RT)
Hezbollah Next To Attack? War Could Spiral Into Biggest In Decades (ZH)
Time to Tell America’s Climate Cult ‘Stop!’ (ET)
Bill Maher: “Democrats Look Like Sanctuary City Hypocrites” (ZH)
One Year On, EU, US Collude To Sweep Nordstream Under The Rug (Bowes)
‘No Lives Were Saved’ by COVID-19 Vaccines, 17 Million Deaths (ET)

 

 

 

 

How Bad is US intel on Ukraine?

 

 

Macgregor: The Russians Press On And Take Odessa

 

 

 

 

Buffett

Rand Paul Fauci
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710475596466147791

 

 

RFK

 

 

4 short years ago, we had:
Peace in Europe
Peace in the Middle East
1% inflation
$1.75 a gallon gasoline
2.5% mortgage rate
A growing economy
Full employment
What the hell happened?

 

 

Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.

You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.” We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.

 

 

 

 

Biden has 98% of the media on his side. But that’s apparently not enough.. His poll numbers have nothing to do with not knowing where he is half the time, it’s uber-friendly media still not being friendly enough.

“You turn on the television, and there is not a whole lot about ‘boy saves dog because he swims in the lake.’ It’s about, ‘somebody pushed the dog in the lake.’ I mean, I get it.”

Biden Blames The Press For Bad Poll Numbers (RT)

US President Joe Biden has argued that Americans aren’t recognizing his strong performance on the economy heading into the 2024 election because of media negativity. Biden touted the latest US employment report in a White House press briefing on Friday, then suggested that public perceptions of the economy have been dimmed by the negative tone of media coverage. “You all are not the happiest people in the world, which you report,” he said. “And I mean it sincerely: You get more legs when you report [that] something is negative. I don’t mean you’re picking on me. It’s just the nature of things.” The president made his comments on the same day that a Real Clear Politics poll showed that his approval rating had dropped to 40.5%, the lowest level since August 2022. An Economist/YouGov poll released on Wednesday showed that only 16% of Americans believe the US economy is “getting better,” while 56% see it as “getting worse.”

Perhaps even more concerning for Biden, voters perceive that his top Republican rival in the 2024 race, former President Donald Trump, is superior on handling the economy, inflation and border security, among other key issues. Trump has a 23- to 24-point lead over Biden on the economy and inflation, according to a Marquette University poll released this week, and he leads by 19 percentage points in voter confidence in his ability to create jobs. Biden leads by nine to 15 points on abortion policy and climate change. Biden’s Democratic Party is also taking a beating in public perceptions on the economy. A Gallup poll released this week found that Republicans had a 14-point lead over the Democrats in terms of public confidence in their ability to keep the nation prosperous. That margin marked the largest lead for the Republican Party since 1991, Gallup said.

Biden told reporters that, while his positive economic message isn’t getting through to some voters, the many Americans landing new jobs “feel better about the economy.” He added that the media’s negative tone is to be expected: “You turn on the television, and there is not a whole lot about ‘boy saves dog because he swims in the lake.’ It’s about, ‘somebody pushed the dog in the lake.’ I mean, I get it.” Critics have long accused major media outlets of favoring Biden and other Democrats after years of vilifying Trump. “Corporate media’s behavior as we head into 2024 – their willingness to endlessly lie, propagandize and be more overt in their liberal political activism – will shock even the most jaded haters,”independent journalist Glenn Greenwald said earlier this week.

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“one-and-done”.

Biden Mulls Asking $100 Billion Check For Ukraine – Telegraph (RT)

US President Joe Biden is reportedly plotting a potential “one-and-done” Ukraine aid request that would be so big that he wouldn’t need to seek any more funding approvals from Congress until after the 2024 election, The Telegraph has reported on Saturday. The new Ukraine aid request could be as large as $100 billion, enough to avoid continued legislative controversies that could hinder Biden’s re-election bid next year, the British newspaper said, citing people familiar with the White House discussions. Such a proposal would dwarf the $24 billion funding request that US House lawmakers stripped out of the stopgap spending bill that they passed last week to avert a government shutdown.

“The big package idea is firmly supported by many throughout the administration,” the newspaper’s source said. “Supporters of Ukraine want this to be a one-and-done, big bill, and then not have to deal with it until after the next election.” Biden’s administration is scrambling to find temporary ways to keep the money and weapons flowing to Kiev, supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces, until a major aid bill is passed by Congress. For instance, a US State Department grant program could reportedly be tapped to provide about $650 million in funding. The White House officials were quoted by the media as saying that only a few weeks remain before a potential lapse in Ukraine funding, which they have warned could have devastating consequences on the battlefield.

Republican lawmakers have become increasingly critical of Biden’s Ukraine policy, with some arguing that massive aid to Kiev is only prolonging the bloody conflict at the expense of bigger domestic priorities. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his leadership post earlier this week, the first such congressional ouster in US history, reportedly after some of his fellow Republicans heard that he had promised Biden a separate Ukraine aid bill to be approved after passing the stopgap funding measure. The Biden administration won’t decide on whether to propose a one-and-done aid package for Ukraine until after a new House speaker is elected, possibly next week, according to The Telegraph’s report. Getting a $100 billion bill passed might require the president to make concessions to conservative Republicans on such issues as illegal immigration.

US Representative Lauren Boebert, one of the Republicans who have been critical of Biden’s Ukraine policy, suggested in an interview on Friday that the new House speaker might have to pledge opposition to passing more funding for Kiev. She noted that a majority of Republicans in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted against a $300 million Ukraine aid bill last week. “For the first time, we saw that Ukraine funding alone does not have a majority of the majority’s support,” Boebert told US podcast host Steve Bannon. “Any speaker has to recognize that and not allow more funding for Ukraine to come to the floor. We are absolutely tired of spending it.” Congress has already approved four rounds of Ukraine funding, totaling about $113 billion. The Pentagon warned last week that it had exhausted “nearly all available security-assistance funding for Ukraine.”

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“The courtroom has replaced his rallies and that’s what the next 14 months are going to look like. He’s a showman; he loves this s***. This will be his campaign and it could work.”

Will Donald Trump Win by Waging War on American Institutions?

Observers saw shades of Trump’s victorious 2016 campaign as the former president spoke to US media outside of a New York courtroom this week. “It’s a scam, it’s a sham,” said the former president to reporters huddled outside of a Manhattan courtroom. “It’s a witch hunt and a disgrace.” The tenor of his comments was familiar as he opined on the civil fraud case that saw him accused of inflating the value of his businesses by millions of dollars. But the subject of his ire was somewhat new. A longtime critic of the United States’ media and political establishments, former president Donald Trump has recently added the American judicial system to his list of targets in a campaign season that once again seems poised to position the iconoclastic businessman as an outsider candidate.

It’s a role Trump is all too eager to play. He briefly waded into US politics in 2000, forming a presidential exploratory committee and promising to challenge the then-bipartisan consensus around free trade, among other issues. He waged his 2016 campaign against perhaps the most well known living representative of the Washington political establishment (former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton). And he spent his turbulent four years as president constantly at odds with detractors from all sides of the political spectrum. Now Trump can add judges and prosecutors to his long list of adversaries. “Every time he’s in a courtroom, he’s campaigning,” said Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who became a fierce critic of Trump from within his own party. “The courtroom has replaced his rallies and that’s what the next 14 months are going to look like. He’s a showman; he loves this s***. This will be his campaign and it could work.”

Trump’s civil case compounds his recent legal woes, which include 91 criminal charges from four separate indictments and another civil trial that saw the former president held liable for sexually abusing and defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll earlier this year. Then, as now, he decried the case as part of a witch hunt to derail his 2024 presidential candidacy. The legal proceedings create an unprecedented dynamic in next year’s campaign. In any other election, with any other candidate, they might spell certain doom. Yet Trump currently remains the overwhelming favorite to win his party’s presidential primary. Most recent polling shows him running even with Biden in the general election, if not leading him. In 2020 Trump ran as an incumbent, forced to defend his political record and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But recently, events have conspired to once again give him the aura of an outsider, running against a political figure who was first elected to national office in 1972.

In the context of 2024’s presidential contest, the judiciary becomes just another aspect of Trump’s audacious challenge to America’s political and social system. Polling has long shown sharply declining trust in a broad swath of US institutions. Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court remain among some of the least-respected institutions in American public life, but most others fare no better. Such wide skepticism could create the perfect environment for Donald Trump to triumphantly return to the White House. But whatever the outcome of next year’s contest, the American public may be ready for deep reform in almost every corner of society. Whether our institutions permit such change may dictate their very survival.

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“If the statute of limitations is applied correctly, the majority of the prosecutor’s claims are “subject to dismissal as untimely..”

Appeals Court Rules for Trump Amid NY Fraud Trial (ET)

After a hearing on Friday, an appeals court granted a stay, or pause, on a judge’s order that former President Donald Trump’s businesses be dissolved. This was only a partial victory for President Trump, as the appeals court said the trial that began this week could continue. The prosecutors had opposed the request for a delay, accusing the defense attorneys of attempting “to sow chaos” and disruption. The Trump Organization issued a statement after the pause, calling the judge’s order to cancel the Trumps’ business certificates “overzealous.” “Judge Engoron’s order erroneously sought to adjudicate the rights of non-party business entities that employ nearly 1,000 hard-working New Yorkers, have never been accused of any wrongdoing and, were never given their day in court – in clear violation of their fundamental Constitutional rights and Due Process. We will continue to vigorously defend our company and our incredible employees from this politically-motivated persecution,” the statement reads.

President Trump’s attorneys appealed the civil fraud case against him on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, filing a 1,154-page document in a bid to pause the currently ongoing trial. “[New York] Supreme Court’s Sept. 26 and Oct. 5, 2023 decision impose unauthorized, undemanded, overbroad relief without proper factual or legal predicate, which will result in significant, irreparable harm,” states the reason for requesting a stay on the case. President Trump had already previously sought to delay the trial, and the appeal had been denied just days before the trial began. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s Sept. 26 decision not only found President Trump liable for fraud, but ordered the dissolution of the Trump Organization and related LLCs, which means the 45th president will lose his entire real estate empire in a matter of days unless the appeal is granted. Furthermore, attorneys argue, hundreds of employees will be affected.

“Supreme Court clearly does not comprehend the scope of the chaos its decision has wrought,” the filing reads, describing the summary judgment as a “miscarriage of justice.” President Trump’s business certificates have already been canceled, and the judge’s Oct. 5 order requires him to notify the court before applying for a new one, even outside New York. His sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., executive vice presidents in the Trump Organization, face similar penalties. The buildings they stand to lose include Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, the Seven Springs family estate upstate, and private residences belonging to Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. The case began when President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen made claims that his boss inflated his net worth. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who declared that she would sue the former president for fraud when she was campaigning for her position, brought forth a civil lawsuit in September 2022 accusing him of defrauding the state by artificially inflating his net worth to get more favorable terms from insurers and banks.

[..] A June appeals court decision had defined the statute of limitations to allegations from 2014 onwards. The prosecutors’ original lawsuit covered the decade from 2011 to 2021. During the trial, the judge acknowledged the statute of limitations, but said he would allow evidence from before 2014 if the prosecutors could connect it to later crimes. The prosecutors had argued for bringing in this evidence under the “continuing wrongs doctrine.” In the appeal, President Trump’s attorneys argue that the doctrine does not delay or extend the period allowed, citing other court rulings. Furthermore, the court is now treating the individual financial statements as “separately actionable claims,” rather than “continuing wrongs,” they argued. If the statute of limitations is applied correctly, the majority of the prosecutor’s claims are “subject to dismissal as untimely,” they argued.

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“On numerous occasions, the judge has insisted the 2020 election was legitimate and fully vetted by the court system – a claim disputed by Trump that lies at the heart of the case she is now hearing..”

Judge Who Will Hear Trump’s Jan 6 Case Is the Pot Calling Him Black (Kelly)

At her first appearance in the criminal case against Donald Trump for his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan repeatedly warned the former president’s lawyers that politics would not be tolerated in her courtroom. But even as she warns Trump about his “inflammatory” language, Chutkan has routinely issued politically charged rulings and made incendiary statements of her own while presiding over some 30 cases involving Trump supporters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, melee at the U.S. Capitol. These include her public assertions that the 2020 election was beyond reproach, that the Jan. 6 protests were orchestrated by Trump, and that the former president is guilty of crimes. She has described Jan. 6 as a “mob attack” on “the very foundation of our democracy.”

Chutkan’s strident language raises questions about her impartiality in handling the case against the presumptive GOP nominee for president in 2024. Chutkan blamed Trump for the Jan. 6 violence while sentencing Robert Palmer, who pleaded guilty in June 2021 to one count of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon (a fire extinguisher). In that case, Palmer’s lawyer sought a reduced prison sentence by echoing the judge’s view of Trump. “Mr. Palmer went to the Capitol at the behest of the former president,” attorney Bjorn E. Brunvand wrote in a December 2021 sentencing memo to Chutkan. “Like many others who participated in the Capitol riot, Mr. Palmer blindly followed the many figures who falsely but persistently claimed that the election had been stolen from the president.”

Palmer apologized to Chutkan for his conduct and begged for mercy. His plea fell on deaf ears. Chutkan expressed no sympathy for Palmer, whom she sent to prison for more than five years. Chutkan’s references to the former president aren’t the only area of concern for Trump. Her comments from the bench also suggest that she shares the same view of Jan. 6 as the man prosecuting Trump in her courtroom, Special Counsel Jack Smith. Tasked by Attorney General Merrick Garland with investigating “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021,” Smith indicted Trump in the District of Columbia on three conspiracy counts and one obstruction count last month.

Throughout the 45-page indictment, Smith repeatedly accused Trump of knowingly promoting falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. Chutkan clearly shares that view. On numerous occasions, the judge has insisted the 2020 election was legitimate and fully vetted by the court system – a claim disputed by Trump that lies at the heart of the case she is now hearing. She has accused individuals who believe the 2020 election was “stolen” as promoting “conspiracy theories.” In the case of Donna Bissel, who pleaded guilty to the nonviolent petty offense of “parading” in the Capitol, Chutkan cited Bissel’s personal beliefs as reason to sentence her to 14 days in jail rather than impose the three-year probation sentence recommended by prosecutors.

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Here, too, the regime has 98% of the media on its side. But that’s not enough..

“..urged the media to depict Ukraine’s faltering counteroffensive in a more charitable light..”

Western Officials Pressure Media On Ukraine’s Battlefield Failures – WaPo (RT)

Western officials have urged the media to depict Ukraine’s faltering counteroffensive in a more charitable light, the Washington Post has reported. The US newspaper claimed the efforts are aimed at preventing a decline in public support for providing further military aid for Kiev in the coming months. In an article on Saturday, the Post alleged that “Ukrainian and Western officials in recent weeks have focused on reshaping the narrative” amid Kiev’s underwhelming progress so far. The implementation of the supposed new strategy presumably has to do with increased criticism in some Western countries, which has called into question the continuation of military aid for Kiev.

According to the media outlet, while Ukraine’s Western backers are publicly putting a brave face on the counteroffensive, privately they are increasingly concerned that the conflict could become a frozen one, with Kiev’s forces unable to breach Russian defenses. The Post noted that several Western officials had recently paid an unusual amount of attention in their press briefings to the way the media is covering the Ukrainian military’s progress. In one example cited by the newspaper, an unnamed official urged journalists to “lift up the conversation a bit” and stop focusing too much on the day-to-day developments on the ground, lest they miss the “fuller picture.” The same official also reportedly tried to lower expectations in the briefing, saying that a Ukrainian victory would not necessarily mean the recapture of “every bit of territory by X date” – despite Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s insistence that this is the only acceptable scenario.

Ukrainian officials have been limiting journalists’ access to the front line, citing security reasons, the Post continued. Special officers are making sure that sensitive topics, such as Kiev’s losses, are kept quiet. Late last month, the New York Times reported that a slowdown in the counteroffensive “comes with huge risks for Ukraine.” The newspaper explained that “if it looks unlikely to recapture large areas of the country, Western support could wane, either through lack of political will or unwillingness to donate more weapons.” Meanwhile, Kiev’s already slow progress may be further impeded by autumn rains in the region, the NYT pointed out, adding that such adverse weather conditions would make the ground almost impassable for heavy Western-supplied tanks and other hardware.

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I could add 1,000 words to the 1,000,000 already written in the past 24 hours. But for now I’ll stick with Macgregor’s ”Make peace, you fools.”

Medvedev Blames US for Israel-Hamas Fighting (RT)

US foreign policy is partly to blame for the latest violent flare-up between Israel and the Palestinians, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested. The official, who is currently Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said Washington should have channeled its energy into ensuring a lasting peace in the Middle East but chose to focus on Ukraine instead. Commenting on Saturday’s escalation between Israel and the Hamas militant group from Gaza, Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel that these events were predictable. “This is what Washington and its allies should have dealt with,” he explained, adding that the Israel-Palestine conflict has lasted for decades, with the US being a “key player there.”

According to Medvedev, instead of this, “these morons got involved in our region and are actively helping neo-Nazis, pitting two close peoples against one another.” The former president brought his remarks to a conclusion with the thought that “apparently only a civil war on US territory” would help quell “America’s manic passion for igniting conflicts all around the planet.” On Saturday morning, Hamas militants launched a massive attack on Israel, firing thousands of missiles and then breaching the border fence and overrunning multiple Israeli towns bordering the Gaza enclave. According to Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom, at least 40 Israelis have been killed and 740 others wounded. In his address to the nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is at war. He also vowed that the “enemy will pay a price like they have never known before.”

An IDF spokesperson revealed that fighting is ongoing, with Hamas militants still present in multiple localities. Meanwhile, the Israeli air force has conducted air strikes on Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that the Palestinian people have a right to defend themselves against what he described as the “terror of settlers and occupation troops.” The White House issued a statement, condemning what it termed “unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reassured Israel that the US’ commitment to its security remains “unwavering.” In the coming days, he promised, the Pentagon will “work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism.”

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Kim Dotcom: “Understanding the Hamas attack on Israel: Iran is aiming for a confrontation with Israel and the US. The success of Russia in Ukraine is encouraging Iran to undo decades of hostile US foreign policy in the Middle East. A bankrupt US Govt has just been invited to another war. The timing is opportunistic. The US Govt is forced to print trillions of USD as it struggles to raise new debt. Another war would lead to a significant increase in inflation and an accelerated economic decline of the US.

If Iran mines the Strait of Hormuz the global energy crisis would become critical. The Biden administration has used the majority of US oil reserves to stabilize domestic oil prices. Iran can increase the pain for the US Govt significantly. Ukraine is turning into a major defeat for the US and NATO. A new front in the Middle East would accelerate the US decline. The US Govt and its western partners simply cannot afford it. Russia and China would benefit most. Iran understands this and is playing into the hands of its partners.”

Hezbollah Next To Attack? War Could Spiral Into Biggest In Decades (ZH)

It appears at the very least, we are in the midst of a third intifada. But one big question will linger in the coming days and weeks as Israel is sure to escalate its response into a ground invasion Gaza: will the war escalate beyond Gaza and southern Israel? Already both Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran have sent “congratulations” messages to Hamas and the Palestinians. Hezbollah’s statement in particular condemned Arab states who have normalized relations with the Jewish state. The Wall Street Journal reports on Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s statement as follows: “Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which like Palestinian militant groups also vows Israel’s destruction, praised the operation by Hamas inside Israel, according to Arab media. Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said it served as a warning against recognizing Israel.

“It sends a message to the Arab and Islamic world, and the international community as a whole, especially those seeking normalization with this enemy, that the Palestinian cause is an everlasting one, alive until victory and liberation,” Nasrallah said in a statement.” At the moment Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah remains quiet, but if a shooting war starts out of southern Lebanon, Israel will find itself in a war on two fronts. Already there are allegations from Western pundits that Iran is financing this expanded Hamas operation… [..] A potential broader war could also draw in Syria, given already Israeli jets have struck the country almost on a weekly basis. Israel has long said it is attacking Iranian targets and assets inside Syria. If Hezbollah and Israel enter a war, this would increase the likelihood of it expanding into already war-torn Syria.

Mashiach

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“..the first city in America to [insert costly, new, crackpot, ‘green’ energy notion here].”

Time to Tell America’s Climate Cult ‘Stop!’ (ET)

Rishi Sunak, Britain’s Tory prime minister, seems to have bravely adopted at least some of that mission by challenging Britain’s radical climate agenda. It’s a lesson for the United States. Addressing Britain’s sanguine climate policy, Mr. Sunak said, “there’s nothing ambitious about simply asserting a goal for a short-term headline without being honest with the public about the tough choices and sacrifices involved and without any meaningful democratic debate about how we get there.” Mind you, Mr. Sunak isn’t what the climate cult types call a “climate change denier”; far from it. But he understands that aspirations without means are merely pipe dreams. And he also understands that imposing climate mandates without public discourse or debate is antithetical to the democratic principles that underlie his republic, as they do ours.

