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Debt Rattle October 29 2024

Oct 292024
 
 October 29, 2024  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  82 Responses »


Jules Adler Panorama de Paris vu du Sacré Coeur 1935

 

• Will Donald Trump Get His Revenge? (Susan Quinn)
• Leftists Are Terrified About What Will Happen To Them If Trump Wins (ZH)
• Worst. Nazi. Rally. Ever. (Margolis)
• Kamala Is Just A Vessel; We Are Running Against Something Far Bigger (MN)
• Speaking of Abortion (James Howard Kunstler)
• Trump’s 19th-Century Solution to Fiscal Disaster (David Stockman)
• Trump Campaign Slams Harris Over Beyonce ‘Lies’ (RT)
• Trump To Make Ukraine The EU’s Problem – FT (RT)
• I Don’t Want War With Russia – Vance (RT)
• University Professors Approaching Near Unanimity as a Democratic Lock (Turley)
• Bezos Explains Why WaPo Dropped Presidential Endorsements (RT)
• Steve Bannon To Be Released From Prison One Week Ahead Of Election (JTN)
• How America Was Destroyed (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The Enormous Constraints Faced By Netanyahu (Juan Cole)
• BRICS Make History – Can They Keep the Momentum? (Pepe Escobar)
• Slovak PM Fico Warns Of Continued Attempts On His Life (RT)
• Volkswagen Planning Mass Layoffs – Workers’ Council Chief (RT)

 

 

 

 

ABC

MSG


https://twitter.com/i/status/1850691657303519451
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Elon

Stossel

 

 

 

 

Trump is not looking for revenge. He and his X-men team have bigger fish to fry. Trump’s “revenge” will be that what happened to him since 2015 -lawfare- can never happen again.

“…the changes he will make will be in the way government operates, not mere petty payback to individual miscreants…”

• Will Donald Trump Get His Revenge? (Susan Quinn)

There’s almost nothing that Donald Trump likes better than throwing his adversaries off their game; he likes to be unpredictable, confusing and in charge. It gives him an edge in achieving his goals. He’s kept his adversaries guessing to the extent that he will pay them back for their lawfare and deep-state machinations, and not surprisingly, they expect the worst. Yet he has said repeatedly that victory in the election will be his revenge. They don’t know what to make of it. A Trump senior advisor made the following observation: “President Trump has made clear that success will be the best revenge,’ Trump senior adviser Brian Hughes said. ‘When others have weaponized government and legal institutions against him for political interference, he will return these institutions to their constitutional purpose of protecting Americans’ liberty and creating a safe and prosperous nation again.

But since the political Left almost always chooses to see deceit in Trump’s comments, they don’t believe he is sincere. He made it even more unpredictable for them with this: “Look when this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them,” Trump said. “And it’s easy because it’s Joe Biden, and you see all the criminality, all of the money that’s going into the family and him, all of this money from China, from Russia, from Ukraine.” And then Trump underscored it again, wanting to be sure there was no doubt in the minds of the Left that he could act against them: When asked during a Fox News interview on Wednesday if he plans to use the justice system to punish his political opponents, Trump said: “When this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them.” Note that in both of the previous quotations, Trump commented on what he could do, not on what he would do.

Given the incidents of lawfare that Trump has had to endure, the hyperbole spouted by the mainstream media and the political Left, it’s no wonder that Trump would want to take revenge against those who have relentlessly criticized and attacked him. Jonathan Turley, law professor at Georgetown University, has commented several times on the pathetic and weak lawfare attacks that have been launched against Trump from various attorneys and district attorneys. He made this comment a few months ago about Alvin Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney, who twisted the facts of a Trump misdemeanor to transform them into a felony: Like his predecessor, Bragg previously scoffed at the case. However, two prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, then resigned and started a public pressure campaign to get New Yorkers to demand prosecution.

Pomerantz shocked many of us by publishing a book on the case against Trump — who was still under investigation and not charged, let alone convicted, of any crime. He did so despite objections from his former colleague that such a book was grossly improper. Nevertheless, it worked. Bragg brought a Rube Goldberg case that is so convoluted and counterintuitive that even liberal legal analysts criticized it. It’s no wonder that Trump is relishing the discomfort and fear that he is eliciting in his opponents. They have spent years trying to ruin his reputation, insulting him, discrediting him and trying to humiliate him. Meanwhile, in reflecting on the 2016 election, Trump said the following about Hillary Clinton:

“I could have gone after Hillary. I could have gotten Hillary Clinton very easily. And when they say lock her up, whenever they said ‘lock her,’ you know, they’d start, 30,000 people, ‘lock her up, lock her up.’ What did I do? I always say take it easy, just relax. We’re winning. Take it easy. Take it easy.” He added: “I could have had her put in jail. And I decided I didn’t want to do that. I thought it would look terrible. You had the wife of the president of the United States going to jail. I thought it would be very bad if we did that. And I made sure that didn’t happen, OK? I thought it would be bad.” But now he has reached the point where striking fear in the hearts of his enemies seems righteous. Yet the changes he will make will be in the way government operates, not mere petty payback to individual miscreants. That will be devastating to the Leftist cause. It will also serve as his retribution.

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“They lament the undeniable shift of global politics to the conservative right while refusing to ask why it’s happening?”

• Leftists Are Terrified About What Will Happen To Them If Trump Wins (ZH)

After being indoctrinated for almost a decade to believe that their political opponents are secret Nazis ready to install a fascist regime, it’s not surprising that Democrats are freaking out over recent polls indicating a potential Trump win in the November elections. Convinced that America 2024 is going to be a repeat of Germany 1933, ignorant leftists are scrambling to determine whether or not to leave the US or “start a revolution.” The anxiety is palpable. The New Yorker recently asserted in an arduous and rambling article spanning centuries of political history and every rhetorical cliche imaginable that, essentially, Trump is likely to win. The outlet describes Kamala Harris as “virtuous” (which is laughable), but they suggest this trait is not respected enough within the American political sphere. They lament the undeniable shift of global politics to the conservative right while refusing to ask why it’s happening?

They simply default to the old low-IQ and low effort accusations of “racism” and “xenophobia”. The New Yorker argues: “Even when it is utterly self-destructive – as in Britain, where the xenophobia of Brexit cut the U.K. off from traditional allies while increasing immigration from the Global South—the apprehension that “we” are being flooded by frightening foreigners works its malign magic. It’s an old but persistent delusion that far-right nationalism is not rooted in the emotional needs of far-right nationalists but arises, instead, from the injustices of neoliberalism…” The mass immigration from the third world continues in Britain because the same progressive elitists are still in charge despite the Brexit vote. That’s why the country is spiraling into a pit of criminality, mass stabbings and a rape epidemic. It’s the reason why the British voted for Brexit in the first place.

Brexit and the end of mass immigration is the will of the majority of the people, just as it’s the will of the majority of people in many parts if Europe and the US. Yet, leftists who pontificate endlessly about the virtues of democracy dismiss the majority when it suits them. It is this arrogance of the political left that has led directly to the rise of the right wing movement that so utterly terrifies them. The problem is, leftists never take responsibility because they see this as an expression of weakness, and also because their moral relativism allows them to rationalize any behavior as necessary “for the greater good.” Their main character syndrome spurs them to believe they are the ultimate good in the world, and if they are the ultimate good then anyone who dares oppose them must be the ultimate evil. This is why they have a tendency to demonize their political opposition in extreme ways. The New Yorker describes Trump as singularly dangerous, comparing him to mobsters, tyrants and even cancer:

“Trumpism is a cancerous phenomenon. Treated with surgery once, it now threatens to come back in a more aggressive form, subject neither to the radiation of “guardrails” nor to the chemo of “constraints.” It may well rage out of control and kill its host…” And this kind of rhetoric is exactly why there have been at least two assassination attempts on Trump’s life; attempts which the leftist media then shamelessly blamed on Trump. It’s also gaslighting, considering the level of tyranny Democrats have engaged in under Biden and the contempt they have displayed for American ideals over the past decade. The fantasy world of the left is rife with paranoia built on a foundation of emotional sand rather than evidence. They see a new Trump term as the end of everything:

“Having lost the popular vote, as he surely will, he will not speak up to reconcile “all Americans.” He will insist that he won the popular vote, and by a landslide. He will pardon and then celebrate the January 6th insurrectionists, and thereby guarantee the existence of a paramilitary organization that’s capable of committing violence on his behalf without fear of consequences. He will, with an obedient Attorney General, begin prosecuting his political opponents…” “When he begins to pressure CNN and ABC, and they, with all the vulnerabilities of large corporations, bend to his will, telling themselves that his is now the will of the people, what will we do to fend off the slow degradation of open debate? Trump will certainly abandon Ukraine to Vladimir Putin and realign this country with dictatorships and against NATO and the democratic alliance of Europe. Above all, the spirit of vengeful reprisal is the totality of his beliefs—very much like the fascists of the twentieth century in being a man and a movement without any positive doctrine except revenge against his imagined enemies…”

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Which was worse? 1939 or 2024?

• Worst. Nazi. Rally. Ever. (Margolis)

When Donald Trump’s campaign announced plans for a rally at Madison Square Garden, Democrats and their media allies knew they had a problem. Trump was going to pack the house on their turf. So they wasted no time pushing the tired Hitler narrative and claimed that the choice of venue was an homage to a pro-Nazi rally held there in 1939. It wasn’t just liberals in the media pushing this narrative, either. Hillary Clinton accused Trump of “actually re-enacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939.” “President Franklin Roosevelt was appalled that neo-Nazis, fascists in America were lining up to essentially pledge their support for the kind of government that they were seeing in Germany. So I don’t think we can ignore it,” Hillary added. Then she doubled down.

“Now, it may be a leap for some people and a lot of others may think, ‘I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to say that.’ “But please open your eyes to the danger that this man poses to our country, because I think it is clear and present for anybody paying attention.” Even the Harris-Walz campaign joined in on the rhetoric. “Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden,” Kamala’s running mate Tim Walz said at a campaign event in Henderson, Nevada. “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden.” Walz added, “And don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there.”

Well, the rally took place Sunday night, and boy, talk about the worst Nazi rally ever! In addition to the diverse speakers at the event, a black woman sang the national anthem.

And clearly, Jews didn’t get the memo that this was a “Nazi rally.”

The only Nazi symbols you saw at all came courtesy of the Democrats.

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“I’m asking you to be excited about the future..”

• Kamala Is Just A Vessel; We Are Running Against Something Far Bigger (MN)

During a historic rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden, president Trump urged that Kamala Harris is purely “a vessel” and in reality the MAGA movement is fighting against “something far more powerful.” Trump told the crowd, “We are not just running against Kamala — She means nothing. She is purely a vessel — We are running against something far bigger than Joe or Kamala and more powerful than them, which is a massive, vicious, crooked, radical left machine that runs today’s Democrat Party.” Trump further asserted that Biden and Harris are “perfect vessels because they’ll never give them a hard time. They’ll do whatever they want.” He continued, “I know many of them. It’s just an amorphous group of people. But they’re smart and they’re vicious, and we have to defeat them. And when I say the ‘enemy from within,’ the other side go crazy.”

Trump added that these people “are doing such harm to our country with their open border policies, record-setting inflation, ‘Green New Scam,’ and everything else they are doing. But we’re not going to let it happen any longer. We’re going to have the biggest victory in the history of our country on November 5 … We’re going to make America great again.” Elsewhere during his speech, Trump urged that his party is one of real unity and inclusion, while the other side is intent on fomenting hatred and division. “We bleed the same blood. We share the same home and we salute the same great American Flag. We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God,” Trump declared.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1850696878469337233

Trump vowed to make America stronger than ever before and to bring back the American Dream. Trump told the crowd “I’m asking you to be excited about the future,” further urging “this will be America’s new golden age.” The MSG event was a roaring success, despite deranged leftists demanding it be shut down claiming it was a literal ‘Nazi rally’.

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“You have not seen such a vivid demonstration of slowly-and-then-all-at-once since the implosion of Lehman Brothers as the collapse of the Democratic Party this fateful October..”

• Speaking of Abortion (James Howard Kunstler)

What were they thinking after they shoved “Joe Biden” into the abyss, like an old refrigerator over the edge of the landfill, and afterward settled — instantly it appears, with no process at all — on Kamala Harris to lead the party to victory in the fall election? I will tell you: they were not thinking at all. The collective mind of the Democrat elite was a vast vacuum devoid of thought, mass, or light, like a corner of deepest space, lacking even a particle of cosmic debris to evoke the existence of existence. Such mindlessness was the consummate expression of a party that for eight years worked every angle of political mental illness toward the loss of its mind, driven by whatever dark energy seeks escape from truth, life, and God — whatever is opposite of creation and being. What you are witnessing is a colossal act of being un-born. The party put out a call to the universe and the universe ordered. . . an abortion of the Democratic Party! You are reminded again: be careful of what you wish for.

And so do things stand one week before the election. You have not seen such a vivid demonstration of slowly-and-then-all-at-once since the implosion of Lehman Brothers as the collapse of the Democratic Party this fateful October. Poor Kamala is just collateral damage at this point. She goes out before some manufactured audience and seven-minutes onstage delivering a door-dash order of precooked blather is all she can stand before being overwhelmed by the emptiness and futility of her task. . . and then she flees back to the waiting limousine (and the chardonnay bottle). Meanwhile, her allies — that is, the Democratic Party’s allies — play their own roles in this political abortion. The LA Times and the WashPo declined their usual proforma endorsements, two kisses of death. Those actions last week provoked nervous breakdowns in both newsrooms, cries of anguish, resignations, professional suicides.

The news media find themselves in a peculiar position, having gone along for years with the gathering mental illness of the Democratic Party, like incompetent parents in a large dysfunctional family, offering unconditional support for their kids’ intolerable and unacceptable behavior. They are flying to pieces now on the CNN chat panels. James Carville, the party’s shriveled Gollum, has gone to IV infusions of Jim Beam, seems like. Jake Tapper gets Sunday schooled by JD Vance and turns into a mewling cat-lady right before your eyes. Anderson Cooper goes all waxy and mute. Joy Reid surrenders to echolalia as her MSNBC fans are subjected to the guest list of P. Diddy’s “freak-offs,” ranting about Hitler. Lawrence O’Donnell is looking more and more like Vincent Price in Return of the Fly. Reality-optional hardly suffices to describe cable news these days.

You’ve got to ask: can they just let it be? Can they just let go of their insane Jacobin rebellion now and let it fade into history? Then, kick back, recuperate, get their minds right, put their house and family in order, and move on as a legit political faction in a functioning republic? Or, do they burn the asylum down? The signals are troubling. They are chattering about Mr. Trump “using the military” against them in the months to come — as if the Abrams tanks were going to roll up to DNC headquarters and blast away. By now, you know that such thoughts expressed by Democratic pols and news pals are always projections of their own wishes. The New York Times published just such a classic paranoid projection exercise last week “. . . telling Americans that if he [Trump] wins, he plans to bend, if not break, our democracy.”

Surely it is too late, with early voting well underway, to stop any ballot harvesting and other election shenanigans as engineered by master fraudster Marc Elias. In fact, frauds are already being discovered (e.g., Lancaster County, PA.) Not a good look. It is exactly what a conspiracy (to commit election fraud) means in law, and the actual people who cooked the ballots and transported them are going to rat-out those who instructed them to do it. Wait for that, and wait for it to pop up elsewhere around the country. This time, watchers are watching, much more carefully.

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Stockman knows his numbers. Take the following, and then remember (you too, David) that Elon Musk says he can save $2 trillion on spending.

“Trumpian revenue tariffs would generate about $9 trillion over the next decade, or nearly 80% of the $11.5 trillion revenue loss from drastically shrinking the income tax coverage..”

• Trump’s 19th-Century Solution to Fiscal Disaster (David Stockman)

In the last weeks of the campaign, Donald Trump is slicing and dicing the Federal income tax nearly as fast as he served up fries at the McDonald’s drive-thru window last weekend. So far, he has proposed to extend the lower rates, family tax credits, and investment incentives of the 2017 Tax Act after they expire in 2025 and to also exempt tips, Social Security benefits, and overtime wages from the Federal income tax. Those items alone would generate a revenue loss of $9 trillion over the next decade, but he has recently proposed to also exempt firefighters, police officers, military personnel, and veterans from the Federal income tax as well. We estimate the latter would cost another $2.5 trillion in revenue loss over 10 years. As it happens, there are 370,000 firemen, 708,000 policemen, 2.86 million uniformed military personnel, and 18.0 million veterans in the US.

These 22 million citizens have an estimated average income of $82,000 per year, which translates to about $60,000 each of AGI (adjusted gross income). At an average income tax rate of 14.7% these exclusions would generate $250 billion per year of reduced income tax payments. In all, Trump has thus tossed out promises to cut income taxes by $11.5 trillion over the next 10-year budget window. In turn, these sweeping reductions would amount to upwards of 34% of CBO’s estimated baseline income tax revenue of $33.7 trillion over the period. Alas, even in the halcyon days of Reagan supply-side tax cutting no one really dreamed of eliminating fully one-third of the so-called crime of 1913 (the 16th Amendment which enabled the income tax).

10-Year Revenue Loss:
Extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts: $5.350 trillion.
Exempt overtime income: $2.000 trillion.
End Taxation of Social Security benefits: $1.300 trillion.
Exempt Tip income: $300 billion.
Exempt Income of Firemen, Policemen, Military and Veterans: $2.500 trillion.
Trump Total Revenue Loss: $11.500 trillion.
CBO Income Tax Baseline Revenue: $33.700 trillion.
Trump Revenue Loss As % of Baseline: 34%.

Then again, Trump may have something virtually epic in mind. To wit, scrapping the income tax entirely in favor of taxing consumption via levies on imported goods and merchandise. “In the old days when we were smart, when we were a smart country, in the 1890s and all, this is when the country was relatively the richest it ever was. It had all tariffs. It didn’t have an income tax,” Trump said at a sit-down with voters in New York on Friday for Fox & Friends. “Now we have income taxes, and we have people that are dying.” The New York Times is deeply alarmed: “The former president has repeatedly praised a period in American history when there was no income tax, and the country relied on tariffs to fund the government.” Actually, however, 19th-century America was even smarter than Trump realizes.

In 1900 total Federal spending amounted to just 3.5% of GDP because back then America was still a peaceful republic and had no Warfare State or even significant standing army at all. And save for the most advanced precincts of Europe, the Welfare State hadn’t yet been invented, either. So, yes, the so-called “revenue tariffs” of the 19th century did meet the income needs of the Federal government to the point of actually balancing the budget year after year between 1870 and 1900. Indeed, the actual annual surpluses were large enough to pay down most of the Civil War debt, to boot. Today, of course, the Warfare State, Welfare State, and the Washington pork barrels account for 25% of GDP. So Trump may be directionally correct in wanting to tax consumption rather than income, but, as usual, he’s off by about seven orders of magnitude when it comes to the size of the Federal budget that needs to be financed.

Still, Trump has stepped up to the plate when it comes to a 21st-century version of the revenue tariff. He has pledged to impose a 20% universal tariff on all imports from all countries with a specific 60% rate for Chinese imports. Based on current US import levels of $3.5 trillion per year from worldwide sources and $450 billion from China, Trump’s tariffs would generate about $900 billion of receipts per annum. To be sure, Trump’s claim that these giant tariffs would be paid for by Chinamen, Mexicans, and European socialists is just more of his standard baloney. Tariffs are paid for by consumers, but that’s actually the hidden virtue of the Tariff Man’s favorite word. The truth is, government should be paid for via taxation on current citizens, not fobbed off in the form of giant debts on future citizens, born and unborn.

So if we are going to have Big Government at 25% of GDP rather than a 19th-century government at 3.5% of GDP, and Trump is a Big Government Man if there ever was one, better that the burden be placed on consumption, not production, income, and investment. After all, today the “makers” get hit good and hard by the current exceedingly lopsided income tax system. Thus, the top 1% pays 46% of income taxes, while the top 5% pays 66% and the top 10% pays 76% of all income taxes. On the other end, by contrast, the bottom 50% pays just 2.3% of individual income taxes, while 40% of all families pay no income tax at all. In any event, the math works out such that the proposed Trumpian revenue tariffs would generate about $9 trillion over the next decade, or nearly 80% of the $11.5 trillion revenue loss from drastically shrinking the income tax coverage and collection rate. So that’s a big step in the direction of fiscal solvency rather than more UniParty free lunches.

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“They have to use people to get people to come, and then they send buses..”

• Trump Campaign Slams Harris Over Beyonce ‘Lies’ (RT)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused Democratic rival Kamala Harris of misleading voters by attracting them to a rally in the belief that they would see a performance by pop superstar Beyonce. Over 30,000 people turned up at the Democratic event on Friday in Houston, Texas, with some expecting a free concert after it was announced that Beyonce would be present. MSNBC and the Washington Post reported ahead of the rally that the superstar singer would appear with Harris during the event, while NBC cited a source as saying that Beyonce was “also expected to perform.” Beyonce earlier approved the use of her song ‘Freedom’ as a soundtrack for the Harris campaign. The 43-year-old Houston native did take to the stage at the event with her former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, before announcing that she was there as a mother and not as an entertainer.

In a speech that lasted less than five minutes, Beyonce urged rallygoers to support abortion rights, after Harris called on voters to “mobilize” on November 5 in support of reproductive freedom. “It’s time for America to sing a new song,” Beyonce added. “Our voices sing a chorus of unity. They sing a song of dignity and opportunity. Are y’all ready to add your voice to the new American song,” the singer said, welcoming Harris onto the stage. Speaking at a Michigan rally on Saturday, Trump hit out at the apparent failure of the Harris campaign to meet supporters’ expectations. “Beyonce went up and spoke for a couple of minutes and then left, and the place went crazy,” Trump stated, adding that “they booed the hell out of everybody.”

“They thought she was going to perform… it’s crazy. They have to use people to get people to come, and then they send buses. We don’t send buses. Everybody comes. We’re just going to make America great again. It’s very simple,” the former president added. Tim Murtaugh, a senior adviser to Trump, claimed that organizers of the Democratic rally had “lied to build a crowd.” While the front rows at the rally appeared supportive as Harris proceeded with her speech after seeing Beyonce off the stage, clips on social media indicated booing and heckling at the back, with some apparently leaving the venue in disappointment. The vice president has been backed by American pop sensation Taylor Swift as well as Usher, Eminem, and Cardi B, while Trump has received endorsements from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, rapper 50 Cent, and popular journalist Tucker Carlson.

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“Russia gets a guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine,” while Germany and other EU countries foot the bill for Ukraine’s reconstruction..”

• Trump To Make Ukraine The EU’s Problem – FT (RT)

Donald Trump will leave the enforcement of any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine to European powers, one of the former US president’s advisers has told the Financial Times. The plan is one of several floated by Trump’s advisers and allies, all of which involve the US refusing to deal with the aftermath of the conflict. Trump has promised to bring a rapid end to the ongoing conflict if he is elected president in November. However, he has offered few specifics as to how he would do this, save for pressing Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky into peace talks with US aid to Kiev as leverage. In the absence of any concrete peace plan, a host of Trump’s current and former advisers have outlined how they think the former president could achieve this goal.

One unnamed “long-term Trump adviser” told the Financial Times on Monday that the Republican candidate could resolve the conflict with “a reimagining of the failed Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015,” under which Kiev agreed to grant some autonomy to the majority Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. This time around, the adviser said, the deal would be enforced by EU peacekeepers. “There are two things America will insist on,” he said. “We will not have any men or women in the enforcement mechanism. We’re not paying for it. Europe is paying for it.” Reviving the Minsk agreements would likely present several major challenges.

After multiple European leaders admitted that they never intended to abide by the 2014 and 2015 agreements, Moscow does not believe that the EU can play the role of honest broker, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this month. Furthermore, Donetsk and Lugansk – along with Kherson and Zaporozhye – have since joined the Russian Federation, and any peace deal must take into account this “territorial reality,” the Kremlin has said. Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who served in Trump’s White House, told the British newspaper that the US could “freeze the conflict” along the current front line, and negotiate a lasting settlement with Russia at a later date. Ukraine would not give up its territorial claims in the meantime, Fleitz said, explaining that this plan counts on delaying a final agreement until “Putin leaves the stage.”

However, Fleitz conceded that he does not speak for Trump and does not know the former president’s foreign policy plans. The most detailed proposal has been put forward by Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Speaking to former US Navy SEAL and podcast host Shawn Ryan last month, Vance said that the current frontline could be demilitarized and fortified, ensuring that “Russia doesn’t invade again.” In exchange, “Russia gets a guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine,” while Germany and other EU countries foot the bill for Ukraine’s reconstruction. The current American policy of “throw[ing] money at this problem, [and] hope[ing] the Ukrainians are able to achieve a military victory” is “stupid,” Vance told Ryan.

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“I think that we should try to pursue avenues of peace.”

• I Don’t Want War With Russia – Vance (RT)

The US is not at war with Russia and should not seek one, Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance has said, when asked whether he would brand President Vladimir Putin an “enemy” of America. The senator from Ohio was asked during his appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday whether he saw the Russian leader “as an ally or an enemy.” Putin is “clearly an adversary, he is a competitor,” but Washington needs to be “smart about diplomacy too,” Vance responded. ”Just because we don’t like somebody doesn’t mean that we can’t occasionally engage in conversations with them,” he suggested. Host Kristen Welker pushed him further on whether he would directly refer to Putin as an enemy. ”We are not at war with him. And I don’t want to be at war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” the senator said. “I think that we should try to pursue avenues of peace.”

The same logic applies to China, Vance said, adding that he perceives it as a greater threat to American interests than Russia. The US may not like having to talk to its rivals, but in the case of the Ukraine conflict, resolving it will require negotiations, the senator pointed out. When asked whether former President Donald Trump would take the US out of NATO, Vance assured that he wouldn’t. If his running mate returns to office, the country will honor its commitment to the organization, but the bloc “is not just a welfare client, it should be a real alliance,” he said. Vance was referring to Trump’s criticism of insufficient defense spending by its European members.

Moscow has identified NATO’s enlargement in Europe as a threat to its national security and a key reason for the deterioration of relations with the West. The organization’s increasing involvement in Ukraine since the 2014 armed coup in Kiev and promise to bring Ukraine into the fold have contributed in a major way to setting off the ongoing hostilities, Russian officials have said. The current Democratic administration has pledged to stand by Kiev “for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia and has pushed other nations to do the same. Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on Ukraine aid, Kiev’s troops are currently retreating along many parts of the front. Trump has claimed while campaigning that he would end the hostilities in 24 hours, if elected.

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“..he and others continue to saw feverishly on the branch upon which we all sit in higher education..”

• University Professors Approaching Near Unanimity as a Democratic Lock (Turley)

The 2024 presidential election is shaping up to be the single most divisive election in our history. The public is split right down the middle with almost every group splintering between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. There is, however, one group that seems almost unanimous: professors. A new survey of more than 1,000 professors shows that seventy-eight percent will vote for Harris and only eight percent will vote for Trump. Other than a poll of the Democratic National Committee, there are few groups that are more reliably Democratic or liberal. For anyone in higher education, the result is hardly surprising. The poll tracks what we already know about the gradual purging of departments around the country of conservative, libertarian, and dissenting professors.

Indeed, the lack of political and intellectual diversity may be turning some donors and even applicants from higher education. With failing revenue and applications, universities are starting to re-embrace commitments to neutrality on political issues. Some, however, are doubling down on advocacy and orthodoxy. In an op-ed this week, Wesleyan University President Michael Roth called on universities to reject “institutional neutrality” and officially support Kamala Harris. Calling neutrality “a retreat,” Roth compared Trump’s election to the rise of the Nazis and insisted that schools should “give up the popular pastime of criticizing the woke and call out instead the overt racism.” He added, without a hint of self-awareness or irony, that “we should not be silenced because of fears of appearing partisan.”