Unfortunately, the mismatch between means and aspirations, as well as the disregard for democratic principles, characterizes much of what passes for the national climate policies of both the UK and the United States. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency set the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards for model year 2026 automobiles at 55 miles per gallon for sedans and 39 mpg for trucks and light-duty trucks/SUVs. Those are enormous increases of 25 percent and 28 percent, respectively, just since 2020. The clear intention in raising the CAFE standards so quickly is to force consumers into buying new cars that are either fully or partially electric, hybrids, or fully electric. But there’s clear resistance, as reflected even by Kyle Bass, an avid environmentalist and chief investment officer of Conservation Equity Management, a private equity fund focused on “facilitating conservation investment”: “The advertised ranges of EVs have turned out to be pure fantasy (we own two Teslas). After a couple of years, the batteries degrade even more (think about your iPhone). I will never give up my combustion engine.”

State and local governments in so-called “blue” states have been even more aggressive in forcing radical lifestyle changes on the people in their jurisdiction. In New York, for example, it’s something of a race to “make history,” with elected officials lauding the city’s status as “the first city in America to [insert costly, new, crackpot, ‘green’ energy notion here].” For example, in a social media post on June 27, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lauded an expensive “congestion pricing” tax scheme that the city will impose next year, whereby drivers who go below 6oth Street in Manhattan will have to pay a congestion pricing toll of $26 to “reduce fuel consumed and pollutant emissions.” “New York City is leading the nation by becoming the first city in America with a congestion pricing program—setting the standard in the fight for cleaner air, better transit, and less traffic,” Ms. Hochul wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “As we so often do here in New York, today, we’re making history.”

Another “green” initiative bans new construction in New York City from having natural gas hookups, even though natural gas reserves are estimated at 300 years and natural gas burns far cleaner than many alternatives. New York’s legendary pizzerias, some serving pizza from coal-fired ovens for more than a century, will likely be forced to adopt electric pizza ovens. Another initiative will force New Yorkers to hold onto their garbage for up to a week for mandatory composting of organic waste, since the city’s plan only allows for compost pick-ups just once a week. Imagine the smell. And the vermin!

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“New York City is very expensive. You are better off going to a more affordable city”..

Bill Maher: “Democrats Look Like Sanctuary City Hypocrites” (ZH)

Real Time” host Bill Maher blasted President Biden and ultra-radical progressives for their massive policy U-turn on the southern border this week. He said border state Republicans who bused migrants to sanctuary metro areas (mainly in the Northeast) “called the Democrats’ bluff about sanctuary cities,” and the Democrats “look like sanctuary city hypocrites.”

“Here’s how serious the situation is: You know, they’ve been busing the migrants to the cities now. They kind of called the Democrats’ bluff about sanctuary cities, and they said oh, you love them so much? Here you go. And the cities don’t like it so much. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said this is going to destroy our city … Eric Adams … went to Mexico today. He’s going to Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, I think door-to-door, no, really, just to tell people personally, we don’t have room, I’m not kidding, don’t come. That’s pretty amazing. No, he’s telling these people, we don’t have room. This is New York City. Don’t you know our catchphrase? We’re the Little Apple. And our theme song, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, so go anywhere, don’t come here,” Maher said in his opening opening monologue on Friday evening.

Maher continued, “The border crisis has become a national crisis. It was always something like oh, it’s down there, and yes, it’s bad. But it’s – and now it’s all over the country because they’ve been busing the migrants and so forth.” He said this all “feels like a disaster for the Democrats.” The Biden administration’s reversal to now support former President Trump’s southern border wall comes as radical progressives, for years, called anyone who praised Trump’s wall ‘racist’ and other terrible names. The policy U-turn by the president and radical leftists comes as it appears polling data is not moving in their favor ahead of the election cycle, as disastrous open border policies have transformed many metro areas into chaotic areas that resemble third-word-like conditions. [..] Maher said, “Trump today said he wants Biden to apologize because it looks like Biden was adopting his policy. This does not look good for the Democrats.”

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“More than a year after these attacks, it’s apparent that the manner in which this reality has been suppressed is possibly more sinister than the attack itself.”

One Year On, EU, US Collude To Sweep Nordstream Under The Rug (Bowes)

It’s been more than a year since one of the biggest pieces of energy infrastructure in Europe was destroyed in what can only be described as a terror attack. One would imagine that no stone would be left unturned to investigate a crime of such magnitude and attribute responsibility. You would also think that the countries that stood to lose most from Nord Stream’s destruction would be at the forefront of these investigations. Well, welcome to the Europe of 2023 where, in a weird case of Stockholm syndrome, it seems neither the alleged perpetrator nor indeed one of the main victims wants any more “trouble” when it comes to Nord Stream. The consensus is to let sleeping dogs lie, and considering the evidence of US involvement in the attack, that’s entirely unsurprising.

On September 26, 2022, the world’s news feeds erupted with reports of the powerful explosions which tore the landmark Russian-German gas pipelines apart, dealing a devastating blow to Berlin’s, and by extension the entire EU’s, energy security. Within a couple of days, Western media had seemingly solved the mystery. Publications such as Politico eagerly proclaimed that “Everything is pointing to Russia,” embracing the utterly delusional anti-logic that would make it plausible that Russia would destroy a piece of its own energy infrastructure that had been bringing it steady income. This reality, widely accepted by objective, nonaligned observers, was however lost on a slew of NATO-, US-, and EU-aligned commentators and officials. A mere four days after the explosions, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the BBC that it “seems” Russia was behind the destruction of its own multibillion-dollar investment.

When we roll the clock forward to today, it is now patently clear that Western media have been tasked with memory-holing the entire Nord Stream affair, with Germany, Sweden, and Denmark quietly conducting separate “investigations” which conveniently exclude Russian officials while also remaining strangely low-key in Western newsfeeds. These obviously declawed investigations continue as it is increasingly accepted in the West that Russia had nothing to do with the sabotage, it now being obvious that the US and/or a proxy partner were actually behind this terror attack on European soil. More than a year after these attacks, it’s apparent that the manner in which this reality has been suppressed is possibly more sinister than the attack itself.

An often-overlooked element of the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines is the devastating environmental impact that resulted from the explosions. Over 100,000 tons of methane gas was released into the atmosphere as four huge blasts tore through the two pipelines. A far less well known, or publicized, fact is that these pipelines were laid near an area where tons of toxic chemical weapons waste from the First World War had previously been dumped. The scale of the resulting short- and long-term impact on the seabed and atmosphere is difficult to establish, but both this and the single-biggest release of methane into the atmosphere in recent history seem to have gone generally unnoticed by the Green lobby in the EU and US. Anyone doubting the influence of this bunch should recall that on Joe Biden’s first day in office, he canceled a huge pipeline project, Keystone XL, jeopardizing thousands of construction jobs in what was seen as payback to environmentalists, whose cash and influence had been critical in his narrow electoral success.

The silence of the Green lobby on the catastrophic impact of the Nord Stream attack thus seems all the more unusual. Environmental activists across the US have rallied around calls to prevent the construction of pipelines in various regions, citing their negative environmental impact, but those same people seem remarkably quiet when it comes to the biggest pipeline-related environmental catastrophe in decades. The lack of any significant challenge regarding this act of eco-terrorism speaks volumes about the West’s selective approach to the Ukraine conflict. Green moral outrage is instantly shelved once Russia or China is the target and not the perpetrator.

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There is a video with this, but I couldn’t find an embeddable version. Go here to watch.

‘No Lives Were Saved’ by COVID-19 Vaccines, 17 Million Deaths (ET)

A new scientific report challenges the idea that COVID-19 vaccines have prevented deaths after researchers assessed all-cause mortality in 17 countries and found COVID-19 vaccines did not have any beneficial effect on reducing mortality. Instead, researchers found that unprecedented peaks in high all-cause mortality in each country—especially among the elderly population when COVID-19 vaccines were deployed—coincided with the rollout of third and fourth booster doses. The report, published Sept. 17 by Correlation Research in the Public Interest (not yet peer-reviewed), quantified the vaccine-dose fatality rate (vDFR) for all ages—which is the ratio of inferred vaccine-induced deaths to vaccine doses delivered in a given population.

After analyzing mortality data, the researchers calculated a mean all-ages fatal toxicity by injection of vDFR of one death per 800 injections across all ages and countries. This equates to 17 million COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths worldwide from 13.25 billion injections as of Sept. 2, 2023. “This would correspond to a mass iatrogenic event that killed (0.213 ± 0.006) % of the world population (1 death per 470 living persons, in less than 3 years), and did not measurably prevent any deaths,” the authors said. They found the overall risk of death induced by COVID-19 vaccines is 1,000 times greater than previously reported in data from clinical trials, adverse event monitoring, and cause-of-death statistics obtained from death certificates.

All-cause mortality is the death rate from all causes of death for a population in a specific time period. This is the most reliable data for detecting and epidemiologically characterizing events driving death and for measuring the population-level impact of any surge or collapse in deaths from any cause. “All-cause mortality is a good feature to use in statistical medical analyses since there is no ambiguity in whether someone has died or not,” Stephanie Seneff, a senior research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told The Epoch Times in an email. “It is highly disturbing that these authors have found a consistent trend among seventeen countries showing a significant increase in all-cause mortality coinciding with extensive COVID vaccine rollout. Their estimate of one death for every 800 injections globally is alarming.”

[..] “There is no evidence in the hard data of all-cause mortality of a beneficial effect from the COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. No lives were saved,” Denis Rancourt, co-director of Correlation Research in the Public Interest with a doctorate in physics, told The Epoch Times in an email. “On the contrary, the evidence can be understood in terms of being subjected to a toxic substance. The risk of death per injection increases exponentially with age. The policy of prioritizing the elderly for injection must be ended immediately.”

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Ibex
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710560060710019158

 

 

Dog star

 

 

 

 

FishingVillage
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710598084231671813

 

 

Wall building
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710614273930490009

 

 

Cat shades
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710692933215600738

 

 

 

 

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May 202023
 
 May 20, 2023  Posted by at 8:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  40 Responses »


Leonardo da Vinci Head of bear c.1480

 

Real Revelation of the Durham Report: Obama is the REAL ‘Big Guy’ (Root)
Barack Obama Among 500 Americans Banned From Russia (RT)
Dum-Da-Dum-Dum…Dah (Kunstler)
US National Security Experts: Give Peace in Ukraine a Chance (CD)
The Ukraine Refugee Question (Seymour Hersh)
Why Ukraine Must Lose to Save the World (Martin Armstrong)
US To Allow Allied Transfers Of F-16s To Ukraine (RT)
Medvedev Sees ‘No Need At All’ For Talks On Ukraine (TASS)
Russia Orders Arrest Of ICC Prosecutor (RT)
Russian Prosecutor General Designates Greenpeace As ‘Undesirable’ (TASS)
Is China The Only Issue Holding The US Together? (Fomenko)
End the FBI (McMaken)
Israel’s State-Building Project Is Unraveling – From Within (Cook)
Israel and the ‘New’ Middle East (Sheikh)
UK In ‘Geriatric Decline’ – Legendary Financier (RT)

 

 

 

 

Macgregor


https://twitter.com/i/status/1659594747466461184

 

 

Podolyak
https://twitter.com/i/status/1659602082679209995

 

 

RFK


https://twitter.com/i/status/1659720620978888705

 

 

 

 

“..a radical Marxist put in place by the Deep State and globalist billionaires to destroy America..”

Real Revelation of the Durham Report: Obama is the REAL ‘Big Guy’ (Root)

We are living in an age of mass deception, distraction and denial, of mass brainwashing. We might as well all be living in Jonestown, Guyana and following the orders of Jim Jones. That’s how bad it is. It’s all laid out right in front of us. But no one can see it. Or maybe no one wants to see it. The Durham Report is “the canary in the coal mine.” It’s all Obama. It’s always been Obama. Obama is the REAL “Big Guy.” Obama is the REAL criminal mastermind. Obama was the head of the snake. Obama was the John Gotti of the US government, overseeing a massive criminal conspiracy. Obama was the head of the “Obama Crime Family.” Obama committed TREASON. And the worst part of all: Obama’s still in charge. Obama is pulling all the strings. He’s the one calling the shots. He’s the ventriloquist, speaking for the wooden dummy puppet Joe Biden. Obama is the real President of the United States, back for his third term.

I warned and predicted from the first day Obama appeared on the scene that my old Columbia University classmate was a Manchurian candidate, a radical Marxist put in place by the Deep State and globalist billionaires to destroy America. In my #1 bestselling book back in 2013, “The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide” I reported Obama’s plan was to “boil the frog slowly.” To destroy America in small steps, to move so slowly that we wouldn’t notice we were being destroyed, until it was too late. Hillary Clinton was supposed to finish the job. Hillary’s election was supposed to be Obama’s third term. But Donald J. Trump came along and ruined the plan. Trump became the first politician in history to beat a rigged election. That’s why Hillary and Democrats were so shocked. Obama rigged it, so Hillary could not lose.

How did Obama do that? In addition to the usual Democrat tricks of stuffing the ballot box in Democrat run inner cities, with no Voter ID and no signature match, Obama spied on the Trump campaign. But Trump brought out more working and middle-class voters than any candidate in history. He beat the rig. He won even though Obama spied on him. Even though Obama knew everything Trump was doing and planning- and gave it all to Hillary. Enter Russia Collusion. See the Durham Report. We now know for a fact this was a fraud made up by Hillary. We also know that Hillary laid out this scam to Obama and Biden in the Oval Office. Obama gave his approval. Then Obama rigged the game even further- making sure his handpicked DOJ and FBI would never prosecute these high crimes.

Obama also made sure they’d continue spying on the now President Trump. And use the weaponized federal government filled with Obama hacks to target, frame, demonize and destroy Trump the president. But wait, there’s more. I may despise Obama, but I also respect him. Because he’s brilliant. He ran the country like John Gotti ran his crime family. Nothing happened under Obama without him knowing. So, when Durham reports Obama’s FBI was not allowed to prosecute Hillary for her Clinton Foundation crimes (extorting world leaders), obviously Obama gave that order too. Obama knew everything Hillary was doing- she was his Secretary of State. And you can bet Obama got a piece of her corrupt loot in return for allowing her to do it, and for killing any DOJ/FBI investigations.

And if Obama knew about Hillary’s crimes extorting world leaders, you can also bet he knew about the Joe Biden “Big Guy” scam. Joe was his Vice President. You think Joe and his slimy son Hunter ran around the world extorting money from world leaders and Obama didn’t know about it? You can bet Obama got a piece of Biden’s corruption too. Just like John Gotti. The mafia Don always gets a piece of every scam run by the capos under him. Or they get wacked. And where was all the corrupt loot run out of? The Clinton Foundation. That’s why it was based offshore- far away from prying eyes. As one more layer of protection, Obama ordered the DOJ and FBI to look the other way. This is all called TREASON.

Bill Barr

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If you’re not on the list you don’t count.

Barack Obama Among 500 Americans Banned From Russia (RT)

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday published a list of 500 US citizens – including former president Barack Obama – who are banned from entering the country with immediate effect. The move is a response to the ongoing American sanctions against Moscow. “It is high time for Washington to learn that not a single attack against Russia will go without a strong reaction,” the ministry said in a statement. “The principle of inevitable punishment will be consistently applied, whether we are talking about tougher sanctions or discriminatory steps to hinder the professional activities of our citizens.” In reprisal for the US embassy in Moscow witholding visas for Russian journalists – which prevented them from accompanying Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the UN Security Council last month – the Russian government has refused to grant the embassy’s request for a consular visit to Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent charged with espionage.

Besides Obama, the list Russian blacklist includes many members of Congress, governors and attorney-generals of several US states, former officials currently on boards of prominent think tanks, military contractors who supply weapons to Ukraine, and even the short lived “disinformation czar”Nina Jankowicz. Also on the list are “those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called Capitol insurrection,” the Russian Foreign Ministry noted. Notable names in that category include US Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, his predecessor Michael Sherwin, DC Attorney General Karl Racine, and Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police officer who fatally shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt.

Among the prominent Biden administration officials who made the blacklist are Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt (formerly the US ambassador to Ukraine in 2014); James Rubin, former State Department spokesman and current head of the Global Engagement Center; State Department Counselor Derek Chollet; and President Joe Biden’s senior advisor, Anita Dunn. TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Rachel Maddow, and Joe Scarborough were also among the sanctioned, along with former NBC presenter Brian Williams. Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force, Christine Wormuth and Frank Kendall, made the list as well, along with USAF Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. Think tanks and the military-industrial complex made the bulk of the list, however. Former secretary of defense and Marine general James Mattis was sanctioned for being on the board of General Dynamics, and ex-CIA director George Tenet as board member of agency contractor In-Q-Tel.

Former US ambassador to Russia John Tefft was sanctioned as a senior fellow at RAND Corporation. Nelson Strobridge “Strobe” Talbot III – formerly of the State Department – and Norm Eisen were sanctioned for their involvement with the Brookings Institute. Senior Russia and Eurasia researcher Eric Ciaramella was among the many Carnegie Foundation employees on the sanctions list, which also contained many names from the Atlantic Council and the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tanks. Other prominent names on the Russian blacklist were Ukraine’s former finance minister Natalie Jaresko and former Russia expert at the National Security Council Fiona Hill.

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“Can someone please ask Mr. Durham why he did not bring a charge of conspiracy to commit sedition under the RICO act against the whole gang of RussiaGate players..”

Dum-Da-Dum-Dum…Dah (Kunstler)

It is impossible for now to know the constraints placed on Mr. Durham by Attorney General Merrick Garland — though it appears that Mr. Garland is just the latest initiate into the years-long shuck-and-jive that amounts to a seditious conspiracy against the republic. That is, add Mr. Garland to the long list of officials who have a lot at risk and a lot to hide, so he’s used his vested powers to hamstring Mr. Durham. But the heart of the story is out, despite all that, and pretty baldly stated: Hillary Clinton started the whole RussiaGate gag to take the heat off her own turpitudes. The federal agency heads and their lieutenants avidly used Hillary’s concocted falsehoods to foment malicious prosecutions and drive the naively accommodating President Trump out of office, and stopped at nothing until they succeeded.

There it is. We will now have to muddle through and go forward, a savagely deformed polity. Still, it will be edifying to see Mr. Durham testify before The House Judiciary Committee next week, as Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has requested. Mr. Durham may even wish to use the opportunity to redeem his tarnished reputation. Some items for review: Why did Mr. Durham omit to investigate the deceitful Mueller team (especially its actual director, Andrew Weissmann), which was an obvious cover-up operation? Ditto: the role played by President Barack Obama in the scheme to interfere in the 2016 election? Ditto: the operation to hide and then discredit Hunter Biden’s crime-stuffed laptop during the 2020 presidential election? Ditto: what has been the CIA’s role in all of this? I believe Mr. Durham will provide many interesting answers to these queries. It may be the only forum that will ever avail him to speak honestly. Presumably the House Judiciary Committee members are lawyers, and have a host of aide lawyers to fall back on for legal advice. Can someone please ask Mr. Durham why he did not bring a charge of conspiracy to commit sedition under the RICO act against the whole gang of RussiaGate players based on the “enterprise rationale” that the evidence suggests they were all vested in an effort to defenestrate a sitting president?

We will go forward from this whether we like it or not, of course, because the arrow of time flies only in that direction. What is the best way out of this wilderness of dishonor and disgrace? Take a lesson from the campaign, so far, of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The way Mr. Kennedy has been straight-talking — around the coordinated slanders and scurrilities of an ignoble news media — he makes the current leadership of the Democratic Party look like the most pathetic claque of rascally whack-jobs ever assembled under a gonfalon. Keep your eye on RFK, Jr. He’s moving downfield, even without blocking. Side-note or post-script, for those interested in how the vaccination story is going: A close friend went into the CVS pharmacy looking for a “get well soon” card. There were none. A clerk on-hand right there in the aisle said, “we can’t keep them in stock.” No “sympathy” cards either. Draw your conclusions.

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“Yet that compromise was exactly what he talked Zelenskyy out of agreeing to in April 2022, when most of the war’s dead were still alive..”

US National Security Experts: Give Peace in Ukraine a Chance (CD)

On May 16, 2023, TheNew York Times published a full-page advertisement signed by 15 U.S. national security experts about the war in Ukraine. It was headed “The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace in the World,” and was drafted by the Eisenhower Media Network. While condemning Russia’s invasion, the statement provides a more objective account of the crisis in Ukraine than the U.S. government or TheNew York Times has previously presented to the public, including the disastrous U.S. role in NATO expansion, the warnings ignored by successive U.S. administrations, and the escalating tensions that ultimately led to war. The statement calls the war an “unmitigated disaster,” and urges President Joe Biden and Congress “to end the war speedily through diplomacy, especially given the dangers of military escalation that could spiral out of control.”