In my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss the intolerance in higher education and surveys showing that many departments no longer have a single Republican as faculties replicate their own views and values. So not only are professors voting en mass for Harris, Roth would have the schools themselves work openly for her election. That ideological echo chamber is hardly an enticement for many who are facing rising high tuition costs with relatively little hope of being taught by faculty with opposing views. There are obviously many reasons why faculty may reject Trump specifically, but this poll also tracks more generally the self-identification and contributions of faculty. A Georgetown study recently found that only nine percent of law school professors identify as conservative at the top 50 law schools — almost identical to the percentage of Trump voters found in the new poll.

Notably, Roth acknowledged that the current lack of intellectual diversity in higher education had become so extreme that there might be a need for “an affirmative action program for conservatives.” However, he and others continue to saw feverishly on the branch upon which we all sit in higher education in calling for even greater political advocacy. There is little evidence that faculty members have any interest in changing this culture or creating greater diversity at schools. In places like North Carolina State University a study found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans 20 to 1.

Recently, I had a debate at Harvard Law School with Professor Randall Kennedy on whether Harvard protects free speech and intellectual diversity. This year, Harvard found itself in a familiar spot on the annual ranking of Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE): dead last among 251 universities and colleges. Harvard has long dismissed calls for greater free speech protections or intellectual diversity. It shows.

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University professors are not the only group with such an outsized bias. MSM editors and writers have it just as much. And Bezos will not solve that by withholding an endorsement. His hiring practices need to change. Or his paper is toast.

• Bezos Explains Why WaPo Dropped Presidential Endorsements (RT)

The Washington Post has abandoned its decades-long tradition of endorsing a US presidential candidate to earn back the trust of the American public, the newspaper’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, has said. He explained his reasoning in an op-ed published by the Post on Monday after facing intense backlash from current and former staff. The newspaper has been endorsing candidates since 1976, but announced the suspension of the practice on Friday, prompting several editors to resign. The Post’s editorial board endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. According to CNN, the Post’s staffers had drafted an endorsement of the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, which was ultimately not approved by the management. Bezos began his Monday’s op-ed by citing a recent Gallup poll, which found that nearly 70% of Americans have little or no trust in the media.

“Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working,” the entrepreneur wrote, adding that “most people believe the media is biased.” “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” he continued. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.” The founder of Amazon and aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin admitted that the decision to drop endorsements so close to Election Day on November 5 was the result of “inadequate planning.” At the same time, he insisted that neither campaign had affected his decision-making, and that the move to abandon endorsements was not connected to last week’s meeting between Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, and Blue Origin top executives in Austin, Texas.

A total of 21 of the Post’s opinion columnists signed a statement, describing the non-endorsement as “a terrible mistake.” They argued that “this isn’t the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution.” Three of the newspaper’s 10-person editorial board have since stepped down. More than 200,000 people – or about 8% of the Post’s paid subscribers – had canceled their digital subscription by midday on Monday, according to NPR. The decision to end endorsements was criticized by many prominent journalists, including the Post’s former longtime executive editor Marty Baron.

Last month, Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, announced that the newspaper would also not be making presidential endorsements. The move faced similar backlash, with editorials editor Mariel Garza resigning in protest. Throughout his campaign, Trump has blasted “the lying media” for what he said was a long history of unfair coverage of him and his time in office. The Harris campaign and allies have similarly accused pro-Trump media outlets of amplifying “desinformation.”

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“The Trump ally is expected to hold a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan, just hours after his release.”

• Steve Bannon To Be Released From Prison One Week Ahead Of Election (JTN)

Former President Donald Trump’s ally Steve Bannon will be released from prison on Tuesday, exactly one week ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison at a federal facility in Danbury, Connecticut, in 2022 after he was convicted by a jury on two Contempt of Congress charges for not complying with a congressional subpoena. A judge had allowed Bannon, who was a first-time offender, to delay his sentence while he appealed the convictions but was eventually ordered to report to prison in July. The Trump ally is expected to hold a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan, just hours after his release.

Sam Mangel, Bannon’s prison consultant, told ABC News on Monday that Bannon taught U.S. history and government to other inmates while he was behind bars, and that he was respected by other inmates. “I’m sure he’s quite glad to put it behind him and move on with his life,” Mangel said. “From what I’m told, he feels he’s got a lot left to accomplish now.” Although Bannon will be released from the Connecticut prison, he still faces criminal charges related to an alleged scheme to defraud donors over the construction of a border wall on the United States southern border. That trial is scheduled for December, and he has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering.

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“..the US military is there to use lethal force to suppress those who object. If Trump’s win is too lopsided to be subject to theft, there can be a cybersecurity attack that prevents a vote count..”

• How America Was Destroyed (Paul Craig Roberts)

Those who control the Democrat Party are concerned about Kamala’s election chances. Little wonder. She represents the most anti-American, anti-Constitution, anti-white, anti-peace regime in US history. Top Democrats are concerned that Trump will not only take the swing states, despite the multiple theft mechanisms Democrats have in place, but also some blue states. Polls are revealing that a majority of men of color see Trump as a leader of America and Kamala as a destroyer of America. Those who control the Democrat party, most certainly not the people, are also disturbed by reports of the heavy early voting by Trump supporters. Trump encouraged early voting, because in 2020 Democrats managed to prevent many Trump supporters from voting on election day.

The downside to early voting by Trump supporters is it gives Democrats an idea how many votes they have to steal in order to “win.” It is a no-win situation for Trump supporters. If you wait until election day, voting machine failure, closed precincts, and other excuses can be used to keep you from voting. But if you vote early, you signal to the Democrats how many votes they have to steal. They are well set up to steal them. The Democrats in two swing states have already said that it will be days before they will have the vote count. These days are the time they need to produce the fraud that wins for them. A Democrat and a free election are mutually exclusionary. Arizona officials, for example, say it will take 2 weeks to tabulate the vote count. The Democrats in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin say they are unable to declare election results for several days after the election.

Until 2020–the Big Steal–the US has not had a problem of producing a vote count on time. Why do Americans accept the election theft implied by a delayed vote count with ballot boxes coming in by the truck loads long after voting is closed? On October 14, I reported on this website that the Biden regime had issued one month before the presidential election a military directive 5240.01. The directive says the US military can be used to come to the aid of civilian police to quell domestic disturbance and can use lethal force against US citizens. I provided a link to the directive. Fourteen days later I have seen no mention of this directive in the presstitute media.

Now ask yourself where the authority comes from for an executive branch cabinet department to overturn an act of Congress. Where did the Biden regime Department of Defense get the authority to overturn American tradition and the Posse Comitatus Act? That there has been no protest against this illegal and unconstitutional Defense Department directive indicates how close the US is to a tyranny. As we learned from the hoax “Jan 6 Insurrection,” it is a simple matter for those in authority to declare “insurrections.” They can do it again. It has now been admitted that 200 federal agents were at work on January 6 trying to orchestrate an insurrection. Next time there will be 2,000. As the Democrats are in power, they can create an “insurrection” prior to the vote count.

[..] So, some of the swing states have said that election results will not be timely reported. When the results are misreported, the US military is there to use lethal force to suppress those who object. If Trump’s win is too lopsided to be subject to theft, there can be a cybersecurity attack that prevents a vote count. Putin and Trump can be blamed for an insurrection orchestrated by the FBI, and the Democrats will be declared by the American whore media as the winner. This sounds far-fetched, but it isn’t.

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“Israel could not gain overflight permissions from Turkey, Iraq or any of the Gulf Cooperation Council states (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman). Sean Matthews at Middle East Eye points out that as a result, the Israelis would have had to fly down the Red Sea, go west across the Gulf of Aden, and approach Iran from the Arabian Sea. It is a long way around.”

• The Enormous Constraints Faced By Netanyahu (Juan Cole)

The limited strikes on Iran carried out by Israeli fighter-jets early on Saturday morning Tehran time above all demonstrated the constraints under which even this extremist Israeli government has to operate. The bombings are said to have been limited to military targets, including missile manufacturing facilities.The first constraint Israel faced was logistical. The Netanyahu government could not have its fighter jets fly straight to Iran, which would have allowed a more extensive set of attacks. Israel could not gain overflight permissions from Turkey, Iraq or any of the Gulf Cooperation Council states (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman). Sean Matthews at Middle East Eye points out that as a result, the Israelis would have had to fly down the Red Sea, go west across the Gulf of Aden, and approach Iran from the Arabian Sea. It is a long way around. They would have had to bring along large hulking refueling planes. This long, clumsy flight path limited what the Israelis could accomplish.

Extremist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier not ruled out hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities or its oil fields. Iran, however, essentially held the GCC countries hostage, warning that if US-backed Israel hit Iranian oil fields, Tehran would retaliate against US-backed Arab oil monarchies in the Gulf such as Saudi Arabia. The Biden administration is trying to woo those countries into recognizing Israel, and having a berserker Israeli government draw them into hostilities with Iran would instead make these Arab countries flee both the US and the possible Israeli embrace. For some diplomatic purposes, as with detente with Iran, Saudi Arabia has already gone to China instead. According to Middle East Eye, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had announced Tuesday that Iran had been promised by the Gulf Arabs that they would not allow their air space or soil to be used for Israeli attacks on Iran. At the same time, Joe Biden pressured Israel not to attack Iranian nuclear facilities or oil fields.

I view Netanyahu as an adventurer who has been attempting to widen the war so as to force the Biden administration to support him. Although Iran backs Hamas, the CIA assessed that the ayatollahs had no idea Hamas was planning to carry out the October 7 attacks, and, indeed, that the Iranian leadership had declined to support Hamas during the past year precisely because they were furious that Yahya Sinwar had tried to drag them into a war without so much as consulting them. Iran also put pressure on Hezbollah not to provoke a war with Israel. That is, though Iran certainly supports anti-Israel guerrilla groups in the region and enjoys harassing the Israelis through them and their rockets and drones, it doesn’t appear to have acted aggressively given the ferocity of Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza.

Netanyahu struck the Iranian embassy in Damascus last spring in an obvious attempt to bring Iran into the war, and Iran replied with a missile barrage that the US shot down. Then this summer Netanyahu assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the civilian head of the Hamas Party politburo (which is not the same as the al-Qassam Brigades paramilitary). The assassination was carried out in Tehran, in a clear attempt to get Iran’s goat. Likewise, Netanyahu’s creepy pager booby trap attack on Hezbollah personnel (and some Iranians, such as the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon) and his assassination of Hassan Nasrallah in September were in part aimed at humiliating Iran. Iran’s October 1 missile barrage at Israel was mostly shot down by the US, but some missiles got through and one hit an Israeli military base. This attack was revenge for the killings of Haniyeh and Nasrallah.

Israel’s riposte was so limited that it might well not elicit any response from Iran, drawing a line under this phase of the Israel-Iran conflict. But Netanyahu was forced into a limited response by the Arab Gulf states (two of which –Bahrain and the Emirates– recognize Israel) and by the Biden administration. The refusal of overflight permissions by the GCC states also limited what Israel could accomplished with its F-35s. I view Iran’s missile program as largely defensive. They have used it against Israel twice this year, and both came in response to Israeli provocations (provocations that I believe to be deliberate on Netanyahu’s part). Israel has made the point that its jets can now reach Iran with extensive refueling. Iran has made the point that a swarm of missile attacks can penetrate Israel’s missile defenses and hit an Israeli military base.

Each side is seeking some form of deterrence against the other, a deterrence that has broken down this year because of Israel’s aggression in Gaza and Lebanon and its anti-missile defenses. I think Iran will be satisfied if it feels that a restoration of deterrence has been achieved. I don’t think Netanyahu is defending; I think he is attacking and attempting to expand his influence in the region. For that reason, it will be difficult to reestablish deterrence between the two countries. For the moment, however, all-out war seems to have been averted.

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“..BRICS China crisscrossing Eurasia from east to west while BRICS Russia/Iran/India crisscross it from north to south..”

• BRICS Make History – Can They Keep the Momentum? (Pepe Escobar)

The not so simple twists of fate always allow certain cities to make their mark in History in ineffable ways. Yalta. Bretton Woods. Bandung – a 1955 de-colonization staple. And now Kazan. The BRICS summit in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, under the Russian presidency was historic in more ways than one – followed with riveting attention by the whole Global Majority and with perplexity by a great deal of the declining Western order. It did not change the world – not yet. But Kazan should be seen as the departing station of a high-speed train journey towards the emerging multi-nodal new order. The metaphor was also spatial: the pavilions at the Kazan Expo center “station” holding the summit simultaneously connected to the airport and to the aero-express train to the city. The rippling effects of BRICS 2024 in Kazan will be perceived for weeks, months and years ahead. Let’s start with the breakthroughs.

The Kazan Manifesto
1.The Kazan Declaration. That is no less than a detailed diplomatic manifesto. Yet because BRICS is not a revolutionary agent – as its members do not share an ideology – arguably the next best strategy is to propose real reform, from the UN Agenda 2030 to the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, the WHO and the G20 (whose summit is next month in Rio). The kernel of the Kazan Declaration – which had been debated for months – is to move in practice towards in-depth institutional changes and to reject Hegemony. The Declaration will be presented to the UN Security Council. There’s no doubt the Hegemon will reject it. This paragraph sums up the reform drive: “We condemn the attempts to subject development to discriminatory politically motivated practices, including but not limited to unilateral coercive measures that are incompatible with the 5 principles of the UN Charter, explicit or implied political conditionality of development assistance, activities, aiming at compromising the multiplicity of international development assistance providers.”

2. The BRICS Outreach session. That was Bandung 1955 on macro-steroids: a microcosm of how the new, really de-colonized, non-unilateral world is being born. President Putin opened and handed the floor to the leaders and heads of delegations of other 35 nations, most at the highest level, including Palestine, plus the UN Secretary General. Quite a few speeches were nothing short of epic. The session lasted 3h25. It will be circulating all across the Global Majority for years. The session tied up with the announcement of the new 13 BRICS partners: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkiye, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. A strategic tour de force including 4 Southeast Asian powerhouses; the top two Central Asian “stans”; 3 Africans; 2 Latin Americans, and NATO member Turkiye.

3. The Russian BRICS presidency itself. Arguably no other nation would have been able to pull off such a complex and impeccably organized summit, held after over 200 BRICS-related meetings throughout the year across Russia conducted by unnamed sherpas, members of working groups and the BRICs Business Council. Security was massive – for obvious reasons, considering the odds of a false flag/terrorist attack.

4. Connectivity corridors. That is the main geoeconomic theme of Eurasia integration, and Afro-Eurasia integration as well. Putin explicitly named, more than once, the new growth drivers of the near future: Southeast Asia and Africa. Both happen to be key partners of several high-profile Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. Additionally, Putin named the top two connectivity corridors of the future: the Northern Sea Route – which the Chinese describe as the Arctic Silk Road – and the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), where the three drivers are BRICS members Russia, Iran and India. So that translates as BRICS China crisscrossing Eurasia from east to west while BRICS Russia/Iran/India crisscross it from north to south, with ramifications in all latitudes. And with all the energy add-ons, with Iran positioning itself as a crucial energy hub, opening the finally feasible possibility of building the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, one of the unfinished sagas of what I described in the early 2000s as Pipelineistan.

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“..because of his “attitudes towards Ukraine.”

• Slovak PM Fico Warns Of Continued Attempts On His Life (RT)

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived an assassination attempt in May, has revealed that he faced a potential second attempt on his life, due to his stance on the Ukraine conflict. Fico was shot at close range by an activist who opposed the PM’s views on relations with Kiev. An armed man was detained at an event commemorating a World War II battle in eastern Slovakia in early October, the prime minister revealed in an interview to Bratislava-based internet outlet Standard on Sunday. Fico said the man “hates” him because of his “attitudes towards Ukraine.” According to the prime minister, “a fully loaded weapon” was found on the suspect when he passed through a metal detector. The event in question was held on October 6 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Dukla Pass between German and Soviet forces on the border with Poland. The celebrations were attended by Fico, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, and members of the government and parliament.

Fico has been an outspoken critic of the EU’s policy of providing lethal aid to Ukraine in its fight with Russia, calling instead for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. In May, Fico was shot four times at close range by a man who, according to Slovakia’s Special Criminal Court, was largely motivated by the decision by the prime minister and his government not to send arms to Ukraine. “I was lucky,” Fico told Standard, commenting on the shooting. He went on to describe the alleged shooter, Juraj Cintula, as a political activist who had attended Fico’s public meetings while “probably” planning the attack. Following the shooting, Fico argued that the assassination attempt emanated from foreign-backed politicians who refuse to accept his government’s policies that prioritize Slovakia’s interests over the agendas of major Western powers.

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“Throughout its almost 90-year history, the carmaker has never closed a plant in its home country..”

• Volkswagen Planning Mass Layoffs – Workers’ Council Chief (RT)

Volkswagen is looking to significantly reduce its workforce in Germany and shut down several factories in the country, amid a major overhaul aimed at lowering costs and increasing return on sales, the head of the carmaker’s Works Council has announced. Daniela Cavallo explained to employees in Wolfsburg on Monday that Volkswagen management is “absolutely serious” about the plans and that the move is “not saber-rattling in the collective bargaining round,” Reuters reported. Throughout its almost 90-year history, the carmaker has never closed a plant in its home country. The last time it shut down any of its facilities was in 1988 in the US. “It is a firm intention to let the locations’ regions bleed dry and the clear intention to send tens of thousands of Volkswagen employees into mass unemployment,” Cavallo said.

Her comments come as the automotive giant has been negotiating for several weeks with unions over plans to overhaul its business in order to remain competitive in light of weaker demand from China and Europe. She did not specify which of the ten Volkswagen plants operating in Germany would be shut down or exactly how many of its roughly 300,000 workers in the country would be laid off, but noted that all remaining facilities would be affected by the changes and that “none of them are safe.” Cavallo also stated that Volkswagen management is demanding a 10% pay cut and no pay raises for the next two years. Cavallo stressed, however, that the German government must urgently come up with a plan to ensure that the country’s economy does not “go down the drain.”

She noted that Volkswagen and other European companies are in agreement as to the nature of the problems they are facing, such as slower-than-expected electric transition as well as fierce competition from Chinese automotive brands entering Europe. “We are not far apart when it comes to analyzing the problems. But we are miles apart on the answers to them,” Cavallo said. Earlier this month, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that the German economy is expected to contract for a second year in a row as it struggles to keep up with soaring energy costs after cutting itself off from Russian gas. Over the past year, the German government has noted a 5.3% drop in the country’s industrial output as orders for domestic-made goods have also plummeted. Experts at the Berlin-based Forum for a New Economy have warned that Germany’s failures are expected to turn the 2020s into a “lost decade” for the country as it suffers “the worst economic downturn since World War II.”

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Oxi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850729272089924043

 

 

Makary

 

 

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850974386528166152

 

 

Crow
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850822295465369739

 

 

Peggy and Molly
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850930525021823087

 

 

Squid

 

 

Good old days

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 28 2024

Oct 282024
 
 October 28, 2024  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  71 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh On the Outskirts of Paris 1887

 

• CNN Data Analyst: Trump On Course To Win Popular Vote (MN)
• Desperate Deep State Wants War & Martial Law – Martin Armstrong (USAW)
• Musk Accuses Biden Of Lying About His ‘Illegal’ Work (RT)
• Musk Hopes To Cut US Budget By ‘At Least $2 Trillion’ (RT)
• Trump Promises Not To Fight Foreign Wars (RT)
• Former Vatican Ambassador: Kamala “An Infernal Monster Who Obeys Satan” (MN)
• Trump and Harris Are Fighting Over The ‘McDonald’s Vote’ (Marsden)
• US Unable to Operate Modified B-52s Before 2033 (Sp.)
• BRICS Summit Will Eventually Be Seen As A Milestone (Lukyanov)
• Americans Are More Dependent Than Ever on Government Handouts (ET)
• Gun and Torts Liability to Collide in Mexican Case Before the SCOTUS (Turley)
• UK Refuses To Discuss Slave Trade Compensation (RT)
• Serbian President Calls Russian Central Bank Chief ‘A Genius’ (RT)
• Zelensky Allows Foreign Mercenaries To Serve As Ukrainian Army Officers (RT)
• US Envoy’s Diplomatic Cover For Israeli Expansion (Raiss)
• A Stunning De-Capitation? The Netanyahu “Madness” (Alastair Crooke)
• Entire Northern Gaza Population At Risk Of Dying – UN (RT)

 

 

 

 

Maga

Trump ad

Jordan Peterson on Trump X-men team


https://twitter.com/i/status/1850290385597182100

Rogan after Trump

Trump ad

JD

Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850358797589508362

Macgregor

Virginia

Big Mike

O’Leary
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850493607477723225

 

 

 

 

Not at Polymarket. There, Trump is at 42% vs Kamala’s 58%. But the popular vote doesn’t decide the election.

• CNN Data Analyst: Trump On Course To Win Popular Vote (MN)

CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten suggested Friday that Donald Trump could be on course to win the popular vote on November 5th. That hasn’t happened for a Republican candidate for 20 years. If it happens, Trump will almost certainly win the electoral college and the election. Enten noted that a New York Times/Siena College poll was released last week showing Trump tied with Kamala Harris at 48% in the national popular vote. “Everyone has been talking about this idea that Trump may win in the Electoral College, but Kamala Harris may win the popular vote, but Trump may finally get his great white whale,” Enten stated. He added that Wall Street Journal and CNBC polls also have Trump ahead of Harris in the popular vote.

“Part of my job is to warn our viewers, on either side of the aisle, of an event that may occur, that they don’t necessarily like, and Donald Trump winning the popular vote could ABSOLUTELY happen,” Enten urged. He added “You might as well wrap your minds around it now folks if you don’t like Donald Trump,” noting that Democrat supporters heads are currently “exploding.” The RCP average has Trump in the lead for the popular vote for the first time in his political career by two points. If he did it, Trump would only be the second Republican in 36 years to win the popular vote.

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”This is why they want war . . . so they can default on everything. . . They take us to war, and there goes Social Security and everything else.“

• Desperate Deep State Wants War & Martial Law – Martin Armstrong (USAW)

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong says we are getting down to the wire with the 2024 Election, and the Deep State Dems are in panic mode. Could we have a false flag, martial law, debt crisis, default, war or all of the above? Armstrong says, “They want war. There is no question about that. . . . Lindsey Graham was on Face the Nation a couple of months ago, and he slipped and told the truth for once. He said there was a $10 trillion to $12 trillion natural gas asset under Crimea, and we can’t allow Russia and China to get that. . . . This is like Iraq. We are going after the oil.”

On martial law, Armstrong says, “I am very concerned about martial law. . . . They (Supreme Court) have kind of hinted that martial law is a common law type thing. When the courts are closed, then you have martial law. It is justified under ‘necessity.’ This is what the Supreme Court has said. So, I am very concerned that these neocons are so desperate that they are definitely going to try to create some sort of a false flag or anything they can do perhaps the last week in October going into the election.” On the war front, we just had Israel bomb Iran, and NATO is still poking Russia. Armstrong says, “NATO is a retirement home for neocons. It should have been shut down. They are trying to take the world into World War III. They are now raising a $100 billion so they can continue the war against Russia in case Trump is elected.”

Armstrong is still seeing Trump winning in 2024 in a “landslide.” Kamala Harris is going the other way. A few months back, Armstrong said Kamala’s real approval rating was 10.5%. Armstrong says he just ran new Kamala Harris approval ratings with his Socrates computer program. Armstrong says, “It’s actually down to 6.5% to 7.5%. It’s really appalling.” Armstrong says Kamala has “negative coattails,” which will spell big losses for Democrats down ballot in November. On the economy, Armstrong says, “We are in this debt Ponzi scheme where they issue new debt every year to pay off the old debt. People say the debt is $34 trillion, but the level of the debt does not matter.

It could be a quadrillion dollars. . . China holds 10% of America’s debt. They sold $53 billion at the beginning of the year. This is where the danger comes. If you don’t have someone to take up what China is not buying, guess what? You can’t pay, and when you can’t pay, that’s when a default comes. This is why they want war . . . so they can default on everything. . . They take us to war, and there goes Social Security and everything else.” On the 2024 Election, Armstrong says, “The 2024 Election will be the last election. . . The US will break up into three or four sections. . . We are committing suicide. . . This is how governments die. . . Gold goes up when people lose confidence in government. This is why central banks want gold. They are afraid of governments defaulting on their debt in war. . . In the war, we lose it next time. They want terrorism so they can lock us down. This is the future we face.”

Read more …

Talk about desperate. They trot out the alleged “US President” with complete lies… There’ll be more of this the next 10 days. Biden has nothing to lose, they can make him say anything.

• Musk Accuses Biden Of Lying About His ‘Illegal’ Work (RT)

Elon Musk has denounced Joe Biden for saying the businessman had been an “illegal worker” before he became the wealthiest man in the world. The incumbent US president was accusing the billionaire of being hypocritical regarding immigration. In response to the claims, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made posts accusing the incumbent president outright lying and saying “losing the election was making the Democrats desperate.” “I was in fact allowed to work in the US. The Biden puppet is lying,” Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “They know this, as they have all my records.” “So NOW he cares about illegals,” he quipped in conclusion. Biden’s remarks, made on Saturday, followed a Washington Post report that alleged, citing Musk’s former business associates, court records and documents, that the businessman obtained a work visa in 1996 after he had already been working in the country without one.

At the time, the billionaire was launching his startup Zip2, an IT-company that provided and licensed online city guide software for newspapers. “That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here when he was here,” Biden said at a campaign event in support of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “He was supposed to be in a school, when he came on a student visa. He was working. He was violating the law and he’s talking about all these illegals.” The tech entrepreneur, who is currently backing Republican candidate Donald Trump, had previously accused the Democrats of bringing a large number of illegal immigrants to swing states. Each of the two major US political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, dominates dozens of states in the country.

However, voters are more evenly divided in the remaining ‘swing’ or ‘battleground’ states, making them key to winning the election. “Triple digit increases over the past 4 years! Their STATED plan is to give them citizenship as soon as possible, turning all swing states Dem,” Musk stated earlier this week in a post on X. Musk, who had previously positioned himself as politically neutral, publicly endorsed the Republican nominee shortly after the failed assassination attempt on Trump on July 13. The former president has promised to create a new government post called ‘secretary of cost-cutting’ tailored specifically for Musk if he wins.

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“..the only thing we’ll be able to pay is interest.”

• Musk Hopes To Cut US Budget By ‘At Least $2 Trillion’ (RT)

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made an appearance at a Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, promising to save American taxpayers trillions of dollars under his hypothetical second administration. Despite previously proclaiming his political neutrality, Musk has leaned towards Trump in recent months, publicly endorsing him after the first assassination attempt. Following this, Trump promised that if he wins the November election, he will establish a “government efficiency” commission headed by the billionaire entrepreneur. As he walked on stage in New York on Sunday, Musk was asked, “How much do you think we can cut from this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?” “I think we can do at least $2 trillion,” Musk replied, eliciting loud cheers from the crowd.

“At the end of the day, all government spending is taxation. Whether it’s direct taxation or government spending, it either leads to inflation or becomes direct taxation.” Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that! We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook! When the former US president proposed creating DOGE, he stated it would be an independent force “tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for the drastic reforms we need.” Neither Trump nor Musk specified how exactly the panel would operate or which specific policies it would eliminate or implement.