If the U.S. persists in backing the plan for a Ukrainian offensive, instead of encouraging Zelenskyy to seize the moment for diplomacy, it will share considerable responsibility for the failure to seize the chance for peace, and for the appalling and ever-rising human costs of this war. This call for diplomacy by wise, experienced former insiders—U.S. diplomats, military officers, and civilian officials—would have been a welcome intervention on any one of the past 442 days of this war. Yet their appeal now comes at an especially critical moment in the war. On May 10, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he is delaying Ukraine’s long-awaited “spring offensive” to avoid “unacceptable” losses to Ukrainian forces.

Western policy has repeatedly put Zelenskyy in near-impossible positions, caught between the need to show signs of progress on the battlefield to justify further Western support and arms deliveries and, on the other hand, the shocking human cost of continued war represented by the fresh graveyards where tens of thousands of Ukrainians now lie buried. It is not clear how a delay in the planned Ukrainian counter-attack would prevent it leading to unacceptable Ukrainian losses when it finally occurs, unless the delay in fact leads to scaling back and calling off many of the operations that have been planned. Zelenskyy appears to be reaching a limit in terms of how many more of his people he is willing to sacrifice to satisfy Western demands for signs of military progress to hold together the Western alliance and maintain the flow of weapons and money to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s predicament is certainly the fault of Russia’s invasion, but also of his April 2022 deal with the devil in the shape of then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson promised Zelenskyy that the U.K. and the “collective West” were “in it for the long run” and would back him to recover all of Ukraine’s former territory, just as long as Ukraine stopped negotiating with Russia. Johnson was never in a position to fulfill that promise and, since he was forced to resign as prime minister, he has endorsed a Russian withdrawal only from the territory it invaded since February 2022, not a return to pre-2014 borders. Yet that compromise was exactly what he talked Zelenskyy out of agreeing to in April 2022, when most of the war’s dead were still alive and the framework of a peace agreement was on the table at diplomatic talks in Turkey.

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“Meanwhile, the slaughter in the city of Bakhmut continues. It is similar in idiocy, if not in numbers, to the slaughter in Verdun and the Somme during World War I.”

The Ukraine Refugee Question (Seymour Hersh)

Last Saturday the Washington Post published an exposé of classified American intelligence documents showing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, working behind the back of the Biden White House, pushed hard earlier this year for an expanded series of missile attacks inside Russia. The documents were part of a large cache of classified materials posted online by an Air Force enlisted man now in custody. A senior official of the Biden administration, asked by the Post for comment on the newly revealed intelligence, said that Zelensky has never violated his pledge never to use American weapons to strike inside Russia. In the view of the White House, Zelensky can do no wrong.

Zelensky’s desire to take the war to Russia may not be clear to the president and senior foreign policy aides in the White House, but it is to those in the American intelligence community who have found it difficult to get their intelligence and their assessments a hearing in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, the slaughter in the city of Bakhmut continues. It is similar in idiocy, if not in numbers, to the slaughter in Verdun and the Somme during World War I. The men in charge of today’s war—in Moscow, Kiev, and Washington—have shown no interest even in temporary ceasefire talks that could serve as a prelude to something permanent. The talk now is only about the possibilities of a late spring or summer offensive by either party.

But something else is cooking, as some in the American intelligence community know and have reported in secret, at the instigation of government officials at various levels in Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, and Latvia. These countries are all allies of Ukraine and declared enemies of Vladimir Putin. This group is led by Poland, whose leadership no longer fears the Russian army because its performance in Ukraine has left the glow of its success at Stalingrad during the Second World War in tatters. It has been quietly urging Zelensky to find a way to end the war—even by resigning himself, if necessary—and to allow the process of rebuilding his nation to get under way.

Zelensky is not budging, according to intercepts and other data known inside the Central Intelligence Agency, but he is beginning to lose the private support of his neighbors. One of the driving forces for the quiet European talks with Zelensky has been the more than five million Ukrainians fleeing from the war who have crossed the country’s borders and have registered with its neighbors under an EU agreement for temporary protection that includes residency rights, access to the labor market, housing, social welfare assistance, and medical care. An assessment published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that the estimate excludes roughly 3 million Ukrainian refugees who escaped from the war zone without a visa into any of the 27 European nations that have abolished border control between each other under the Schengen agreement.

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“I have even seen proposed maps carving up Russia after they destroy its government and subjugate its people, as they once planned to carve up China. It is sad to say, but unless Ukraine loses this war, we are in for a total worldwide war on an unprecedented scale post-2024.”

Why Ukraine Must Lose to Save the World (Martin Armstrong)

There is a major problem with Ukraine’s claims of shooting down a barrage of supersonic missiles. This cannot be confirmed independently and Ukraine is notoriously always putting out fake news typically to get more money. The incentive to create this type of fake news is that Western countries who have been supporting Ukraine are concerned that the military support for Kiev may soon peak as they run out of funds. There is concern that funds for Ukraine will be curtailed ahead of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, the Financial Times recently reported. The Neocons are desperately trying to create World War III before the 2024 election. They are fighting against any cutbacks for Ukraine. This has highlighted that European officials now are increasingly concerned about the flow of aid next year as the US enters a divisive presidential campaign.

According to the FT, Washington has been Kiev’s major source of military aid. US officials interviewed by the newspaper say the remaining funds preapproved by Congress could sustain Ukraine for about another five months. Western officials in regular contact with the US over Ukraine told the FT that Washington sees that period of time as the last real chance for Kiev to change the situation on the ground. There is a twist. That is the debt ceiling and funds would stop flowing after June 1st unless Biden yields on his insane agenda. European official told the FT newspaper “We can’t keep the same level of assistance forever.” Politico reported earlier that only $6 billion of the original $48 billion military aid package that the US had approved previously is all that is left. Without Congressional approval, US aid to Ukraine will be finished by mid-summer.

This claim of shooting down every supersonic missile just does not ring true and it would be typical of Ukraine to boast in order to keep the money flowing. Ukraine’s air defenses conveniently claim that they shot down “[a]ll 18 missiles were destroyed by the forces and means of air defense of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” We must be cautious about claims during war for the first causality is ALWAYS the truth, especially when this claim comes at the precise moment when the funds may end in a few weeks. Meanwhile, Zelensky is the WAR CRIMINAL here as are our Western leaders. The real war criminals are the leaders who instigate war. You are correct about his meeting with the Pope was all for a theatrical display. Zelensky stated that he saw no sense in trying to involve Russia in a dialogue at this stage. He rejected the Pope’s offer to mediate He said: “One cannot make a mediation with Putin. He just knows how to kill. It is not a question of the Vatican, Latin America or China.”

Zelensky’s statement shows the hatred of the majority of Ukrainian people toward Russians. He cares nothing for all the Ukrainians who have fled to other countries. He cares nothing for all the Ukrainians dying. Alessandro Di Battista, an Italian journalist, and former lawmaker, reported on Zelensky’s European tour visiting several European countries showed that he was only interested in getting more weapons, not peace.= “Zelensky went on a tour to get ammunition. The only thing he’s after is weapons because he’s not interested in peace,” Di Battista was quoted as saying by the Adnkronos news agency. In addition, Zelensky’s wife, Yelena Zelenskaya, went to Seoul and asked South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to ship air defense systems to Ukraine and provide assistance with modern technology.

This illustrates that Ukraine will sacrifice its people rather than seek peace and simply honor the Minsk Agreement. This is what the American Neocons want – sacrifice every Ukrainian just to conquer Russia. The Neocons have ZERO respect for human life on either side. Indeed. Zelensky prays for the destruction of more Ukrainian property so he will get his cut from Blackrock for rebuilding Ukraine which our computer says WILL NOT HAPPEN! I stress once again – do NOT invest in this Blackrock venture which rubs its hands in blood and at least Pilot tried to wash his hands after sentencing Christ – not Blackrock or Zelensky. It will become a classic short. Sorry – I do not believe Aladdin has the database needed to make such a speculative investment.

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“..makes Western countries de facto direct parties in the conflict..”

US To Allow Allied Transfers Of F-16s To Ukraine (RT)

The US government will not block allied countries from sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if they decide to do so, multiple news outlets reported on Friday, citing American officials. Sources cited by the Washington Post, CNN, NBC and other media said the White House is prepared to allow F-16 shipments after months of Ukrainian requests for the aircraft, which is being used by more than two dozen nations. A senior White House official told NBC that Washington had already informed its partners about the decision. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan on Saturday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that “in the coming months, we will work with our allies to determine when the planes will be delivered, who will be delivering them, and how many.”


UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced earlier that London would back the creation of an “international coalition” to supply the F-16s and other aircraft to Kiev. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky met with the PM this week and lobbied for Western fighter jets, insisting they are needed for Kiev’s much-touted counteroffensive. The US military is currently training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16s. However, Washington has so far declined to provide its own warplanes to Kiev. Moscow has warned against supplying Kiev with weapons, arguing that it will only prolong the fighting and do little to deter its military objectives. The Kremlin says that military support to Ukraine, which includes the training of troops and sharing of intelligence, makes Western countries de facto direct parties in the conflict.

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“How can you engage in equal talks with a half-decayed neo-Nazi country, which is under external governance? ”

Medvedev Sees ‘No Need At All’ For Talks On Ukraine (TASS)

Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev sees no point in conducting negotiations on the situation in Ukraine and around it at the moment, because talks should be conducted only with the Kiev government’s ‘masters’ in Washington and only about post-conflict world order. Commenting on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s latest remarks against equal negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday that he would “find it difficult to disagree” with her in this regard. “This is certainly so. How can you engage in equal talks with a half-decayed neo-Nazi country, which is under external governance?


Talks are possible only with its masters, namely with Washington. There is no one else to talk to,” Medvedev wrote. In his opinion, negotiations are possible only on the subject of “post-conflict world order.” “However, it is too early to speak about it,” the Russian official added. “That is why there is no need at all for any negotiations.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima on Friday that equal negotiations between Russia and Ukraine must be rejected. In her words, G7 member states must support Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s so-called peace plan.

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“.. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the court. Neither are the US, China, India and several dozen other countries.”

Russia Orders Arrest Of ICC Prosecutor (RT)

The Russian Interior Ministry on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, the British lawyer currently acting as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. In March, Khan sought the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, children’s rights commissioner, for the alleged war crime of “unlawful deportation and transfer” of children from “occupied areas of Ukraine” to Russia. The ICC had acted on claims by the government in Kiev that Russia’s evacuation of children from civilian areas under fire by Ukrainian forces amounted to forcible transfer of population, which was defined as a crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.


Three days after Khan’s announcement, on March 20, the Russian Investigative Committee launched a probe into the prosecutor, as well as three ICC judges who approved his warrant – Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez. The investigation focused on articles 299 and 360 of the Russian criminal code, namely bringing criminal charges against persons known to be innocent, and preparations for an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection in order to complicate international relations. Moscow has dismissed the ICC warrants against Putin and Lvova-Belova as null and void, as Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the court. Neither are the US, China, India and several dozen other countries.

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“Greenpeace activists have engaged in spreading anti-Russian propaganda, and have called for the further economic isolation of our country and the toughening of sanctions.”

Russian Prosecutor General Designates Greenpeace As ‘Undesirable’ (TASS)

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has designated the activities of Greenpeace International within the country as undesirable, the law enforcement agency’s press service told reporters on Friday. “According to the findings of a study of the available materials, investigators have established that the activities of the international non-governmental, non-profit organization Greenpeace International (Stichting [a Dutch form of legal entity] Greenpeace Council, Greenpeace International, Greenpeace Foundation Council, Greenpeace, the Netherlands) represent a threat to the fundamental constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

Investigators pointed out that, “when applied to the Russian Federation, the environmental activities of Greenpeace are in fact accompanied by the active promotion of a political agenda, [as well as] attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of the country, and are aimed at undermining its economic foundations.” Since the start of Russia’s special military operation for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, “Greenpeace activists have engaged in spreading anti-Russian propaganda, and have called for the further economic isolation of our country and the toughening of sanctions.” As the Prosecutor General’s Office explained, Greenpeace’s work is often connected with efforts to obstruct the implementation of Russian government programs by means of organizing information campaigns and unauthorized mass public actions in order to engender negative public opinion and impede the implementation of infrastructure and energy projects that are beneficial to the country.

In addition, the foundation finances the activities of Russian organizations that have been designated as foreign agents and demands changes in Russian legislation to the detriment of our society and citizens. “The foundation’s efforts are aimed at destabilizing the social and political situation and attempting to effect regime change in the country in an unconstitutional manner,” investigators said, adding that information about Greenpeace’s activities being designated as undesirable in Russia was forwarded to the Russian Ministry of Justice for inclusion in the official list of foreign and international non-governmental organizations whose activities have been deemed undesirable in Russia. Greenpeace has been active in Russia for more than 30 years, since the late 1980s.

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“Every single foreign adversary the US has encountered has always been depicted as an “imminent threat” to American values in a way articulated to provoke fear amongst the population..”

Is China The Only Issue Holding The US Together? (Fomenko)

The US is a vast and diverse nation. It has a population of over 300 million people across a territorial expanse which is the third largest in the world by some definitions. Across its 50 states, a variety of different ethnic and social backgrounds can be found. Your Baptist pastor from Alabama has nothing in common with your ambitious young middle-class banker living in New York City, and even less with your struggling African-American family in the same city. In incorporating such diversity, the political system of the US is also by constitution decentralized, delegating power into multiple branches of government dispersed across federal, state and local levels. It is no surprise that this has produced a political system which is beset by often bitter division and intense ideological and value-based conflicts.

This has been enough, as history demonstrates, to plunge the country into a civil war. The development of mass media and social networks has only made it worse. Thus, starting in the 20th century, the American elite structure has sought to maintain control over its nation by vesting itself in the politics of fear mongering, which forces a continual emphasis on “American values,” namely democracy and liberty, in the bid to maintain a basic consensus for the justification of the state itself. Every single foreign adversary the US has encountered has always been depicted as an “imminent threat” to American values in a way articulated to provoke fear amongst the population, as if to constantly remind them of what they have. This has ranged from the Soviet Union, to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, to North Korea, to Russia and to China.

Every adversary is depicted as almost omnipotent, with power to infiltrate, sabotage, and subvert the US. In doing so, as we are seeing now with the debt ceiling crisis, every single one of these adversaries is deemed to benefit from whatever fundamental disagreement US politicians may be having, subsequently forcing them to coalesce around a position of unity for the “greater good” – as if it doesn’t exist otherwise. When analyzed through this lens, if the US runs out of adversaries and threats, politicians genuinely might have difficulty justifying the existence or unity of the nation altogether in its current form. The US centralizes itself through fear and hysteria, because if not for those things constantly looming, Americans wouldn’t have a whole lot to agree on, be it guns, abortion, LGBTQ rights, immigration, or anything else.

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Talk about a threat to America…

End the FBI (McMaken)

Even if we ignore the fact that there is no provision in the US constitution for a federal police force, it is nonetheless apparent that the FBI, which now bills itself primarily as an intelligence organization, is simply duplicating the work of countless other organizations in this respect. There are at least 18 intelligence organizations current being funded by US taxpayers. Further, prosecuting any real crime does not require an additional layer of federal law. Fraud, theft, murder, and assault are all already illegal in every single US state. If a huge continent-spanning police force is necessary to keep law and order, how is it that Europe somehow manages to survive without a Europe-wide police? Data sharing organizations like INTERPOL—which is staffed by agents with no power to arrest or launch their own investigations—somehow manage to work. The FBI will no doubt argue that it brings valuable resources to cash-strapped police forces when more resources are needed.


The FBI only has access to these resources, however, because the federal government extracts more than $10 billion dollars from state and local taxpayers first, and then hands it over to the FBI to “help” the locals. The Durham report is only the latest indication that the true nature of the FBI. In a 2020 essay, Angelo Codevilla examined the rot at the core of the FBI. He goes far too easy on the FBI in early decades, but he was right enough when it came to the present state of the agency. He wrote: Thus FBI officers became standard bureaucrats who learned to operate on the assumption that all Americans were equally likely as not to be proper targets of investigation. They replaced the distinctions by which they had previously operated with the classic bureaucratic imperative: look out for yourselves by making sure to please the powerful.

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A class society.

Israel’s State-Building Project Is Unraveling – From Within (Cook)

As Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, the state-building project it cemented into place in 1948 by expelling 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland is showing the first signs of unraveling. The surprise is that Israel’s woes spring not, as generations of its leaders feared, from outside forces – a combined attack from Arab states or pressure from the international community – but from Israel’s own internal contradictions. Israeli leaders created the very problems they all too obviously lack the tools to now solve. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bombardment of Gaza in recent days, killing dozens of Palestinians, should be understood in that light. It is one more indication of Israel’s internal crisis.

Once again, the Palestinians are being used in a frantic bid to shore up an increasingly fragile “Jewish” unity. Israel’s long-term problem is underscored by the current, bitter standoff over Netanyahu’s plan for a so-called judicial overhaul. The Israeli Jewish population is split down the middle, with neither side willing to back down. Rightly, each sees the confrontation in terms of a zero-sum battle. And behind this stands a political system in near-constant paralysis, with neither side of the divide able to gain a stable majority in the parliament. Israel is now mired in a permanent, low-level civil war.To understand how Israel reached this point, and where it is likely to head next, one must delve deep into the country’s origin story.

The official narrative is that Israel was created out of necessity: to serve as a safe haven for Jews fleeing centuries of persecution and the horrors of the Nazi death camps in Europe. The resulting ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the erasure of hundreds of their towns and villages – what Palestinians call their Nakba, or Catastrophe – is either mystified or presented simply as a desperate act of self-defense by a long-victimized people. This colossal act of dispossession, aided and abetted by western powers, has been reinvented for western publics as a simple morality tale, as a story of redemption.

Israel’s establishment was not only a chance for the Jewish people to gain self-determination through statehood so they would never again be persecuted. Jews would also build a state from scratch that would offer to the world a more virtuous model of how to live. This tapped neatly, if subliminally, into a western, Christian-derived worldview that looked to the Holy Land for salvation. Jews would restore their place as “a light unto the nations” by “redeeming” the land they had stolen from the Palestinians and offering a path by which westerners could redeem themselves too.

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“..peace-making is no longer made in the US or Israel, as China’s success in mediating between Iran and Saudi Arabia has significantly shifted Middle Eastern geopolitics..”

Israel and the ‘New’ Middle East (Sheikh)

In 2020, when Israel, backed by the US, signed the Abraham Accords with the UAE and some other Middle Eastern states, the Israeli government looked well in charge of the trajectory of the peace process in the Middle East. Three years later, peace-making is no longer made in the US or Israel, as China’s success in mediating between Iran and Saudi Arabia has significantly shifted Middle Eastern geopolitics’ local and international dynamics. Locally, more and more Arab states are now pursuing ‘normalisation’; internationally, Beijing, rather than Washington, is playing the lead role. This adds to Israel’s troubles, as it can no longer influence these developments even indirectly via Beijing for obvious reasons. At the same time, if the underlying logic of the Abraham Accords was to expand Israeli influence in the Arab world and further isolate Iran, this is no longer possible.

While the US and Israeli officials have stated that the Iran-Saudia deal doesn’t impact the politics and the possibility of the possible extension of the Abraham Accords, it remains that the deal has not materialised despite various rounds of talks. While one of the key reasons is the change of government in the US, with the Biden administration not sharing the Trump administration’s enthusiasm for both peace in the Middle East and deep ties with Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, too, is not keen to make this deal. In other words, the China-led ‘new’ peace process in the Middle East is nothing short of a setback for Israel. This is most clearly evident from the way Saudi position vis-à-vis talks with Israel has hardened in the past few months or so.

As reported in the mainstream media in the US as well, not only is Saudi Arabia demanding additional security guarantees from Washington but is also seeking the latter’s help to develop its civilian nuclear programme. This is besides the Saudi demand from the US to loosen restrictions on the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. These demands are in addition to a persistent Saudi demand from Israel to “do something to address Palestinian aspirations for independence.” From the US and Israeli perspectives, the Saudis are only using the scenario to extract maximum concessions from them in exchange for ‘normalisation.’ From their perspectives, they might ultimately need to address some of the Saudi demands, given that a peace process in the Middle East that excludes Israel as a player will ultimately lead to Israeli isolation in the region insofar as other states are most likely to continue pursuing their normalization politics under the Chinese auspices.