The tech billionaire has repeatedly sounded the alarm over U.S. debt, warning just last week that the country is spiraling toward bankruptcy and will quickly go bust if Washington doesn’t curb its spending. In September, he wrote that every trillion dollars of debt added is money that “our kids and grandkids are going to have to pay somehow.” If debt continues to grow at this pace, Musk warned, the US will be trapped in a vicious cycle where “the only thing we’ll be able to pay is interest.” Earlier this month, Musk told American journalist Tucker Carlson that he has bet “all in” on Donald Trump winning the US presidential election in November; if Trump loses, he is “f**ked” and will probably end up in jail.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1850357346264101016

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“You don’t have to send your kids out to war, have your kid blown up for a country that you’ve never heard of, and that doesn’t want anything to do with you anyway.”

• Trump Promises Not To Fight Foreign Wars (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump promised not to send Americans to fight and die in countries they have never heard of while addressing a crowd in the battleground state of Pennsylvania this weekend. Speaking at a campaign rally on Saturday, Trump once again claimed he is the only one capable of preventing an all-out global conflict, arguing that his Democratic rival Kamala Harris “would get us into World War III, guaranteed, because she is too grossly incompetent to do the job.” “To make her president would be to gamble with the lives of millions of people. Sons and daughters will end up getting drafted to fight in a war in a country you’ve never heard of,” he said. In his nomination acceptance speech earlier this year, Trump vowed to “end every single international crisis that the current administration has created,” particularly the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.

He never offered specific plans to bring about world peace, but repeatedly warned that by supporting and financing “other people’s wars” under the leadership of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the US is increasing the likelihood of sliding into WWIII. Last week, Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform that “if Kamala gets four more years, the Middle East will spend the next four decades going up in flames, and your kids will be going off to war.” “But I will not send you to fight and die in a foolish, never-ending foreign war,” he told the crowd on Saturday. You don’t have to send your kids out to war, have your kid blown up for a country that you’ve never heard of, and that doesn’t want anything to do with you anyway.

The Republican has repeatedly promised to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of being elected, before even being sworn into office, by forcing both sides into negotiations. Harris, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, has criticized Trump’s approach, claiming he would essentially force Kiev to surrender. The Kremlin has cast doubt on Trump’s promises of peace, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggesting that he does not “think there is a magic wand” that can stop the fighting overnight. Trump also claimed that he could have prevented last year’s October 7 Hamas incursion into Israel, telling podcaster Joe Rogan that when he was president, he made sure Tehran had no money to fund its proxies.

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“The choice is between a conservative President, who is paying with his very life for his fight against the deep state, and an infernal monster who obeys Satan.”

• Former Vatican Ambassador: Kamala “An Infernal Monster Who Obeys Satan” (MN)

Former Vatican Roman Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò endorsed Donald Trump for president this week, urging that Kamala Harris represents “an anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, and anti-human vision of society.” Viganò, who was the Vatican’s ambassador to the US from 2011 to 2016, writes in a letter to Catholics “The choice is between a conservative President, who is paying with his very life for his fight against the deep state, and an infernal monster who obeys Satan.” “For a Catholic, there can be no question: voting for Kamala Harris is morally inadmissible and constitutes a very grave sin. Nor is it morally possible to abstain, because in this war declaring oneself neutral means allying oneself with the enemy,” he further asserts.

https://twitter.com/CarloMVigano/status/1848670426924302813

A vote for Trump “means firmly distancing ourselves from an anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, and anti-human vision of society,” Viganò continues, adding “It means stopping those who want to create a hellish dystopia that is even worse than the one announced by George Orwell.” Viganò urges that Trump is “the only possible choice to counter the globalist coup that the woke Left is about to implement definitively, irreparably, and with incalculable damage for future generations.” The former archbishop further describes Harris as a George Soros “puppet,” who is controlled directly by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Viganò was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in July after repeatedly voicing opposition to the current Pope and modern changes made to the Roman Catholic Church. He was extremely outspoken in opposing COVID vaccines, charging that public health authorities were conducting “experimentation on the entire world population,” and slamming the Catholic church for going along with it.

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“McDonald’s is acting like the country of Switzerland in a war – or a girl being fought over for a prom date.”

• Trump and Harris Are Fighting Over The ‘McDonald’s Vote’ (Marsden)

Times sure have changed. It used to be that US presidential candidates argued about who best served in the military. Now, it’s about who best served up fries. The “McDonald’s vote” has arguably never mattered more than it does in this election. Republican former (and potential future) President Donald Trump showed up at a McDonald’s franchise in Feasterville, Pennsylvania recently, tied on an apron and worked the drive-thru window serving up french fries. He joked that after 15 minutes, he had worked longer at McDonald’s than his Democratic opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, who had said that she worked at the world-renowned fast-food chain in her youth. An online army subsequently took to the review site Yelp in an all-out online assault against the restaurant that hosted the campaign stunt. “The atmosphere was creepy with a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist behind the counter. Yuk,” wrote one reviewer, referencing Trump’s legal woes.

“Customer service was a joke. Senile old man got bronzer on my fries, didn’t wear gloves. Repeated himself several times,” said another. “Usually I hold high praise for a company that employs the mentally impaired but this one seemed more off than usual,” added yet another. And it went on and on for pages…until Yelp disabled user submissions. It was Harris who first made the restaurant a campaign war zone. “I worked at @McDonalds when I was a student, doing french fries and ice cream. There wasn’t a family relying on me to pay the bills – but that’s the reality for too many workers today. Proud to stand with @SEIU today for livable wages and a safe working environment,” she tweeted in June 2024, addressing the two million nationwide employees of the Service Employees International Union. McDonald’s is acting like the country of Switzerland in a war – or a girl being fought over for a prom date.

“McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue – we are golden,” the company said in a statement. So, what’s the big deal about McDonald’s? It’s about more than just economic policy in an election where that’s the number one issue. “I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs,” Harris said, trying to explain in an MSNBC interview why she even brought up McDonald’s in the first place. But that doesn’t explain why McDonald’s strikes such a cultural nerve, or why that’s particularly the case right now.

North Americans, notably Generation X and older, relate to McDonald’s on a visceral level because of its cameo appearances in so many core memories. The birthday parties in the McDonald’s play park or caboose. Walking in the door under the Golden Arches at the crack of dawn after all-night high school graduation celebrations, passing friends dozing off with their heads on tables en route to buying some hotcakes and syrup. The community sports events featuring McD’s famously bright “orange drink.” Hitting the drive-thru after gymnastics practice to wolf down Big Macs to give hard working parents an affordable reprieve from cooking after a long day. Dates that consisted of a trip through the drive-thru for a picnic in a local park. Counting the minutes until Saint Patrick’s Day, because it meant mint green Shamrock Shakes. Looking forward to a first job experience working with friends from the neighborhood.

Those were the golden years of the Golden Arches, and of America, which are virtually synonymous with each other – as much in their former greatness as in their perceived decline. If things were still so great, then why is there so much nostalgia for those days? Now, people complain en masse about the ice cream machines being broken. The prices skyrocketed, with menu items costing on average 40% more just since 2019 alone, according to the company’s president himself. The cabooses vanished. McDonalds tried to be more sober and serious with its color scheme, making it seem less inviting and more like a Judgy McJudgerson, towards people going in for a quick sundae while dressed in a wet swimsuit and flip flops, with just a towel wrapped around your waist after swim practice (not that I would know anything about that).

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“..disruption of global supply chains, which forced US authorities to cannibalize parts from B-52s to keep others airworthy. Such cannibalization rates have grown 200% since 2019..”

• US Unable to Operate Modified B-52s Before 2033 (Sp.)

The newest B-52J variant of the US B-52 Stratofortress strategic aircraft won’t be complete until 2033, The National Interest reports. The modernization plan that would involve installing new Rolls-Royce F130 engines, enhanced Raytheon navigation systems and several other improvements was heavily criticized by the Government Accountability Office, which stated that the program failed to develop “formal cost or schedule estimates”, the National Security Journal reported earlier. Another issue the whole B-52 series faced, is the disruption of global supply chains, which forced US authorities to cannibalize parts from B-52s to keep others airworthy. Such cannibalization rates have grown 200% since 2019, the DefenseNews portal wrote. The B-52 bombers – one of three pillars of US nuclear triad – were first deployed 60 years ago, but the number of operable units has since dropped to less than 80.

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“..the main function of BRICS is its status as an anti-monopoly group, ensuring competition by restricting the monopolist, in this case on a global scale.”

• BRICS Summit Will Eventually Be Seen As A Milestone (Lukyanov)

This week’s BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, caused a stir, which is understandable. It was a major event in terms of both representation and concept. Everyone is free to evaluate it in their own way, but it cannot be dismissed an unimportant. If we turn away from the ceremonial and social part of the event, we should distinguish two aspects of the international assembly, which are related but don’t coincide. The first is meaningful measures agreed, or shall we say: concrete results, in the here and now. Here, a discerning commentator will notice that there are more declarations than practical plans. Ambitious areas of action have been declared, but only as tasks. There is a basic consensus on the issues discussed (an achievement in itself, given the very diversity of participants and guests), but in some places it’s very streamlined.

Finally, contrary to talk of BRICS ushering in a fundamentally new world order, the final declaration devotes considerable space to supporting the more effective functioning of existing institutions, from the UN Security Council to the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization. The second is long-term. In this respect, the Kazan forum may be seen as a milestone. BRICS has reached a new level, where a prestigious but rather amorphous club has now become a significant meeting place. It is necessary to be at the table because, firstly, important things are being discussed there and, secondly, a key global trend is taking shape. Namely, an alternative space to the one organized around the institutions (and interests) of the West. In a sense, the main function of BRICS is its status as an anti-monopoly group, ensuring competition by restricting the monopolist, in this case on a global scale.

The fight against cartels is never easy, in any context. It’s a long process, but it has begun and it’s actually developing faster than might have been expected. The conditions have been in place for some time. So, the main thing about BRICS, no matter how many problems and oddities arise in and around this community, is that it corresponds to the rationale of the development of the global system. The importance of progress along all these lines varies for different members of the association; for some it is a priority, for others it’s more like “why not?” But this difference of opinion does not change the direction of travel.

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“..interest payments on U.S. government debt increased from $31 billion in 1970 to more than $1 trillion today.”

• Americans Are More Dependent Than Ever on Government Handouts (ET)

Payments from the government have become the fastest-growing source of income for Americans, according to a new study. A report by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a public policy research organization, titled “The Great Transfer-mation,” states that Americans have become substantially more dependent on government support, with the share of national income coming from transfer payments more than doubling over the past 50 years. Transfer payment programs include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment and disability, food stamps, and veterans’ benefits. Transfer payments increased from 8 percent of U.S. total income in 1970 to 18 percent today, the report states, crowding out private income from wages and investments.

“There is a large range of experiences driving transfer reliance across communities,” Benjamin Glasner, EIG economist and one of the report’s authors, told The Epoch Times. “But it’s unavoidable to look at the fact that transfer reliance has grown rapidly across the country, and it’s something we need to deal with.” According to Federal Reserve data, government transfer payments increased from about $70 billion in 1970 to more than $6 trillion in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, before falling back to the current level of $4.3 trillion. According to the EIG report, if government transfer payments were spread evenly among all Americans, they would have amounted to an annual payment of $11,500 per person in 2022. One factor driving much of the shift from private income to government dependence is that the U.S. population is, on average, getting older.

According to demographic data from USAfacts, the percentage of Americans 65 years and older increased from 13.1 percent of the population in 2010 to 17.3 percent in 2022. During the same period, the percentage of Americans under the age of 20 fell from 26.9 percent to 24.4 percent. “The primary driver that we found in our report is demographic related, specifically the fact that the country has aged so rapidly,” Glasner said. “And the transfer programs that target that aging population also have grown significantly more expensive over time.” Of all government assistance payments in 2022, 56 percent went to the elderly, mostly for Medicare, the EIG report stated. Health care costs were a major factor, both because more Americans qualified for Medicare and Medicaid, and because the cost of medical treatment rose significantly. According to data compiled by Peterson-KFF, a health care policy analytics organization, total health spending in the United States was $74.1 billion in 1970.

By 2022 total health spending was $4.5 trillion, indicating an exponential increase in medical costs per capita. The growth in transfer payments have taken their toll on state and federal budgets. The 2024 Pension Solvency and Performance Report, authored by Ryan Frost and Mariana Trujillo for Reason Foundation’s Pension Integrity Project, stated that public pensions are increasingly falling behind on their ability to pay. As of 2023, the authors state, total unfunded public pension liabilities across the United States hit $1.59 trillion, and the median funded ratio was 76 percent. The U.S. federal deficit is currently $1.8 trillion, and interest payments on U.S. government debt increased from $31 billion in 1970 to more than $1 trillion today.

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Gun manufacturers.

• Gun and Torts Liability to Collide in Mexican Case Before the SCOTUS (Turley)

This month, there is a new case on the docket after the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. The First Circuit reversed a trial court that dismissed the case, alleging that the American firearms industry is legally responsible for violence in Mexico. I believe the First Circuit is dead wrong and will be reversed. However, as a torts professor, there is a question of whether the tort element of proximate cause could be materially changed in the case. Torts professors are already lining up to argue that there is a proximate cause under existing doctrines to hold the firearms industry. I respectfully disagree. In the petition, Smith and Wesson and other gun manufacturers challenge the claim, including the argument that their sale of lawful firearms in the United States is the proximate or legal cause for the carnage in Mexico. They note that Mexico has long been riddled with violence and corruption connected to the extensive drug industry in that country.

In my view, the trial court dismissed the case correctly under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). That was passed to bar suits against firearms companies based on criminals using these products for criminal or intentionally tortious acts. However, the First Circuit reversed on the ground that Mexico has made a legally cognizable case that gun manufacturers aided and abetted firearms trafficking that has harmed the Mexican government. The First Circuit is an outlier in this case and ignores both the purpose of the law and basic tort principles of proximate causation. The Court has accepted the review on two questions:

1. Whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States is the “proximate cause” of alleged injuries to the Mexican government stemming from violence committed by drug cartels in Mexico.

2. Whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States amounts to “aiding and abetting” illegal firearms trafficking because firearms companies allegedly know that some of their products are unlawfully trafficked.

PLCAA was enacted to require dismissal at the inception of lawsuits like this, and other courts have recognized that. The First Circuit’s decision creates a circuit split. Mexico’s complaint is wildly off base both factually and legally. It suggests that these companies are effectively funneling guns to criminal gangs in Mexico by producing products that they have used in criminal conduct. The First Circuit adopted an analogy that destroyed the credibility of its decision: Imagine that a U.S. company sent a mercenary unit of combat troops to attack people in Mexico City. Such an attack would directly cause Mexico itself the expense of paying soldiers to defend the city. Proximate cause would be quite clear. So, too, here, where the defendants are alleged to have armed the attackers for their continuing assaults.

Is that the best these federal judges could come up with? There is a vast difference between the United States sending a combat unit across the border and manufacturers who supply distributors who serve dealers who sell lawful products to consumers. That sounds more like The Merchandisers than The Expendables. PLCAA specifically bars any “qualified civil liability action” against gun manufacturers and licensees. Any action filed against a federal firearms licensee for damages or other relief resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm is expressly addressed in the statute under § 7902 of PLCAA: “A qualified civil liability action … shall be immediately dismissed by the court in which the action was brought or is currently pending.”

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$24 trillion.

• UK Refuses To Discuss Slave Trade Compensation (RT)

The Commonwealth of Nations has submitted a formal request for “discussions” with the UK on compensation for the transatlantic slave trade. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried but failed to keep the subject off the agenda of a major gathering in the Pacific island of Samoa. The Commonwealth is made up of over 50 countries, most of which are former territories of the British Empire. The UK has ruled out any money payment and so far refused to make a formal apology. Last year, the Brattle Group, an economic consulting firm, concluded that the UK owed more than £18 trillion ($24 trillion) in reparations for its involvement in slavery in 14 Caribbean countries. Starmer had previously rejected compensation talks, saying that the UK would neither be “offering an apology” nor paying reparations for the atrocities spanning three centuries.

However 56 member states signed a communique branding slavery a “crime against humanity.” It also calls for “discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement.” “The time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity,” the document states, adding that the leaders will continue to play “an active role in bringing about such inclusive conversations addressing these harms.” Earlier this month, British tabloid The Daily Mail claimed that a group of Caribbean countries were seeking “an astonishing £200 billion” ($261 billion) in compensation for slavery at the meeting in Samoa.

During a press conference after the summit, Starmer admitted that slavery was “abhorrent,” but refused to address the idea of a payout. “I should be really clear here, in the two days we’ve been here, none of the discussions have been about money. Our position is very, very clear in relation to that,” he said, maintaining that the summit’s agenda was mainly focused on “resilience and climate.” In August, UN judge Patrick Robinson said that the UK cannot ignore calls for slavery reparations, highlighting that the amount calculated by the Brattle Group was an “underestimation” of the damage caused by the discarded institution.

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“Vucic admitted that the tenacity of the “fantastic” Russian economy has been surprising.”

• Serbian President Calls Russian Central Bank Chief ‘A Genius’ (RT)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has lauded the work of Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina, noting that her country’s economy has remained buoyant despite the challenges it has faced over the past several years. The comment was made a day after the regulator raised its key interest rate by 200 basis points to a record high of 21%, citing persistent inflation that “considerably” exceeded its July forecast of 6.5-7.0% for this year. Commenting on the hike, Nabiullina said that inflation is projected to be double the regulator’s target of 4% annually, emphasizing that the bank remains committed to bringing it down to the target level. In a televised interview with TV Prva, Vucic admitted that the tenacity of the “fantastic” Russian economy has been surprising.

“I have to admit that I am surprised by the resilience of the Russian economy. Nabiullina is a genius,” the president said, while stressing that it is very difficult for the wartime economy to function under the current conditions. The head of state also said that he skipped last week’s BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan because of the “consequences” that could arise if other meetings were cancelled. Serbia’s delegation to the summit was led by the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, as well as Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic, Economy Minister Adrijana Mesarovic and Nenad Popovic, the minister who oversees international economic cooperation. Vucic expressed hope that he “retained the respect of both sides,” adding that Serbia’s policy will not change overnight.

Earlier this week, the president suggested that Serbia could have a referendum on joining BRICS in light of the economic bloc’s growing popularity in the country. According to research cited by Vucic, 42% of Serbs are in favor of integration with the EU, while another 42% are supportive of the idea of joining BRICS. The Balkan country applied to join the EU in 2009 and has been a candidate since 2012. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin has accused Brussels of moving the goalposts for accession, most recently by linking Belgrade’s membership to severing relations with Moscow. Despite mounting pressure from Brussels, Belgrade has opted to reject the sanctions imposed on Moscow by Kiev’s Western allies, officially pledging neutrality in the Ukraine conflict and maintaining trade relations with both Russia and the West.

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“The new law is aimed at tackling a shortage of commanding staff in Kiev’s armed forces..”

“A Ukrainian [officer] might feel sorry for another Ukrainian and not send him to a certain death. But this is not what Zelensky is being paid for..”

• Zelensky Allows Foreign Mercenaries To Serve As Ukrainian Army Officers (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has signed a law allowing foreign mercenaries to serve as officers in the country’s military during the conflict with Russia. The Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed the relevant legislation on October 10. On Friday, it was signed into law by Zelensky, according to the website of the Ukrainian government. The move means that foreigners who have a contract with the Ukrainian military can now become not only privates or sergeants, but also have positions of authority in the army, regardless of their citizenship. When the law was being discussed in September, the deputy head of the parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence, Egor Chernev, explained that it was needed to address the lack of commanding staff in the armed forces.

“We all understand the current situation with the officer corps. There are problems. Indeed, we have a shortage,” Chernev told the broadcaster Rada at the time. There is interest among former officers from foreign countries in joining the Ukrainian forces, he insisted. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested in a post on Telegram on Saturday that Zelensky signed the law “so that foreign commanders could finish off the Ukrainians more actively, by throwing them into ‘meat assaults.’” “A Ukrainian [officer] might feel sorry for another Ukrainian and not send him to a certain death. But this is not what Zelensky is being paid for,” she wrote. In March, the Russian Defense Ministry said that at least 13,387 mercenaries from foreign countries had arrived in Ukraine since the escalation between Moscow and Kiev began in February 2022.

Most of them were from Poland (2,960), Georgia (1,042), the US (1,113), Canada (1,005) and UK (822). According to the ministry, at least 5,962 of those soldiers of fortune have been killed in the fighting with the Russian forces. This spring, faced with manpower shortages, mounting losses and military setbacks in the conflict with Russia, Ukraine lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and significantly tightened mobilization rules, obliging potential recruits to report to conscription offices for “data validation,” which often means a trip straight to the front. Multiple videos have popped up on social media in recent months, showing conscription officers trying to snatch people in the streets, gyms and shopping malls.

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“..once an Israeli tank crewman, returned to Lebanon as a US envoy, not to protect peace but to redefine it on Tel Aviv’s terms..”

• US Envoy’s Diplomatic Cover For Israeli Expansion (Raiss)

On 21 October, Amos Hochstein, born in Israel in 1973 and once an Israeli tank crewman, returned to Lebanon as a US envoy, not to protect peace but to redefine it on Tel Aviv’s terms. The irony is undeniable: Israel, having lost 28 tanks in almost as many days during its latest invasion attempt, now sends one of its former tank crew members, not in battle, but in diplomacy – to achieve through words what military force could not secure: control over Lebanon through revisions to UN Resolution 1701. Hochstein’s mission may appear to be an act of diplomacy, but is it really about fostering peace? Or is he aligning with Israeli policy to reframe control while eroding Lebanon’s sovereignty? The diplomatic veneer only thinly conceals the underlying agenda of control.

The Israeli playbook of manipulating peace processes is nothing new. In a 2001 leaked video, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted about his manipulation of the Oslo Accords, using vague phrases like “military facilities” to tighten Israeli control over contested areas. Netanyahu openly stated, “America is something that you can easily maneuver,” hinting at the ease with which Israeli influence shapes US diplomacy – a dynamic that is evident today in Hochstein’s actions. The Israeli army veteran’s push for amendments to Resolution 1701 is a clear continuation of this strategy: advancing the occupation state’s interests under the guise of diplomacy from Washington. Just as Netanyahu reinterpreted the Oslo Accords to solidify Israeli control, Hochstein’s proposed changes to 1701 seek to turn it into a tool for extending Tel Aviv’s influence. This is not diplomacy for peace; it is diplomacy for power.

Resolution 1701, passed by the UN Security Council on 11 August 2006, marked a critical point for Israel, which found itself unable to defeat Hezbollah during the July War despite its advanced military capabilities. Brokered by then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the ceasefire allowed Israel a face-saving exit under the guise of diplomacy rather than face a prolonged, unwinnable battle. But the resolution has since been a point of ongoing contention – one Israel has repeatedly violated. One notable violation is Israel’s continued occupation of Shebaa Farms, which contravenes both Resolution 1701 and the earlier Resolution 425. Hezbollah’s decision to remain armed, often criticized internationally and in some quarters domestically, becomes a logical and legally justified response under international law, given Israel’s occupation of Lebanese land. The ongoing presence of Israeli forces undermines the very peace that Resolution 1701 aimed to establish.

Tel Aviv’s disregard for the resolution extends beyond territorial occupation. Since 2013, Israel has repeatedly violated Lebanese airspace to conduct strikes on Syria, treating Lebanon’s skies like an unguarded backdoor for foreign interventions. This belligerent behavior is akin to a trespasser using a neighbor’s yard to attack another – an act that undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty entirely. In August 2019, a significant escalation occurred when Israel launched a drone strike in Beirut, which then-president Michel Aoun condemned as a “declaration of war.” Moreover, Israel’s occupation of the northern part of Ghajar village further violates both the Blue Line and Resolution 1701. Despite UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces deploying south of the Litani River, Israel’s persistent refusal to withdraw ensures that peace remains elusive, leaving Lebanon under the constant threat of Israeli aggression.

The amendments proposed by Hochstein to Resolution 1701 reveal Israel’s broader strategy of using international mechanisms to further its objectives. These changes would extend UNIFIL’s jurisdiction two kilometers north of the Litani River, allowing international forces to conduct searches, patrols, and inspections without requiring approval from Lebanese authorities. These inspections can include searching vehicles, private properties, and suspected weapons sites. Effectively, this is a demand for Lebanon to cede control over its own territory – a clear infringement on its sovereignty. Under the guise of peacekeeping, this would grant Israel indirect control over Lebanon’s internal security dynamics, especially since intelligence for these operations may be influenced by, or even originate from, Israeli sources.

Brzezinski
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850312484198252597

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“Iran winning – the Resistance winning therefore – is very much a Russian interest..”

• A Stunning De-Capitation? The Netanyahu “Madness” (Alastair Crooke)

A major war between Israel and Iran is soon likely to erupt – so says Israel’s Defence Minister Gallant. It will be initiated when Israel launches its long mooted strike on Iran. Gallant has promised that Israel’s strike on Iran will be “lethal, precise and especially surprising”, adding that Iran “won’t understand what happened to it, or how”. ‘How’ so – an interesting choice of words. As of this morning, there is no sign of the lethal response promised by Gallant. It would appear that Israel which initially attached importance to responding swiftly and directly, is awaiting the THAAD anti-ballistic missile batteries to be set up – and for the U.S. troops that will operate them to arrive in Israel. THAAD likely is no ‘game-changer’. Iran proved on 1 October its ability to saturate and overwhelm Israeli Air Defence capabilities through two successive volleys of incoming ballistic missiles.

The point here about the THAAD arrival is that, on the one hand, Israel is running short of intercept missiles, and secondly, that drawing the U.S. into a war between the U.S. and Iran – is hugely more important for Netanyahu than keeping to timetable. The THAAD batteries paradoxically might do just that (draw the U.S. into the war). With U.S. forces now deployed on the ground in support of Israel’s military kinetic action against Iran, Israel effectively inserts an American ‘tripwire’ into the war drama: Should American soldiers be killed, then the U.S. is at war with Iran; It would feel bound to react forcefully to the deaths of American soldiers. Netanyahu has been wanting this war for 25 years. He can now see it taking solid shape – directly in front of his eyes. It comes too, from his perspective, at an benign juncture – just before the U.S. elections in which almost every candidate vies to pronounce his or her fealty to Israel.

To be clear, this is no ‘small beer’. It may evolve into a major conflict with Russia, should Tehran be threatened. Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its inhuman – beyond all Rules of War – bombing of civilians in Lebanon to force a terrorised submission, has turned Russia into a full partner with Iran. Russia therefore, has worked hard to supplement Iranian defences with their own top-of-the-line defence systems. Russia’s role however likely will be confined to providing Iran with this defence assistance: Russian ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance); its latest electronic warfare system; certain missiles; and possibly S-400 Air Defence missiles (though their arrival in Iran has not been confirmed). Russia will have a prime interest in observing how these weapons perform against an Israeli strike. Should they function well, it will provide a major boost to Russian general deterrence.

And here lies the key point: For Israeli Zionists and American neocons, the path to a de-fanged Moscow is viewed as passing through a de-capitated and defeated Tehran. Iran winning – the Resistance winning therefore – is very much a Russian interest. Excited by Israel’s de-capitation of much of the Hizbullah senior leadership, and heartened perhaps by unauthorised (and wrong) signalling from Iran that it might respond perfunctorily to an Israeli strike, Team Biden might well perceive a new Zionist-led Middle East about to be born. Will the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon intervene to stop the march to conflict – as they did over Blinken’s escalation plans in Ukraine? It seems unlikely. They have unreservedly supported Israel up to now. And they have agreed to send the THAAD batteries.

The Joint Chiefs certainly will have experienced the strong pro-Israeli sentiment in Congress, in marked contrast to the growing disenchantment with Ukraine. Yet, taking on Iran – supported by Russia and China – is no small thing: Is it truly ‘winnable’? What if it isn’t? What if Israel loses – and therefore America loses? It would be an earthquake; a humiliation that would shake the western world.

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“Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload..”

• Entire Northern Gaza Population At Risk Of Dying – UN (RT)

What Israeli forces are doing in besieged Gaza during their ongoing war against Hamas cannot be allowed to continue, the United Nation’s top humanitarian official has said. “The entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying,” Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, warned on Saturday, in a post on X (formerly Twitter). According to the official, hospitals in the region have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble amid ongoing Israeli military operations. “Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” she said, adding that “such blatant disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war must stop.”

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, echoed the warning, having voiced deep concerns over the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza. He also highlighted the severe impact of the ongoing hostilities on healthcare in the region. “Intensive military operations unfolding around and within healthcare facilities and a critical shortage of medical supplies, compounded by severely limited access, are depriving people of life saving care,” Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Saturday. The WHO Director-General added that Kamal Adwan Hospital in the city of Jabalia, one of the few functioning medical facilities in northern Gaza, has been severely impacted, with only a limited number of staff remaining to care for nearly 200 patients after the detention of 44 male personnel. Earlier this week, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave claimed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stormed the hospital, detaining hundreds of staff, patients and displaced people.

The IDF insisted it was operating in and around the facility based on “intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the area”. “In the weeks preceding the operation, the IDF facilitated the evacuation of patients from the area while maintaining emergency services,” it added in a post on social media on Friday. West Jerusalem has been repeatedly accused of indiscriminately targeting civilians in Gaza. According to the enclave’s health officials, over 42,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 97,000 wounded since the fighting between Hamas and Israel erupted in October 2023. The IDF has dismissed allegations of committing war crimes, arguing that Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields. More than a year into the conflict, around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, most of them multiple times, according to UN estimates.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Ioannidis

 

 

 

Coastguy


 

Kardashev
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850362331802554822

 

 

Chain reaction

 

 

Bubble

 

 

Potatoes

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 27 2024

Oct 272024
 
 October 27, 2024  Posted by at 9:17 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  56 Responses »


Joseph Mallord William Turner Sunrise over Plain, with Figures 1830

 

• Fever Dream (James Howard Kunstler)
• Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr. To Speak At Trump Rally At MSG in NYC (JTN)
• Kamala Rally Descends Into Complete Chaos As Beyoncé Doesn’t Perform (MN)
• Scott Rasmussen Says Trump Needs To Win A ‘Blue Wall’ State (JTN)
• Over 80% of Americans Support Voter ID and Proof of Citizenship Laws (Turley)
• Appeals Court: Mississippi Law Allowing Ballots After Election Day Illegal (ET)
• Trump Discussed A Wide Range Of Topics For 3 Hours On The Joe Rogan Show (JTN)
• Bravo, WaPo: Ending Media Endorsements Could Help Restore Trust (Turley)
• Trump Reveals His ‘Biggest Mistake’ (RT)
• Trump, Former White House Staffers Reject John Kelly’s ‘Fascist’ Claims (ET)
• Judge Throws Out Vote Payment Allegations Against Elon Musk (ET)
• BRICS Banknotes’ Hidden Meaning Revealed by Creator (Sp.)
• Iranian Media & Pundits Mock ‘Nothingburger’ Israeli Attack (ZH)
• Boeing Could Offload Space Business – WSJ (RT)
• Zelensky Knows The Game Is Up (Shumov)
• The Atlantic Council Has Big Plans For A War Between The US And Iran (Smith)

 

 

 

 

Rogan Kamala

JFK files

Shanahan The Big Cheat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849970454963925408

Elon Freedom

DOGE

Taxes

Trans

 

 

 

 

“The army, under Department of Defense directive 5240.01 has just been licensed to gun you down.”

And Uncle Sam sleeps in a drainage ditch on the ragged edge of Palookaville…

• Fever Dream (James Howard Kunstler)

“The American ‘Left’ is fully exposed now as a demented, vicious, abusive animal of traumatizing narcissism.” — Celia Farber

Do you hear that lonesome whistle blow? Wooooo-wooooo! It’s the last train to Palookaville pulling into the station. At this late hour, two passengers get on: Kamala Harris, mom jeans and blazer, rheumy red eyes, half-gone on chardonnay. . . and an elderly gentleman with a goatee in a colorful but shabby red-white-and-blue suit, famous long ago as “Uncle Sam.” There’s an election on, in case you haven’t noticed, imminent even. Kamala, everyone seems to agree, has blown it. Can’t answer simple questions pitched by friendly ringers in the “news” business. Hiding somebody else’s agenda is a tough assignment, you see. All she can really do is cackle or simper and, let’s face it, that gets humiliating fast. Joy has turned to despair. Her punched ticket says “one way.” Whose idea was it, anyway, over at party HQ, to put her up to this contest?

She wishes she knew, as she gazes out the window at the sad lights of the little towns streaking by — East Chugwater, Erehwon, Tanktown, Loserville, onward into the night to the end of the line. How’d they manage to yank her out of the Naval Observatory, where she was comfy and cozy watching Netflix rom-coms with Doug, chardonnay refills on-demand, all the Doritos a gal could munch? She was a lover, not a fighter, she repeats to herself, but the self-consolation doesn’t quite avail. Uncle Sam sits stoically five seats behind her. He is resigned, knowing very well why he is on that train, too. His own country is sending him into exile after swindling him out of his history and his posterity. He doesn’t even recognize the place anymore. What happened to Sandburg’s city of big shoulders? Who turned the fruited plain into a hellscape of muffler shops?

How did the heroes of Iwo Jima transition into a legion of TikTok influencers with pierced faces and scrambled brains? When the train gets in, he has no place to go. Perhaps he’ll sleep in a ditch. You entertain these drear hallucinatory conceits despite the giddiness about Donald Trump’s seeming triumph over adversity — botched assassinations, court cases hatched by malice-crazed ninnies, blob-generated calumnies, conspiracies, ops, and hoaxes galore. And for Halloween, they painted a Hitler mustache on him, just for fun. It remains to be seen what marvels of ballot legerdemain have been concocted by Marc Elias, Esq, lawfare artist supreme, destroyer of the nation’s faith in itself. But say Mr. Trump overcomes even the planned epic voter fraud to capture the prize. What then? You’re entitled to feel nervous. The army, under Department of Defense directive 5240.01 has just been licensed to gun you down.

This is a new thing. Now isn’t it a queer moment in history for a move like that? What are they expecting, anyway? And, by the way, who exactly is the varlet in the chain-of-command who issued that directive? (Or did it just bubble-up out of the ruling blob like some sulfurous gas from a Yellowstone fumarole?) People of good faith have reason to believe that the country is about to be blown apart. By another odd coincidence, an outfit called the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International (AFCEA) has scheduled an “exercise simulating a cyber-attack on critical infrastructure” for November 5 in Atlanta, Georgia. That’s election day. In a big swing state. Whose idea was that? Is there already not enough that might go wrong that some treasonous moron had to kick the risk of fiasco up another notch? Or might it be cover for another Three Card Monte caper with the Georgia votes?

This is the sort of thing that will dog poor old Uncle Sam’s mind as he tries to fall asleep in that drainage ditch on the ragged edge of Palookaville.

Read more …

All together now.

• Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr. To Speak At Trump Rally At MSG in NYC (JTN)

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s upcoming rally at Madison Square Garden will feature, among others, speakers Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump is planning to hold the rally in New York City on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET. Other speakers include former Democratic Hawaii Congresswoman turned Republican Tulsi Gabbard, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The total list provided by the campaign includes 30 names. As Election Day gets closer, both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Trump have been ramping up their campaign stops. Harris held a rally in Houston, Texas, Friday with music star Beyonce, while Trump recently got the endorsement of country singer Jason Aldean in Georgia. Trump went on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast Friday and the episode already has over 10 million views.

Read more …

Not even 1 in 100 were there for Kamala.

• Kamala Rally Descends Into Complete Chaos As Beyoncé Doesn’t Perform (MN)

The Kamala Harris rally in Houston last night was billed as a Beyoncé concert. Everyone, including the media, believed the singer would perform after the announcement was made earlier in the week, but all she did was walk out and make a barely audible speech for a few minutes. Then the rally descended into complete chaos.This is the extent of her appearance:

Firstly, you can’t hear a word she’s saying. What’s so difficult about taking a direct feed from the microphones? It seems some outlets got the feed but others didn’t. What a mess. Secondly, 30,000 people showed up and waited in line because they believed it was a Beyoncé concert. A million people tried to get tickets because they thought it was a Beyoncé concert.

So when it wasn’t, people were pissed. The rally then descended into absolute chaos as some people left, while others kicked up a fuss about Beyonce not singing. The media spun this as Trump supporters ‘protesting’, and Harris repeated a line about showing them the way to the “smaller rally down the road,” referring to Trump’s event. But the fact is, they weren’t Trump supporters, they were just pissed off that they’d been misled. Perhaps the most hilarious aspect of this was that the performance they actually got was 91 year old Willie Nelson.

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Polymarket suggests that won’t be a problem.

• Scott Rasmussen Says Trump Needs To Win A ‘Blue Wall’ State (JTN)

Pollster Scott Rasmussen on Friday said current polls show former President Donald Trump having “the edge” in Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona, but that he would need one of the “blue wall” states in order to secure victory in November. The election is considered too close to call this far out, with the election coming down to seven critical swing states. Those states consist of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The three “blue wall states” are Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

“Looking at the latest data… If the election were held today, [Donald Trump] would likely win,” Rasmussen said in a post to X. “Trump has edge in key swing states of GA, NC, [and] AZ. That would get him to 262 Electoral College votes. He would then need to win just one of the three Blue Wall states.” Rasmussen said Vice President Kamala Harris would need to “pull the political equivalent of an inside straight,” which means a clean sweep of the blue wall states, in order to win the election.

The Napolitan Institute warned on Friday that one of Trump’s biggest threats is voter turnout, especially in swing states like North Carolina, where voters could be impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Bad weather, such as blizzards in Northern states, could also negatively impact voter turnout, which would likely hurt Trump more than Harris. The group also warned that some polls might underestimate Harris’ appeal, which could bring more voters to the polls than expected.

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“In the meantime, the Biden Administration is continuing to oppose and legally challenge efforts of states like Virginia to remove alleged non-citizens from their voting rolls.”

• Over 80% of Americans Support Voter ID and Proof of Citizenship Laws (Turley)

This week, I wrote about polls that show the public is not buying the apocalyptic predictions of the imminent death of democracy unless Kamala Harris is elected president. Now, a new poll shatters another main talking point of pundits and the press. Democratic candidates, including Vice President Harris, have denounced voter identification laws as “Jim Crow 2.0” attacks on voters. A majority of voters have long supported these laws. According to a new Gallup poll, that majority is now a supermajority. Despite unrelenting attacks on these laws in the media, eight in ten Americans now support both laws:

With less than two weeks to go in the presidential campaign and voting already underway in many states, 76% of U.S. adults favor the concept of early voting. Two other election law policies are supported by even more Americans — requiring photo identification to vote (84%) and providing proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time (83%). … Majorities of Americans favor a range of election law policies that expand voters’ access to the ballot box, including early voting, automatic voter registration, and sending absentee ballot applications to all eligible voters.

They also broadly support measures to limit fraud and ensure election integrity, including requiring photo identification to vote and providing proof of citizenship when first registering to vote. There are few major political issues today that could show this type of overwhelming support, including from Democrats. Yet, both the Democratic politicians and pundits continue to denounce these laws. Indeed, the campaign against Georgia resulted in their losing the All-Star Game and its economic benefits. Yet, under these laws, Georgia is setting records in the turnout of voters. In the meantime, the Biden Administration is continuing to oppose and legally challenge efforts of states like Virginia to remove alleged non-citizens from their voting rolls.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1850082849246019854

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It’s all only designed to cheat.

• Appeals Court: Mississippi Law Allowing Ballots After Election Day Illegal (ET)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit released an opinion on Oct. 25 stating that federal law requires mail-in ballots be counted no later than election day. In doing so, it ruled against a Mississippi law allowing ballots to be counted if they arrived no more than five days after the election and if they were postmarked on or before the date of the election. The opinion, which came less than two weeks before the 2024 elections, redirected the case back to the lower court while refraining from issuing an injunction that would halt Mississippi’s law. The policy was adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the state kept it after the pandemic ended. “Because Mississippi’s statute allows ballot receipt up to five days after the federal election day, it is preempted by federal law,” Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in his opinion for the court.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley called the decision on the social media platform X a “seismic win for fair, accurate, secure, and transparent elections.” Justifying the decision to throw the decision back to the lower court, rather than block Mississippi’s law, Oldham referenced a Supreme Court precedent that cautions against last-minute changes to election procedures. “Today’s decision says nothing about remedies,” he said. “We decline to grant plaintiffs’ initial request for a permanent injunction. … Instead, we remand to the district court for further proceedings to fashion appropriate relief, giving due consideration to ’the value of preserving the status quo in a voting case on the eve of an election.’” He was quoting another fifth circuit case but also referenced the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in Purcell v. Gonzalez. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson had told the Fifth Circuit that an election was voters’ “conclusive choice of an officeholder,” which took place on election day.

“That is so even if election officials do not receive those ballots until after election day,” his brief to the court read. “An election does not itself require ballot receipt.” Oldham and two other Trump appointees, Judge James Ho and Judge Kyle Duncan, heard oral arguments over the issue in September. The Republican National Committee (RNC) had appealed the decision of a lower court that ruled in favor of Mississippi. Oldham reasoned that the Constitution granted Congress authority over elections through two provisions, including one that allows Congress to alter the timing of federal elections hosted by states. Oldham drew a distinction between the timing of ballot counting and ballot casting. “Even if the ballots have not been counted, the result is fixed when all of the ballots are received and the proverbial ballot box is closed,” he wrote. “The selections are done and final.”

Virginia

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“Trump praised former independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., saying that Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled about their partnership.”

• Trump Discussed A Wide Range Of Topics For 3 Hours On The Joe Rogan Show (JTN)

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump covered a wide range of topics on the hugely popular “Joe Rogan Experience” Friday during a nearly three-hour interview. Rogan has an audience of about 14.5 million on Spotify and 17.6 million on YouTube, according to Fox News. He is the most-listened-to podcast host, and is considered very influential with young male voters, a demographic that Trump is attempting to reach during the remaining days of the presidential campaign. The episode already has over 10 million views. Among the topics they discussed were his opponent, Kamala Harris, in the race for the White House. They discussed his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan by the Biden administration, his former National Security Advisor John Bolton, how liberals became pro-censorship of online speech, and his relationship with Robert Kennedy Jr.

Rogan asked Trump if Kennedy Jr. would definitely be a part of his next administration. He showed Trump charts that he said showed “there are chemicals and ingredients in our food that are illegal in other countries because they’ve been shown to be toxic.” He asked Trump if he was pressured not to work with Kennedy Jr. Trump praised former independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., saying that Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled about their partnership. After Kennedy Jr. dropped out and endorsed him, Trump said that if he got another term, Kennedy Jr. would be a part of the administration and would be focused on reforming government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration. “But I would say that the Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled when they heard that,” Trump answered, according to Fox News. “I’ve actually always gotten along very well with him. I’ve known him a long time.

He’s a different kind of a guy. He’s very smart, great guy, and he’s very sincere about this. I mean, he really is. You know, he thinks we spend a fortune on pesticides and all this stuff, and then you end up at that chart…” Kennedy Jr. has been focused on Big Food and getting toxic chemicals out of what Americans eat. He recently coined the term “Make America Healthy Again.” “There’s pesticides and herbicides, and there’s a lot of sh– that’s been sprayed on our food that really is unnecessary,” Rogan said. “And there’s a lot of health consequences.” He added that Kennedy recently told him that “more than 70% of young men are ineligible for the military because of their health.” On another topic, Rogan asked Trump about referring to Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man.”

“I said, ‘Little Rocket Man, you’re going to burn in hell.’ And it was rough,” Trump said. “I got to know him better than anybody, anybody. And I said, ‘Do you ever do anything else? Why don’t you go take it easy and relax? Go to the beach?’ You know, kiddingly, I said, ‘You’re always building nuclear. Just relax. You don’t have to do it. Let’s build some condos.'” And regarding his opponent in the upcoming election, Kamala Harris, Trump described her as a “very low IQ person.” “There’s the rhetoric is also that you’re Hitler and that in order to stop Hitler, you have to do whatever,” Rogan said. “I mean, you’re hearing this now, Kamala compared you, said you love Hitler yesterday.” “Kamala is a very low IQ person. She’s a very low IQ. You know, I’m for taking tests too. I think anybody that runs for president should take, they should give them a test,” Trump said.

Read more …

True, but not why he did it. Bezos is simply afraid of being caught on the wrong end of a landslide.

“Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

• Bravo, WaPo: Ending Media Endorsements Could Help Restore Trust (Turley)

As someone who used to write regularly for the newspaper, it has been a long time since I have had an occasion to say this but . . . Bravo, Washington Post. This week, the Post announced that not only would it not endorse a candidate this year, but it would not do so in the future. Over two decades ago, I wrote a column calling for newspapers to end the practice of all election endorsements. (Yes, before all things seemed to turn on how you feel about Donald Trump). I have continued to push the press to abandon this pernicious practice. When I first came out against political endorsements, the media had not taken the plunge into advocacy journalism, which is now strangling the life out of this industry. As former New York Times writer (and now Howard University journalism professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones has declared that “all journalism is activism.”

After a series of interviews with over 75 media leaders, Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, reaffirmed this shift. As Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, stated: “Objectivity has got to go.” The result has been the plummeting of trust in the media to an all-time low. Revenues and readership are falling as outlets struggle to survive. Yet, reporters are still refusing to reconsider the abandonment of neutrality and objectivity. Recently, Post owner Jeff Bezos brought in Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis, who promptly delivered a truth bomb in the middle of the newsroom by telling the staff, “Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

The response was calls for Lewis and other editors to be canned. These reporters would rather give up their very jobs than their bias. Now Lewis is under fire again after announcing, “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.” The Washington Post Guild immediately went ballistic at the thought of not openly supporting Kamala Harris, though many would point out that the Post has hardly been subtle in its coverage on that point. The Guild expressed alarm at the thought of leaving readers to reach their own conclusions “a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election.” According to the staff, the Post needs “to help guide readers,” and “according to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos.”

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“The biggest mistake I made, was I picked… a few people that I should not have picked..”

He needs to ask for advice on his picks. RFK and Musk are good for that.

• Trump Reveals His ‘Biggest Mistake’ (RT)

Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has told podcaster Joe Rogan that his “biggest mistake” was making a number of wrong personnel decisions during his time in the White House between 2017 and 2021. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Saturday, Trump insisted that his was a “great presidency” but pointed out that it could have been even better if he had surrounded himself with different people. “The biggest mistake I made, was I picked… a few people that I should not have picked,” he said. When asked by Rogan if he was talking about the neocons (neoconservatives), the former president said: “Yes, neocons, or bad people, or disloyal people.” “You are reading about them a little bit today. A guy like Kelly, who is a bully, but a weak person,” he said.

Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly recently gave several interviews in which he claimed that, during his time in office, his 78-year-old commander-in-chief had praised Hitler in private and said “more than once” that the infamous leader of Nazi Germany “did some good things.” While the Trump team has denied the claims outright, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris took the opportunity to brand her Republican rival a “fascist” and a would-be dictator. His other questionable choice, Trump recalled on the podcast, was appointing arch-hawk John Bolton as his National Security Advisor, Trump acknowledged. “Bolton was an idiot, but he was great for me,” he said. “He is a nutjob, and every time I had to deal with a country – when they saw this whack job standing behind me – they said: ‘Oh man, Trump is going to go to war with him,” the former president said.

Bolton “was with [US president George HW] Bush when they went stupidly into the Middle East [in 1990]. They should have never done it. I used to say it as a civilian,” he added. Trump fired Bolton in September 2019 after 18 months in the job, saying that he “disagreed strongly with many of [the adviser’s] suggestions.” Speaking about claims by former chief of staff Kelly with CNN earlier this week, Bolton warned that a Trump victory in next month’s election would be “dangerous” for America. However, he rejected accusations of the former president being a “fascist.” According to the hawk, in order to be one “you have to have a philosophy. Trump’s not capable of that.”

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“This is the kind of inflammatory poison that divides our nation and inspires assassins.”

• Trump, Former White House Staffers Reject John Kelly’s ‘Fascist’ Claims (ET)

Former President Donald Trump and previous members of his administration say that claims made by former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are “patently false.” Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, worked for the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. He has spoken out multiple times against Trump during the election—most recently in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic. In those interviews, Kelly said Trump fitted the general definition of a fascist and alleged that the former president said he wanted “German generals,” like Nazi leader Adolph Hitler had. Several members of the Trump administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Mike Ayers, have sharply disputed the claims. “I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore,” Ayers said on X.

“I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*” Mark Paoletta, general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also spoke out against Kelly, writing on X: “I don’t believe a word he says. He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from the President to pursue his own agenda.” Trump himself denounced the stories on Oct. 23, saying Kelly “made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.” “Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH,” Trump said on Truth Social and X. Both of Kelly’s interviews came out less than two weeks before Election Day, at a time when early voting is underway across several states, and Trump is starting to take the lead in battleground state polls. Vice President Kamala Harris followed Kelly’s two stories by stating at a CNN town hall that she believed Trump to be a fascist.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded directly to these comments on X, saying, “This is the kind of inflammatory poison that divides our nation and inspires assassins.” The Atlantic also claimed Trump made disparaging remarks about a dead military servicemember and balked over her funeral expenses. At a news conference in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25, the former president also strongly denied making those claims. “If they didn’t get the military funding, I was going to fund it myself,” Trump said about the funeral for Vanessa Guillen, 20, who was murdered in 2020 while stationed at an Army base in Texas that was then called Fort Hood. Guillen’s slaying and dismemberment led to an outcry over sexual harassment at U.S. military bases, resulting in changes to laws and discipline of 21 Army personnel; some were faulted for allowing the prime suspect in her killing to escape and commit suicide.

On Friday, Trump thanked Guillen’s family for publicly denouncing The Atlantic’s allegations. The family came to show support for Trump as he addressed reporters at Million Air Austin, a private airplane service. “The beautiful thing is that these people [Guillen’s relatives] were willing to come out and say it didn’t happen… they didn’t have to do this,” Trump said. Guillen’s sister, Maya Guillen, and the family’s attorney, Natalie Khawam, made social media posts and TV appearances asserting that the article contained inaccuracies and misrepresentations. Trump pointed out that the Atlantic’s article was timed to appear just before the Nov. 5 election, increasing the likelihood that a certain percentage of readers would believe what the magazine reported and hold it against his candidacy. “So I talk about it because it was a terrible thing,” Trump said about the article after touching on multiple other topics, including illegal immigration and election integrity.

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“Here, the injury claimed is unrelated to the conduct alleged in the complaint and the relief sought therein..”

• Judge Throws Out Vote Payment Allegations Against Elon Musk (ET)

A federal judge has turned away allegations that billionaire Elon Musk violated the law when he started giving $1 million away to registered voters. California resident Aaron Greenspan in a lawsuit filed over the summer accused Musk of violating state laws and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. In a recent emergency motion, Greenspan, who founded the company PlainSite, said Musk’s newly announced million-dollar giveaways to voters in swing states violated federal law that prohibits paying or offering to pay people to either register to vote or vote. Greenspan said that Musk, who has endorsed former President Donald Trump, should not be “permitted to continually violate federal law and swing the election.” He asked the court to order Musk to stop violating the law.

U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney on Oct. 22 denied the motion. She pointed to a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that concluded there must be a relationship between an injury claimed in a motion for injunctive relief and the conduct asserted in the underlying lawsuit. “Here, the injury claimed is unrelated to the conduct alleged in the complaint and the relief sought therein,” Chesney said. Musk’s lawyers noted that the giveaways were only open to people who signed a petition in favor of free speech and the right to bear arms and that the petition itself says it is only open to registered voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. “Plaintiff’s motion fails for numerous reasons, including that Plaintiff has no standing, the requested relief bears no relationship to Plaintiff’s complaint, and Plaintiff fails to meet his burden to establish a private right of action under Section 10307(c),” the lawyers said.

“Even if the Court were inclined to consider the merits, Plaintiff does not establish any of the elements required to obtain emergency relief. He fails to show he is likely to prevail on his claims; he does not establish a likelihood of imminent, particularized harm; and, rather than show that the balance of equities and public interest favor his position, he seeks a prohibited prior restraint on Musk’s political speech, including through a vague demand to enjoin ‘interfering with the voting preferences of any individual.‘ Musk’s political action committee on Thursday gave away $1 million to a Wisconsin man, and $1 million more to a Michigan man.

Read more …

100% symbolic. But there will be an “overarching” digital currency, to accomodate trade.

• BRICS Banknotes’ Hidden Meaning Revealed by Creator (Sp.)

The main motif of the symbolic BRICS banknotes that were unveiled at the summit in Kazan is equality and multipolarity, says Evgeny Fedorov, CEO of ARM-Registr – the company that designed the notes. He tells Sputnik that the very way a banknote’s value is denoted four times is meant to display multipolarity because “BRICS is literally a multiverse.” “It is a multipolar banknote by itself,” Fedorov explains. “This associative meaning is ingrained in the note. This is what BRICS original members are talking about, what the world is concerned with today.”

The depiction of BRICS member states’ totem animals on the 200 BRICS banknotes also holds a greater meaning, he points out. “I believe that BRICS is a Noah’s Ark of sorts, meant to save humanity from something terrible that rapidly approaches,” Fedorov says. “These totem animals are protective charms that symbolize the idea of salvation. The idea of a communal ark in which we all are sailing, that we are responsible not just for the people of Earth but for the environment and the animals as well, for everything. This is a huge metaphor and BRICS members, political leaders, journalists and regular folks may find new meanings in it.”

The banknotes also feature depictions of the “most popular symbols” of BRICS countries such as the Moscow Kremlin or the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. The banknotes will also feature depictions of BRICS members flags, Fedorov adds: one side will feature images of the BRICS founding members’ flags (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) while the reverse will be subject to change as flags of all the new BRICS members, whenever they may join the group, will be added there.

Read more …

Israel declaring the response “concluded” looks like the same that Iran did.

• Iranian Media & Pundits Mock ‘Nothingburger’ Israeli Attack (ZH)

The Israeli ‘retaliation’ attack against Iran, which occurred in the overnight and early morning hours, appears to be complete, with Israel’s military (IDF) having declared the response “concluded” after locations in three provinces of the Islamic Republic were hit. Some 100 Israeli warplanes were sent, primarily across Jordanian airspace, for the unprecedented attack which reportedly included strikes on key missile, drone, and other military sites – including air defense installations. However, Iranians are mocking it as if it didn’t even happen, and there’s an emerging consensus among Western pundits that this was remarkably limited in scale. The attack did not involve Iranian nuclear or oil sites, according to Israeli military officials. IDF Spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said overnight – following at least two or three waves of attacks –

“I can now confirm that we have concluded the Israeli response to Iran’s attack against Israel. We conducted targeted and precise strikes on military targets in Iran, thwarting immediate threats to the State of Israel.” And Hagari’s words concluded with the threat of new major escalation if Iran decides to respond militarily, “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond. All those who threaten the State of Israel and seek to drag the region into wider escalation will pay a heavy price.” Local reports of explosions near Tehran emerged at around 2:15 local time, with strikes later being reported also in the Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz areas. Israel’s military said it hit around 20 sites over the several hours across the three provinces. ”

If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond,” the Israeli military said. Israeli media indicated that while the first wave of warplanes took out anti-air defense sites, follow-up waves targeted ballistic missile and drone manufacturing facilities, as well as launch sites. Israeli officials say the operation sought to degrade Iran’s capability to launch another attack such as occurred on April 14 and October 1. The operation was declared complete within a few hours of reports of initial explosions:

The Israeli military said at 6 a.m. that the assault had been completed, with “all goals achieved” and all aircraft returning safely home. It dubbed the campaign “Days of Repentance,” a reference to the recent Yom Kippur holiday. It said dozens of IAF aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes, participated in the “complex” operation some 1,600 kilometers from Israel. Iran has only confirmed that “limited damage” resulted at some bases and asserted that its air defenses countered many of the attacks, a narrative which has been rejected by Israel. Israel’s air force touted that it gave it pilots “wider freedom of aerial action in Iran” – and yet still the whole operation looked significantly less intense than Iran’s Oct. 1st attack on Israel.