As irony would have it – and as it may further complicate the US position – China recently offered its services to mediate between Israel and Palestine to develop a realistic peace plan. If the US fails to convince Saudia, Israel, fearing increasing isolation, may ultimately move towards China for a new peace process. The US, so far, has failed to make any headway in this direction i.e., towards an Israel-Saudi peace process. In fact, the failure to address Saudi demands is pushing the latter in the opposite direction. Saudi Arabia, as again reported in the US mainstream media, is moving to normalise and streamline its ties with Hamas, a Palestinian militia resisting Israel but designated by the US as a ‘terrorist group.’

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“.. in 2030, Poland will be wealthier than we are,” he said. “In 2040, we will be the poor man in Europe.”

UK In ‘Geriatric Decline’ – Legendary Financier (RT)

Brexit has weakened the UK economy and driven the nation into a “sort of geriatric decline,” British financier and chairman of the private equity firm Terra Firma told Bloomberg on Friday. Since the UK left the European Union, it has been competing on the world stage, but the country’s current laws might not be suitable for the new environment, billionaire Guy Hands suggested in the outlet’s weekly ‘In The City’ podcast. Unless change happens, the UK risks becoming poorer and poorer compared to other European countries. “I look at the UK and see that, in 2030, Poland will be wealthier than we are,” he said. “In 2040, we will be the poor man in Europe.”

According to Hands, the UK should not have left the EU, as the country needs rule of law and consistency, but not a single politician is talking about going back. He lamented that Brexit has essentially thrown the country back 50 years, to the 1970’s, a decade that is widely remembered as a time of crisis, with skyrocketing inflation, high unemployment, strikes and power cuts. The enormous amount of political change that has happened in the UK over the past seven years has left investors concerned, and the public lacking confidence, the billionaire believes.

Now that the UK is out of the EU, the British government could take a radical approach and change some of its laws, Hands said, citing the country’s “extraordinarily complex” labor laws that are “a nightmare” compared to other European countries. The UK also needs some “boring bookkeeping,” and the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak seems to be good at it, according to Hands. The financier noted that the British government has succeeded in repairing some of the damage caused by Liz Truss, whose economic policies were “absolutely disastrous” and would have led to the country needing a bailout. Truss’s argument, however, that the UK needed to become much more productive to be more competitive was “100% right”.

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Elon 2008

 

 


The Japanese paradise flycatcher is a medium-sized passerine bird native to southeastern Asia. Photo by Young Sung Bae

 

 

Rotor

 

 

 

 

Acorn

 

 


Severely damaged by a storm, the tallest tree in Wales was supposed to be cut down. But chainsaw artist Simon O’Rourke found a better solution to symbolise the tree’s last attempt to reach the sky…

‘The Giant Hand Of Vyrnwy’

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 192023
 
 April 19, 2023  Posted by at 8:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  43 Responses »


Ito Shinsui Snowy night 1923

 

China Offers To Facilitate Israel-Palestinian Peace Talks (AP)
Macron’s Yet-to-be Drafted Peace Plan: Long-term Guarantees To Kiev (TASS)
Russia ‘Winning’ Fight Against Ukraine – Retired US Army Colonel Macgregor (RT)
Lloyd Austin: ‘We Won’t Be In A War With Russia’ (Az.)
Russian Forces Control Almost All Of Bakhmut – DPR Head’s Advisor (TASS)
Kiev ‘Pissed Off’ UN Chief – WaPo (RT)
Leaked Document Reveals the US Spying on the UN Secretary-General (Antiwar)
White House: China Wants To See Dollar Weaken As Reserve Currency (Az.)
BRICS To Pass G7 In Economic Might – Bloomberg (RT)
Can BRICS Weaken the Dominance of the IMF and World Bank? (Baroud)
Russian Envoy Slams Die Welt Over ‘Kill Putin’ Quote (RT)
Russia Officially Rebukes UK Envoy Over Remarks On Journalist’s Verdict (TASS)
EU Funds Enslavement Of African Migrants In Libya – UN (GZ)
Trump Says Disney ‘Destroying’ Florida Governor DeSantis (RT)
Then There Were Nine (Turley)

 

 

 

 

Elon Tucker

https://twitter.com/i/status/1648488786056151041

 

 

 

 

CO2

 

 

Maddow leaks

 

 

 

 

China has solved problems in Yemen and Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. And seemingly without major issues. If they succeed in the Israel-Palestine talks, they will be the new world leader.

China Offers To Facilitate Israel-Palestinian Peace Talks (AP)

China’s foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks between the two sides, in its latest effort at mediation in the region. In separate phone calls to the two officials on Monday, Qin Gang expressed China’s concern over intensifying tensions between Israel and Palestinians and its support for a resumption of peace talks, the Foreign Ministry said in statements issued late Monday. Last month, Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a deal in China to restore diplomatic ties that were cut off in 2016. It was a dramatic moment of diplomacy for China that Beijing touted as evidence of its ability to be a diplomatic player in the Middle East. Qin stressed in his talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that Saudi Arabia and Iran have set a good example of overcoming differences through dialogue, a statement about that phone call said.

He told Cohen that Beijing encourages Israel and the Palestinians to show political courage and take steps to resume peace talks. “China is willing to provide convenience for this,” he was quoted as saying. Israel and the Palestinians have not held substantive peace talks on ending the century-long conflict in over a decade. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is committed to expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank — which most of the international community considers illegal and an obstacle to peace — and several of his key allies are staunchly opposed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Cohen expressed his country’s commitment to reducing tensions, but said the problem appeared to be difficult to resolve in the short term, the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Qin and Cohen discussed “the importance of maintaining quiet at the Temple Mount, particularly in the final days of Ramadan,” the Muslim holy month, but made no mention of peace talks with the Palestinians. It said that Cohen conveyed “the threat that we see in Iran’s nuclear program” and called on China to help prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Qin also told Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki that China is willing to play an active role in the resumption of talks, a second statement said. On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin confirmed Qin’s outreach to the two officials. “It is never too late to do the right thing,” he said.

This month, violence in Israel and the West Bank has increased, touched off by an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the compound home to the Al-Aqsa mosque. The Israeli military struck sites linked to the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip after militants in the two territories fired rocket salvos at Israel. The mosque sits on a contested hilltop revered as the third-holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism.

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Compared to China’s initiatives, Macron looks defunkt. His “peace plan”: “Future measures will be aimed at upgrading Kiev’s armed forces. NATO members are also working to ensure steady supplies of weapons and military equipment.”

Macron’s Yet-to-be Drafted Peace Plan: Long-term Guarantees To Kiev (TASS)

French President Emmanuel Macron’s yet-to-be drafted peace plan, which he hopes to negotiate with China, would be based on long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, Bloomberg said, citing sources. The agency speculates that the plan would be based on long-term security guarantees to Kiev. However, as the report specifies, Western countries also plan to discuss the details of support for Ukraine at the NATO summit in Lithuania due in July. Future measures will be aimed at upgrading Kiev’s armed forces. NATO members are also working to ensure steady supplies of weapons and military equipment.


Macron has reportedly instructed his adviser Emmanuel Bonn to stay in touch with the head of the office of the Chinese Communist Party’s Foreign Affairs Commission, Wang Yi, in order to formulate a program that might serve as the basis for future negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. During his state visit to China, Macron told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he counted on Beijing’s mediation in settling the Ukrainian conflict. Le Monde has said that Macron’s visit to China has failed to bring about any change to Beijing’s position regarding the Ukrainian conflict and Russia.

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“The Ukrainians themselves know the truth. They’re in a very terrible position right now.”

Russia ‘Winning’ Fight Against Ukraine – Retired US Army Colonel Macgregor (RT)

Russia is defeating Ukraine and the recent leaks of US classified documents will not change the outcome on the battlefield, retired US Army colonel and former Pentagon adviser Douglas Macgregor has said. “I think the Russians are winning anyway, and the Russians know the truth,” Macgregor said in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel on Sunday. “The Ukrainians themselves know the truth. They’re in a very terrible position right now. We’ve been pushing them to launch this massive offensive in the spring,” Macgregor argued. “And, frankly, [Ukrainians] don’t have the forces, they don’t have the resources to make a difference at this point. They really need to fall back and defend against the Russians, who are ultimately going to attack in May and June.”


The documents dumped online sometime this year and recently discovered by news organizations include US intelligence dispatches and documents purported to be the Pentagon’s daily reports on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. According to a file dated February 28, Western countries have been training and equipping nine Ukrainian brigades for a counteroffensive slated for April 30. The same document said that three more brigades were to be formed “internally” in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have said in the past that offensive operations would depend on the supply of tanks and other heavy weapons from the West. Prime Minister Denis Shmigal confirmed on Monday that the counteroffensive would begin “in the nearest future.” He rejected the idea that Kiev was being pressured from abroad regarding the timetable.

Doctorow

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Denial is useless. Who’re you gonna fool?

Lloyd Austin: ‘We Won’t Be In A War With Russia’ (Az.)

“We are not in a war with Russia, and we won’t be in a war with Russia,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an interview with The Washington Post. Asked what happens if Ukraine doesn’t succeed in pushing back Russian front lines and reclaiming significant territory, the Pentagon’s top official deflected.

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90%, from 80% a week ago.

Russian Forces Control Almost All Of Bakhmut – DPR Head’s Advisor (TASS)

Russian forces have taken control of almost 90% of the city of Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine), Yan Gagin, an advisor to the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) leader, told TASS on Tuesday. “The Wagner private military company controls about 90% of Artyomovsk and its advance is inevitable,” he said. Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on April 11 that Russian forces controlled more than 80% of Artyomovsk, including all administrative buildings. Gagin specified that Ukrainian troops were booby-trapping and blowing up major infrastructure facilities before leaving the western outskirts of Artyomovsk.


“The Ukrainian armed forces are okay with using scorched earth tactics. This is what they did in Volnovakha and Mariupol, and now, they are blowing up and booby-trapping major infrastructure facilities in Artyomovsk before retreating from the western outskirts of the city. A local community center was one of the buildings that they blew up recently,” Gagin noted. Earlier, he told TASS that Ukraine was redeploying troops to Artyomovsk but the majority of new soldiers were getting killed on their approach to the city. Artyomovsk, located in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), is an important transport hub in terms of Ukrainian military supplies. Heavy fighting is raging in the area.

Prigozhin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648084845682196485

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“Zelensky “sprung the event” on Guterres, the newspaper said. The president’s aides later spun it to imply that the UN chief was “congratulating military personnel on one side of the Russia-Ukraine war.”

Kiev ‘Pissed Off’ UN Chief – WaPo (RT)

President Vladimir Zelensky ambushed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with a surprise ceremony in Kiev during which the Ukrainian leader awarded medals to female soldiers, the Washington Post has reported, citing alleged US eavesdropping on the UN chief. Guterres’ reaction to the incident, which took place during his visit to the Ukrainian capital on March 8, was described in one of the slides purportedly leaked by a US National Guardsman who had access to classified US intelligence. The secretary general apparently discussed his experience privately with his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Zelensky “sprung the event” on Guterres, the newspaper said. The president’s aides later spun it to imply that the UN chief was “congratulating military personnel on one side of the Russia-Ukraine war.”

Guterres “emphasized that he made a point of not smiling the entire time,” according to the US document purporting to describe the conversation. Footage of the ceremony, which took place on International Women’s Day, indeed shows Guterres maintaining an expressionless face as Zelensky awarded decorations to uniformed female troops. He offered a small nod and a brief smile to the ladies as he shook their hands while standing on the stage alongside the Ukrainian leader. Dujarric confirmed to the Post that his boss was “unpleasantly surprised” by the event, to which he did not consent in advance. Washington’s apparent snooping on the UN leader fits a long record of clandestine activities by the US and other Western powers, the Post noted.

Last week, a BBC report based on another slide from the same trove described the US’ displeasure with efforts undertaken by Guterres to deliver on his promise to Russia to facilitate exports of its food and fertilizers. The pledge was part of the so-called Black Sea Initiative, which allowed Ukrainian grain to be shipped out by sea. The UN chief’s attempts to deliver on the promise were “undermining broader efforts to hold Moscow accountable for its actions in Ukraine,” the slide said. Dujarric commented on the BBC report, stating that Guterres was “not surprised by the fact that people are spying on him and listening in on his private conversations.” “What is surprising is the malfeasance or incompetence that allows for such private conversations to be distorted and become public,” he added.

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“Washington’s apparent snooping on the UN leader fits a long record of clandestine activities by the US and other Western powers, the Post noted.”

Leaked Document Reveals the US Spying on the UN Secretary-General (Antiwar)

Classified documents allegedly leaked by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira have revealed that the US is closely spying on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and is not happy with his engagement with Moscow. Several documents detail Guterres’ communications, including one that accuses him of “undermining” efforts to take action against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The document addresses his communications with Moscow regarding the grain deal that unlocked Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. To broker the deal between Moscow and Kyiv, the UN agreed to help facilitate the export of Russian fertilizer and grain, which has been hindered by Western sanctions despite exemptions for agricultural goods.

The document reads: “UN Secretary-General Guterres is taking steps to accommodate Russia in an effort to protect the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), which he considers a pivotal UN success and key to addressing global food insecurity, and his actions are undermining broader efforts to hold Moscow accountable for its actions in Ukraine.” The document was likely written either in late February or early March before Russia and Ukraine agreed to extend the grain deal on March 18. It says in early February, Guterres “urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a letter to renew the BSGI before its term expires on March 18 and Guterres emphasized his efforts to improve Russia’s ability to export, even if that involves sanctioned Russian entities or individuals, according to FISA-derived signal intelligence.”

Signal intelligence refers to information obtained by intercepting communications. In response to the revelation that the US was spying on Guterres, his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told Al Jazeera that he is “not surprised by the fact that people are spying on him and listening in on his private conversations.” “What is surprising is the malfeasance or incompetence that allows for such private conversations to be distorted and become public,” Dujarric said. Other documents detailed private communications between Guterres and his deputy.

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Solution: more debt?!

White House: China Wants To See Dollar Weaken As Reserve Currency (Az.)

White House economist Jared Bernstein said there was “some evidence” that China wants to see the dollar weaken as the international reserve currency, and urged Congress to raise the US debt ceiling to protect the value of the dollar, Report informs referring to Reuters. Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told a Senate Banking Committee hearing on his nomination to head the body that US control of the world’s reserve currency offered benefits, including the ability to impose sanctions, as Washington had done on Russia over its war against Ukraine.

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Nominal GDP includes a lot of unproductive work (like people sitting through meetings all day long). Once we ditch that, the situation looks much worse for the G7.

BRICS To Pass G7 In Economic Might – Bloomberg (RT)

The BRICS group – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – is expected to increase their share of the global economy to nearly 35% by 2028, Bloomberg reported on Monday. According to the outlet’s calculations based on the latest IMF data, this year, the BRICS countries will contribute 32.1% of the world’s growth, compared to the G7’s 29.9%. The Group of Seven nations (G7), consisting of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, is considered the most advanced economic bloc of countries on the planet. The report indicated that in 2020, the contribution of the BRICS countries and the G7 to global economic growth was equal, and from that moment on, the performance of the Western countries has been declining. By 2028, the G7’s contribution to the world economy is predicted to decrease to 27.8%.

Bloomberg calculations show that China will be the top contributor to global growth over the next five years, with its share set to be double that of the US. China’s share of global GDP expansion is expected to represent 22.6% of total world growth by 2028, the outlet wrote. India is projected to contribute 12.9% of global GDP. “In total, 75% of global growth is expected to be concentrated in 20 countries and over half in the top four: China, India, the US and Indonesia. While Group of Seven countries will comprise a smaller share, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and France are seen among the top 10 contributors,” the outlet wrote. A recent study by a UK-based macroeconomics research firm has also found that the gap between the two groups in terms of global economic weight is expected to continue to grow.

The analysts noted that China and India have been experiencing robust economic growth, and more countries are interested in joining BRICS. Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “more than a dozen” nations have expressed interest in joining BRICS, including Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bangladesh have acquired equity in the New Development Bank, the funding organization of BRICS. Last year, BRICS countries proposed the creation of their own currency in order to move away from the US dollar and the euro in mutual transactions.

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“There may be an obsession in America about Chinese activity on the continent, but there is no such obsession here..”

Can BRICS Weaken the Dominance of the IMF and World Bank? (Baroud)

For decades, the US’s greatest weapon has been its dollar which, with time, ceased being a normal currency per se, to become an actual commodity. Wars have been fought to ensure countries, like Iraq and Libya, remain committed to the dollar. Following the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Baghdad returned to selling its oil in US dollars. This struggle over the dominance of the dollar was also painfully felt in Venezuela which has the world’s largest oil reserve, yet was reduced to abject poverty for attempting to challenge the supremacy of Washington its currency. Though it will take time, the process of lessening the reliance on US dollars is now in full swing. On March 30, Brazil and China announced a trade agreement that would allow them to use the two countries’ national currencies, the yuan and the reais, respectively.

This step shall prove consequential, for it will encourage other South American countries to follow suit. But that move was neither the first, nor will it be the last of its kind. One of the main decisions by finance ministers and central bank governors of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) following their March 30-31 meeting in Indonesia is to reduce their reliance on the US dollar. They agree to “reinforce financial resilience … through the use of local currency to support cross-border trade and investment in the ASEAN region.” This too is a game-changer. The BRICS countries, in particular, are leading the charge and are set to serve as the facilitator of rearranging the world’s economic and financial map. While the West is busy trying to keep its own economies afloat, it remains wary of the changes underway in the Global South. Washington and other western capitals are worried. They ought to be.

Following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and 40 African leaders at the White House last December, it was clear that African countries were not interested in taking sides in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Consequently, US Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Africa on March 26 to meet African leaders, with the sole purpose of pushing them away from China and Russia. That effort is likely to fail. A perfect illustration of Africa’s refusal to abandon its neutrality is the press conference between Harris and President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, on March 28. “There may be an obsession in America about Chinese activity on the continent, but there is no such obsession here,” Akufo-Addo told reporters.

To argue that BRICS is a purely economic group is to ignore a large part of the story. The timing of BRICS’ expansion, the stern political discourse of its members, potential members and allies, the repeated visits by top Russian and Chinese diplomats to Africa and other regions in the Global South, etc., indicate that BRICS has become the South’s new platform for geopolitics, economy and diplomacy.

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It’s become normal.

Russian Envoy Slams Die Welt Over ‘Kill Putin’ Quote (RT)

Germany’s Die Welt daily “hit rock bottom” in its anti-Russian zeal last week, the Russian ambassador to Berlin, Sergey Nechaev, said on Monday, in response to an interview with American columnist Fred Kaplan in which he said the “easiest way” to end the Ukraine conflict is for someone to “kill Putin.” Die Welt has left “this de facto call for murder” unredacted and uncommented on and even used it as a headline, Nechaev wrote in a damning post published on the embassy’s Telegram account. The envoy was apparently referring to Die Welt’s Twitter account, which used the “killing” quote to draw attention to the interview with Kaplan on its social media. “It is unfortunate that some German media keep crossing all the lines and hitting rock bottom,” the ambassador said, adding that “although this is outrageous, it is no longer surprising.”

Kaplan made the statement in response to Die Welt’s question about the “most plausible scenarios” of ending the military conflict between Moscow and Kiev, which has now been ongoing for now than a year. “The easiest way for this to end is for someone to kill Putin,” Kaplan stated, adding that a “new leader” could them come to power, who would declare Russia’s military operation in Ukraine “a folly” and gain the support of the Russian elites to end the conflict. The American journalist and political scientist said he does not believe that Moscow will prevail, adding that otherwise the conflict could last “for years” and potentially end with an agreement that would involve the US and China as “guarantors.”

The US columnist also admitted that Kiev is fully dependent on US aid and that a halt to this assistance might force the Ukrainian government to “strike a deal” with Moscow. “Without the US assistance, it [Ukraine] would not last long,” he said. Die Welt’s choice of a quote has also been met with criticism on social media. One person accused the outlet of being “no longer above … an incitement to murder.” “Is it a call for murder?” another person asked, warning that killing the Russian president could also bring “hardliners” to power in Russia, potentially putting the world on the brink of a nuclear war. The German media outlet has not commented on the criticism so far. Neither the text of the interview nor the Twitter post has been altered in any way as of the time of this writing.

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“..indicates London’s clear violation of the fundamental principles of the 1962 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and runs counter to the status of the British diplomatic mission in Moscow..”