Read more …

“Boeing had been in contact with potential buyers, including the Blue Origin company owned by Jeff Bezos..”

• Boeing Could Offload Space Business – WSJ (RT)

Boeing is considering the sale of its NASA business, including the troubled Starliner program and the support operations to the International Space Station (ISS), The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The corporation is expected to retain its position in some of the space-related programs, namely the Space Launch System (SLS), a super-heavy expendable launch vehicle used by NASA, the sources told the WSJ. The SLS, the key component of the agency’s Moon exploration plans, successfully performed its first flight two years ago. However, production of the rocket has faced assorted troubles and quality control issues. The less successful programs, including the ill-fated Starliner ship, designed to transport crews of up to seven to and from the ISS, could end up sold off, the sources claimed.

The spacecraft was originally planned to become operational in 2017 but has been repeatedly delayed over assorted engineering and management problems. The latest crew flight test, launched in June, resulted in partial failure after the spacecraft’s thrusters malfunctioned on approach to the ISS, and it was deemed too risky to return its astronauts aboard the ship, which ultimately returned to Earth uncrewed in September. The potential sale of its space-related assets comes as a part of the strategy of Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who is seeking to streamline the corporation and cut its financial losses. However, Boeing had been in contact with potential buyers, including the Blue Origin company owned by Jeff Bezos, even before Ortberg took over in August.

The new CEO signaled the corporation was due for a major overhaul, during a call with analysts and investors earlier this week. While the production of military and commercial aircraft will remain at the company’s core, it could ditch “some things on the fringe,” Ortberg stated. “It’s going to take a lot of work. We’re not going to be able to just wave a wand and clean up these troubled contracts. We signed up to some things that are problematic,” he warned, stating that Boeing would be “better off doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well.” The corporation has been experiencing an enduring financial crisis, with its defense and space projects troubled by repeated cost overruns and delays, while airliner production has effectively ground to a halt in a weeks-long machinists’ strike.

Read more …

“Western countries are doing everything they can to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia..”

• Zelensky Knows The Game Is Up (Shumov)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has finally unveiled his ‘victory plan’ which is supposed to help Kiev win the war against Russia. Ukrainians themselves were the last to learn the details, but now it has been completely disclosed, except for a few classified points. And it’s probably not going to go down in history as a substantial document. Zelensky demanded that Western powers endorse his plan within three months. However, the ‘victory plan’ seems too far fetched for his backers to approve.

Point one: NATO membership
The first point states that Ukraine must receive an immediate invitation to join NATO, even as the conflict continues. While the bloc’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte insists that Kiev is likely to join at some point in the future, he has been more restrained about commenting on Zelensky’s proposals. “That doesn’t mean that I here can say I support the whole plan […] there are many issues,” he said. In fact, two issues stand out. Firstly, Ukraine is currently engaged in active combat on its own territory. This would present a significant dilemma for NATO if it were to be admitted. Strangely enough, the bloc’s own charter doesn’t contain an obligation to immediately attack the adversary of one of its members. Article 5 states that it “will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force.”

In other words, NATO would not be immediately obliged to fight for Ukraine should Kiev accede. However, if a NATO member can be attacked without consequences, it’s going to look like a paper tiger. This is where the real problem lies: Western countries are doing everything they can to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, and admitting Kiev dramatically increases the risk of such a clash – or, at the very least, severely damages their credibility. Meanwhile, the West is already providing military aid, financial support, and training to Ukrainian troops without directly involving NATO. As for Russia, it will not tolerate Ukraine’s membership of any Western military bloc. In fact, one of the initial reasons for the February 2022 military offensive was because Moscow feared that Kiev could join such an alliance. Thus, accepting the first point of Zelensky’s plan would symbolize the end of any potential diplomatic solution, forcing all parties to recognize that negotiations are not a possibility.

JD Ukr
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850151846628692169

Read more …

“To be clear, the council is not only interested in Ukraine and Russia. They’re happy to embroil Americans in a larger war wherever they can.”

• The Atlantic Council Has Big Plans For A War Between The US And Iran (Smith)

Globalists as an organized entity have a habit of shifting their efforts between various false-front institutions in order to avoid significant scrutiny. For example, in 2020 they ramped up the fear machine on the covid pandemic and the World Economic Forum took a lead role in that effort. Klaus Schwab was all over the media using covid as an excuse to promote every authoritarian measure imaginable. When that agenda failed (lockdowns blocked, mask mandates ignored, vaccine passports defeated and the CDC caught inflating vaccination numbers), the WEF and Klaus Schwab conveniently disappeared from the media radar. When globalists tried to permanently establish ESG as a way of life for corporations, they introduced the Council For Inclusive Capitalism, run by Lynn de Rothschild and partnered with the Vatican. When ESG was exposed for what it really is (a bridge to full bore communism in which corporations enforce far left social engineering), the CIC vanished from the limelight as quickly as they appeared.

That said, there is one globalist group that has consistently been in the background during most of these operations – The Atlantic Council. Whenever there’s a propaganda push in play to misdirect the western public, whenever there’s a policy initiative to take away your freedoms, whenever there’s a regional war that might explode into a world war, I always end up finding the fingerprints of the Atlantic Council. The council was deeply involved in covid propaganda from 2020 onward and they also have their hands in climate change propaganda, but their bread and butter is regional proxy wars. In my recent article ‘Globalists Are Trying To Escalate The Ukraine War Into WWIII Before The US Election’, I outlined how the council is deeply interwoven into the escalation of the Ukraine war through their Eurasia Center and their Scowcroft Center. They have been stoking conflict in the region for at least a decade with the intention of drawing NATO forces into a direct confrontation with Russia. In a report published by the Atlantic Council in 2014 titled ‘A Roadmap for Ukraine: Delivering on the Promise of the Maidan’, the group notes:

“Last fall, as Ukrainians massed on the Maidan to demand a better government and closer ties to Europe, the Atlantic Council began to mobilize on Ukraine. An Atlantic Council delegation visited Warsaw and Kyiv in March to map out our strategy, and during the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the Council that same month, we launched a one hundred- day campaign to galvanize the transatlantic community behind Ukraine’s democratic future in Europe. As the crisis worsened, we convened at the highest levels, making vital connections between Ukrainian, American, and European policymakers and thought leaders. We deployed our substantial expertise to launch “red team” exercises that anticipated Russia’s actions and outlined strategies to respond to likely scenarios. Our rapid response working groups (“tiger teams”) made recommendations on issues fundamental to Ukraine’s success. An Atlantic Council delegation delivered this report, which brings all of these findings together, to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and other leaders in Kyiv the first week of July. The findings are also being shared with American and European policymakers…”

On Ukraine’s security policy, the Council advised both NATO and Ukraine officials. The document goes on to outline how NATO could covertly and overtly engage with Ukraine to strengthen their chances of joining with the EU over time; a move which Vladimir Putin claims was one of the very reasons for his invasion of the Donbas. Finally, the paper described how NATO could foster a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine without directly declaring war on Russia. As the Council states: “Russia’s aggression provides an opportunity of strategic clarity and urgency that should be used to expedite building a robust, modern, and capable Ukrainian defense and security establishment…” I believe the Atlantic Council is a root instigator behind every globalist scheme to trigger a larger war between the East and the West. Their ideal scenario seems to be the creation of a proxy conflict that acts as a first domino in a chain that leads to world war, a bit like DARPA’s “Linchpin Theory” which I have written about in the past. To be clear, the council is not only interested in Ukraine and Russia. They’re happy to embroil Americans in a larger war wherever they can.

Read more …

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Blacks

 

 

Pharma lawyers

 

 

Graphic
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850153250319638731

 

 

Mobility

 

 

Strength

 

 

Play date

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 26 2024

Oct 262024
 
 October 26, 2024  Posted by at 8:42 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  100 Responses »


Joseph Mallord William Turner The Sun Rising over Water 1825-30

 

• WaPo Bails On Kamala – Won’t Make Presidential Endorsement (ZH)
• Preparing for the Steal (TON)
• Hillary Clinton: Trump Is Reenacting 1939 Madison Square Garden Nazi Rally (MN)
• Elon Musk Makes Major Donations To Help Republicans Take Back The Senate (JTN)
• ‘Secret Putin-Musk Calls” Claim By WSJ Dismissed By Kremlin (RT)
• Trump Requests Dismissal Of January 6 Case Over Jack Smith’s Appointment (JTN)
• Trump Open To Pardoning Hunter Biden (RT)
• Projected Trump Victory Driving Demand For Dollars – Standard Chartered (RT)
• Arizona Officials: Nearly 2 Weeks to Tabulate 2024 Election in Maricopa (ET)
• Judge Rules Bill Gates Must Face Vaccine-Injured in Dutch Court (Nevradakis)
• West Has Self-Isolated and Condemned Itself to Irrelevance – Doctorow (Sp.)
• BRICS+, What’s Next? (Pacini)
• UK Military ‘Not Ready To Fight’ – Defense Secretary (RT)
• British Government’s Investigation Of Novichok Is Poisoning Itself (Helmer)
• UK Snubs Council of Europe Over Assange Inquiry (DC.UK)
• This Is an Extermination’ (Muaddi)
• Kill Them All: Israel’s Extermination Of Palestinians In Gaza (Cradle)

 

 


Kirzhach Typography BRICS banknote design

 

 

Beck Rogan

 

 

Full 3 hour interview.

 

 

O’Leary

Vivek

Tulsi

Mika

Atlantic

Hillary
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849679481620865142

Elon nazism

Nordstream
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849701546683990305

 

 

 

 

It’s Bezos of course. Doesn’t want to be on the losing side. “..for the first time in 36 years. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates..”

• WaPo Bails On Kamala – Won’t Make Presidential Endorsement (ZH)

Three weeks ago, the Teamsters Union became the second major union to announce that they would not endorse a presidential candidate after internal polling revealed 58% of its members back Trump vs. 31% for Harris. That was understandable – their own members overwhelmingly rejected Harris. This is different. On Friday, the Washington Post announced that it would not endorse a candidate for president either, for the first time in 36 years. “The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” the outlet said in a statement. Colleagues are said to be ‘shocked’ at the decision, according to NPR.

The editorial page editor, David Shipley, told colleagues that the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, would publish a note to readers online early Friday afternoon. Shipley told colleagues the editorial board was told yesterday by management that there would not be an endorsement. He added that he “owns” this decision. The reason he cited was to create “independent space” where the newspaper does not tell people for whom to vote. Colleagues were said to be “shocked” and uniformly negative. Post corporate spokespeople have not responded to multiple messages left by NPR on the subject. As NPR’s David Folkenflik notes on X, “It is not clear whether Post owner Jeff Bezos or Publisher/CEO Will Lewis made the call.” The move comes after the Los Angeles Times similarly declined to endorse Harris – leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor, Marzel Garza.

Read more …

“..a hand count of all ballots [..] could create chaos and confusion on Election Day..”

• Preparing for the Steal (TON)

Georgia, the site of massive election misinformation, questionable results, incomplete audits and a mysterious come-from-behind razor-thin win by Joe Biden in 2020, appears to be at it again. Or perhaps we should say Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is at it again. Kylie Jane Kremer brought the matter to our attention through a series of posts on X. As Kremer notes, “Raffensperger sent an email, in a private capacity, that went to a list of trial lawyers across Georgia soliciting $5 million by November 1st to help in his effort for a 501(c)4 called “Election Defense Fund”, asking lawyers to donate or contact him via his private gmail account & personal cell phone number.” In the email, Raffensperger claimed that “Election deniers and conspiracy theorists have taken their anger to new levels, employing a variety of tactics including intimidation, legal challenges, and rule changes.

“In Georgia they have threatened, harassed, and sued election officials. And as you know, most recently the Georgia State Election Board was taken over by three individuals who have pledged to put partisanship over sworn duty.” Raffensperger appears to be referring to (and trying to intimidate) the three Republican members of Georgia’s five -person State Election Board, Dr. Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King. Raffensperger also appears to be attempting to intimidate and silence anyone who might challenge the outcome of Georgia’s 2024 presidential election. On September 20th, Johnston, Jeffares and King voted in favor of requiring a hand count of all ballots to ensure that the number of physical ballots equaled the machine count total at the precinct level. This new rule was opposed by Georgia state elections officials, including Raffensperger, who said it could create chaos and confusion on Election Day.

In advance of the vote by the State Election Board, Raffensperger issued a formal statement, claiming that “Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers… misguided attempts by the State Election Board will delay election results and undermine chain of custody safeguards. Georgia voters reject this 11th hour chaos, and so should the unelected members of the State Election Board.” If you find it odd that Raffensperger would refer to his three fellow Republicans as “activists” while he worked to thwart common-sense changes that would dramatically increase the security of Georgia’s 2024 election, you’re not alone.

Raffensperger was apparently so concerned that he rushed to CNN-affiliate WSB, breathlessly claiming that “the State Election Board wants to take us back in time. I guess what they want is to see elections take until 3 a.m. like in Detroit, Michigan. We don’t want to do that in Georgia. Not on my watch.” Although the move by the three Georgia Republicans had the support of President Trump, lawsuits were immediately filed – and on October 16th a Georgia court blocked the rule changes, inexplicably declaring that they were “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”

Read more …

Are they sychronizing these claims?

• Hillary Clinton: Trump Is Reenacting 1939 Madison Square Garden Nazi Rally (MN)

Bitter presidential loser Hillary Clinton has claimed that Donald Trump is purposefully reenacting a 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. Appearing on CNN, Hillary stated “One other thing that you‘ll see next week is Trump actually re-enacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939.” “I write about this in my book,” she added, hawking her turgid scribe. “President Franklin Roosevelt was appalled that neo-Nazi fascists in America were lining up to essentially pledge their support for the kind of government that they were seeing in Germany,” Hillary declared. So basically she’s saying that everyone who goes to Trump rallies is a nazi because she disagrees with their politics.

This stuff doesn’t work on anyone anymore. It actually just helps Trump now. Every time they say this, it exposes them. As we previously highlighted, a New York State Senator attempted to get the event at Madison Square Garden shut down, also equating it to the infamous Nazi rally. Democrats bravely defending democracy again by attempting to shut down the free speech of a major political party’s presidential nominee. The Senator claimed that the Trump event will “incite violence” and demanded (his actual words) that the venue cancel it to “keep our city safe.”

Read more …

At Polymarket, the Senate looks in the bag. The House, not so much.

• Elon Musk Makes Major Donations To Help Republicans Take Back The Senate (JTN)

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk has made multi-million dollar donations to help Republicans win back the Senate in November, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. Musk has emerged as a major voice for conservatives this election cycle, having aligned himself closely with former President Donald Trump. Musk, who purchased X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, gave Trump his social media account back shortly after buying it, and endorsed the former president in August. The multi-billionaire donated $10 million to the Senate Leadership Fund on Oct 1, according to Politico, and $2.4 million to The Sentinel Action Fund, which is a super Political Action Committee (PAC) that has been promoting several GOP Senate candidates. The Senate Leadership Fund is connected to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Republicans are hoping to keep control of the House and win back the Senate next month. They only need to flip two Senate seats in order to win the upper chamber. Musk also gave $300,000 to a group connected to the National Republican Congressional Committee in August. The money comes as the tech CEO builds his own super PAC called “America PAC,” which has devoted its resources on canvassing operations for Trump. Musk has poured $75 million into the PAC. Musk is worth an estimated $269 billion as of Thursday, according to Forbes. The bulk of his finances comes from Tesla, where he owns 13% of the shares. But he also owns a good share of SpaceX, which is worth over $200 billion.

Read more …

Another weird story.

• ‘Secret Putin-Musk Calls” Claim By WSJ Dismissed By Kremlin (RT)

A article in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Elon Musk has secretly made contact with Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials is untrue and is most likely linked to the entrepreneur’s involvement in the US presidential election, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. The American billionaire and the Russian president had a single phone call before the Ukraine conflict escalated into full-blown hostilities in February 2022, Peskov told journalists, repeating what he had told the WSJ. ”Most likely, it’s just disinformation in the extremely confrontational electoral political fight [in the US]. The race is in its final phase, and the opponents do not shy away from anything,” the official suggested. The WSJ piece published on Thursday, mostly detailed Musk’s role as a private contractor for the US military and national security state, his stance on the Ukraine conflict and support for the Trump reelection campaign.

The newspaper claimed that the billionaire’s public statements about resolving the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, which he has been making since late 2022, “mirrored some aspects of the Kremlin’s” position. The article cites “current and former US, European and Russian officials” who allegedly claim the calls, “a closely held secret in government,” have taken place. Several White House officials also reportedly told the outlet they weren’t aware of such contacts. The only Russian source cited in the text is a “former intelligence officer briefed on the situation,” who claimed that late last year Putin asked Musk not to activate the Starlink satellite system in Taiwan as a favor to Beijing. Musk’s SpaceX has no license to provide internet services in Taiwan, the newspaper noted.

In addition to Putin, the report claims that Musk has also been in contact with former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Kirienko, who currently serves as deputy head of the presidential administration. The billionaire declined to comment on the allegations, the WSJ said. Just weeks ago, there were allegations that Trump had been secretly in touch with Putin, and now it is Musk, Peskov told reporters, referring to a book by US journalist Bob Woodward, in which he claims a source told him that since leaving office, the Republican politician has spoken to the Russian leader on multiple occasions. Trump and Putin have both denied the claim.

Read more …

“Trump’s lawyers claimed that Smith was appointed by Garland as a “private citizen.”

• Trump Requests Dismissal Of January 6 Case Over Jack Smith’s Appointment (JTN)

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump on Thursday asked a judge to dismiss the January 6 case against him, arguing that special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed, according to The Hill. Smith was not confirmed by the Senate but was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith has been leading two investigations into the former president, including a classified documents case that was dismissed earlier this year. However Smith is appealing the dismissal. The request was made to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., and centers around the same argument made in the classified documents case. Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that no legal statute gave Garland the authority to give Smith the amount of power he has as special counsel, and that the appointment violated the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.

Trump’s lawyers claimed that Smith was appointed by Garland as a “private citizen.” “The proposed motion establishes that this unjust case was dead on arrival — unconstitutional even before its inception,” Trump’s attorneys wrote on Thursday. “Everything that Smith did since Attorney General Garland’s appointment, as President Trump continued his leading campaign against President Biden and then Vice President Harris, was unlawful and unconstitutional.” Trump is currently facing four charges in D.C., related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Smith has until Oct. 31 to file a response.

Read more …

Hunter must hope Trump wins: “[Joe Biden] is “not going to do anything” to help his son and has ruled out exonerating him”.

• Trump Open To Pardoning Hunter Biden (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has stated that he might consider pardoning Hunter Biden if he is reelected in November. Hunter Biden was found guilty in June of three felonies in a federal gun trial, including lying about his use of illicit drugs when applying to purchase a firearm. Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, with his sentencing to be determined in a hearing scheduled for November. Last month, the 53-year-old also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges, and potentially faces an additional 17 years in prison. Following the verdict, US President Joe Biden has said that he respected the judicial process and was “satisfied” that his son had received a fair trial. He also noted that he is “not going to do anything” to help his son and has ruled out exonerating him.

Speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Trump was asked if he would pardon Hunter Biden. The former president replied by stating that he “wouldn’t take it off the books,” despite the US Justice Department initiating multiple legal challenges against him, which Trump has described as a form of retribution by his political opponents. Earlier this year, a Manhattan jury found the Republican candidate guilty on 34 felony counts related to alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riots. The former president recalled that unlike his opponents, he had refrained from prosecuting his rival Hillary Clinton following the 2016 election despite his supporters asking him to. “I could have gone after Hillary,” Trump said, noting that he ultimately decided against doing so because he thought it “would look terrible.”

Trump noted, however, that Hunter Biden has been “a bad boy” and that “all you had to do is see the laptop from hell.” At the same time, he pointed out that the whole story revolving around the US President’s son is “very bad for our country.” In 2020, the contents of Hunter Biden’s personal laptop, which he supposedly misplaced in a Delaware repair shop while high on crack, were leaked online, implicating the Biden family in multiple foreign corruption schemes. US intelligence officials have since tried to denounce the scandal as “Russian disinformation” despite the contents of the laptop having been verified as authentic.

Read more …

“The dollar has strengthened along with the rising probability of a Trump win in betting markets..”

• Projected Trump Victory Driving Demand For Dollars – Standard Chartered (RT)

Increasing belief on the financial markets that Donald Trump will win the US presidential election next month has been strengthening the dollar, Bloomberg has reported, citing British multinational bank Standard Chartered. Recent polls suggest that the Republican and his Democratic rival, Vice-President Kamala Harris, are tied with less than two weeks to go before the election. According to the bank’s calculations however, 60% of the greenback’s gains in October are linked to growing wagers that the former president will win the November 5 vote, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. “The dollar has strengthened along with the rising probability of a Trump win in betting markets,” the outlet reported, citing a note by Steven Englander, head of global G-10 FX research at British multinational bank Standard Chartered.

Markets are pricing a 70% chance of a Trump win, added Englander. The world’s largest prediction platform, Polymarket, is attributing a near 64% probability that Trump will become the next US president. According to market research project PredictIt, Trump has a 58% chance of winning the election. The US national currency has risen by nearly 3% against the Euro in the past month, with Bloomberg reporting earlier that the greenback was on pace for its best month since 2022. While the election race has reportedly been the main driver for the dollar, other factors include the resilience of the US economy and a strong US jobs report from earlier this month, noted Bloomberg. Before the previous presidential election in 2020, markets expected that Joe Biden, rather than Trump, would win and offer fiscal stimulus. The expectations weakened the dollar in October of that year.

Read more …

Before you know it, people think this is normal.

• Arizona Officials: Nearly 2 Weeks to Tabulate 2024 Election in Maricopa (ET)

Officials in Arizona’s most populous county warned on Oct. 22 that it may take between 10 and 13 days to tabulate the results of the Nov. 5 election. County officials are asking “for the community’s patience,” Maricopa County Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer said in a press conference on Oct. 22. “This year, we do expect that it will take between 10 and 13 days to complete tabulation of all of the ballots that come in,” she said. “We want to make sure that this is a secure process, but we also want to make sure that it is an accurate process.” Assistant Maricopa County Manager Zach Schira said at the press conference, “If I have one message for voters here today, it is this: that the longer ballots and higher interest in this 2024 general election will create longer lines on Election Day, and that’s okay.” Schira said that if people want to avoid the long lines, they are advised to vote by mail or early in person.

Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said the tabulation may take so long because the ballot is two pages, there are dozens of contests per ballot, and there is heightened interest in the presidential election. He said more than 2.1 million Maricopa voters are expected to cast their ballot for the Nov. 5 contest, noting that 400,000 people so far have voted. The “top message for voters” on Oct. 22 is “if you want to save time and avoid lines, vote early,” the county wrote on social media platform X. Voters have until Oct. 25 to request an early ballot, it noted. Early voting data compiled by the University of Florida show that Republicans have a 38,000-vote advantage in terms of early voting in Arizona. Only mail-in ballots have been returned so far, but the data show that 41.9 percent of early ballots have been submitted by Republicans, compared with 36.3 by Democrats. Independent or third-party voters make up about 21.8 percent of the total.

Arizona, considered a battleground state, is again expected to be a close race during the 2024 election. State election officials in 2020 certified the race in Arizona for Joe Biden over President Donald Trump by a margin of about 11,000 votes. In the aftermath of the 2020 contest, Trump and other Republicans alleged that Arizona’s election was marred by voter fraud, sparking a number of lawsuits against Arizona and Maricopa County officials that were all ultimately dismissed. For that election, county officials certified the results 17 days after Election Day, according to a statement issued on Nov. 20, 2020. A significant number of voters cast ballots early in person or by mail in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay-at-home and lockdown orders and rules.

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The case includes Bourla, but not Von der Leyen?!

• Judge Rules Bill Gates Must Face Vaccine-Injured in Dutch Court (Nevradakis)

A Netherlands judge last week ruled that Bill Gates must face seven people injured by COVID-19 vaccines in court in the Netherlands. According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the seven “corona skeptics” sued Gates last year, along with former Dutch prime minister and newly appointed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and “several members” of the Dutch government’s COVID-19 “Outbreak Management Team.” Other defendants include Albert Bourla, Ph.D., CEO of Pfizer, and the Dutch state. “Because Bill Gates’ foundation was involved in combating the corona pandemic, he has also been summoned,” De Telegraaf reported. According to Dutch independent news outlet Zebra Inspiratie, the plaintiffs allege that Gates, through his representatives, deliberately misled them about the safety of the COVID-19 shots, despite knowing “that these injections were not safe and effective.”

Dutch independent journalist Erica Krikke told The Defender that the seven plaintiffs — whose names are redacted in the lawsuit’s publicly available documents — “are ordinary Dutch people, and they have been jabbed and after the jabs they got sick.” Krikke said that of the seven original plaintiffs, one has since died, leaving the other six plaintiffs to continue the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Leeuwarden. According to De Telegraaf, “Gates had objected because, according to him, the judges did not have jurisdiction.” Accordingly, the court first “had to rule in the so-called incident procedure,” De Andere Krant reported. Zebra Inspiratie reported that the hearing in this “incident procedure” took place on Sept. 18 and that Gates’ representatives disputed jurisdiction, but not the claim. According to De Andere Krant, Gates was represented by the Pels Rijcken law firm, based in The Hague, described as “the largest and the premier litigation law firm in the Netherlands.”

Gates did not appear at the Sept. 18 hearing, but attorneys for Gates argued that the court “had no jurisdiction over him because he lives in the United States.” However, in its Oct. 16 ruling, the Leeuwarden court ruled it does have jurisdiction over Gates. De Andere Krant reported that the court found “sufficient evidence” that the claims against Gates and the other defendants are “connected” and based on the same “complex of facts.” Other defendants who reside outside of the Netherlands, including Bourla, did not challenge the court’s jurisdiction. The court ruled Gates must pay attorneys’ fees and additional legal costs totaling 1,406 euros (approximately $1,520). A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 27. ‘Even if … your name is Bill Gates, you still have to go to court’ In remarks shared with De Andere Krant, Arno van Kessel, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, welcomed the ruling. “In its verdict, the court has clearly recorded the basis of our conclusions of claim,” van Kessel said.

Dutch attorney Meike Terhorst told The Defender it is “quite interesting” that the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in Leeuwarden instead of The Hague, where normally, all cases against the government related to COVID-19 are filed. “In general, COVID-19 court cases have been very unsuccessful in the Netherlands,” Terhorst said. “There is a slim chance it will be successful.” She added: “I think most judges support the COVID-19 vaccination agenda and will find it hard to believe the vaccinations have caused injuries. So, we have a long way to go, regardless of the case.” Krikke shared a more optimistic outlook, saying that the court sent a message that “even if you are rich and your name is Bill Gates, you still have to go to court.” New Zealand-based independent journalist Penny Marie, who has closely followed the proceedings in this case, told The Defender she hopes the Oct. 16 ruling “will hopefully set a precedent and help plaintiffs in similar cases around the world regarding jurisdiction,” in cases “where the defendant does not reside in the country of the plaintiff.”

“For parties who make claims against those involved in the implementation of the Great Reset and other international actions, such as the COVID-19 emergency response initiated by the WEF [World Economic Forum] and imposed on all U.N. member nations, I hope that this ruling provides an opportunity for others to follow suit,” Marie added. At the Sept. 18 hearing, plaintiffs also delivered statements. According to Zebra Inspiratie, “One of the victims, who is very ill, was also given the opportunity to make a plea. She was no longer able to speak and was represented by her father. It was an emotional plea.” Krikke said the plaintiff’s father told the court that his daughter, who was previously healthy, fell ill after getting the COVID-19 vaccine and could no longer speak, telling the judge that he “would really like to speak to Bill Gates directly” to ask him what happened to his daughter. “After that, the judge was really quiet,” Krikke said. The Oct. 18 ruling also addressed the plaintiffs’ claims about Gates’ role in the WEF’s “Great Reset” project.

“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also affiliated with the World Economic Forum … an international organization whose statutory objective is to unite ‘leaders from business, governments, academia and society at large into a global community committed to improving the state of the world,’” the ruling states, adding: “This is a project aimed at the total reorganization of societies in all countries that are members of the United Nations … as described by [WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab] in his book Covid-19: The Great Reset. … “Characteristic of this political ideology is that this forced and planned change is presented as justified by pretending that the world is suffering from major crises that can only be solved by centralized, hard global intervention. One of these pretended major crises concerns the Covid-19 pandemic.” The ruling also states, “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is affiliated with ‘Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance‘ … an international partnership in the field of vaccinations between various public and private entities.”

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“That day will come very early in 2025 if Trump wins on 5 November; it will come with a slight delay in 2025 if Harris wins..”

• West Has Self-Isolated and Condemned Itself to Irrelevance – Doctorow (Sp.)

International relations analyst Gilbert Doctorow, in an interview with Sputnik, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s firm stance at the recent BRICS summit, highlighting Russia’s growing influence on the global stage despite Western efforts to isolate the country. Doctorow pointed out that the success of the summit, which brought together nations representing nearly half of the world’s population, demonstrates Russia’s strong global posture and the failure of anti-Russian sanctions. “Because of the important guests, numbering more than 25 heads of government, it has been impossible for major media in the West to ignore BRICS and Russia,” Doctorow said, noting how this undermines the narrative of Russia’s supposed isolation. The analyst further speculated how Russia leveraged its BRICS presidency to advance innovative goals, such as establishing commodity exchanges and a reinsurance pool, positioning the country as a constructive leader.

Doctorow emphasized that these achievements send a clear message: “Russia is not isolated; on the contrary, the Collective West has self-isolated and condemned itself to irrelevance.” “The BRICS message of a multipolar world, of respect for the sovereignty and unique cultures of each nation will surely have an impact on Europeans’ perception of Russia and of themselves,” Doctorow added, stressing the long-term significance of BRICS in shaping global politics. The analyst also predicted the Ukraine crisis will conclude in 2025, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election. “This will be all the more the case when the United States puts an end to the Ukraine war by withdrawing its financial and military assistance to Kiev. That day will come very early in 2025 if Trump wins on 5 November; it will come with a slight delay in 2025 if Harris wins because Congress will resist any further appropriations to Kiev,” Doctorow speculated.

Isolated

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“This is waging information warfare.”

• BRICS+, What’s Next? (Pacini)

The hype created for BRICS during this year has surpassed that for the U.S. elections, the outcome of which now will not be as binding as before. This is a fact. When 2024 opened, many were concerned about the great risks involved, having as many as 76 countries in the world in election session, with the U.S. dominating. The rhetoric of the hegemon, however, no longer works as it used to. Until a few years ago, everything that happened in the U.S. was of global interest, the press was ready to devote front pages and social media was filled with dedicated content, while financial markets went crazy at the slightest sign of instability or danger. Everyone was hanging on Lady USA’s every word. That is no longer the case today. One of the great successes in the infowarfare undertaken by the BRICS countries under Russia’s presidency is to have ousted America from its media centrality. Or, rather, at the center it has remained only in vassal countries, such as Europe or the Commonwealth.

But the rest of the world is no longer so interested, and the rest of the world is the majority of the world. This is a detail that needs more attention. True, the U.S. alone has a great deal of power, certainly greater than a great many other states; but the geometries of power vary cyclically, as History teaches us, and all empires sooner or later must come to terms with their denouement. The strategy undertaken, hand in hand with the geo-economic strategy, meant that the media attention of the “rest of the world” was tuned to facts and events that concerned the rest of the world, no longer the Hegemon. There’s a rest of the world, indeed, there is the world and the United States, and the West. The world is no longer “the West” to which “the rest” is added. The perspective has changed. In the media language it was a small semantic revolution whose echo will be ever greater.

The primary effect was a kind of disorientation, because people were not used to emphasizing news from certain areas of the planet. Nor was there sufficient training to do so. So it was that the BRICS countries first launched a series of national platforms for analysis and dissemination of information, and then started a BRICS-branded information apparatus, which was already very detailed, widespread and accurate, providing for the technical training of professionals. It was a matter of having to teach how to tell the world without being seduced by the mythological sirens of the Atlantic. The side effect is that a new generation of experts is on the horizon of a world to be described with different eyes, and as is well known, the main power of the mass media is to tell the world, that is, to give an image of it, describe it, create thought forms of what the world is and how to imagine it for the future.

The result we can say has been positive: in the countries of the multipolar world there is no longer the “America first” rule, and come the end of October there is no need to talk about the U.S. elections as the event of the year. On the other hand, one is aware that Harris or Trump, the problem of the U.S. remains the same, and in any case, neither competitor has any intention to dethrone Zionism, nor to participate at the Pax Multipolaris table. Still on infowarfare, Russia has played a master game. We had already talked about this months ago: the repeated announcement of the new BRICS currency with partial gold base, then of BRICS Pay, then of UNIT replacing SWIFT, then of the financial operations of the New Development Bank, repeatedly occurred always and only in conjunction with particular moments when the dollar market was to be destabilized, creating difficulties for the U.S.-U.K. and favoring BRICS investment and the process of de-dollarization.

It was very obvious and almost trivial that these new systems would not be activated as early as this year, because they require millimeter planning and transition times that are not immediate, especially since we are dealing with a large number of states with different currencies, different laws, different trade. The important thing to do was to promote the new system, scare the opponent, destabilize the market, persuading more and more countries to leave the orbit of a Western-centric system that is collapsing. This is waging information warfare.

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“..very skilled and ready to conduct military operations. What we have not been ready to do is to fight..”

• UK Military ‘Not Ready To Fight’ – Defense Secretary (RT)

The UK military is unprepared to fight in a major conflict and would not be able to deter the enemy if a war breaks out now, British Defense Secretary John Healey has acknowledged. The British army, navy and air force have been “hollowed out” and “underfunded” during the 14 years of the Conservative Party’s rule, Healey said in his appearance on Politico’s Power Play podcast on Thursday. When the UK Labour Party came to power in July, “we expected things to be in a poor state – but the state of the finances, the state of the forces, was far worse than we thought,” he added. “The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations. What we have not been ready to do is to fight. Unless we are ready to fight, we are not in shape to deter,” the defense secretary stressed.

“This is at the heart of the NATO thinking. We have got to not just be capable of defending our NATO nations, but more importantly we have got to be more effective in the deterrence we provide against any future aggression,” he added. Britain and other members of the US-led military bloc need to “innovate” and “take the new technologies and some of the lessons from Ukraine and make what we do more lethal and therefore a stronger deterrence,” Healey said. When asked to comment on the defense secretary’s statement, a spokesman for the Labour government insisted that “this Government will always do what is required to defend the country. The UK’s Armed Forces are amongst the best in the world and offer a 24/7 defense of the UK, operating alongside our allies and partners to prepare for any event.”

“The Strategic Defense Review [which was launched in July] will look at the threats we face and the capabilities we need so that our Armed Forces are better ready to fight, more integrated and more innovative,” he said. On Thursday, The Telegraph reported, citing a senior defense source, that the new UK budget, which will be announced next week, will “almost certainly” not provide more money to the Defense Ministry. According to the government’s figures, Britain’s army, navy, and air force have entered 2024 with just over 138,000 active-duty personnel, the lowest number since the end of the Napoleonic wars. The army alone had seen its headcount shrink from more than 100,000 in 2010 to 75,110 by the start of this year.

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“The quality of the evidence of Russian Novichok runs from weak to preposterous; the legal presentation from tendentious to inadmissible.”

• British Government’s Investigation Of Novichok Is Poisoning Itself (Helmer)

The British Government’s investigation of the alleged Novichok attacks against Sergei and Yulia Skripal, which they survived, and Dawn Sturgess, who died, has now run for six and half years. The public presentation of evidence and witnesses has completed its first week; the second week of hearings will begin next Monday, October 28. The hearings will end in the first week of December. A report of the conclusions will follow months later. The judge presiding is a retired Court of Appeal judge named Anthony Hughes – titled Lord Hughes of Omberseley – is also a consultant lawyer. Hughes advertises that he is available for engagement on private cases at his London office, telephone +44 (0)20 7242 3555. His terms of engagement from the Home Office, his job now, is to manage the Government’s two imperatives. The first is to protect the British government narrative to ensure no one disbelieves the Russians did it, as then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson announced on the BBC on March 17, 2018.

Judge Hughes’s website claims he is presiding in “an independent Inquiry into the circumstances of Dawn Sturgess’ death in Salisbury on 8 July 2018.” Independent of Russia is certain. Hughes opened the proceeding on March 25, 2022 by saying: “The issues raised by the terms of reference include those of the utmost gravity, including the allegation which has been publicly made of Russian state responsibility for the killing of Ms Sturgess indirectly.” In fact, the terms of reference make no such allegation. Hughes then announced he had appointed Emilie Pottle, a London lawyer, to represent three Russian military officers whom the British prosecutor has charged with attempted murder. Married to a “freelance writer” who has worked in the Iraqi and Libyan warzones with UK and US forces, Pottle is being paid by the Home Office to appear. Last week as a Crown prosecutor, she fed leading questions to medical and police witnesses.

The judge’s assisting lawyer, Mark O’Connor QC revealed last week that he has concluded what has to be proved, and expects witnesses to do the same. “I want”, O’Connor asked Wayne Darch, deputy director of the regional ambulance service and supervisor of the medics who attended the Skripals and Sturgess, “to start, if I may, with the question of what understanding or training ambulance staff had of or for nerve agent, organophosphate poisoning before the Skripal poisoning in March 2018, and we will work then forward in the chronology, okay?” Working forward in the chronology means, for the British government, that the Hughes proceeding will work backward to prove retrospectively that the Russian government ordered and carried out the Novichok assassination plot of 2018. So far, not a single British newspaper, television or social medium has reported differently.

The second imperative for Hughes is to protect the British Government from the case for negligence which the Sturgess family lawyer, Michael Mansfield KC, is making to support his claim for a multi-million pound payout for compensation of their loss to the Sturgess family, her boyfriend Charles Rowley, and to Mansfield himself and his associated lawyers. The first attempt at Mansfield’s legal strategy of “dosh for Dawn’s death” did not succeed in the High Court in mid-2020. The Hughes proceeding is Mansfield’s last, big chance.to accuse the British secret services of culpable negligence in failing to anticipate the Russian strike against Sergei Skripal on March 4, 2018, and to protect the British public from the Novichok fallout the alleged Russian assassins left behind.

The contradiction between the first and second imperatives grows obvious with every session. The quality of the evidence of Russian Novichok runs from weak to preposterous; the legal presentation from tendentious to inadmissible. But to earn his ransom Mansfield must accept as true what he cannot prove to be lies. He and his money-shot are motivated by the legal principle known as claim of right – you can’t steal from a thief.

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“The UK government is effectively partaking in the cover-up, in a way that only a guilty party would.”

• UK Snubs Council of Europe Over Assange Inquiry (DC.UK)

Britain’s Home Office is making a “grave mistake” by ignoring a call from the Council of Europe to review its treatment of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder’s wife has warned. The Council’s parliamentary assembly, of which the UK is a member, passed a resolution earlier this month designating Assange as a “political prisoner”. Assange endured five years in Belmarsh maximum security prison in London before being released in June, and flying to his native Australia. The UK government had incarcerated him while the US pursued extradition proceedings in the British courts. His treatment has outraged the Council of Europe, which was created in the aftermath of World War Two with strong backing from Winston Churchill. Its resolution urged the UK authorities to conduct a review “with a view to establishing whether he [Assange] has been exposed to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, pursuant to their international obligations”.

It found the UK authorities “failed to effectively protect Mr Assange’s freedom of expression and right to liberty, exposing him to lengthy detention in a high-security prison despite the political nature of the most severe charges against him.” Declassified asked Britain’s Home Office what its response was to the Council of Europe’s call. The government department deflected the question, replying: “The longstanding extradition request for Julian Assange has been resolved. As is standard practice, all extradition requests are considered on an individual basis by our independent courts and in accordance with UK law.” The demands of the parliamentary assembly are not binding on European governments but they are “obliged to respond”. Stella Assange, Julian’s husband, told Declassified the Home Office is making a “grave mistake” in refusing to heed the Council of Europe’s call.

She said: “We know that the Crown Prosecution Service has disappeared key documents relating to Julian’s imprisonment and refused to provide information, first to a journalist, and now to the court, that might shed a light on the political side of Julian’s persecution in the UK. “It is one thing for rogue elements in the CPS to collude with foreign governments to persecute a publisher and attempt to cover their tracks. It is quite another for the UK government to stonewall in this manner in the wake of an independent report by the Council of Europe and a vote by the overwhelming majority of the chamber calling on the UK to carry out an investigation.” She added: “The UK government is effectively partaking in the cover-up, in a way that only a guilty party would.”

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“..with the aim of forcibly expelling the population in service of the Israeli plan to empty the north. This has now come to be called “the Generals’ Plan.”

• This Is an Extermination’ (Muaddi)

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians across northern Gaza have been forced on a death march by the Israeli army since Monday, October 21. Northern Gaza is being emptied of its inhabitants, and one of Israel’s strategies in achieving this goal is to take out the area’s few remaining social institutions: hospitals. As part of its ongoing offensive on northern Gaza, the Israeli army has been trying to clear out the entire area north of Gaza City for the past 18 days. At least 200,000 people continue to stay there, many of them fearing, according to local testimonies, that they will be targeted on the way south or in Israeli-designated “safe zones,” which have been consistently bombarded over recent months. The ongoing siege includes a second siege-within-the-siege on the Jabalia refugee camp, accompanied by a massive bombing and shelling campaign that is forcing tens of thousands of people to leave their homes.

Many of them have headed to Beit Lahia, and particularly to Kamal Adwan Hospital. Over the past 18 days, the hospital has been issuing daily calls for help, warning of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe. The Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia is one of three functioning hospitals in the northern Gaza governorate. The hospital is the only fully functional medical center in the north, with a specialized neonatal section for newborns. The two other hospitals in Gaza are barely functional. The Indonesian Hospital in the town of Sheikh Zayed went out of services last week after Israeli troops besieged it and invaded its surroundings. Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, smaller in size, has suspended most of its services and only functions at a limited capacity. On Tuesday, October 22, the al-Awda Hospital’s director, Bakr Abu Safiyeh, told al-Ghad TV that Israeli quadcopter drones were opening fire directly on the hospital.

Dr. Baker said that Israeli quadcopters were also opening fire on anybody moving in the streets, including ambulances. According to the hospital director, an Israeli strike targeted an ambulance carrying a mother who had just given birth. The mother was killed, Dr. Baker said, and the baby was later found alive by rescue teams and was taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital’s neonatal section. Named after Kamal Adwan, a Palestinian resistance leader assassinated by Israel in Beirut in 1973, the hospital has become a central destination for the wounded and the displaced. Like most other hospitals in Gaza over the past year of genocidal war, Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only remaining public space in northern Gaza that offers services and provides shelter, representing the backbone of Gazan civil society and social cohesion. That is why Israel is targeting it, with the aim of forcibly expelling the population in service of the Israeli plan to empty the north. This has now come to be called “the Generals’ Plan.”

Two weeks before Israel began the current siege, Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers that he was considering the “Generals’ plan,” so named for the proposal put forward by senior Israeli army officials in early September based on the vision of retired Israeli general Giora Eiland, who wrote an Op-Ed a year ago explaining how northern Gaza should be emptied of the entire population through mass starvation and extermination.

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“No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by ‘the world’s best snipers.’ And they’re dead-center shots..”

• Kill Them All: Israel’s Extermination Of Palestinians In Gaza (Cradle)

The holocaust engulfing Palestinians in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels of horror, epitomized by a harrowing video that swept across social media of 19-year-old Shaaban al-Dalou, burning to death while still connected to an IV drip. This was no isolated tragedy – it was emblematic of the escalating genocide. On 13 October, an Israeli airstrike ignited the makeshift tents sheltering dozens of displaced Palestinian families in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Amidst the inferno, Dalou’s 17-year-old brother Mohammed described his agony: “I can’t describe the feeling. I saw my brother burning in front of me, and my mother was burning.” Mohammed had managed to escape when he heard the strike, but his brother Shaban and their mother did not. His father saved his 10-year-old brother from the flames, only for the child to succumb to his burns days later, according to the New York Times.

The horrifying video was followed a week later by photos showing soldiers expelling Palestinians from half-destroyed residential blocks at gunpoint. Israeli drone footage published by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan captured images of Palestinians rounded up and forced to walk south through Gaza’s post-apocalyptic landscape without any possessions. Many Palestinians who refused to obey evacuation orders, often delivered by announcements made by hovering quadcopter drones, were massacred by Israeli artillery and airstrikes. Rescue workers and civilians attempting to save others have been shot at by Israeli forces or simply rounded up and ‘disappeared.’ There have been reports describing numerous instances where Palestinians were targeted while trying to help injured individuals. This has left the people of Gaza without any medical or emergency services, forcing a complete halt on health and civil defense services.

Even hospitals were not spared. Critically injured patients and the doctors treating them faced the same impossible ultimatum – evacuate or die. After returning home, western doctors who had volunteered in Gaza expressed their shock at how many children arrived at the hospitals, shot not only once but twice, directly in the heart and head. “No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by ‘the world’s best snipers.’ And they’re dead-center shots,” surgeon Mark Perlmutter told CBS News.

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BART

 

 

Cameras

 

 

Umbrella

 

 

Scooby
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849867938360345077

 

 

Sagan

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 25 2024

Oct 252024
 
 October 25, 2024  Posted by at 8:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  68 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Study of the Head and Clasped Hands of a Young Man as Christ in Prayer 1655

 

• Harris Claims Trump Is Literally Hitler As Dems Enter Election Panic Mode (ZH)
• Dems: Trump Was Going To Be Hitler During His First Term, But He Forgot (BBee)
• Trump Responds To Harris Over Hitler Comment (RT)
• The Press and Pundits Face Devastating Polls on Threat to Democracy (Turley)
• Word Salad City (ZH)
• Kamala’s Inane Talking Points (Victor Davis Hanson)
• Why is Bill Gates Backing Kamala Harris Using Shady Super PAC? (Sp.)
• ‘No Justice In The West’ – Putin (RT)
• Russia To Seize Income From Frozen Western Assets – Finance Minister (RT)
• US Making ‘Big Mistake’ By Weaponizing Dollar – Putin (RT)
• West’s Belief It Can Defeat Russia ‘A Mere Illusion’ – Putin (RT)
• Seven NATO Members Against Ukraine Membership – Politico (RT)
• Is Western Civilizational Decline Too Advanced to Be Reversed? (PCR)
• EU President Likens Free Speech to Infectious Disease (Leake)
• F-35’s Ascent and Nosedive: Costliest Weapon in History Hits Fresh Turbulence (Sp.)
• Boeing Workers Reject Wage Deal To End Strike (RT)
• Fighting for More Evidence of Assange’s Political Prosecution (Lauria/Elmaazi)

 

 

 

 

CCR

 

 

Vessel
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849277732653355421

Trump ad
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849117459585925514

RFK

Kirk

ID

Baris

Slain soldier

Calley Means

10 days

Jack Smith
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849198408898388084

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Almost everyone expects a civil war to break out over the 2024 election. Trump was commenting on that possible scenario..”

• Harris Claims Trump Is Literally Hitler As Dems Enter Election Panic Mode (ZH)

No president should be trusted to operate outside the bounds of the US Constitution, this is a lesson that has been repeated on multiple occasions throughout American history. Each president should be held accountable for direct violations of their oath of office and each president should be scrutinized by the American public. With that ideal in mind, it’s interesting that the establishment has devoted so much time and energy to pursuing only one president in recent memory for supposed constitutional violations, and that man is Donald Trump. The numerous trespasses perpetrated by the Clintons, the Bush family, Barack Obama, and the Biden/Harris team have gone completely ignored. Why is it that they get a pass while Trump is placed under an electron microscope? Keep in mind, only a couple years ago the American public was embroiled in a life-or-death battle to stop their constitutional rights from being erased forever by the Biden Administration and their globalist handlers.

Biden’s vaccine passport efforts were particularly troubling; if they had been successful the Bill of Rights would be effectively dead and the federal government would have total control over every detail of civilian life. Good luck keeping a job, going to public places, keeping your kids and staying out of a covid camp should you refuse to take the latest mRNA booster shot. That’s the future Americans were facing under Biden/Harris and the Democrats. Covid hysteria and the government response is exactly what fascism looks like, and a large number of Democrats cheered for these policies. This is why the accusations by the political left calling Donal Trump “literal Hitler” ring rather hollow. They’ve been acting like authoritarians for the past four years they’ve been in power and the hypocrisy is steaming.

Kamala Harris recently held a press briefing to make a statement comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, an action which smacks of panic in the midst of polling numbers which increasingly show Trump winning by a landslide in November. In only two weeks, the Democrats face a conservative red wave the likes of which hasn’t been seen in decades. It’s obvious they’ve run out of ideas on how to counter this outcome. Harris’ accusation that Trump “wants generals like Hitler had” is based on a hearsay claim from Gen. John Kelly. This is the same man that Trump fired while in office for incompetence. The same man that claimed in 2023 that Trump called military casualties “suckers” and “losers”. There is no proof to verify any of Kelly’s assertions.

[..] It is true, though, that Trump suggested using the National Guard to stop leftist riots. Trump noted in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” that: “I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics…” “I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen…”

The corporate media has latched onto this narrative, suggesting that this is a precursor to a fascist future. But if one remembers back to the days of the BLM riots and burning cities, the idea of National Guard intervention makes perfect sense. Military intervention is another matter and it’s fair to debate such a premise. However, let’s not forget that there have been at least two separate and nearly successful assassination attempts against Trump by leftists (both donators to ActBlue). It’s not crazy to suggest that extreme violence on the part of the political left is possible in the event of a Trump win. They’ve proven capable of it on numerous occasions. Almost everyone expects a civil war to break out over the 2024 election. Trump was commenting on that possible scenario.

It’s also unlikely that Americans today are as willing to tolerate mass political violence from leftists the way they did four years ago. Trump addressing the issue bluntly is not an endorsement of Hitler or fascism, its a recognition of the instability of our times. The political left is well aware that they are likely to lose in November; they might be giving their devout followers the green light to become violent post-election using the Hitler narrative as a rationale. If Trump is “literally Hitler” then all violence is justified, is it not?

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“..Trump would have seized the military to install himself as Emperor God during his first term, but luckily he got distracted by making red hats.”

“Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon Explains the Challenges of Satire in Today’s Climate — ‘Imagine if Your Job is to Write Jokes That Are Funnier Than a Kamala Harris Speech'”.

• Dems: Trump Was Going To Be Hitler During His First Term, But He Forgot (BBee)

Democrats have warned that if elected a second time, Donald Trump will be an evil dictator just like Adolf Hitler. When asked why Trump didn’t become Hitler during his first term, Democrats explained that he simply forgot. “Trump meant to be Hitler, but he forgot,” explained Vice President Harris in a press conference at the White House. “Being Hitler just totally slipped his mind. Make no mistake, if Trump is elected again, he absolutely plans to turn into Hitler and probably will write himself a reminder this time.” According to retired General John Kelly, former President Trump often talked about how he kept meaning to find time to be Hitler, but he kept getting distracted by other things.

“On several occasions, Trump told me word for word, ‘This is it. This is the week I’m going to go be Hitler.’ But then, Trump would get started doing something like handing out candy to Minions and he would completely forget,” explained Kelly. “This time he has written himself lots of notes telling himself to not forget to turn into literal Hitler. It’s terrifying.” At publishing time, Democrats had warned that Trump would have seized the military to install himself as Emperor God during his first term, but luckily he got distracted by making red hats.

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“This is the type of disgusting rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts against President Trump..”

• Trump Responds To Harris Over Hitler Comment (RT)

The increasingly over-the-top rhetoric of US Vice President Kamala Harris proves she is losing and is unfit for the White House, Republican candidate Donald Trump has said. On Wednesday, Harris attacked Trump as a fascist, would-be dictator and admirer of Adolf Hitler, citing reports from Democrat-party linked media based on claims by his former chief of staff. The Atlantic magazine – owned by Democrat mega-donor Lauren Powell Jobs – published a story by Jeffrey Goldberg suggesting that Trump had expressed admiration for Hitler and his generals during his 2017-2021 term in the White House. Goldberg cited retired US Marine General John Kelly, who served as Trump’s second chief of staff, dredging up claims by two New York Times journalists from their 2022 book. Trump’s team have denied the allegations outright.

“Comrade Kamala Harris sees that she is losing, and losing badly, especially after stealing the Race from Crooked Joe Biden, so now she is increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind,” Trump said on X on Thursday. “She is a Threat to Democracy, and not fit to be President of the United States — And her Polling so indicates!” he added. With less than two weeks to go before the November 5 election, both Harris and her running mate Tim Walz and Democrats in down-ballot races have seen their polling lead evaporate, while Trump and the Republicans have picked up steam. Harris then quoted Goldberg’s report to claim that Trump’s alleged admiration for Hitler was “deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous” and “a window into who Donald Trump really is.” Harris also accused her rival of having “vowed to be a dictator on day one and vowed to use the military as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendettas.”

Earlier this week, the Atlantic published another article comparing Trump to Hitler – as well as to Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin – written by Anne Applebaum, the wife of Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The Trump campaign dismissed Applebaum’s piece as “fake news by a third-rate media outlet.” They argued that Kelly “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated” and accused Harris of spreading “outright lies and falsehoods” by treating Goldberg’s allegations as legitimate. “This is the type of disgusting rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts against President Trump,” the campaign wrote. Trump narrowly escaped death at a July 13 rally in Pennsylvania. Another would-be assassin, a pro-Ukrainian activist, was caught last month by the Secret Service lurking at Trump’s golf course in Florida.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1849156315764883467

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“..this would require federal judges to sign off on the rounding up of MSNBC personalities, all gay people, all reporters, and, of course, Whoopi Goldberg.”

• The Press and Pundits Face Devastating Polls on Threat to Democracy (Turley)

“Democracy dies in darkness” is the Washington Post’s slogan, but can it handle the light? The Post has been doggedly portraying the election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as a choice between tyranny (Trump) and democracy (Harris). Yet when it commissioned a poll on threats to democracy shortly before the election, it did not quite work out. Voters in swing states believe that Trump is more likely to protect democracy than Kamala Harris, who is running on a “save democracy” platform. The poll sampled 5,016 registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. When asked whether Trump or Harris “would do a better job” of “defending against threats to democracy,” 43% picked Trump while 40% picked Harris. Notably, this was the same result when President Biden was the nominee.