Russia Officially Rebukes UK Envoy Over Remarks On Journalist’s Verdict (TASS)

Russia has issued a stern rebuke to British Ambassador to Moscow Deborah Bronnert over her remarks as well as statements by senior British Foreign Office officials regarding the court verdict handed down in the case against journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza (designated as a foreign agent in Russia), the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. “On April 18, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned British Ambassador to Moscow Deborah Bronnert to issue a protest to her against her unacceptable remarks as well as the provocative statements made by the highest officials of the British Foreign Office following the Moscow City Court’s verdict handed down in the case of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian national convicted of high treason and making false reports about the Russian Army,” the statement reads.

The ministry added that London’s reference to the fact that Kara-Murza holds British citizenship was “legally null and void” under Russian jurisprudence. The Russian Foreign Ministry also pointed out that Moscow viewed foreign diplomats’ calls for revoking the verdict as blatant interference in Russia’s domestic affairs. “Such disrespectful behavior indicates London’s clear violation of the fundamental principles of the 1962 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and runs counter to the status of the British diplomatic mission in Moscow,” the statement added.

According to the ministry, Bronnert was informed that British officials’ attempts “to lecture Russia on respect for human rights” were unacceptable as the international community was well aware of London’s disregard for human rights issues. Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said earlier that the Russian Foreign Ministry had strongly protested to Bronnert, pointing out that “the activity staged by the British, the Americans and the Canadians yesterday morning is regarded as blatant interference” in Russia’s internal affairs.

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Legacy of the west. Of course they will turn to China.

EU Funds Enslavement Of African Migrants In Libya – UN (GZ)

An investigation by the United Nations has concluded that money provided by the European Union to state entities in Libya has facilitated crimes against humanity ranging from forced labor and sexual slavery to torture. Through its financial support of the Libyan Coast Guard and the Libyan Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM), the European Union has aided and abetted crimes against humanity, according to a recent UN report. On March 27, 2023, the United Nations released the findings of a three-year investigation, confirming that “arbitrary detention, murder, rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance” has become a “widespread practice” in the once-prosperous nation of Libya, which was plunged into civil war by NATO’s regime change war over a decade ago.

While crimes against humanity were found to be widespread throughout the country, the report homed in on the plight of migrants and blamed the European Union for enabling the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity to enact abuses against Africans seeking asylum in Europe. The report stated in its introductory section: “The Mission found that crimes against humanity were committed against migrants in places of detention under the actual or nominal control of Libya’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration, the Libyan Coast Guard and the Stability Support Apparatus. These entities received technical, logistical and monetary support from the European Union and its member States for, inter alia, the interception and return of migrants.”

In other words, rather than directly intercepting migrants traveling by boat to Europe, the European Union has outsourced the dirty work to the Libyan Coast Guard. Once the coast guard detains the migrants, they are sent back to Libya and transferred to both official and “secret prisons” where they are often exploited for financial gain through forced labor, ransom, or sexual slavery.

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Woke.

Trump Says Disney ‘Destroying’ Florida Governor DeSantis (RT)

Former President Donald Trump says Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is “being absolutely destroyed” in his months-long battle with Disney, after the governor unveiled a new bill that would give state officials more authority over the company’s massive Disney World amusement park. Trump took aim at DeSantis in a social media post on Tuesday, calling his feud with Disney unnecessary, while condemning the governor’s new legislative effort as a political stunt. “DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney. His original PR plan fizzled, so now he’s going back with a new one in order to save face,” he said, using a disparaging nickname for the governor.

The former leader went on to predict that Disney – one of the state’s largest employers – would cut off investments in Florida “because of the governor,” suggesting the company “could even announce a slow withdrawal or sale of certain properties, or the whole thing. Watch!” While DeSantis has not announced a 2024 presidential campaign, he is expected to run for the White House and is widely considered Trump’s main Republican rival. On Monday, DeSantis announced a bill that would rescind an agreement Disney struck with state officials earlier this year, which granted Disney free rein to develop the district that hosts its Walt Disney World theme park and its related resorts. While DeSantis previously appointed officials to head up a new state board to oversee the district, the deal with Disney was completed before they began their roles, effectively circumventing the board in giving the company full developmental powers.

“They negotiated with themselves, to give themselves the ability to maintain their self-governing status. Now that’s in direct defiance of the will of the people of Florida,” the governor told reporters on Monday. “They thought that they could create some type of development agreements that would essentially render everything that we did null and void and put them in control in perpetuity for this. Well, that’s not going to work.” DeSantis’ row with Disney kicked off last year after the company publicly opposed his ‘Parental Rights in Education’ bill, which barred certain public school teachers from classroom discussion or instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Dubbing the act the ‘Don’t Say Gay bill’, Disney said it “should never have been signed into law” and vowed to fight for its repeal.

The governor argued that Disney’s statement “crossed the line” and slammed the company for working to “repeal substantive protections for parents.” Since then, DeSantis has sought to strip Disney of its broad authority over the district housing its theme park, and more recently, requested an inspector general probe into Disney’s development agreement with the state for potential criminal or civil violations.

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“It is illegal to give a member of Congress or a president even $100 to gain influence. However, you can literally give millions to their spouses or children..”

Then There Were Nine (Turley)

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has revealed that there are not three but nine members of the Biden family that may have benefitted from suspected influence peddling efforts. For those of us who have long criticized the corrupt practices of the Biden family, the identity of these other family members is intriguing after the Committee secured new bank and financial records. Democratic members again insisted that there is no need to investigate such influence peddling. The new information on the Biden family is due largely to the takeover of the House by the GOP. Previously, Democrats blocked efforts to investigate influence peddling by the Biden family for years. After assuming control of the Committee. Comer sought suspicious activity reports sent by banks to the Treasury Department alerting of potential criminal activity in transactions involving President Biden’s family.

He stated on Monday that “We’ve identified six additional members of Joe Biden’s family who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine.” Those are six names are in addition to three Biden family members and two associates previously linked to payment from China in 2017. Three million was wired Biden family associate Rob Walker in March 2017, who then allegedly divided and distributed the funds later. There remains an “Unknown Biden” who received four payments in 2017 totaling $70,000. The investigation into the Bidens has made many in the Beltway uncomfortable. Influence peddling has long been the favored form of corruption in this city, but few families seem to have cashed into the extent of the Bidens.

I frankly do not understand the willingness of so many Democrats to cover for the Bidens. Democratic members have gone all in with censorship, but this is an effort to scuttle investigations into corruption that may have resulted in millions of dollars going to Biden family members. The Biden family has long been associated with influence peddling to the degree that they could add an access key to their family crest. Influence peddling has long been a cottage industry in Washington. For decades, I have written about this loophole in bribery laws. It is illegal to give a member of Congress or a president even $100 to gain influence. However, you can literally give millions to their spouses or children in the forms of windfall contracts or cozy jobs. James Biden has been remarkably (even refreshingly) open about marketing his access to his brother.

Former Americore executive Tom Pritchard and others allege that Biden openly referenced his access to his brother and his family name in his pitch for clients. James has faced a wide array of litigation over allegedly fraudulent activities as well as a personal loan acquired through Americore before it went into bankruptcy. Hunter worked with his uncle but also branched off on his own in the family business. While his father recently emphasized that his son was a hopeless addict, that defense stands in glaring contradiction to the fact that he maintained a multimillion-dollar influence-peddling scheme. The question is why foreign figures (including some associated with foreign intelligence) rushed to him international money transfers and complex deals worth millions from Moscow to Kyiv to Beijing.

[..] Many Democrats and legal experts have objected that influence peddling is not a crime. However, it is corrupt and squarely within the oversight authority of Congress. Indeed, if it is not a matter for criminal charges, such congressional action may be the only way to force accountability for corrupt efforts to sell influence and access.

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Happy dog day
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648374882726559746

 

 

Walter

 

 


While it may look at first glance like a composite image, this mind-bending picture by Kenichi Ohno and titled “Gap”, is a real single-exposure photo and not the result of Photoshop manipulation

 

 

Armadillo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648377460201865244

 

 

Nemrut

 

 


Given its transparent body, the glass octopus, Vitreledonella richardi, remains one of the most elusive creatures of the deep sea. Rare photos such as this reveal an array of opaque organs and a glimpse of its unusually shaped eyes

 

 

Draco

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 032023
 
 January 3, 2023  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  75 Responses »


Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Portrait of Vincent van Gogh 1887

 

Damar Hamlin Is Not Expected To Make A Full Recovery (Kirsch)
The American Public is Extremely Worried About the Vaccines (MWD)
DeSantis: We’re Suing Big Pharma for Killing Americans With COVID Shots (NP)
Did Pfizer Perform Safety Testing for mRNA Vaccine in Preclinical Studies? (SL)
Expect Three Things From Government to Cover Up Vaxx-Weakened Immunity (Rucker)
ICAN Obtains Disturbing Information About AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine (ICAN)
Israel to Declare Covid Pandemic Over, Downgrade It to Flu Status (YW)
Virgin Islands AG Loses Her Job Days After Suing JPMorgan Over Epstein (L&C)
German MP Warns Against ‘Unimaginable Escalation’ (RT)
Ex-NATO General Predicts Ukraine Ceasefire (RT)
Putin’s Approval Rating Ends 2022 At 81% (BNE)
Is Western Propaganda Failing? (Larry Johnson)
Questions and Answers (Kunstler)
Pentagon, FBI, DHS Failed On Jan. 6 – Former Capitol Police Chief (WaPo)
Turkey Supreme Court Bans Genetically Modified Grains Imports (S4S)

 

 

 

 

Ayyadurai – First Amendment

 

 

 

 

Bowden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I already saw a lot of articles about vaccine risks last night, before Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field on live TV. When you combine that collapse with the new Rasmussen poll out yesterday, that says “More Than 1-in-4 Think Someone They Know Died From COVID-19 Vaccines”, and “49% of American Adults believe it is likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths..”, we may be looking at an awakening. A large part of that 49% now think they know what happened with Hamlin. Try cover that up.

“CPR was administered for 9 minutes. Normal is 3 to 5 minutes. After 10 minutes you’re basically dead.”

Damar Hamlin Is Not Expected To Make A Full Recovery (Kirsch)

Update 11:20pm: It was announced in the hospital parking lot that Hamlin is not expected to make a full recovery. Hamlin was vaccinated. The Buffalo Bills is a 100% vaccinated team. I also got a Twitter DM from someone who knows this for a fact who asked that I not disclose his identity. This is a shame since we know know, thanks to my readers, that there is no death benefit to the COVID vaccines. Update 7:39pm: This was called “unprecedented” on ESPN. Hamlin has been intubated and currently listed in critical condition. All the announcers said they’d never seen it in the NFL. This was a joint decision by both the NFL and the players to stop the game. This is unprecedented. One of my nurse friends wrote, “How often has a young healthy football player that didn’t take that hard of a hit had a heart attack or stroke.” CPR was administered for 9 minutes. Normal is 3 to 5 minutes. After 10 minutes you’re basically dead.

McCullough said that we will not know for 24 hours whether he will bounce back. He could make a full recovery. Dr. Peter McCullough just wrote me (7:54pm): “I watched the play live both as a fan and a cardiologist and I saw blunt neck and chest trauma, a brief recovery after the tackle and then a classic cardiac arrest. I have communicated to one of the most experienced trainers in the world and we agree that it was a cardiac arrest in the setting of a big surge of adrenalin. If Damar Hamlin indeed took one of the COVID-19 vaccines, then subclinical vaccine-induced myocarditis must be considered in the differential diagnosis. We have been told he was successfully defibrillated on the field and has been intubated and is not spontaneously breathing which is consistent with anoxic encephalopathy. The nation prays for his complete recovery.”

Peter got it right…. 3 hours after he said that, the Buffalo Bills confirmed he was correct: Note that McCullough originally speculated that the injury that Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was due to commotio cordis (a phenomenon in which a sudden blunt impact to the chest causes sudden death in the absence of cardiac damage). The time delay from the hit until he collapsed is expected in commotio cordis. Peter believes that the ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation could have been set up by the vaccine if he took it. Hamlin was shocked back to rhythm. He now has anoxic encephalopathy. He’s in critical condition at the hospital. If you think the vaccines are safe, this article is very troubling. Therefore, it is viewed as “inappropriate.” If you think the vaccines are not safe, this article is confirming and people have no objection.

Interesting, isn’t it? It now appears that, if Hamlin was vaccinated (which we all believe is highly likely but we don’t have the evidence to say he was), the vaccine likely played a very major role in his injury until proven otherwise. However, I believe it is highly unlikely that there will be a proper autopsy where they examine Damar Hamlin’s heart tissue similar to what they did in the Schwab study. In America, we do not want to know what kills people. This is why there are virtually never any autopsies after someone dies post-vaccine, even if they die less than 24 hours after the jab. So deaths like this will continue because people don’t want to upset the government safe and effective narrative.

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The Rasmussen survey is here. Since it is a endless litany of numbers and percentages, I go with a write-up by the Substack A Midwestern Doctor.

“49% of American Adults believe it is likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths, including 28% who think it’s Very Likely”.

The American Public is Extremely Worried About the Vaccines (MWD)

Although Rasmussen typically makes their polls be behind a paywall (since they have to stay in business), they felt compelled to make this one be publicly available. This poll evaluated 1000 American adults, of whom 71% reported being vaccinated. The results Rasmussen found were as follows:

The results of each of these questions have profound implications for the general public losing its trust in the mainstream narrative. The second is particularly important: 28% know someone directly they believe died from a vaccine. Even if the correlation is false (although I believe it is the opposite as many of the deaths are not recognized), 28% of the population believing the government and every authority they were raised their life to trust would push something this dangerous onto them shatters the institutional trust our entire society is built upon. Put differently, this is not a problem more propaganda can solve or half-hearted pseudo-apologies like Emily Oster’s disingenuous plea for amnesty or Peter Hotez’s “apology” that followed him being called out for his egregious conduct with the vaccines.

At this point in time, the major challenge our movement is facing is bridging the gap from the evidence of harm (there is far more than enough data to end this program) to persuading the public that this data matters and the vaccines need to be pulled. This is why Rasmussen’s survey results so important, as they illustrate that gap is beginning to be overcome. When it comes to ending these mandates, how the vaccines are perceived by the public is the most important thing and what politicians will listen to. [..] One of the interesting things about today’s poll was how each demographic answered:

For example, when asked if they knew someone who they suspected had died from the vaccine, 33% of Democrats said yes, while 26% of both Republicans and those who were not affiliated with either party said yes. Rasmussen argues this (along with many other demographic response rates) suggests the poll’s results were valid, and explained this result being due Democrats, while being less likely to want to acknowledge a vaccine injury, likely knowing far more people who were vaccinated, and thus being exposed to a higher rate of deaths.

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Again, let’s hope Florida stays the course.

DeSantis: We’re Suing Big Pharma for Killing Americans With COVID Shots (NP)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is suing Pfizer and Moderna for killing millions of Americans with their toxic mRNA jabs. “I think people want the truth that I think people want accountability. You need to have a thorough investigation into what happened with the shots,” DeSantis told a crowd earlier in December. “I promise to hold these manufacturers accountable for this mRNA [shot] because they said there were no side effects and we know that there have been a lot.” Naturalnews.com reports: Back in October, Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo recommended against the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for males aged 18 to 39. His recommendation was based on a study that found an 84 percent increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death among males aged 18 to 39 within 28 days of vaccination.

“Studying the safety and efficacy of any medications, including vaccines, is an important component of public health,” Ladapo said. “Far less attention has been paid to safety and the concerns of many individuals have been dismissed – these are important findings that should be communicated to Floridians.” DeSantis has banned strict vaccine mandates in schools and businesses back in November 2021 to make sure people continued to earn a living and have protections at their place of employment. He also emphasized that parents should be able to direct the upbringing of their kids, especially when it came to dealing with the pandemic.

“The plain truth is COVID shots have led to horrifying effects, such as myocarditis, blood clots, additional injuries and sudden deaths,” Patrick Tims of NaturalHealth365 wrote. “The mainstream media in the United States and elsewhere will never admit it, yet the truth is the vast majority of people would have enjoyed better health outcomes had they avoided the mRNA shots altogether.”

Comer Fauci Files
https://twitter.com/i/status/1609944249436602371

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“My goal is to illustrate the complete breakdown of the previously known to be rigorous ethical drug development process..”

Did Pfizer Perform Safety Testing for mRNA Vaccine in Preclinical Studies? (SL)

The cursory nature of the entire preclinical program for mRNA injections conducted by Pfizer can be briefly summarized as “we did not find any safety signals because we did not look for them”. The omissions of standard safety studies and glaring scientific dishonesty in the studies that were performed are so obvious that they cannot be attributed to the incompetence of the manufacturers and regulators. Rather, the questions of fraud and willful negligence should be raised.

The focus of my review was the scope and adequacy of the program of non-clinical assessment for a novel gene therapy “vaccine” with a brief discussion of relevant regulatory frameworks. I did not dive deeply into the results of specific animal studies. My goal is to illustrate the complete breakdown of the previously known to be rigorous ethical drug development process, as well as the shocking negligence on the part of the regulatory agencies that are supposed to keep the pharmaceutical manufacturers honest. It turns out that both the regulators and the manufacturers were highly dishonest and pushed an entirely novel technology and product on millions of people without a single well designed toxicology assessment.

In summary, I have identified the following:

Finding 1: Pfizer’s program did not include a comprehensive end-to-end test of all components as well as the final chemical entity of the mRNA product. The studies included in the FDA approval package were for a variety of versions of the product with no comparability assessments, thus no comprehensive assessment of the product safety can be made.

Finding 2: The toxicity/safety pharmacology of the Covid 19 vaccine’s active ingredient (mRNA BNT162b2) was never evaluated!

Finding 3: Pfizer claimed absence of potential for “vaccine-elicited disease enhancement” based on studies of an animals that did not get sick from Sars-Cov-2.

Finding 4: CDC, FDA and Pfizer lied about “vaccine staying in the injection site” – the injected substance is carried by the LNPs all over the body and into all organs.

Finding 5: Pfizer waived major categories of safety testing for their product altogether using self-serving interpretation of WHO recommendations from 2005.

Finding 6: Both FDA and Pfizer knew about major toxicities associated with gene therapy class of medicines, and therefore cannot claim lack of anticipatory knowledge of these risks.

Turbo cancer
https://twitter.com/i/status/1609634122863104000

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“..they KNOW they will eventually be caught. That’s not a concern for them because their goal of getting as many men, women, and children jabbed as many times as possible cannot be reversed by the truth coming out..”

Expect Three Things From Government to Cover Up Vaxx-Weakened Immunity (Rucker)

After two years of completely controlling the Covid “vaccine” narrative and gaslighting the people into thinking they were “safe and effective,” an avalanche of news has been coming out lately that is prompting more people to ask questions. While most “normies” are still in the dark because they’re getting their news from corporate media, a small but growing number of them are waking up to the fact that they’ve been conned. While there’s still a huge leap to be made between getting people to ask questions and making them believe this is a worldwide depopulation and control agenda, the interim goal of getting them to stop getting more jabs is a worthy accomplishment. This is why we post articles and do videos on a constant basis to give people the ammunition they need to stir more of the masses to enlightenment. We need to hand out as many “vaccine red pills” as we can.

Unfortunately, the powers-that-be are aware they’re losing bits of control over the narrative so we fully expect them to fight back tooth-and-nail in 2023. They will continue to use propaganda and censorship through corporate media and Big Tech, but they realize even in those controlled venues they have challenges. Therefore, they are in the process of engaging in three variations of their current strategy to keep the con going as long as possible. It’s important to note that they KNOW they will eventually be caught. That’s not a concern for them because their goal of getting as many men, women, and children jabbed as many times as possible cannot be reversed by the truth coming out. Just because someone becomes aware that the jabs are harming them doesn’t mean they can go get themselves unjabbed. The powers-that-be know they cannot hide the truth forever, so they are working to subvert the truth and distort it in ways that will continue to serve their goals even after the masses finally wake up.

The first step is already happening. Rather than deny that people’s immune systems are weakening and many are dying suddenly with no viable explanation, they’re acknowledging the deaths but offering alternative reasons.. For example, the American Heart Association released a “study” last August that claimed increased cases of Myocarditis in children is due to Covid-19 itself, not the vaccines. It’s an extremely dishonest report from the AHA for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that if someone is jabbed AND had Covid, those Myocarditis cases are counted as caused by Covid. Then, there’s the fact that they do not count Myocarditis cases that were discovered more than 28-days after getting jabbed.

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“..the study found vector DNA in the sciatic nerves, bone marrow, livers, lungs, and spleens of the mice following vaccination.”