While over half said that threats to democracy were important to them, the voters trusted Trump (44%) more than Biden (33%) in protecting democracy. Even with the slight improvement for Harris, the result was crushing for not just many in the Harris campaign but the press and pundits who have been unrelenting in announcing the end of democracy if Harris is not elected. Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has declared with authority that either you vote for Harris, or this “may well be the last real vote you ever get to cast.” I have long criticized the apocalyptic, democracy-ending predictions of Biden, Harris and others as ignoring the safeguards in our system against authoritarian power. Nevertheless, Harris supporters have ratcheted up the rhetoric to a level of pure hysteria. Recently, Michael Cohen, a convicted felon and Trump’s disbarred former lawyer, told MSNBC that if Trump wins the election, he will “get rid of the judiciary and get rid of the Congress.”

Recently, MSNBC host Al Sharpton and regular Donny Deutsch warned viewers that they will likely be added to an enemies “list” for some type of roundup after a Trump election. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow also joined in the theme of a final stand before the gulag: “For that matter, what convinces you that these massive camps he’s planning are only for migrants? So, yes, I’m worried about me — but only as much as I’m worried about all of us.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was quick to add her own name to a list that seems to be constantly updated by the media. She told podcast host Kara Swisher, “I mean, it sounds nuts, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy threw me in jail.” On ABC’s “The View,” the hosts are becoming indistinguishable from tinfoil-hatted subway prophets. Whoopi Goldberg even explained how Trump is already committed to being a dictator who will “put you people away … take all the journalists … take all the gay folks … move you all around and disappear you.”

Of course, assuming that Cohen is wrong that there will be no courts after a Trump victory, this would require federal judges to sign off on the rounding up of MSNBC personalities, all gay people, all reporters, and, of course, Whoopi Goldberg. All that is required is for over two centuries of constitutional order to fail suddenly, and for virtually every constitutional actor in our system to suddenly embrace tyranny. Those pushing this hysteria often curiously cite the January 6 riot as proof that the end is near. Yet that horrible day was the vindication, not the expiration, of our constitutional system. The system worked. The riot was put down. Congress, including Republicans, reassembled and certified Biden as the next president.

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“Voters asked direct question. Harris gave circular answers.”

• Word Salad City (ZH)

Kamala Harris’ completed another descending spin around her doom loop on Wednesday night: Lagging Trump in battleground states and therefore under pressure to increase her interactions with voters, she participated in a prime-time town hall that only further exposed her as one of the most superficial politicians of our time…with more poll damage sure to follow. The town hall was hosted by CNN and took place in Delaware County. Along with Chester, Bucks and Montgomery, it’s one of four Philadelphia “collar counties” that have traditionally played an outsize role in determining who wins Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. . You know things went bad when even the New York Times raked Harris over the coals for being evasive, saying: “Voters asked direct question. Harris gave circular answers.”

After the event, CNN’s Dana Bash said, “What I’m hearing from people who I’ve been talking to … if her goal was to close the deal, they’re not sure she did that.” Seasoned Democratic operative David Alexrod called out Harris’ signature flaw: “The things that would concern me is when she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to Word Salad City.” Harris’ worst sequence of the night came when host Anderson Cooper called out her flip-floppy hypocrisy on the issue of border security. Noting that Harris now supports a bill that would allocate $650 million toward a border wall, Cooper said, “Under Donald Trump, you criticized the wall more than 50 times. You called it stupid, useless and a ‘medieval vanity project.’ Is a border wall stupid?”

By this point, even Cooper had to wonder why he was even bothering to ask questions, given Harris’ refusal to answer them in any kind of straightforward way:

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“..only two criteria matter: Which candidate’s past record and current agenda best appeal to voters? And which candidate seems the most authentic and genuine?”

• Kamala’s Inane Talking Points (Victor Davis Hanson)

As Vice President Kamala Harris slips in the polls, the Democratic National Committee/Harris Campaign/mainstream media fusion talking points become even more absurd. Claiming that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump were “weird” did not work—especially given the genuinely odd behavior of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and would-be First Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Nor was the next Harris meme convincing that the frenetic and non-stop Trump was somehow “exhausted,” “senile,” and “confused.” Voters know the workdays of the younger Harris are usually far shorter—or sometimes not workdays at all. But Harris also falsely claimed the physically and mentally challenged Biden was, in her words, “absolutely authoritative” and “very bold and vibrant.” Now Harris asserts that Trump is a “fascist,” a “dictator,” and “unfit” for office. But this new talking point will also not stop the Harris campaign’s hemorrhaging—and for a variety of reasons.

First, voters see the election as a conflict of two absolutely antithetical visions. On the one hand, is the prior Trump 2017-20 concrete record: border security, no major wars abroad, calm in the Middle East, a deterred Russia, Iran, and China, low inflation, low interest rates, lower crime, lower taxes, strong deterrent military—and opposition to mandatory electric vehicle mandates, biological males competing in women’s sports, and the woke/DEI agenda. On the other hand, is the Biden-Harris 2021-2024 record: the unchecked entry of 12-20 million illegal aliens and a destroyed border. People still struggle under Biden-Harris’s earlier hyperinflation and high interest rates. The horrific regional wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue. Biden-Harris embraces the unpopular DEI/Woke agenda. Harris herself knows that the Biden-Harris years were a failure. That is why she has shed almost all of their hard left-wing agendas—policies she has embraced for much of her adult life.

So suddenly, in the last 90 or so days, Harris has completely flipped and flopped. Now she is for more of, not defunding, the police. She pivots for a secure border, not 20 million illegal aliens pouring across it. Harris brags about fossil fuel energy, not banning fracking, and for increasing, not cutting, defense. In fact, several endangered incumbent Democrat senators in swing states are claiming more allegiance to Trump’s issues than identifying with Harris and her unpopular record as vice president. Voters likely conclude that if Trump doubles down on his record, while even Harris and many senators temporarily piggyback on it, then it must be more effective and popular than Harris’s own. Second, Harris now claims Trump is a fascist and insurrectionist. But mouthing ad nausaem “January 6th” no longer persuades voters that Trump is a danger to anyone.

They recall that Harris bragged of the far more violent demonstrations of 2020—35 killed, $2 billion in damage, 1,500 law enforcement officers injured, 14,000 arrested—that the unrest would not and “should not” stop, while drumming up support to bail out jailed violent protestors. Nor does the slur that Trump is a fascist resonate. The Obama and Biden-Harris administrations weaponized the CIA and FBI to interfere in the 2016 and 2020 elections by peddling the fake Steele dossier and suppressing all the embarrassing news about Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop. Trump certainly did not coordinate, as Biden did, with local, state, and federal prosecutors to wage lawfare prosecutions to destroy his political opponents. He did not use the FBI to partner with social media to suppress the news. Neither Trump nor his supporters tried to remove Biden from state ballots.

The Republican House majority did not impeach Biden twice despite the Biden family’s corruption and Joe Biden’s unlawful, decades-long removal of classified papers to several insecure private residences. Trump and the Republicans never coercively removed the party’s primary-winning nominee. They did not nullify the will of 14 million primary voters. And in backroom fashion, they did not anoint a candidate who had never entered a single primary in her life. Nor did Trump support packing the Supreme Court. He does not seek unconstitutional means of destroying the Electoral College. He is not demanding an end to the Senate filibuster or the creation of two new states to obtain four partisan senate seats. Third, as for Trump being “unfit” and lacking “decorum,” it depends on what were the Biden-Harris standards?

Having a trans activist reveal his breasts on camera at a White House “pride party?” Biden’s reportedly calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a f—ing idiot” and “son of a b—ch?” Bragging about locking Trump up, while waging lawfare against him? Unleashing son Hunter Biden with impunity to shake down foreign governments? The election will not be decided on these empty talking points or fake media-generated narratives. Instead, only two criteria matter: Which candidate’s past record and current agenda best appeal to voters? And which candidate seems the most authentic and genuine?

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“Gates enjoyed a profits bonanza off mRNA coronavirus vaccines mandated by the Biden administration…”

• Why is Bill Gates Backing Kamala Harris Using Shady Super PAC? (Sp.)

Tech billionaire, philanthropist and WEF cheerleader Bill Gates has given Kamala Harris’s campaign a $50 mln boost using dark money super PAC Future Forward. The donation was intended to remain secret, but was uncovered by NYT this week. Set up in 2018 by former Obama campaign staffers and coming out of left field in the final weeks of the 2020 race to fund a massive pro-Biden media blitz, Future Forward is a super political action committee funded mostly by Big Tech and venture capital firms, including Meta*, Google, disgraced crypto financier Sam Bankman-Fried, Bain Capital and Bridgewater Associates. The super PAC has raised a whopping $700 mln for the 2024 election cycle, rolling out $75 mln in pro-Harris ads last week. 2024 is at least the second election cycle where Gates has used a dark money vehicle to support the Democratic Party’s candidate.

In 2020, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed nearly $70 mln to the New Venture Fund, a nonprofit belonging to DC consultancy Arabella Advisors, which bankrolls the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a goliath of undisclosed donations for Democratic politicians and liberal causes which raised nearly $390 mln four years ago. Publicly, Gates and his now former wife also gave $500,000 to Biden’s inaugural committee. Mr. Gates has been an active supporter of Democratic candidates since at least 2008, contributing financially to and praising the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Gates’ ties to the Clintons are deeply rooted, with the billionaire becoming a top donor to the Clinton Foundation, and forging partnerships with the organization for global projects since at least 2013. In a telling interview in 2016 in which he explained his preference for Clinton, Gates said “there have been questions about vaccines in general where some of the candidates have shown that they’re not as up to date about vaccines in general, and that’s got to be a concern.”

“Science in general, whether it’s GMOs or vaccines, there’s a lot of people out there who don’t give science the benefit of the doubt. In terms of experience, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton have more experience in global health,” Gates said at the time. With Harris’ presidential bid expected to broadly continue the Biden/Clinton line on foreign and domestic policy, it makes sense for Gates to throw his influence behind the VP, given the perceived threat of the Trump brand of red-pill MAGA Republicans and their anti-vax, anti-tech, and anti-interventionist leanings. “This election is different, with unprecedented significance for Americans and the most vulnerable people around the world,” Gates said this week after info about his $50 mln donation leaked out. “I think it’s great to have somebody who’s younger, who can think about things like AI and how we shape that in the right way, and I certainly offer up my opinions to the politicians who are interested,” Gates said this summer after Biden dropped out and named Harris his successor.

The Gates Foundation’s fortunes got a big boost under Biden, with its endowment growing from $69 bln in 2020 to $75.2 bln in 2023. Gates enjoyed a profits bonanza off mRNA coronavirus vaccines mandated by the Biden administration. In 2022, he sold off shares of BioNTech stocks he bought in 2019 as sales slowed. His foundation has also owned shares in Pfizer, CureVac and Vir Biotech going back to well before the pandemic. The billionaire’s foundation supports the Global Virome Project – an ambitious initiative created in 2018 to predict pathogens that could trigger lethal pandemics, but accused of weaponizing viruses from a network of 150 biolabs worldwide. Gates has also backed a broad array of World Economic Forum-affiliated initiatives, including projects to reduce emissions and create synthetic meat and dairy. In 2022, The Seattle Times revealed Gates’ secret lobbying to save Biden’s signature $2+ trln Build Back Better social and climate spending package.

Gates has also been a top backer of the Biden administration’s battle against media and online ‘misinformation’, with an explosive MintPress investigation from 2021 revealing that his foundation had bankrolled some $319 mln in media, including CNN, the BBC, Le Monde, the Financial Times, Der Spiegel and others to ensure favorable coverage of his agenda and that of his allies.

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“Is this just? There is no justice here,” Putin said. “We want to change this. And we will.”

• ‘No Justice In The West’ – Putin (RT)

Moscow has had enough of the West’s impunity and hypocrisy and intends to ensure that there is justice in the world again, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Putin spoke to journalists, including many from Western outlets, at the end of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on Thursday. “Is it just to lie to our faces that NATO will not expand, and then [expand] it?” Putin asked BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, in response to his inquiry. “Is it fair to carry out a coup d’etat, spitting on all principles of law, and funding a coup in Ukraine?” he added, referring to the 2014 Maidan ‘revolution’ backed by Washington.

“Is this just? There is no justice here,” Putin said. “We want to change this. And we will.” The Russian president also dismissed as “nonsense” the claims that Moscow was somehow behind “mayhem” on British streets. Whatever may be happening in the UK is the result of London’s own policies, Putin said. The head of the British Security Service (MI5), Ken McCallum, claimed earlier this month that the UK support for Ukraine has made London a target of Russian propaganda and subterfuge, seeking more power and government funding to deal with the alleged threat.

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“..The US and its allies have blocked an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank..”

“..total foreign direct investments in the Russian economy by the EU, G7, Australia, and Switzerland amounted to $288 billion as of the end of 2022..”

It all adds up to zero AND you’re no longer the reserve currency. Well done.

• Russia To Seize Income From Frozen Western Assets – Finance Minister (RT)

Russia will respond in kind to the West’s use of the income generated by its frozen central-bank reserves, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said. The US and its allies have blocked an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The bulk of the funds, around €197 billion ($213 billion), are being held at the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear. On Wednesday, Washington announced a decision to use the proceeds from the frozen assets to repay a multibillion-dollar loan to Kiev. “If Western countries have begun utilizing the income from the frozen Russian reserves, we will do exactly the same,” Siluanov told reporters on Thursday. “We have frozen money from ‘unfriendly’ companies and organizations. We keep this money in our accounts in the same way and will use the income from these assets similarly,” he elaborated.

The income from these funds will be allocated to “the needs of the economy, the needs of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation,” the minister added, noting that the corresponding decisions have already been made. The US said on Wednesday that it will provide Kiev with a $20 billion loan as part of a broader $50 billion G7 package. The use of windfall profits from the blocked Russian assets will provide Ukraine assistance “without burdening taxpayers,” US President Joe Biden stated. A day earlier, the European Parliament backed allocating a loan of up to €35 billion ($38 billion) for Kiev using the immobilized Russian assets as collateral for the repayments. According to Euroclear, the frozen funds had generated €3.4 billion ($3.6 billion) in interest as of mid-July.

Russia has repeatedly warned that seizing its assets would amount to “theft” and would violate international law and undermine reserve currencies, the global financial system, and the world economy. The International Monetary Fund has also been raising concerns that such actions could undermine trust in the Western financial system. Siluanov earlier warned that global players are closely following the story involving the Russian assets and are drawing their own conclusions. While the finance minister did not elaborate on the amount of Western assets currently held in Russia, previous calculations by RIA Novosti put the figure at roughly equal the size of the Russian funds frozen abroad. The news agency reported that total foreign direct investments in the Russian economy by the EU, G7, Australia, and Switzerland amounted to $288 billion as of the end of 2022.

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“Russia does not seek to drop the dollar or defeat it, but instead is being “prevented from working with it..”

• US Making ‘Big Mistake’ By Weaponizing Dollar – Putin (RT)

Weaponizing the US dollar is a big mistake, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a session at the BRICS Summit in Kazan on Wednesday. He made the remark following a harsh assessment on the currency’s use as a political tool by the New Development Bank’s (NDB) president, Dilma Rousseff. According to Rousseff, the global geopolitics is being adversely affected by the use of the US dollar “as a weapon to change the living conditions of the population.” The vast wave of sanctions against Russia have forced many Western companies from various industrial sectors including food, clothing, and car manufacturing to leave the country, and have severely restricted people’s ability to travel and make international bank transfers, she noted. Putin agreed with Rousseff’s assessment.

”Yes, indeed, we can see that this is true. In fact, I think it is a big mistake by those who do this. The dollar remains the most important instrument of world finance and using it as a means of achieving political goals undermines confidence in this currency and reduces its capabilities,” the Russian president said. Russia does not seek to drop the dollar or defeat it, but instead is being “prevented from working with it,” Putin added. “Then we are forced to look for other alternatives, which is what is happening.” Many Russian financial institutions were cut off from the Western financial system in 2022 in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. As a result, Moscow has accelerated trade with international partners using their national currencies. The trend has been increasingly supported by BRICS members, which have shifted from using the dollar and euro for trade settlements.

In August, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that over 95% of mutual settlements between Russia and its biggest trading partner, China, are carried out using the ruble or yuan. Putin previously stated that the use of local currencies instead of the dollar or euro “helps to keep economic development free from politics as far as possible in the context of today’s world.”

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“.. they don’t take into account the unity and the strength of spirit of Russians forged over the centuries..”

• West’s Belief It Can Defeat Russia ‘A Mere Illusion’ – Putin (RT)

The West is using Ukraine to threaten Russia’s security while believing in the “illusion” that it can inflict a strategic defeat on Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Speaking at the extended Outreach/BRICS Plus format session in Kazan on Thursday, Putin stated that the emergence of a “more just world order” is being hampered by “forces accustomed to thinking and acting in the logic of domination over everything and everyone.” According to Putin, the West’s “unlawful unilateral sanctions” and interference in the affairs of other countries under the pretense of “concern for democracy and human rights” are actively undermining regional and global strategic stability, as well as encouraging “interstate strife.”

Putin pointed to Ukraine as an example, stating that it is being used to “create critical threats to Russia’s security” while Moscow’s vital interests, as well as its “just concerns about the infringement on the rights of Russian-speaking people,” are being ignored. Kiev’s foreign backers “do not even hide any longer their goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on our country.” Putin said, adding that the West’s belief that it can achieve its goals is “a mere illusion.” “Only those who don’t know the history of Russia can believe in this, because they don’t take into account the unity and the strength of spirit of Russians forged over the centuries,” Putin stated.

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“..Kiev would become a part of the bloc later when certain conditions are met..”

• Seven NATO Members Against Ukraine Membership – Politico (RT)

A sizable group of NATO members led by the US and Germany are reluctant to extend an invitation to Ukraine anytime soon, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing sources. Last week, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky presented his ‘victory plan’, which included a demand to be immediately invited into the US-led military bloc. However, the Politico article, citing four unnamed US and NATO officials, said that Berlin and Washington are “slow-walking” this request, adding that “key alliance members are worried about getting ensnared in a war with Russia.” US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told Politico that the bloc “has not, to date, reached the point where it is prepared to offer membership or an invitation to Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier said that it was his duty to prevent the Ukraine conflict from spiraling into a full-scale war between Russia and NATO, adding that Kiev would become a part of the bloc later when certain conditions are met. Hungary and Slovakia – which have been critical of the Western approach to the Ukraine conflict and have insisted on an immediate ceasefire – are two other holdouts. Politico described their leaders as following “a generally pro-Kremlin line.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Zelensky’s plan outright “terrifying,” while his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico warned that Ukraine’s accession to NATO could lead to World War III.

Furthermore, one NATO official told Politico that “countries like Belgium, Slovenia or Spain are hiding behind the US and Germany” when it comes to the issue of Ukraine’s membership, describing them as “reluctant.” Another source noted that while those nations support Kiev’s NATO aspirations “in the abstract,” they would voice their opposition when push comes to shove. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Kiev’s desire to join NATO – which Moscow has described as an existential threat and an “enemy” – was one of the key reasons for the current conflict in the first place. Officials in Moscow have also said that Ukraine’s membership in the bloc “in any territorial form is absolutely unacceptable to Russia and cannot be part of any peace plans or mediation initiatives.”

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“..turning America into a Sodom and Gomorrah Tower of Babel..”

• Is Western Civilizational Decline Too Advanced to Be Reversed? (PCR)

Trump says he intends to make America great again, and his supporters believe him. I also believe it is Trump’s intent. The question is if there is enough left of America to restore. Trump, if he is careful about his appointments, could make a good stab at restoration: Robert Kennedy as the head of the Food and Drug Administration. General Flynn as head of the CIA. Elon Musk as Secretary of State. John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute as Attorney General. Michael Hudson as Secretary of the Treasury. Edward Snowden as Director of the National Security Agency. A number of the police state agencies, such as Homeland Security, could be abolished. So, yes, in theory, Trump could have a go at restoring America. But is Trump capable of even imagining these appointments, and if so could he get them confirmed by the US Senate? I have no confidence that Trump would acquire the human capital his administration would need to do the job he has assigned to himself.

Perhaps his advisors again are serving the establishment, not Trump, telling him that he needs to moderate his attack on the establishment in order to make himself more acceptable to the ruling elite and less of a target for the presstitute media. This is how potential leaders are brought to heel. Among the problems Trump would face is the erosion of the US Constitution with Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, the Wall Street Journal editor, law school deans, and the Woke Left calling for the Constitution’s overthrow because the First Amendment prevents the Ruling Elite from controlling the population by controlling the narrative. The United States is the Constitution. Overthrowing the Constitution is the same as overthrowing the United States. It is treason. Would Trump’s Justice Department arrest these people for treason? The First Amendment prohibits the government from prohibiting the freedom of speech and guarantees the freedom of assembly.

These Constitutional Rights were violated by the Democrats who turned free speech and assembly into an “insurrection.” Democrats, led by the Jew Biden appointed as Attorney General and by the FBI director appointed by Trump, ruled that attending a rally to support a president constituted “insurrection.” One thousand American patriots who attended the Trump Rally are wasting away in prison for no other reason than law was used against them as a weapon. The destruction of the rule of law is the Democrats and the American left-wing’s main achievement. In “free America” law is no longer a shield of the people. Law is a weapon in the hands of those in power to decimate the political opposition. President Trump’s two loyal appointees–General Flynn and Steve Bannon–were both sentenced to prison. Another problem Trump would face is that the liberal-left have turned education into indoctrination. Education is no longer the function of American schools and universities.

Students are brainwashed that Western Civilization has no achievements except racism and exploitation of people of color, that whites are racists, that people can be born into the wrong bodies, that the Constitution is in the way of progress. The normalization of sexual perversity, the sexualization of young children, and open borders are turning America into a Sodom and Gomorrah Tower of Babel. This is the accomplishment of the Democrat Party and the liberal-left. So we have in America a system in which the rulers are aligned against America. America, with its Constitution, its separation of powers, its traditions, is in their way, as Hillary, John Kerry, the Wall Street Journal editor, CNN, and law school deans have made clear. One might think that Americans might notice that those who believe in America are being marginalized by those who believe in the Constitution’s overthrow.

There are some Americans who are beginning to realize that truth is being denied them, but are enough catching on in time to prevent the termination of their rights? When we witness the determined illegal persecution of truth-tellers such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Reiner Fuellmich, and one thousand American patriots sent to prison by Democrats for protesting a stolen election, we find ourselves up against a government with a totalitarian agenda. The Republicans are doing nothing about this. What has the Republican Party done to ensure that the November election is not again stolen? In America today it is becoming a felony to even present evidence that an election ( “won” by Democrats ) was stolen. Some of the swing states in which elections are most often stolen by Democrats have not only legalized all of the theft mechanisms but also have made it a felony to challenge the vote count.

The question before us is what does an American election mean other than another stolen election? I agree with Elon Musk. If the Democrats are returned to power in 2024 there will never again be an honest American election. The odds are against the Democrats and the Ruling Elite permitting Trump to become President. If he prevails against the odds and regains the office, it is unlikely he will be staffed with sufficient determined and intelligent appointees to reverse American societal, economic, political, moral, and spiritual decline. Nevertheless, we must vote for Trump or never again will anyone challenge in our name the Ruling Elite’s control over our lives. Every future potential leader will know that Trump stood up to the elite but the people did not stand up for Trump, and they will dismiss the American people as a losing cause.

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“Ursula von der Leyen advocates “pre-bunking” in the public forum to “vaccinate” people against “disinformation.”

• EU President Likens Free Speech to Infectious Disease (Leake)

EU President Ursula von der Leyen just joined the ranks of former Senator John Kerry and other globalist ghouls in declaring war on free speech by perversely proclaiming that the EU citizenry needs to be “vaccinated against disinformation.” Like every censor in history, she characterizes her censorship program as a means of expunging erroneous information and ideas from public discourse. By using the word “disinformation,” she implies that she and her clique are already the sole possessors of the truth about everything, and that everyone who has and shares heterodox ideas is necessarily in error. Her entire premise is FALSE for the following reasons:

1). Knowledge about the world is constantly evolving through constant inquiry, discussion, and dissemination. Knowledge is NOT a static thing. This is why countries with stifling censorship regimes have experienced intellectual, scientific, and artistic stagnation. Their rulers try to freeze the human mind in its state at their moment in history.

2). NO state, university, or ecclesiastical committee has ever been in possession of the full truth of any matter. Official orthodoxies have always been challenged by heterodox thinkers. Indeed, virtually every major advance in human insight has been performed by heterodox thinkers.

3). As John Milton observed in his 1644 pamphlet, Areopagitica, contending with error is an intrinsic part of learning and discovery. We literally learn by making mistakes and correcting them. If free speech is suppressed for the objective of preventing the propagation of erroneous thought—or “vaccinating against it”—it will become extremely difficult if not impossible for people to learn and discover.

4). Without a single exception in history, the people who hold power always advocate the orthodoxy that sustains and extends their power and that of their friends and supporters.

Ursula von der Leyen is the quintessence of this principle. As president of the EU, she conducted secret negotiations with Pfizer CEO to purchase a 20 billion Euros of Pfizer’s fraudulent and dangerous vaccine so that it could be inflicted on all the citizens of the European Union. She is currently under criminal investigation for her conduct in this affair that has come to be known as Pfizergate. It takes a special kind of chutzpah for a powerful state official who is probably guilty of committing a major crime—a crime that has been systematically and ruthlessly concealed—to lecture the public about the need for censorship. The time has come for the citizens of Europe to rid themselves of Ursula von der Leyen and her clique of corrupt tyrants. To be sure, there is increasing evidence that the Biden Administration has been exerting pressure on Germany—which remains an American vassal state—and the EU to step up its censorship regime. I will cover this strange development in a subsequent post.

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“..faulty landing gear and vibrating fuel tubes, to fragile electro-optical targeting equipment, canopy delamination issues and weather sensitivity, engine heat issues adding to wear and tear, cabin over-pressurization, night vision problems, corrosion, radar reset issues, ejection seats which can snap pilots’ necks, and inability to fly in lightning..”

• F-35’s Ascent and Nosedive: Costliest Weapon in History Hits Fresh Turbulence (Sp.)

Conceived as the Pentagon’s next-gen do-it-all strike jet for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the F-35 has proved a budgetary nightmare, set to consume more resources than the GDP of a major G20 economy over its lifetime. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fifth-gen supersonic stealth strike fighter just can’t seem to catch a break, with a new report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office finding the jet woefully below mission-ready status for six straight years – i.e. every year that the Congressional watchdog has conducted its reviews. The GAO blamed the readiness shortfall on “challenges with depot and organizational maintenance,” and over-reliance on contractors who essentially hold the Pentagon hostage with astronomical sustainment costs (which jumped from $1.1 trillion in FY2018 to $1.58 trillion in FY2023).

The Navy and Air Force are set to take control of sustainment to get a grip on the situation, but not until FY2027. The GAO estimates that only about 55% of the F-35’s three variants are mission ready at any given time, with mission readiness requiring the ability to “fly and perform at least one mission.” With a per unit cost of nearly $100 mln and a projected lifetime cost of over $2 trln, the F-35 program is by far the most expensive military project in history.
Lockheed proceeded with the F-35’s development by taking cues from the Yak-43/141 VTOL jet – a Soviet carrier strike aircraft project scrapped in 1991. The X-35 first flew in 2000, and the F-35A in 2006. But the F-35’s makers have proven unable to work out all the kinks in the plane, with the GAO issuing report after report citing hundreds of flaws, including mission critical defects which could injure or kill pilots, or otherwise jeopardize the aircraft’s safety.