ICAN Obtains Disturbing Information About AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine (ICAN)

AstraZeneca study finds vector DNA in the sciatic nerve, bone marrow, liver, lungs, and spleen of vaccinated mice. Because AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is not licensed in the United States, all documents within the FDA’s possession concerning this vaccine are exempt from disclosure. This means that anyone who received an AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine cannot – and might not ever be able to – access any of the data concerning the vaccine from the US government. Not satisfied by this complete lack of transparency, ICAN, through its attorneys, submitted an information request to the United Kingdom’s FDA equivalent – the Medicines and Healthcare Products Registry Agency (MHRA) — in April 2022 seeking information relating to its authorization of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, as well as that relating to its authorization of the Janssen, Moderna, and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

MHRA’s initial response was to threaten to deny ICAN’s request but, after ICAN pushed back and, in the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, narrowed the scope of the request to seven specific items related to safety testing, MHRA dropped its objection. MHRA recently provided 166 pages of records containing the studies MHRA relied on to authorize AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. One of these studies investigated biodistribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine, meaning where it goes in the body after injection, in mice. This study revealed that the viral vector DNA did not remain localized in the injection site but instead migrated to other organs. Disturbingly, the study found vector DNA in the sciatic nerves, bone marrow, livers, lungs, and spleens of the mice following vaccination.

The study documents further revealed that, in early 2021, AstraZeneca was forced to amend its data sheet for the vaccine after concluding that there may have been a causal association between the vaccine and serious hypersensitivity including anaphylaxis. Another perhaps unsurprising revelation was the inclusion of disclaimer that a number of vulnerable populations, such as pregnant and lactating women and immunocompromised persons, were excluded from pre-market human safety studies. In its Marketing Authorization Application, AstraZeneca stated that because these populations were excluded from the studies, the safety of the vaccine in these groups was unknown. This also led the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) to recommend against the AstraZeneca vaccine for pregnant women – a sentiment that was echoed in the UK’s vaccination schedule guide, commonly referred to as the “Green Book.”

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Covid is not the concern, the vaccines are. And Israel is the test lab for those.

Israel to Declare Covid Pandemic Over, Downgrade It to Flu Status (YW)

Israel will officially declare the Covid-19 pandemic over next month and downgrade the country’s handling of the virus to that of the flu as of January 18th, according to reports. Israel’s Home Front Command had been shouldering the responsibility for all Covid-related treatment and testing since the virus first became a major health concern in the country, but those responsibilities will now be shifted to the civilian health system. On the last day of January, Covid will officially be downgraded to flu status, the pandemic control center will be shuttered, and Covid patients will no longer be required to isolate themselves.


“We’re hoping that our health care system can cope with these winter infections, including Covid,” Professor Cyrille Cohen, a member of the Health Ministry’s advisory board, told i24News. Once the winter is over, the Health Ministry hopes and expects that the virus will be endemic in the country, with infections coming at a regular rate, rather than in waves – making it far more bearable. “We are more in a scenario where we are behaving like any other viral disease in the winter,” Cohen added.

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Rogan O’Handley @DC_Draino: “Remember when Biden got the Ukrainian prosecutor fired for investigating Hunter/Burisma? Well on Dec. 27 the USVI AG filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan for helping Jeffrey Epstein. Biden flew to USVI & the AG was fired days later.”

Virgin Islands AG Loses Her Job Days After Suing JPMorgan Over Epstein (L&C)

Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George lost her job after suing JPMorgan Chase in connection with her Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The Virgin Islands top prosecutor who reached a more than $105 million settlement with Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has lost her job days after suing JPMorgan Chase in connection with her probe. The federal lawsuit, filed in New York, accused the bank of having “facilitated, sustained, and concealed” Epstein’s human trafficking network. On Dec. 27, then-Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George filed a blistering and heavily redacted 30-page lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase.

“JP Morgan turned a blind eye to evidence of human trafficking over more than a decade because of Epstein’s own financial footprint, and because of the deals and clients that Epstein brought and promised to bring to the bank,” the lawsuit alleged. “These decisions were advocated and approved at the senior levels of JP Morgan, including by the former chief executive of its asset management division and investment bank, whose inappropriate relationship with Epstein should have been evident to the bank. Indeed, it was only after Epstein’s death that JP Morgan belatedly complied with federal banking regulations regarding Epstein’s accounts.”

[..] Days after the AG’s filing of the lawsuit — on New Year’s Eve — George was removed from her post. Local news outlets in the Virgin Islands reported that the attorney general had not informed the territory’s Gov. Albert Bryan about her impending enforcement action. [..] The development was first reported by The Virgin Islands Consortium, citing anonymous sources. Bryan subsequently confirmed George’s termination — without providing an explanation for it — in a statement sent to multiple news outlet. “I relieved Denise George of her duties as attorney general this weekend,” Bryan wrote in a statement sent to Law&Crime. “I thank her for her service to the people of the territory during the past four years as attorney general and wish her the best in her future endeavors.”

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“Berlin will continue to refrain from any “ill-considered unilateral moves..”

German MP Warns Against ‘Unimaginable Escalation’ (RT)

Berlin has no plans to send modern Western-made tanks to Ukraine, as the risks are too high, a German lawmaker said on Monday. Such a move could make NATO a direct party to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev and lead to an escalation, Michael Mueller told Germany’s ARD broadcaster. Berlin will continue to refrain from any “ill-considered unilateral moves,” Mueller, who is a member of the German Bundestag’s Foreign Policy Committee, told ARD’s Morganmagazin show. “We would only deliver such weapons in coordination with our NATO partners,” he said, adding that the military bloc wants to avoid becoming a direct party to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“That would be in the interests of all of us… If NATO became a direct war party against Russia, it would be an escalation that none of us want to imagine,” Mueller, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), warned. No other nations who possess “comparable” military hardware – including the US and France – have supplied them to Ukraine, Mueller pointed out, adding that those countries appear to share Germany’s concerns. The lawmaker also said that dialogue with Russia should be maintained. “There should always be an offer to talk,” he argued, criticizing his party’s coalition partners – the Greens and the Free Democrats – for failing to understand that.

Mueller said Chancellor Scholz is now the only leader who continues to seek such contacts, adding that the Foreign Ministry should also look for options for dialogue. Scholz has previously repeatedly said that resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would be much harder without dialogue with Moscow. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on the contrary, has taken a staunch anti-Russia position, vowing to ramp up sanctions against Moscow and stating that “normal relations” with the Kremlin are out of the question.

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“Between February and May, it is likely that both parties will realize “that they are getting stuck..”

I don’t think so. Not both parties.

Ex-NATO General Predicts Ukraine Ceasefire (RT)

A senior German Army officer and former Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, General Hans-Lothar Domröse, has predicted that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will run into a stalemate and some sort of a ceasefire will be reached by summer. “I expect a standstill in early summer,” Domröse told the newspapers of the German Funke media group on Sunday, arguing that by such time, both sides will feel that continued fighting is “no longer of any use.” Between February and May, it is likely that both parties will realize “that they are getting stuck,” the former general said, adding that this will be the moment to begin ceasefire negotiations. “We will have a truce sometime in 2023,” Domröse predicted, cautioning that this would not mean an immediate lasting peace.

“A ceasefire means: We stop shooting,” he said, but negotiations are “likely to take a long time.” Regarding the current state of the conflict, Domröse said that Russia has the advantage of having “more tanks and more missiles,” while Kiev is “absolutely dependent” on Western arms supplies. “It’s hard for me to imagine Ukraine regaining [the Russian-held territories] completely – even if the West supplies the heavy weapons that are required, especially tanks and artillery,” he added. Since the start of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine last February, Germany, along with most other Western nations, has been supplying Ukraine with weapons. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been reluctant to supply Leopard 2 battle tanks to Kiev, arguing that since no other nation has yet sent such modern weaponry, Germany should not blaze a trail.

The general claimed that if “we take our responsibility seriously, we must provide [Kiev] with the heavy weapons” before its stockpiles run dry, because it could take well over a month from the government’s decision to have Leopard 2 tanks on the ground in Ukraine. “At some point Ukraine will have lost its last tank, then it will need supplies. And at some point there will be a ceasefire, then Ukraine will also need further support and weapons,” Domröse said. “It is high time that the European countries that have Leopard tanks now form a coalition of the willing and deliver together in a coordinated manner.” Moscow has consistently argued that Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine only serve to prolong the conflict. It has also warned that NATO member states are getting increasingly involved in the hostilities, which could potentially lead to an all-out military confrontation between the bloc and Russia.

The general acknowledged that the only way to end the conflict is through a negotiated agreement acceptable to both sides, suggesting that a possible solution could be for Zelensky to waive Kiev’s demand to immediately integrate Crimea into Ukraine and instead agree to a “transition period” of 50 years. However, the Kremlin previously called such proposals a non-starter, insisting that if Ukraine wants peace it should take into account “the new realities,” referring to the four former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia last fall, after Crimea did the same in 2014 following a coup in Kiev.

Michael Flynn

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The only question in approval rating is the Duma.

Putin’s Approval Rating Ends 2022 At 81% (BNE)

If anything, support and trust in Russian President Vladimir Putin has increased since the war in Ukraine started at the end of February. Putin’s personal popularity ranking stood at 83% in March (chart), with 15% holding an unfavourable opinion of the president and 2% unsure, and stayed at that level until August, when things started to go wrong with the campaign in Ukraine. His popularity fell to 77% (21%, 2%) in September, according to the Levada Centre, after Ukraine’s spectacular Kharkiv counter-offensive began, but recovered to 79% in October and November to end the year in December at 81% (17%, 2%).


Overall, Putin has been enjoying the same “patriotic bump” that lifted his ratings following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. During the previous two years of 2020 and 2021 his ratings wavered between 61% and 69% but only crossed into the 70%-plus range as the rhetoric with the West went up a notch at the start of the crisis at the beginning of 2022.

Likewise, the approval of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has also been given a lift. He polled a 60% (35%, 5%) approval rating in February but that leapt to 71% (23%, 6%) in March after the war started. Since then, his approval has hovered around 70% to finish the year in December with 71% (23%, 6%). The government also remain popular. In the pre-war years the government was benefiting from the improving economy. However, the shine came off in 2021, when its ratings fell to around 50%. When the war started their approval leapt from 55% (42%, 3%) in February to 70% (27%, 3%) in March. The governors ended the year in December with an approval rating of 68% (28%, 4%).

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“You see, Putin can’t handle tough questions. Oops!! Wait a minute. We have breaking news. Turns out that Putin held a 48 minute press conference three days before Western Christmas..”

Is Western Propaganda Failing? (Larry Johnson)

As someone who played a minuscule role in a CIA information operation that targeted Soviet military operations in Afghanistan in November 1985, I feel somewhat qualified to comment on the mammoth propaganda campaign the United States and Europe have unleashed on Russia. I have never seen anything so perverse and so dishonest. Let me give you a recent example. Remember this recent “news” headline? “DUCKING FOR COVER: ‘SICKLY’ PUTIN CANCELS BIGGEST SPEECH OF HIS LIFE AS FIRST RUSSIAN STATE OF NATION SINCE INVASION IS MYSTERIOUSLY AXED” https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/20827701/putin-sick-russian-speech-ukraine-invasion This was courtesy of the UK’s SUN. Lacking any reliable source, The SUN opted for speculation: “VLADIMIR Putin has cancelled his state of the nation address fuelling rumours he is in hiding from the Russian people and could be in failing health. Putin’s spokesman finally confirmed the speech – which would be one of biggest in Vlad’s life – will not go ahead before the New Year. . . . It comes after the mad tyrant also cancelled his end of year press conference and his annual hockey game.”

Got it? Putin is either deathly ill — suffering from Parkinsons, cancer, Irritable Bowel, etc. — or deathly afraid of having to explain the ass whooping that Ukraine is delivering to Russia. You see, Putin can’t handle tough questions. Oops!! Wait a minute. We have breaking news. Turns out that Putin held a 48 minute press conference three days before Western Christmas (does this count as “end of the year”?): It would appear that Putin delights in trolling the Western pundits and media. Does Putin look like a man suffering from some devastating illness? Does he give off the vibe of a guy who cannot control his bowels and is called Mr. Poopy Pants behind his back? Joe Biden could not pull this off even if he consumed Zelensky’s weekly dose of cocaine. Putin is coherent and in command of facts.

It would be one thing if the Western propaganda effort was focused solely on ridiculing and trying to foment opposition inside Russia to Vladimir Putin. But it is not. Western propaganda is demonizing all things Russian — e.g., literature, art, chess, sports figures, and actors and actresses. This approach is not creating a reservoir of good will towards the West. Just the opposite. It is fortifying Russian nationalism and solidifying support for Putin.

anti-Nazi

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“I hope it’s not too impertinent to suppose that the January 6 Riot was engineered by our government to embarrass and punish its political opponents..”

Questions and Answers (Kunstler)

Next Mr. Wray has to answer for the FBI’s infiltration of social media. How did the top lawyer at the FBI, Jim Baker, come to be employed as the right-hand to Twitter’s chief censor, Vijaya Gadde? How did all those former FBI agents land at the company along with Jim Baker, and what did Mr. Wray have to do with the FBI demands to censor news and persons on matters of critical national importance such as vaccine safety and election fraud? How did more than a hundred former federal agents land on Facebook, Google, and other platforms? How did Mr. Wray decide to shut down the avenues of the First Amendment to the Constitution?

Next up: Attorney General Merrick Garland. On what grounds are pre-trial January 6 Riot suspects being held in the decrepit DC federal lockup without bail on rinky-dink charges two years after the event? How does that square with American due process of law? What did he know about the existence of the Hunter Biden laptop and the evidence it contained? What is he doing about it? How did Mr. Garland happen to target for prosecution parents protesting school board policies on race and sexual matters? Of course, Mr. Garland is going to evade answering by using the ploy that all these questions “pertains to ongoing investigations.” Mr. Jordan had better hire a gutsy chief counsel with some brains to penetrate that bodyguard of lies.

If the Special Subcommittee on the January 6 Riot is disbanded, turn the matter over to the Andy Biggs’ Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Let’s hear from Nancy Pelosi’s staff as to why her office (of the Speaker) turned down offers from the Trump White House for national guard protection that day. Let’s also hear from the then-chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, who resigned from that job two days later — in consternation or disgrace? Bring back Mr. Wray and Mr. Garland. How many federal agents were circulating in the crowd the night before and on the day of the January 6 riot? Why was one Ray Epps never indicted for his much-recorded incitements to enter the Capitol? Who opened the magnetically-locked doors from the inside of the building? Stuff like that. What was the decision process for not charging officer Michael Byrd in the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt?

I hope it’s not too impertinent to suppose that the January 6 Riot was engineered by our government to embarrass and punish its political opponents — taking advantage of the First Amendment “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” which was what that crowd had come to do in Washington DC that day.

Read more …

The only reason they can keep up this story is that the other side has been imprisoned and silenced.

Pentagon, FBI, DHS Failed On Jan. 6 – Former Capitol Police Chief (WaPo)

In a new firsthand account of the frantic efforts of Capitol Police officers to protect Congress and themselves from an armed mob on Jan. 6, 2021, the department’s former chief blames cascading government failures for allowing the brutal melee. The federal government’s multibillion-dollar security network, built after 9/11 to gather intelligence that could warn of a looming attack, provided no such shield on Jan. 6, former Capitol Police chief Steven A. Sund writes in a new book. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and even his own agency’s intelligence unit had been alerted weeks earlier to reams of chilling chatter about right-wing extremists arming for an attack on the Capitol that day, Sund says, but didn’t take the basic steps to assess those plots or sound an alarm. Senior military leaders, citing political or tactical worries, delayed sending help.

And, Sund warns in “Courage Under Fire,” it could easily happen again. Many of the factors that left the Capitol vulnerable remain unfixed, he said. The Washington Post obtained an advance copy of the book, which will be published Tuesday. In his account, Sund describes his shock at the battle that unfolded as an estimated 10,000 protesters inflamed by President Donald Trump’s rally earlier in the day broke through police lines and punched, stabbed and pepper-sprayed officers, outnumbering them “58 to 1.” Sund said his shock shifted to agony as he unsuccessfully begged military generals for National Guard reinforcements. Though they delayed sending help until it was too late for Sund’s overrun corps, he says that he later discovered that the Pentagon had rushed to send security teams to protect military officials’ homes in Washington, none of which were under attack.

Sund reserves his greatest outrage for those Pentagon leaders, recounting a conference call he had with two generals about 2:35 p.m., 20 minutes after rioters had broken into the Capitol and as Vice President Mike Pence and other lawmakers scurried to hiding places. Sund writes that Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt told him he didn’t like the optics of sending uniformed Guard troops to the Capitol but could allow them to replace police officers at roadside checkpoints. Listening incredulously and trying to explain that he needed help to save officers’ lives, Sund said, he felt both “nauseated” and “mad as hell.” “It’s a response I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Sund writes. While on the call, Sund recalls hearing the frantic voice of an officer being broadcast into the command center: “Shots fired in the Capitol, shots fired in the Capitol.” Sund’s anger boiled over and he shouted the report of gunfire into the conference call: “Is that urgent enough for you now?” Then Sund hung up to deal with this new crisis.

Read more …

A sliver of good news.

Turkey Supreme Court Bans Genetically Modified Grains Imports (S4S)

The Turkish Supreme Court has reimposed an import ban on the import of the genetically modified maize product MON810. This is the latest development in Turkey’s efforts to restrict genetically modified (GM) products. In 2010, the Turkish government enacted a biosafety law, banning the cultivation and import of biotech crops for food and feed use unless approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. In 2013, approval was suspended for products containing the GM maize MON810, effectively banning imports. This impacted shipments of Distillers Dried Grain with Solubles (DDGS) from the United States.


This ban was reversed by the Turkish High Court in 2015. However, the Supreme Court decision, announced in December 2022, now reimposes the prohibition of importing corn and other products containing MON810. What is more, the North Club noted that its correspondents in Turkey, Vitsan advise that vessels carrying DDGS cargo will be boarded upon arrival by the authorities who will take their own samples. If their analysis detects the presence of MON810, even if by contamination, they may refuse the import of cargo. Vitsan further recommend that vessels intending to load DDGS cargo destined for Turkey should check the cargo quality certificates or analyses certificates prior to loading as to whether it contains banned GM products.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Cobalt

 

 

 

 

Melibe viridis
https://twitter.com/i/status/1609703285044174848

 

 

Randomly
https://twitter.com/i/status/1609964527394902017

 

 

 

 

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Mar 212022
 
 March 21, 2022  Posted by at 9:39 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Wassily Kandinsky Succession 1935

 

Zelensky Nationalizes TV News And Restricts Opposition Parties (Week)
Zelensky Warns Of WWIII If Negotiations With Russia Fail (Hill)
Zelensky Strikes The Wrong Note To Bring Knesset To His Side (JPost)
Pearl Harbor My Eye! (David Stockman)
Turkey Says Ukraine, Russia “Close To An Agreement” (ZH)
China’s Time for Global Leadership (Stephen Roach et al)
Will Saudi Arabia Ditch The US Dollar? (Lacalle)
Is the Petrodollar Swaying? (Kadi)
Joe Rogan Slams Media Coverup Of Hunter Biden Laptop Story (PM)
Vitamin D For Covid-19: Real-time Meta Analysis Of 186 Studies (vdmeta)
800,000 Lives Could Have Been Saved with Ivermectin and HCQ – Kory (USAW)

 

 

Saw this in the US as well. Curious.

 

 

Condemnation


https://twitter.com/shen_shiwei/status/1505732372003647494

 

 

Be careful what you wish for.

 

 

11 political parties: gone. Azov Neo Nazi and Svoboda, still acceptable parties.
Most of the media “cosolidated”: gone.
Smell a rat yet?

But yeah, do let’s send him tens of billions more, and close the skies.

Zelensky Nationalizes TV News And Restricts Opposition Parties (Week)

On Saturday and Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked his emergency powers under martial law to suppress several opposition political parties and implement a “unified information policy.” In an address to the nation delivered Sunday, he announced a temporary ban on “any activity” by 11 political parties. The ban includes the Opposition Platform – For Life party, which holds 43 seats in Ukraine’s national parliament and is the largest opposition party. Opposition Platform – For Life is a pro-Russia party, but on March 8, party leader Yuriy Boyko demanded that Russia “stop the aggression against Ukraine,” according to Ukrainian outlet LB.


That same day, Viktor Medvedchuk, who was accused of treason against Ukraine in May and escaped from house arrest shortly after the invasion began, was removed from his post as the party’s co-chair. Russian President Vladimir Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter. Zelensky’s information policy involves “combining all national TV channels, the program content of which consists mainly of information and/or information-analytical programs, [into] a single information platform of strategic communication” to be called “United News.” Reuters notes that, until Saturday, privately owned Ukrainian media outlets “continued to operate” independently. Zelensky said the measure was necessary to combat Russian misinformation and “tell the truth about the war.”

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Better make sure they don’t fail then.

Zelensky Warns Of WWIII If Negotiations With Russia Fail (Hill)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday warned of a third world war if negotiations with Russia fail. Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin are vital, saying Ukraine has been reeling since Moscow launched its invasion. “We were losing people on a daily basis, innocent people on the ground. … Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us,” Zelensky told Zakaria. “Unfortunately, our dignity is not going to preserve the lives, so I think that we have to do any format, any chance, so in order to have … the possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean … a third world war,” Zelensky added.


Zakaria also asked Zelensky if Ukraine is willing to make compromises to end the Russian invasion, including not joining NATO, as Putin has demanded. “You cannot reverse this situation anymore. You cannot demand from Ukraine to recognize some territories as intended for conflicts, and these compromises are simply wrong,” Zelensky added. The United Nations said recently that 6.5 million people have been displaced inside Ukraine since the start of the invasion.

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He’s literally working with nazis. But wants to teach Israel about the holocaust?

Zelensky Strikes The Wrong Note To Bring Knesset To His Side (JPost)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s virtual tour of Western parliaments has gone off mostly without a hitch. He referenced Winston Churchill to Westminster and Martin Luther King Jr. to Capitol Hill. The Ukrainian-to-English translator in Brussels broke down in tears translating his plea for help. Zelensky continued his practice of customizing his speeches to suit his audience when he addressed the Knesset over Zoom, taking the comparisons he had already made between his country’s situation and World War II to the next level and dedicating the lion’s share of his speech to the Holocaust. That comparison did not have the effect Zelensky apparently had hoped for.

Rather than stir Israel’s leaders and legislators to action and solidarity, the heavy Holocaust comparisons – from saying Moscow is planning a “final solution for the Ukrainian question” to saying that Israel should save Ukrainians like Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations saved Jews – drew more focus from its audience, which criticized its inappropriateness, than Zelensky’s appeal for weapons. “I appreciate the President of Ukraine and support the Ukrainian people in heart and deed, but it is impossible to rewrite the terrible history of the Holocaust,” Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel tweeted. “Genocide was also committed on Ukrainian soil. The war is terrible, but the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the final solution is outrageous.”

Asked about the tweet, Hendel said that he did not judge Zelensky’s behavior in a time of crisis, and he accepted Zelensky’s criticism of Israel and calls for Jerusalem to send weapons, but he felt he had to set the historical record straight. Former cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz, now a Likud MK, went so far as to say, “If Zelensky’s speech was given… in normal [non-war] times, we would have said it bordered on Holocaust denial… Every comparison between a regular war, as difficult as it may be, and the extermination of millions of Jews in gas chambers in the framework of the Final Solution, is a total distortion of history. The same is true for the claim that Ukrainians helped Jews in the Holocaust… The historic truth is that the Ukrainian people cannot be proud of its behavior in the Holocaust of the Jews.”

Read more …

Great historic overview by Dave.

Pearl Harbor My Eye! (David Stockman)

[..] there really are not two distinct nations there, one invading the other. Russia and Ukraine have never been neighboring independent states like Germany and France or Spain and Portugal or Columbia and Peru. To the contrary, they have been an intermingled territory and peoples for the last 1300 years with borders, governing arrangements episodic external invasions all over the lot. The Ukrainian language itself is testimony to that history and geography. The dialects spoken in the Donbas (brown and yellow areas) are a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian; the old Galician territories of Western Ukraine centered in Lviv (red areas) are heavily influenced by Polish, Slovakian and Rumanian vocabularies.; and the blue areas of the North present dialects heavily influenced by Belarusian.

What is also true is that these segmented populations have never been united under a common polity except by communist arms between 1922 and 1991; then between 1991 and 2014 by tenuous and continuously shifting electoral balances after the Ukrainian administrative entity was arbitrarily disgorged from the old Soviet Union; and finally after the February 2014 coup by dint of a Kiev government based on central and western Ukraine that essentially declared a civil war on Crimea (which seceded) and the eastern, Russian-speaking Donbas regions that have tried to do the same. So again, what’s wrong with partition? At the end of the day, Zelensky stood before Congress and had the gall to demand WWIII in behalf of an abortion of a nation that has virtually no chance of long-term survival in its present form.


How Ukraine Will Be Partitioned After Kiev Capitulates

Yet the knuckleheads from both parties are in such war heat that they vociferously applauded the unctuous rantings of a clown who should have stuck to the comedy business. Still, for want of doubt about the madness of defending Ukraine by economic warfare now, and military confrontation with Russia if the warmongers get their way, just recall how the arbitrary borders depicted above got here. If this mongrel merits all out defense in behalf of the “rule of law,” then the rule of law be damned.

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• Ukraine’s neutrality;
• disarmament and security guarantees;
• the so-called “de-Nazification”;
• removal of obstacles on the use of the Russian language in Ukraine;
• the status of the breakaway Donbas region;
• and the status of Crimea

Turkey Says Ukraine, Russia “Close To An Agreement” (ZH)

“It’s not easy to negotiate while the war is ongoing, or to agree when civilians are dying. But I want to say that there is momentum,” Turkey Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said from the southern Turkish province of Antalya, AFP reported. “We see that the parties are close to an agreement.” Cavusoglu this week visited Russia and Ukraine as Turkey, which has strong bonds with the two sides, has tried to position itself as a mediator. The foreign minister, who hosted his peers from Russia and Ukraine this week, said Turkey was in contact with the negotiating teams from the two countries but he refused to divulge the details of the talks as “we play an honest mediator and facilitator role.” In an interview with daily Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the sides were negotiating six points: Ukraine’s neutrality; disarmament and security guarantees; the so-called “de-Nazification”; removal of obstacles on the use of the Russian language in Ukraine; the status of the breakaway Donbas region; and the status of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.

Turkey’s pro-government Hurriyet newspaper reported that the two countries were edging towards agreement on Kyiv declaring neutrality and abandoning its drive for Nato membership, “demilitarizing” Ukraine in exchange for collective security guarantees, what Russia calls “denazification” and lifting restrictions on the use of Russian in Ukraine. Two people familiar with the discussions said it was likely a compromise would involve token concessions from Kyiv on what Russia calls “denazification”. But Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, accused Moscow of failing to fully participate in the talks. “The negotiations seem to be one-sided,” she said. “The Russians have not leaned into any possibility for a negotiated and diplomatic solution.”

Hopes that an agreement is close were dashed, however, after the Russian military delivered an ultimatum for the surrender of Mariupol, the besieged city in southern Ukraine and the scene of some of the heaviest fighting since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine more than three weeks ago, according to the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation as cited by Tass. Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said all armed units of Ukraine must leave Mariupol from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time on Monday, according to Tass, after which any fighters remaining would “face a military tribunal.” It said humanitarian convoys would deliver food, medicine and other essentials to the city. The Russian statement demanded a written response from Ukraine’s government by 4 a.m. Kyiv time.

Read more …

I’m sure this is just what America seeks.

China’s Time for Global Leadership (Stephen Roach et al)

The war in Ukraine is pushing the world ever closer to an existential crisis. The lessons of the twentieth century and its ghastly world wars have been lost on today’s leaders. The peace dividend of the Cold War has been squandered. Two superpowers – the United States and the Russian Federation – are on the brink of an unimaginable military confrontation. The momentum of conflict escalation threatens to become inexorable, and the risk of a nuclear miscalculation can no longer be ignored. China is in a unique position to bring Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine to an end. As the world’s second-largest economy with aspirations of national rejuvenation and global leadership – both elements central to the “Chinese Dream” long espoused by President Xi Jinping – China has two critical advantages as a potential peacemaker in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

First, it can rely on its own core principles. Since the days of Zhou Enlai in the 1950s, China has stressed that its foreign policy has been guided by the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. These include mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression, and non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine is a flagrant violation of these central values. The debate is not about the supposed rationale for Russia’s unilateral action – NATO expansion; it is about the risk the war in Ukraine poses to world peace. Chinese principles offer a clear lens to put that debate into perspective.

Second, China has the advantage of partnership with Russia. At the February 4 opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xi and Putin signed an expansive agreement that underscored their joint commitment to a “New Era” of international relations. By stressing that “friendship between the two States has no limits,” Xi and Putin spoke of cooperation, not confrontation, between major powers. The war in Ukraine has turned that commitment inside out. With a rapidly weakening Russian economy now isolated from the world, its unlimited reliance on China takes on special significance for both countries. Russia’s GDP is no larger than the combined economies of Belgium and the Netherlands. That makes it all but impossible for Russia to sustain a major conventional war, even if it does receive the Chinese military assistance it is reportedly seeking.

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Why should they?

Will Saudi Arabia Ditch The US Dollar? (Lacalle)

Does Saudi Arabia need to use the yuan at all? No. Its foreign currency reserves including gold stood at $472.8 billion in 2020 despite the pandemic-led slump in exports and oil demand. Is it in any pressure to change currency? Even less so. Its reserves comfortably cover its external debt, giving an enviable level of stability compared to other OPEC nations that have large trade and fiscal deficits. What would Saudi Arabia gain from using the Yuan? Not higher exports to China. The Asia giant needs its oil imports more than Saudi Arabia needs its domestic currency. There is no real evidence that exports to China would fall if Saudi Arabia continued to use the US dollar.

The yuan utilization in global transactions is very limited. According to Bloomberg, “activity in the renminbi, as the currency is also called, rose to its second-highest level ever in 2021” using figures compiled by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. However, that means a stubbornly modest 2.7% of the market versus the dollar at 41%, which has held the top slot for decades. The euro is used in 36.6%, the GBP in 5.9% -more than double the use of the Yuan despite being a much smaller economy-, and the Japanese yen is used as much as the yuan at 2.6%. More importantly, despite the large increase in importance of the Chinese economy in the global landscape, its importance as a currency has barely improved from its 2015 high, when it reached the fourth spot.

Why is the yuan only used in 2.7% of global transaction despite being 14% of the world’s GDP and what happened in 2015? The yuan is the only currency from a global economic leader that has capital controls and a fixed pricing set by the PBOC. As such, any holder of the Chinese currency finds a constant threat from an abrupt devaluation and the inability to use the currency freely in payments. And that is exactly what happened in 2015. The Chinese central bank announced an aggressive devaluation. The yuan is not an alternative to the US dollar because of capital controls, fixed pricing and, even worse, because monetary policy is even more aggressive than that of the Federal Reserve. The expansion of money supply in China has been multiple times over that of the United States for two decades with significantly lower global demand.

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“As time went by, the deal became increasingly one-sided, one in which Saudi Arabia was getting the spiky end of the pineapple.”

Is the Petrodollar Swaying? (Kadi)

‘The Petrodollar came into existence in 1973 in the wake of the collapse of the international gold standard which was created in the aftermath of WWII under the Britton Woods agreements. These agreements also established the US Dollar as the reserve currency of the world. The Nixon Administration understood that the collapse of the gold standard system would cause a decline in the global demand for the US Dollar. Maintaining demand for the US Dollar was vital for the United States’ economy. So, the United States under Nixon struck a deal in 1973 with Saudi Arabia. Under the terms of the deal, the Saudis would agree to price all of their oil exports in US Dollar exclusively and be open to invest their surplus oil proceeds in US debt securities. In return, the United States offered weapons and protection of Saudi oil fields from neighboring countries including Israel.

For the Americans, the Petrodollar increases demand for the US dollar and also for US debt securities and allows the US to buy oil with a currency it can print at will. In 1975, all of the OPEC nations agreed to follow suit. Maintaining the Petrodollar is America’s primary goal’. Do you get the picture? The Petrodollar was meant to be a win-win agreement in which America propped up its economy, and in return supplied Saudi Arabia with security. As time went by, the deal became increasingly one-sided, one in which Saudi Arabia was getting the spiky end of the pineapple. The Saudis have been feeling shafted for a long time, but they did not have enough intestinal fortitude to stand up and show their dismay to Uncle Sam. When America asked old-school Saudi royals to jump, they asked how high. Love him or hate him, young Saudi Crown Prince Muhamed Bin Salman (MBS) is different.

Over the last few years, I have written many scathing articles about MBS’s character, ambitions, thirst for power, sneaky behind-the-scenes deals with Israel, but the biggest black mark against him will always be his war on Yemen. I will not suddenly make a 180 degree turn and start praising him. But credit must be given when credit is due. MBS happened to rise to power on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s failure in Syria. For fairness, this was not a war he started. When he took control, Saudi Arabia had already lost its war in Syria, its biggest ally in Lebanon (Hariri) proved to be a wimp and a hopeless ally despite all the support and bottomless funds he received in order to put Hezbollah under control. In Yemen, the Houthis had already taken control of the capital Sanaa. Iran was moving in on Saudi Arabia on 3 fronts; or at least this was how he perceived it.

This is not to forget the oil price war that Saudi Arabia waged on Russia. It is difficult to put all of those events in exact chronological order because they are all interwoven and happened almost concurrently. Back in 2016, Saudi Arabia decided to increase its oil production in order to drop the crude oil price and put pressure on Russia in Syria. The plan backfired and only resulted in a huge slump in the price of oil, and when MBS tried to reverse that decision and bring the crude price back up again, he was unable to. MBS inherited a Saudi Arabia that was teetering on the edge. He had few options to restore its image and stature. It faced bankruptcy and for the first time since its oil boom nearly a whole century ago, it fell into debt and he took drastic domestic spending cut measures. He had to do something.

Read more …

Go Joe!

Joe Rogan Slams Media Coverup Of Hunter Biden Laptop Story (PM)

Podcasting icon Joe Rogan slammed the corporate media’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop saga on Saturday’s episode of his popular show featuring former CIA covert operations officer Mike Baker, the current CEO of a global intelligence firm. In the program’s segment, Baker noted the legacy media “love a good story.” “They don’t just love a good story. They love a narrative, and they’re willing to ignore facts to push that narrative. That’s what scares me,” Rogan said. Rogan noted he believes there are objective journalists who work for The Washington Post and The New York Times. “There’s real solid journalists out there,” Rogan acknowledged, “but I don’t necessarily know if you’re getting all the information,” he continued, causing Baker to break out in laughter.

“You’re not sure?” Baker asked Rogan sarcastically. “I think it’s safe to say that some f*ckery is afoot,” replied Rogan. “The New York Times, just now, is admitting that the Hunter Biden laptop is real. And, we remember from the debates, with Trump bringing it up to Biden, and Biden saying, ‘It’s bullshit.’ And it’s a lie, a flat-out lie. Everybody knew it was a lie,” Rogan went on, then referring to when The New York Post’s bombshell report on the infamous “laptop from hell” was suppressed on Twitter in October 2020. Rogan said the censorship “was just outright crazy,” mentioning that the conservative news outlet is “one of the oldest newspapers in the country.” He stressed how “nobody is apologizing.” CNN anchor Brian Stelter has refused to apologize for amplifying the “Russian disinformation” claim as well as the dozens of former intelligence officials who either doubled down or declined to comment.

“There’s a dynamic here,” Baker jumped in. “I love this topic, in a sense, not so much because of whatever the f*ck Hunter was up to, but in part, because now when you look at the liberal Dems and the progressives, it doesn’t matter to them.” Baker elaborated further on the topic of left-wing apathy to the Hunter Biden laptop story, saying, “If you read some of the narrative that’s out there now, the social media in the past day or so, ever since The New York Times came out with this, they’re just dismissive of it. They don’t care, or they’re willing to overlook it.” “Which is the same thing they accuse the right of doing. Both sides—we’ve talked about this before—both sides are just so f*ked up,” Baker added.

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Still haven’t seen one government promoting vit. D. Criminal.

Vitamin D For Covid-19: Real-time Meta Analysis Of 186 Studies (vdmeta)

” Statistically significant improvements are seen in treatment studies for mortality, ventilation, ICU admission, and hospitalization. 33 studies from 30 independent teams in 14 different countries show statistically significant improvements in isolation (25 for the most serious outcome). ” Random effects meta-analysis with pooled effects using the most serious outcome reported shows 81% [53 92%] and 38% [31 45%] improvement for early treatment and for all studies. Results are similar after restriction to 65 peer-reviewed studies: 77% [45 90%] and 38% [31 45%], and for the 42 mortality results: 76% [37 91%] and 37% [25 47%]. ” Late stage treatment with calcifediol/calcitriol shows greater improvement compared to cholecalciferol: 73% [57 83%] vs. 40% [21 54%]. ”


Sufficiency studies show a strong association between vitamin D sufficiency and outcomes. Meta analysis of the 115 studies using the most serious outcome reported shows 54% [49 60%] improvement. ” While many treatments have some level of efficacy, they do not replace vaccines and other measures to avoid infection. Only 10% of vitamin D treatment studies show zero events in the treatment arm. ” Elimination of COVID-19 is a race against viral evolution. No treatment, vaccine, or intervention is 100% available and effective for all current and future variants. All practical, effective, and safe means should be used. Denying the efficacy of treatments increases mortality, morbidity, collateral damage, and endemic risk.

Read more …

“So much of the medical establishment and doctors have been propagandized to have bizarre behaviors.”

800,000 Lives Could Have Been Saved with Ivermectin and HCQ – Kory (USAW)

In October, Dr. Pierre Kory, a world renowned pulmonary and critical care Covid expert, warned, “The suppression of early treatment in this country is one of the most historically calamitous actions, and history will not be kind here.” Sadly, Dr. Kory was right and explains, “If you look at us now, we are over 900,000 deaths, and a huge proportion could have been saved. If you look at Dr. Peter McCullough’s protocol, it was published in August of 2020. He argued for combination therapy protocols . . . a combination of Ivermectin (IVR) and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). We know the vast majority, 85% to 90% of the hospitalizations and deaths, would have been prevented. You apply that to, let’s say, 800,000 excess deaths, and you are talking about a massive humanitarian crisis that resulted from the suppression of early effective repurposed drug treatments.” (IVR & HCQ) Dr. Kory goes on to say, “We are in a war of information. They call us ‘misinformation-ists.’ They are ‘disinformation-ists.’

They are actually employing disinformation. They want everyone to be convinced that Ivermectin is a horse dewormer, and only uncredible people would take it for a viral syndrome. They have never shown it is an anti-viral, and it’s been shown for 10 years to work on a number of viruses. . . . So much of the medical establishment and doctors have been propagandized to have bizarre behaviors. They are still pushing vaccines because they have been told lies. They are still attacking Ivermectin based on lies and wrong information. It’s the same thing with Hydroxychloroquine.” When it comes to the so-called vaccines, Dr. Kory says it all should have come to a grinding halt with all the deaths from the inoculations very early on. Dr. Kory explains, “The stopping point for an experimental intervention, therapy or vaccine, that stopping point was exceeded within weeks of the rollout.

The scale of what we are talking about now is almost indescribable. The traditional stopping point with deaths associated, that was exceeded in January of 2021, and the agencies (FDA & CDC) ignored it. The VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) data just kept climbing and climbing and climbing. I can’t even keep up. Last I checked, there were over 24,000 death reports in VAERS.” Dr. Kory goes on to talk about the unvaxed and vaxed patients he is treating. Dr. Kory talks about the deaths and injuries from the vaccines and thinks they will keep climbing as he predicted at the beginning of 2022. Dr. Kory will also tell you how you can help yourself no matter if you are vaxed or unvaxed.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

What the headline should be

 

 

Biden prosecutor

 

 

 

 

Dogs using tools
https://twitter.com/i/status/1505152106587693058

https://twitter.com/i/status/1505518012459270146

 

 

 

 

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Jan 292022
 
 January 29, 2022  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  81 Responses »


Paul Gauguin Osny, rue de Pontoise, Winter 1883

 

Old Man, Look at Your Life…. (Kunstler)
WHO Director Thanks Neil Young For Pulling His Songs Off Spotify (Blaze)
Veins & Arteries Filled with Never Before Seen Rubbery Clots (Kirsch)
Fauci Says Kids Under 5 Might Need 3 Shots (CHD)
Israel Is Overrun With Covid. The Vaccines Have Failed (Berenson)
Let’s Face It: You Like It Salty (Denninger)
EU Watchdog Orders Ursula Von Der Leyen To Reveal Texts With Pfizer CEO (DM)
Outrage As Paris Hospitals Chief Raises Idea Of Charging Unvaccinated Patients (G.)
Authoritarian Madness (Whitehead)
DOJ IG Horowitz Withheld Key Evidence From Special Counsel Durham (ET)
Why Are Armed Americans Operating In The Trenches Of Eastern Ukraine? (RT)
Ukraine Asks West To Tone Down ‘Panic’ (RT)

 

 

 

 

Tucker Convoy

 

 

 

 

Really? All truckers are fascists now? Wow.

 

 

Reinfection

 

 

How to take a virus and turn it into a pandemic.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1486428989849845766

 

 

Leaked Database Shows U.S. Military Disease Skyrocketing After Covid-19 Inoculations

 

 

“Alternate views are not tolerated, labeled “unacceptable” (Mr. Young put it exactly that way), and flagged as “misinformation” (ditto Mr. Young).”

Old Man, Look at Your Life…. (Kunstler)

It’s worth paying attention to just how disordered Mr. Young’s thinking is because it summarizes everything that has gone awry on the political Left: He is wrong two ways: 1) morally, and 2) on the facts of the matter — which is as wrong as you can be. Like virtually everyone on the Democratic Party / Woke / Progressive axis, he is obviously in favor of suppressing free speech. Since when did that become okay for old hippies? If I remember correctly (cuz I was there) the youth movement of the 1960s was all about freedom to say pretty much anything, except yell “fire” in a crowded theater — based on the idea that ordinary people were equipped to sort out the truth. During the War in Vietnam, we hippies were especially averse to the official lying that emanated from the Department of Defense, the FBI, the CIA, and the White House under both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

We founded “alternative” newspapers in defiance of the establishment’s propaganda. We applauded Daniel Ellsberg’s purloined Pentagon Papers, revealing the mendacity of the war effort. Altogether, this activity made it more difficult for the government to prosecute that war, and to defend the strategy behind it. Today the Left is not only all-in on speech suppression, but also censorship of print and broadcasting, and is especially avid for the diverse punishments of cancellation — ruining careers, reputations, livelihoods, and families of anyone who opposes Woke right-think. Alternate views are not tolerated, labeled “unacceptable” (Mr. Young put it exactly that way), and flagged as “misinformation” (ditto Mr. Young). It’s gotten to the point where the word misinformation has acquired a distinct odor that signals bad faith in everyone who flogs it.

These days, the charge of misinformation is deliberate misinformation. Today, the Left is all-in for FBI home invasions, DOJ malicious prosecutions, CIA manipulations of public opinion, a fake president fronting for an unseen cabal, and a news media that wouldn’t know the actual shape and substance of reality if it jumped up and bit Jim Acosta on the lips. Ideas and principles don’t really matter to the Left; they’re just window-dressing for their sole interest, which is pushing other people around, in a word: coercion. That is the moral quagmire the Left is in and, having captured so many institutional transmitters of our polity, that is the nature of the evil they represent.

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Rogan, Malone, McCullough would gladly dicuss everything. Silencing them is easier.

WHO Director Thanks Neil Young For Pulling His Songs Off Spotify (Blaze)

The director general of the World Health Organization thanked legendary musician Neil Young for taking a stand against Joe Rogan’s podcast and pulling his music from Spotify. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted his message to Young on Thursday. “[Neil Young] thanks for standing up against misinformation and inaccuracies around #COVID19 vaccination. Public and private sector, in particular #socialmedia platforms, media, individuals – we all have a role to play to end this pandemic and infodemic,” Ghebreyesus tweeted. Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify to choose between his music or Rogan’s incredibly popular podcast. Spotify didn’t need much time to decide in favor of Rogan.


“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” wrote Young in the open letter to his management team. “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.” He later deleted the letter from his website. Some surprising entertainers came to Rogan’s defense, including radio talk show host Howard Stern who said he didn’t agree with Rogan’s stance on vaccines but was against all censorship. Joy Behar cited the First Amendment right to free speech when she defended Rogan even as she supported labeling his podcasts as “misinformation.”

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Yikes!

Veins & Arteries Filled with Never Before Seen Rubbery Clots (Kirsch)

I was chatting with Lt. Col. Theresa Long about this after being tipped off by Pierre Kory who sent me the photos. This is the real deal. I got a text of images from Pierre Kory. He asked me to guess what he sent. I thought they were images from Ryan Cole. Nope. He said these were from an embalmer and referred me to Lt. Col. Theresa Long who knows the embalmer. Funeral Director and embalmer Richard Hirschman reveals, for the first time ever, arteries and veins filled with unnatural blood clot combinations with strange fibrous materials that are completely filling the vascular system.


He has gone from seeing 50% of his embalmed cases with these types of blockages rise to almost 80%. It only started happening after the vaccines were rolled out. This doesn’t happen to everyone. Only those who die after vaccination. So he can tell who was vaccinated. This tells you everything you need to know. Watch the video here:

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Repeat to emphasize that as long as Pfizer keeps the vaxx “on the mandatory childhood vaccine schedule” and under EUA, it is covered from all sides.

Fauci Says Kids Under 5 Might Need 3 Shots (CHD)

[..] the push to authorize COVID vaccines for younger children could be tied to the fact that vaccine makers benefit from legal protections for childhood vaccines. Under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, when CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices places a vaccine on the mandatory childhood vaccine schedule, vaccine makers are shielded from liability for injury claims. However, as long as its COVID vaccine for children remains under EUA, Pfizer will also benefit from liability protections provided under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act — so either way, the vaccine maker won’t be held accountable if its product harms young children.


While the U.S. pushes for COVID vaccines for children as young as 6 months, Sweden’s public health authorities this week announced they will not recommend the vaccines for children between the ages of 5 and 11. Britta Bjorkholm, an official with Sweden’s Health Agency, stated “[w]ith the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don’t see any clear benefit with vaccinating them.” Norway opted to make COVID vaccines optional for children aged 5-11. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health stated the risk of severe illness in children that is brought on by COVID is small, and that as a result, the need for children to receive a COVID vaccine is limited. Norway’s announcement, in turn, prompted the Danish Pediatric Society to request that Denmark’s Health Authority revisit its decision to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for children in Denmark.

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“Actually, science did win. Science always said you could not vaxx away a respiratory virus. They just refused to listen.”

Israel Is Overrun With Covid. The Vaccines Have Failed (Berenson)

It’s over, okay? Israel is first, always. Other highly vaccinated and boosted countries are a few weeks behind, and their boosted patients may still have some partial protection against severe disease and death. (People who received two doses last winter or spring probably have none at this point, if the data out of Scotland and the United Kingdom are to be believed.) But that won’t last. The Israeli experience this month could not be clearer. A third dose does not provide long-term protection. When it fails, the boomerang effect is severe. Hospitals come under even more pressure than they would in a “natural” Covid wave, because the vaccine failure is highly synchronized – everyone becomes exposed at once. And so – insanity upon insanity – the Israelis are offering a fourth dose.

Why would anyone believe at this point that a fourth dose will help for more than a couple of weeks? Not months, weeks. The trend line was obvious even BEFORE Omicron arrived; and Omicron drives vaccine efficacy down even more quickly. In countries with good data, vaccinated people actually are more likely to be infected than the unvaccinated. Further, a fourth dose is likely to have MORE severe side effects – remember, the second and third doses produce notably increasing levels of heart inflammation in men, and mRNA therapeutics were repurposed as vaccines because of problems with toxicity after repeated dosing. It’s over. The vaccines have been proven ineffective for more than a few months against the wild-type virus. They appear to have negative efficacy against Omicron.

Forget all the black swans. Forget Marek’s. Forget antibody-dependent enhancement. Forget the strange rise in all-cause deaths last fall in highly vaccinated countries (which mercifully, seems to have stopped in the United Kingdom in the last couple of weeks – though that easing raises even more questions about why it happened at all). Forget the risk of long-term immunocompromise that might lead vaccinated people to be at higher risk for future Covid infections. Forget the nearly one million side effect reports now in the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. Judged SOLELY on the basis of the last year’s efficacy data, the mRNA vaccines are a failed product and should be withdrawn. Any future mRNA vaccines – against the Omicron variant or any other target- need to be tested for safety and efficacy in large-scale clinical trial for YEARS. Not months, years. This kind of billion-person experiment must never happen again. It’s over, okay? We didn’t get the Hollywood ending. Science didn’t win.

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“..the infection rate went down when masks were removed instead of up as expected.”

Let’s Face It: You Like It Salty (Denninger)

Covid-19 has finally exposed for everyone the scam that has been run on people for the last thirty years or more and you willingly bought into the con job, whether it be on masks or jabs. Masks were known one hundred years ago to be worthless against respiratory viruses; they were tried in 1918 and failed. Forty years ago in 1981 the Neil Orr study published which proved surgical masks worthless against wound infection in surgical suites where every single person using them was a trained professional and every item in the room was sterilized. Didn’t matter; the infection rate went down when masks were removed instead of up as expected. Today many school systems still insist on muzzling kids and the ******ned signs are still up in some stores and other businesses. Anyone stupid enough to think they should wear those ****ing things is too stupid to genetically pass to the next generation.

Masks are nothing more than performative art and might even spread infection by moving the virus from one place to another; if you like documenting that you’re ****ing stupid be my guest but that fact remains that if you wear one of these things to try to “protect others” you are stupid. Yes, an N95 might protect you provided you follow all of the rules. Nobody does or will in the general public because you can’t realistically do so. Without following all those rules (specifically, fit-testing, no re-use once removed, no leaving where you might have been exposed without replacement so you don’t bring the virus into each new potential risk area, treating of the mask as medical hazardous waste and time-in-use restrictions that typically are about 2 hours) even an N95 does nothing to protect you and even if you follow the rules it is personal protective equipment — it does not, because it cannot, protect others.

What’s likely far more effective is to stay the hell out of public restrooms since we know Covid-19 is in ****. We know its in there because cities are using sampling of the sewer to detect prevalence! I brought this up — that this had to be a primary vector source in March and April of 2020 after two highly-odd transmission events in the Far East which were only explained by the fact that the apartment buildings in question did not have P-traps on the sinks. Of course avoiding the restroom is not possible in a public setting, especially if you’re going to be there for more than a couple of hours or if you intend to eat or (especially) drink anything. Oh well. Humans are social animals. Facts don’t care about your feelings.

Nobody wants to face what we knew in the early months of this thing and which the CDC itself admitted along with multiple other sources (including Nashville) by the summer and fall of 2020: There were and are only two vectors that matter; first households which you obviously cannot cut off and second health care providers and facilities which is a very tough issue but we won’t and didn’t do anything effective about it despite my flagging it by May of 2020 as the decisive vector, based on data in multiple states when case counts were low enough that pegging how it was happening was possible. Statistically-speaking nothing else matters at all.

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It’s a-dirty- trick: you can do deals for billions via text messages, and not keep them.

EU Watchdog Orders Ursula Von Der Leyen To Reveal Texts With Pfizer CEO (DM)

An official EU watchdog has slammed Ursula von der Leyen for keeping secret text messages with Pfizer’s CEO about purchasing Covid vaccine doses, saying it ‘constituted maladministration’. The EU ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, issued a formal recommendation telling von der Leyen’s office to search for and hand over the texts under a freedom of information request lodged by a journalist. In April last year, the New York Times revealed that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla had exchanged text messages and calls about vaccine procurements for EU countries. The European Commission chief used ‘personal diplomacy’ to secure the deal for 1.8 billion Pfizer vaccines via texts with the CEO, the paper revealed.

Journalist Alexander Fanta of news site netzpolitik.org then asked the Commission for access to the text messages and other documents, but the executive branch did not provide them. The commission rebuffed the freedom-of-information request, refusing to say whether the texts existed – even though von der Leyen had referred to them herself in a media interview. According to the ombudsman’s inquiry, the Commission did not clearly ask von der Leyen’s cabinet to look for the text messages. Instead, the Commission said the only information they had was an email, a letter and a press release. ‘This falls short of reasonable expectations of transparency and administrative standards in the Commission,’ O’Reilly said.

‘When it comes to the right of public access to EU documents, it is the content of the document that matters and not the device or form. If text messages concern EU policies and decisions, they should be treated as EU documents. The ombudsman said the commission should ask von der Leyen’s office to again look for the texts, and if it found them, ‘the Commission should assess whether public access can be granted to them’ in line with EU rules. ‘The EU administration needs to update its document recording practices to reflect this reality.’

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And everyone who eats at McDonald’s?

Outrage As Paris Hospitals Chief Raises Idea Of Charging Unvaccinated Patients (G.)

The head of hospitals in Paris has raised the question of whether Covid patients who have refused to be vaccinated should be charged for emergency treatment if they become seriously ill with the virus. Martin Hirsch said the door to hospital treatment was open to all people but questioned whether this had to go hand in hand with “responsibility, allowing everyone to benefit,” in what he said was a “delicate debate”. “When a free prevention tool is available, can be used, is recognised as something useful by the scientific community, and you refuse it, do you do so without suffering any consequences? Or do we say we will treat you, but there is no reason why you should have no consequences when there will be for other patients who are having difficulty getting treatment and can do nothing about it,” Hirsch told the television programme C à vous.

His comments have provoked outrage and calls for his resignation, including from a number of candidates in the April presidential election. The Socialist party’s Anne Hidalgo said making the vaccine-hesitant pay for treatment was not the answer. “We have a strategy and we have to keep on educating people,” she said. Danièle Obono of the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI), was among those calling for Hirsch to resign, saying vaccinated and unvaccinated people had each contributed financially to pay for the health system. Julien Aubert, an MP for the mainstream-right Les Républicains, accused Hirsch of “mixing politics with administrative functions”.

About 30,000 people are being treated for Covid in hospitals in France. Non-vaccinated Covid patients are reported to represent 70% of patients in intensive care in Paris and Bordeaux and more than 90% in Marseille and Nice, according to doctors. One day in intensive care is estimated to cost the French taxpayer about €4,628 (£3,850), while a vaccine dose costs the state €20 (£16.60).

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“You don’t have to be unvaccinated or a conspiracy theorist or even anti-government to be worried about what lies ahead.”

Authoritarian Madness (Whitehead)

You don’t have to be unvaccinated or a conspiracy theorist or even anti-government to be worried about what lies ahead. You just have to recognize the truth in the warning: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is not about COVID-19. Nor is it about politics, populist movements, or any particular country. This is about what happens when good, generally decent people—distracted by manufactured crises, polarizing politics, and fighting that divides the populace into warring “us vs. them” camps—fail to take note of the looming danger that threatens to wipe freedom from the map and place us all in chains. It’s about what happens when any government is empowered to adopt a comply-or-suffer-the-consequences mindset that is enforced through mandates, lockdowns, penalties, detention centers, martial law, and a disregard for the rights of the individual.

The slippery slope begins in just this way, with propaganda campaigns about the public good being more important than individual liberty, and it ends with lockdowns and concentration camps. The danger signs are everywhere. Claudio Ronco, a 66-year-old Orthodox Jew and a specialist in 18th-century music, recognizes the signs. Because of his decision to remain unvaccinated, Ronco is trapped inside his house, unable to move about in public without a digital vaccination card. He can no longer board a plane, check into a hotel, eat at a restaurant or get a coffee at a bar. He has been ostracized by friends, shut out of public life, and will soon face monthly fines for insisting on his right to bodily integrity and individual freedom.

For all intents and purposes, Ronco has become an undesirable in the eyes of the government, forced into isolation so he doesn’t risk contaminating the rest of the populace. This is the slippery slope: a government empowered to restrict movements, limit individual liberty, and isolate “undesirables” to prevent the spread of a disease is a government that has the power to lockdown a country, label whole segments of the population a danger to national security, and force those undesirables—a.k.a. extremists, dissidents, troublemakers, etc.—into isolation so they don’t contaminate the rest of the populace. The world has been down this road before, too. Others have ignored the warning signs. We cannot afford to do so.

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“It isn’t known why Horowitz would have taken a personal meeting from Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer.”

DOJ IG Horowitz Withheld Key Evidence From Special Counsel Durham (ET)

A new court filing by special counsel John Durham reveals that Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz concealed crucial information from Durham in connection with the ongoing prosecution of Michael Sussmann, a former attorney to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The filing also reveals that Horowitz failed to disclose that his office is in possession of two cellphones used by former FBI general counsel James Baker. The phones may contain information that’s important to the Sussmann case, as well as to a separate criminal leak investigation of Baker that Durham personally conducted between 2017 and 2019.

Horowitz first came to public prominence in June 2018 when he issued a report on the FBI’s actions leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Horowitz followed up in December 2019 with another report on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and the bureau’s pursuit of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Durham’s filing on Jan. 25 involves discovery issues surrounding Sussmann’s upcoming trial for allegedly making a materially false statement to the FBI’s then-general counsel James Baker. As part of Durham’s discovery obligations, the Special Counsel’s Office met with Horowitz and his team on Oct. 7, 2021, and subsequently requested any materials, including any “documents, records, and information” regarding Sussmann that may have been in the possession of the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

On Dec. 17, 2021, Horowitz’s office provided Durham with information that Sussmann had given the OIG information in early 2017, that an OIG “employee’s computer was ‘seen publicly’ in ‘Internet traffic’ and was connecting to a Virtual Private Network in a foreign country.” It isn’t clear what this information was about, why Sussmann would know about this information, or why he would have been interested in the internet activities of OIG employees. It also isn’t known why Sussmann, a private citizen, would have been seeking out the OIG shortly after he was pushing information detrimental to Trump to both the FBI and the CIA. At the time of the Dec. 17 disclosure, “the OIG represented to [Durham’s] team that it had “no other file or other documentation” relating to this cyber matter.”

However, last week, Sussmann’s attorneys informed Durham that there was additional information, including the fact that Sussmann had met with Horowitz in March 2017 to personally pass along the information about the OIG employee’s computer VPN use. This meeting between Horowitz and Sussmann hadn’t been disclosed by Horowitz to Durham during their previous meetings and interactions. It isn’t known why Horowitz would have taken a personal meeting from Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer. According to Bill Shipley, a former federal prosecutor, “[y]ou don’t generally just call the IG and get a meeting with him personally.” It also isn’t clear why Horowitz chose not to inform Durham of the meeting—particularly as it pertained directly to information that Horowitz’s office had been specifically requested to relay to Durham’s special counsel probe.

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“I’m beginning to think you aren’t in Paris?”

Why Are Armed Americans Operating In The Trenches Of Eastern Ukraine? (RT)

Staccato bursts of gunfire. Silence, darkness, beeping, flash, explosion. Dramatic music. Indistinct yelling. Volleys of artillery in the shadows. Jet fumes. Special forces operating in the dead of night. All put on display in the social media accounts of Forward Observations Group (FOG), which appear to be an uncontrollable oasis of military porn. “I’m beginning to think you aren’t in Paris?” read a screenshot of a text message the Group shared recently via Instagram stories, where they also happen to be broadcasting their current journey throughout eastern Ukraine. The conflict, often described as ‘frozen’, between government forces and separatists in the region, known as the Donbass, flared up in 2014, after violent street protests led to the Ukrainian government being overthrown.

Kiev sent troops to parts of the Russian-speaking Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which refused to recognize the new regime. The conflict had stalled by March 2015; however, sporadic fighting there has been occurring ever since. In recent months, Western leaders have been speculating that Moscow, which has been accused of controlling the separatists, is planning an all-out offensive against its neighbor. The allegations are based on the purported buildup of Russian troops close to the border. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied the accusations. The US and UK began delivering ‘lethal aid’ to Ukraine last week in an effort to thwart supposed Russian aggression. Almost 100 tons of “lethal aid,” including ammunition intended for “the front line defenders of Ukraine,” were delivered on January 22, the US Embassy in Kiev said.

Given the circumstances, a string of photos from Donbass showing the group of Americans in combat gear holding firearms could not have gone unnoticed. Forward Observations, which apparently consists mostly of former American servicemen, came into the spotlight after Russian military-related social media communities started discussing their e-bravado over being in the conflict zone.

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Zelesky has 2 fears: 1/ his economy is collapsing, and 2/ he will be replaced soon.

Ukraine Asks West To Tone Down ‘Panic’ (RT)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized the “slightly imbalanced” coverage of the situation surrounding his country exhibited by some Western politicians and media. He was speaking to foreign reporters during a major press conference on Friday. The former entertainer particularly emphasised his concerns about press coverage, and political statements, concerning an alleged Russian military build up near his country’s frontier. “Today we are not seeing any greater escalation than it has been before. Yes, the number of servicemen has increased, but I spoke about that at the beginning of 2021 when they talked about the military exercises of the Russian Federation,” Zelensky stated. “From media coverage, it looks like we are at war already, that troops are already on the road, that there’s mobilization, people going somewhere. It’s not the case. We don’t need this panic.”


Overhyping the tensions around Ukraine has already had a heavy impact on its economy, Zelensky insisted. Billions have been withdrawn from the country, in recent times, he added, without specifying whether he was referring to the domestic Grivna currency, or those of foreign nations. The president also touched upon phone talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden, which took place earlier in the day. Zelensky dismissed media reports that they didn’t go well, insisting that that there were no disagreements with the US president. “We do not have any misunderstanding with the president of the United States. Simply, I deeply understand what is happening in my country, and he understands well what is going on in the US,” Zelensky explained.

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What is science?

 

 

Cash
https://twitter.com/i/status/1486997477702131714

 

 

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