These problems range from faulty landing gear and vibrating fuel tubes, to fragile electro-optical targeting equipment, canopy delamination issues and weather sensitivity, engine heat issues adding to wear and tear, cabin over-pressurization, night vision problems, corrosion, radar reset issues, ejection seats which can snap pilots’ necks, and inability to fly in lightning. To add insult to injury, all three of America’s major potential adversaries have reportedly found the means to nullify the F-35’s stealth advantage, with Russia, China and Iran announcing sophisticated radar technologies not only able to detect the F-35 at long ranges – but even identify the distinct radar signature of individual F-35 planes.

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” The strike has halted production of the best-selling 737 MAX and 767 and 777 wide-body models.”

Which were full of flaws.

• Boeing Workers Reject Wage Deal To End Strike (RT)

Boeing workers have rejected the US aerospace giant’s latest contract offer, extending a nearly six-week strike which has crippled the already struggling planemaker. Some 64% of workers voted to reject the new contract, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing staff in Washington, Oregon and California, said on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. “We remain on strike,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said after the votes were counted. “Our members deserve more and have spoken loudly.” The latest deal included a 35% wage increase over the four-year contract and a restoration of incentive bonuses, but did not reinstate the pension plan sought by many employees.

Workers with the IAM have been striking since September, when they overwhelmingly rejected Boeing’s previous offer of a 25% cumulative pay raise. Employees had initially sought a 40% pay increase, arguing that their wages had lagged behind inflation for years while the company spent millions of dollars on record executive bonuses. “After 10 years of sacrifices, we still have ground to make up, and we’re hopeful to do so by resuming negotiations promptly,” leaders of the union said in a statement. “This is workplace democracy and also clear evidence that there are consequences when a company mistreats its workers year after year.” The strike has halted production of the best-selling 737 MAX and 767 and 777 wide-body models.

Earlier this month Boeing also announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs over the coming months, representing nearly 10% of its workforce, as the aerospace giant’s losses continue to mount. Boeing reported a $6.2 billion third quarter loss on Wednesday, largely due to costs associated with the strike. Days before the workers voted to extend the strike, Boeing announced that its 777X widebody aircraft will be postponed to 2026, nearly six years after the aircraft was due to reach customers. The embattled aviation giant has also been under increased scrutiny in recent years due to various flaws discovered in its aircraft, leading to safety concerns and investigations.

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“Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!”

• Fighting for More Evidence of Assange’s Political Prosecution (Lauria/Elmaazi)

A tribunal in Britain is set to decide whether to order the government’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to prove it deleted emails that may have covered up more evidence of a politically motivated prosecution of Julian Assange. The three judges heard arguments on Sept. 24 in the nearly decade-long freedom of information saga regarding the emails that top British prosecutors say were deleted. They involved an exchange with Sweden during a Swedish prosecutor’s attempt, beginning in 2010, to extradite the WikiLeaks publisher from Britain. Assange was wanted in Sweden for questioning during a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual assault, which was dropped three times, definitively in 2017. He was never charged. After losing his battle against extradition to Sweden at the U.K. Supreme Court, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in June 2012, fearing that Sweden would send him to the United States.

Assange spent seven years in the embassy protecting himself from arrest by British police until April 2019, when police dragged him from the diplomatic mission and threw him into London’s maximum security Belmarsh prison. It was only when the U.S. realized it would lose on appeal after a four-year extradition battle that the Department of Justice cut a plea deal with Assange who was released on June 24 and returned to his native Australia. Assange had been charged in the United States under the Espionage Act for possessing and publishing defense information, which revealed evidence of U.S. war crimes. Britain took an active role in Assange’s prosecution. Its Crown Prosecution Service sought to stop Sweden from going to the embassy to question him. Seeking to learn more about Britain’s role against Assange, Italian investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi first made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2015 for all emails between the British and Swedish governments concerning Assange.

Some of the emails she obtained showed political motivation on the part of the lead British prosecutor, Paul Close. One email Maurizi obtained from the Swedish Prosecution Authority (SPA) revealed that Close appeared to be pressuring Swedish prosecutors to continue seeking Assange’s extradition instead of dropping the case or questioning him at the Ecuadorian embassy, where Assange had been granted asylum. “My earlier advice remains, that in my view it would not be prudent for the Swedish authorities to try to interview the defendant [Julian Assange] in the UK,” Close wrote to the SPA, in 2011, according to one of the emails obtained by Maurizi. “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!,” he wrote to Marianne Ny, Sweden’s director of public prosecutions, in 2012. A year after that, Close wrote, “Please do not think this case is being dealt with as just another extradition.” After Maurizi noticed a sizeable gap in the emails released to her she filed another FIOA seeking to obtain the missing emails.

The CPS first claimed that it had destroyed the emails. It said that when Close retired, his account along with his emails, were automatically destroyed. But Maurizi did not buy it. She asked the court at the hearing last month to order the CPS to turn over “metadata” — data about data, such as file creation and modification dates, email sender and recipient addresses, timestamps, email routing information, keywords, and subject lines — proving the emails really were deleted and when. “We have NO certainty whatsoever” that the emails were destroyed, Maurizi wrote in a message to Consortium News. Maurizi is in court because she believes the allegedly deleted emails could provide additional evidence of a politically motivated prosecution of Assange. She also wants metadata on a CPS document that it says is from 2012 explaining the CPS’ email deletion policy, which was only sent to her in 2023.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1849481946994295174

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urbanism

 

 

Starship
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849381012146442723

 

 

Collie

 

 

Wood
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849322564264382794

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 20 2024

Oct 202024
 
 October 20, 2024  Posted by at 8:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  36 Responses »


René Magritte The endearing truth 1966

 

• Media Still Tries To Suggest Trump Is ‘Exhausted’ (JTN)
• Trump’s Polymarket Surge Powered By $30 Million Bet By Just 4 Accounts (ZH)
• Is Kamala Harris a Plagiarist? (Turley)
• House Democrats Say Trump Overcharged Secret Service at His DC Hotel (Sp.)
• Zelensky’s Only “Victory Plan” Is NATO Boots On The Ground (ZH)
• France Backs Zelensky’s ‘Victory Plan’ (RT)
• Orban Blasts Zelensky’s “More Than Frightening” Victory Plan (ZH)
• Moscow Warns of Direct NATO-Russia Conflict if Ukraine Joins Alliance (Sp.)
• Ukraine Peace ‘Must Be Lasting’ – Putin (RT)
• Russia Has “Unlimited” Energy Resources – Putin (RT)
• US To Pay $20 Billion Into Loan For Ukraine – FT (RT)
• Secret US Intelligence Files On Israel Leaked – CNN (RT)
• Assassinations Continue, But Israel Will Not Win The War (SCF)
• Police Escalate Britain’s War on Independent Journalism (Cook)
• The Geoeconomic Drivers of SCO-BRICS Synergy (Pepe Escobar)

 

 

 

 

Tyrus

College degree

Moonshot

Old man

Seal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847392365977227537

Californicated
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847427727630180417

RFK

 

 

 

 

Elon EU

Elon Covid

?!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847403452126687462

Garland
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847645637417771209

Elon sharks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smells like desperation?! “Politico ran a headline on Friday reading “An ‘exhausted’ Trump says no to another interview”..”

• Media Still Tries To Suggest Trump Is ‘Exhausted’ (JTN)

Former President Donald Trump is beating back rumors and reports of exhaustion in the final stretch of his reelection campaign with a rigorous schedule of in-person rallies and interviews that has far outpaced his much younger Democratic opponent. Politico ran a headline on Friday reading “An ‘exhausted’ Trump says no to another interview”. The article pointed to Trump’s backing out of an interview with The Shade Room and cited anonymous “people familiar with the conversations” in reporting that a “Trump advisor” had said Trump was “exhausted” and “refusing [some] interviews.” The story further pointed to Trump’s cancellation of other interviews this week, including with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” which the campaign attributed to a scheduling conflict. A Trump campaign official confirmed to Just the News that it never set or discussed a date to appear on The Shade Room and that it also had a scheduling conflict that precluded a separate NBC appearance.

Three times as many interviews
Concerns over age and ability to handle the rigors of office proved fatal to the political career of President Joe Biden, 81, whose performance in a debate against Trump this year reignited scrutiny over his age and mental competence and ultimately pushed him to step aside. At 78, Trump has also faced some questions over his age and mental acuity, albeit not to a comparable extent. Last month, Axios ran an article highlighting that Trump had held fewer rallies per month compared to his 2016 cycle. One of the contributing factors, the outlet asserted, was that “he’s older.” The Trump campaign adamantly denies such claims. “This is unequivocally false,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Just the News of the Politico article. “President Trump has been running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail and has sat down for nearly three times as many interviews as she has, including a contentious interview with Bloomberg this past week which Kamala declined. President Trump has more energy, and a harder work ethic, than anyone in politics.” Indeed, there is plenty in Trump’s active campaign schedule to contrast with that of Vice President Harris, 59.

Rally frequency
Since becoming the Republican Party nominee in mid-July, Trump has held at least 41 conventional rallies — one in which he narrowly missed being felled by an assassin’s bullet — across every battleground state, including multiple weeks in which he has headlined two or more events. That figure includes joint appearances such as his rallies with Turning Point, but does not include media hits. Harris, by contrast, became the Democratic nominee in early August and has since held at least 14 conventional rallies. Trump held five rallies between his confirmation as the GOP candidate and Harris’s ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket. To compare the same period, Trump has held at least 36 rallies to Harris’s 16 since she became the Democratic nominee. Both figures include weekend appearances by either candidate. Trump held rallies in Detroit, Mich.; and Latrobe and Lancaster, Pa.; while Harris appeared in Detroit, Mich.; and Atlanta, Ga.

83 interviews as opposed to 44
Apart from standard rallies, both campaigns have of course made numerous appearances on legacy media, as well as podcasts, video platforms, and in other media. A Wall Street Journal breakdown of their respective appearances, moreover, showed Trump again outpacing Harris in virtually all mediums. As of July 15, Trump has made 28 appearances on what the outlet deemed “Legacy TV” compared to Harris’s 12 since Aug. 6. In those intervals, Trump made 10 radio appearances to Harris’s seven. Trump further made 10 print appearances to her two, seven podcast hits to her two, and appeared in an X space. Both made three video appearances. A running tally of interviews from Fox News, moreover, tracks the combined interviews for both the major candidates and their running mates. Since the formation of the Harris-Walz ticket in August, the outlet states, Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., have sat for a combined minimum of 44 non-scripted interviews. Trump and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, meanwhile, have conducted at least 83.

Press conferences: Harris not held one yet
Trump has held at least six press conferences since early August in which he fielded media questions, while Harris has not held a single formal news conference in her capacity as a candidate, according to Fox News. Though she has delivered remarks in an official capacity as the vice president, offering updates on hurricane relief efforts and other issues, she has kept questions limited in those instances. Despite her recent “media blitz” in which she appeared on a string of friendly podcasts and programs, some media insiders don’t expect Harris to include a formal press conference before the end of the election cycle. Speaking to Fox News, conservative Radio Libre host Jorge Bonilla said Harris was “highly unlikely” to hold such an event “because the media have enabled and encouraged her ‘plexiglass basement’ strategy.”

Exhausted

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“Elon Musk [..] describing betting markets as “more accurate than polls, as actual money is on the line.”

• Trump’s Polymarket Surge Powered By $30 Million Bet By Just 4 Accounts (ZH)

Few recent developments in the 2024 White House race have been as swift and seemingly prophetical as a huge October swing toward Donald Trump in the crypto-based Polymarket online betting marketplace. From even odds at the start of the month, the odds of a Trump victory have surged to 60%, while the odds of Kamala Harris win have fallen to 40%. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting the move is largely the work of just four accounts that have together plowed $30 million into bets on the former president. What’s more, the timing of the four accounts’ moves suggests they could be controlled by a single owner. Polymarket has engaged outside experts to scrutinize transactions in presidential election betting, an unnamed source told the Journal. The four accounts have concentrated on bets that Trump will come out atop the electoral college count, but have also dabbled in side-wagers on individual state contests, as well as taking some flyers on Trump winning the popular vote.

That’s a long shot indeed, as Polymarket currently gives Trump only a 32% chance of doing that. “There’s strong reason to believe they are the same entity,” Arkham Intelligence CEO Miguel Morel tells the Journal: The accounts betting big on Trump—Fredi9999, Theo4, PrincessCaro and Michie—were all funded by deposits from Kraken, a U.S.-based crypto exchange, according to Arkham. They behave in a similar fashion, systematically placing frequent bets on Trump and stepping up the size of their bets at the same time, Arkham found. The oldest of the accounts was created in June, while the newest was created this month. In its report, the Journal worked to substantiate the notion that the concentrated bets represent some form of intentional narrative-control scheme, saying “[Trump’s] surge might be a mirage manufactured by a group of four Polymarket accounts,” a view embraced by crypto investor Adam Cochran, a self-described right-of-center Harris-backer.

To its credit, however, the Journal also tapped Rutgers University stats professor Harry Crane, who noted that other betting markets also have Trump in the lead, and that big bettors routinely nudge all manner of market odds. “Purchasing a large number of shares on one outcome does not require any ulterior motive or effort to manipulate the market,” he said. Americans are officially barred from Polymarket, and a source “familiar with the matter” has assured Reuters that the four accounts behind the $30 million wave of bets are not owned by an American, a conclusion that rests on the firm’s practice of certifying large traders to verify they aren’t using VPNs to hide their origins.

As the Polymarket surge began in early October, Trump-backer Elon Musk publicized Trump’s then-3% lead in the odds, describing betting markets as “more accurate than polls, as actual money is on the line.” In addition to the 60% chance of a Trump victory, Polymarket now has the GOP with an 81% chance of taking over the Senate, but gives Democrats a 51% chance of controlling the House of Representatives.


The highest it got, on Oct. 18

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“..an opponent of Trump could probably copy “War and Peace” word-for-word and would still be showered with literary awards..”

• Is Kamala Harris a Plagiarist? (Turley)

Kamala Harris this week faced accusations of plagiarism over multiple sections of her book, “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer.” This is not the first such accusation, Harris was accused of lifting a story from Martin Luther King. In 1965, King described “a moment in Birmingham when a white policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother.” King recounted how the policeman asked the little girl “‘What do you want?’ and the little girl looked at him straight in the eye and answered, ‘Fee-dom’.” Harris would later tell the story of how her mother asked her “Kamala, what’s wrong? What do you want?” and I wailed back, “Fweedom.”

As found by various media outlets, the new allegations from her book would qualify as plagiarism despite the denial of the campaign. It is doubtful it will matter to many voters in the hardened political silos of this election. However, it could prompt a long-needed discussion about how we handle plagiarism in academia. “I wrote my own book, unlike Kamala Harris, who copied hers from Wikipedia.” That criticism, from vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, was only the latest salvo in what has become known as the “the Plagiarism War.” Like virtually every aspect of our lives, plagiarism has become politics by another means. It is hardly new. President Joe Biden admitted to plagiarism long ago. The seriousness of the allegation often depends on how sympathetic the media is toward the author.

Vice President Kamala Harris was accused of plagiarizing her 2009 book, “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer.” Immediately, the New York Times ran a column citing a “plagiarism consultant” named Jonathan Bailey who suggested that, while Harris plagiarized from sources like Wikipedia, it was nothing to “make a big deal of it.” Bailey took to social media Monday to confirm he had not done a full analysis of the book and that his “quotes were based on information provided to me by the reporters and spoke only about those passages.” The response set off conservative media, which argued that the mainstream media would have had a very different response if the allegations were made against Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal.” The fact is, an opponent of Trump could probably copy “War and Peace” word-for-word and would still be showered with literary awards in this political environment.

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A ridiculous “report” 4-5 years later.

• House Democrats Say Trump Overcharged Secret Service at His DC Hotel (Sp.)

Donald Trump during his presidency overcharged Secret Service agents to stay at his DC hotel, treating the agency “as an ATM,” a new report by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee alleges. “One source of payments discussed in this report is the U.S. Secret Service, which Donald Trump treated as his own personal government ATM, extracting from it exorbitant rates his hotel imposed while Secret Service agents protected him, his children, and even foreign leaders whose own payments received by Trump violated the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause,” the report said. According to the Democratic report, Trump’s hotel often did not just charge the Secret Service as much as 300% or more above the authorized federal government rates, but also charged it “far more than hundreds of other patrons, including members of a foreign royal family and a Chinese business interest.”

The report stated that it wants to ensure that taxpayer funds appropriated to the Secret Service are expended to fulfill its protective missions and “not to violate the Constitution by lining the president’s pockets.” The report also focuses on payments made by federal and state officials staying at the hotel, as well as individuals who allegedly sought and often obtained federal jobs in the Trump administration and presidential pardons. The Secret Service has recently been in the spotlight due to failures that led to the attempted assassination of the former president during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. One of the bullets fired by the shooter grazed Trump’s right ear, leaving him wounded. The gunman also killed an audience member at the rally and wounded two others. In a report published on Thursday, an independent panel reviewing the assassination attempt revealed “deep flaws” in the Secret Service. The panel warned that “another Butler can and will happen again” unless the agency is reformed.

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“..if one examines Zelensky’s victory plan it’s as if someone somewhere must have promised him a fresh supply of NATO troops..”

• Zelensky’s Only “Victory Plan” Is NATO Boots On The Ground (ZH)

Ukraine’s “victory plan”, presented this week to NATO officials and both candidates (Trump and Harris) for the 2024 US presidential election, has been widely criticized as a non-starter specifically because it does not address the key obstacle facing their ability to stop Russia’s steady strategic advance. That key obstacle is manpower, which Ukraine does not have. The problem is not blatantly admitted, but implied by numerous officials with inside knowledge of the war. US politicians (Democrats and Neocons) have been pressuring Ukraine to lower the conscription age to 18-24 year old men, a move which the nation has tried to avoid. Why? Because the Ukrainians worry that if they do there will be no viable men left to start families and replenish the population after the war is over. That’s not a very optimistic appraisal of the situation on the front lines.

The height of Ukraine’s successful push-back against Russian forces in 2022 just happened to coincide with the height of the foreign mercenary presence in the region, with tens-of-thousands of highly experienced contract soldiers from the US and Europe helping the Ukrainians counter the maneuver warfare tactics of the Russians. However, when the Russian tactics changed to attrition, the mercenary pipeline suddenly slowed to a trickle. The mainstream media suggests that the reason the foreign fighters stopped showing up was because the “romance of the war” was gone. It is more likely that it’s because western soldiers are rarely trained to fight under attrition warfare conditions, making death a far greater possibility. The point is, Ukraine no longer has a pool of foreign fighters to fall back on and their recruitment efforts a bearing little fruit.

Young men are conscripted or in some cases kidnapped by military police, thrown into vans, dropped off at training centers and then dumped on the front lines within a few weeks. Manpower is the key to war, and it’s the one thing Ukraine has not received from NATO governments. But if one examines Zelensky’s victory plan it’s as if someone somewhere must have promised him a fresh supply of NATO troops. In fact, Zelensky’s only plan seems to be immediate NATO membership which would then, under NATO treaty, requires the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine for mutual defense. In other words, the Ukrainian plan would facilitate WWIII. Key elements of the plan include a formal invitation to join NATO, the lifting by allies of bans on long-range strikes with Western-supplied weapons deep into Russia, a refusal to trade Ukraine’s territories and sovereignty, and the continuation of the incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region.

The Kremlin dismissed the plan with a spokesman saying Kyiv needed to “sober up”. Indeed. Russia is never going to willingly give up their territorial gains in the Donbas, especially when their troop levels are higher than ever and they are taking towns at the fastest pace since the beginning of the war. The refusal to negotiate on territory makes peace impossible and requires a vast surge in troop strength for Kyiv to have any chance of a new offensive. Ukraine is reportedly losing their gains in the Kursk region with rumors of a full retreat now swirling. This claim seems to be supported by Ukraine’s evacuation of civilians from the Sumy region just across the border from Kursk.

Once again, the manpower simply doesn’t exist to make any of Zelensky’s goals possible. The real question is, is Ukraine worth it? According to surveys in the US and Europe the majority of the public says “no.” They will not support troops on the ground in Ukraine, nor do they want to risk WWIII with Russia. Because of this fact, it behooves Zelensky and his NATO backers to set aside any notions of a victory plan and start considering the wisdom of a peace plan.

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France wants war.

• France Backs Zelensky’s ‘Victory Plan’ (RT)

France would work to rally Western countries behind Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s “victory plan,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said during his visit to Kiev on Saturday. “A Russian victory would be a consecration for the law of the strongest and would push the international order towards chaos,” Barrot told reporters during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrey Sibiga. “That is why our exchanges must enable us to make progress on President Zelensky’s victory plan, and to rally as many countries as possible around it.” The diplomat reiterated that Paris would “support, again and again, Ukraine’s resistance against Russian aggression.” Barrot said that France was “open” to the idea of inviting Ukraine into NATO. “It is a discussion that we are having today with our NATO partners,” he said.

Zelensky unveiled his five-point plan in a speech to Ukrainian lawmakers this week, which includes demands that were previously rejected by Kiev’s Western backers, such [as] an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO and the lifting of restrictions on the use of foreign longer-range weapons for strikes deep inside Russia. NATO has maintained that it would be impossible to admit Ukraine into the alliance until the conflict is resolved, while US President Joe Biden said on Friday that there was “no consensus” on whether to greenlight the use of ATACMS missiles and other weapons for strikes on Russian territory.

During his trip to Kiev, Barrot also announced that France would deliver the first batch of Mirage 2000 fighter planes in early 2025. The French Air Force is currently training Ukrainian pilots and aircraft technicians. Kiev has long argued that Western jets, such as the Mirage 2000s and the US-made F-16s, would be crucial to reverse the tide on the battlefield as the Russian troops have been steadily gaining ground in the Donbass in recent months.Moscow has repeatedly said that no amount of foreign military aid would stop Russian troops in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described Zelensky’s plan as “a set of incoherent slogans.”

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“Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ is the shortest path to unleashing World War III, so Hungary does not support it.”

• Orban Blasts Zelensky’s “More Than Frightening” Victory Plan (ZH)

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s office has issue a strong negative response to Ukrainian Presdient Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan” – which was presented before European Union leaders this week. Zelensky’s plan, if implemented, would be the shortest path to World War III, a statement by the political director of the Hungarian prime minister’s office said. The response further stressed that the EU must be willing to embark on a path of negotiations, de-escalation, and ultimately peace. Orban had posted his initial reaction to the plan on social media on Thursday, which began, “Today President Zelenskyy will present his plan for victory. What he outlined yesterday in the Ukrainian parliament was more than frightening.” It continued, “Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ is the shortest path to unleashing World War III, so Hungary does not support it.”

And referencing Ursula von der Leyen, he wrote further, “I am one of those who urge the European Union to change its current strategy. The European Union went into this war with a badly organized, badly executed, badly calculated strategy, for which the president of the Commission bears the main responsibility.” “We are losing this war, so the strategy is not working. But this does not mean that we need more war, more dangerous and long-range weapons — it means that we need to change from a war strategy to a peace strategy. We need a cease-fire and peace talks!” he stressed in apparent reference to Europe and the NATO alliance.

Orbán pledged that he will lobby German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron to start negotiations with Moscow “on behalf of the entire EU” as soon as possible in order “to find a way out of this situation.” [..] The Hungarian PM has recently made it clear that he doesn’t share the same enthusiasm for Ukraine’s risky Kursk offensive (which started in August) as other European leaders, having expressed the desire for a ceasefire in the southern Russian oblast, and expressing the need to safeguard European energy supplies ahead of winter.

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“Kiev’s possible accession to NATO in the current conditions will eliminate the possibilities of a political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine conflict..”

• Moscow Warns of Direct NATO-Russia Conflict if Ukraine Joins Alliance (Sp.)

A Russian diplomat expressed hope that there are reasonable politicians in the leadership of the alliance who are aware of the destructive consequences that inviting Ukraine into NATO could bring. Kiev’s possible accession to NATO in the current conditions will eliminate the possibilities of a political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine conflict and make the alliance’s direct involvement in military operations against Russia inevitable, Aleksey Polishchuk, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s second department for the Commonwealth of Independent States’ countries, told Sputnik. “We constantly warn about the threat of Ukraine’s NATO accession,” Polishchuk said, when asked to comment on Szijjarto’s statement about the possibility of direct Russia-NATO confrontation.

Ukraine’s potential accession to the alliance “will put an end to the possibilities of a political and diplomatic settlement, making it inevitable that the alliance will engage directly in hostilities against Russia, and lead to an uncontrolled escalation,” the official said. Earlier this week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RIA Novosti that Ukraine’s accession to NATO would mean a direct confrontation between the alliance and Russia, and lead to World War III.
In early October, NATO’s new Secretary General, Mark Rutte, visited Kiev. He stated that Ukraine will eventually become a full member of the military bloc, and Russia has no veto power on this matter. However, he did not specify any timeline. President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that Ukraine’s potential NATO membership poses a threat to Russia’s security, which was one of the reasons for the start of the special military operation.

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“Moscow is looking to achieve “conditions for long-term, sustainable and lasting peace that provide equal security for all participants in this difficult process..”

• Ukraine Peace ‘Must Be Lasting’ – Putin (RT)

Moscow is interested in a lasting peace with Kiev, but not a short-lived truce, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Russia’s goal is to ensure its long-term security interests, Putin stressed during a meeting on Friday with the heads of leading BRICS media agencies at the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow. “If we are talking about some kind of peace processes, then these should not be processes related to a ceasefire for a week, two weeks, or a year, so that NATO countries [which support Ukraine] could rearm and stock up on new ammunition,” he said. Moscow is looking to achieve “conditions for long-term, sustainable and lasting peace that provide equal security for all participants in this difficult process,” the Russian leader explained.

Putin stressed that the Russian authorities “respect and understand” the determination of their “friends” in BRICS and elsewhere to see the Ukrainian crisis resolved “as quickly as possible and by peaceful means.” Moscow realizes that the conflict is “an irritating element in international affairs, in European affairs, in the economy, and so on. We, like no one else, are interested in ending it as quickly as possible and, of course, by peaceful means,” he said. Russia is ready to return to talks with Ukraine, but only on the basis of the document drawn up in Istanbul in late March 2022, when the sides last sat at the negotiating table, the head of state insisted. Putin said last month that during the talks in Türkiye, Kiev was willing to declare military neutrality, limit its armed forces, and stop discriminating against ethnic Russians. In return, Moscow would have joined other leading world powers in offering Ukraine security guarantees.

“The document did not come into force only because the Ukrainians were ordered not to do this. The elites in the US and some European countries felt the desire to seek Russia’s strategic defeat,” the Russian president said at the time. On Wednesday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky finally made public his so-called ‘victory plan’ for the conflict between Kiev and Moscow, in a speech to the national parliament. According to Zelensky, the scheme does not include negotiations with Russia, but calls on the West “to strengthen Ukraine” in order to reach a diplomatic solution. “This plan can be implemented. It depends on our partners. I emphasize: on partners. It definitely does not depend on Russia,” he claimed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has suggested that Zelensky’s plan is merely a roadmap for continuing the hostilities. Peace can only be achieved if the government in Kiev “sobers up” and acknowledges the roots of the problems that led to the fighting, he insisted.

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“..beneficial cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is helped by the fact that they are neighbors and do not need to transport fuel and other goods by water..”

• Russia Has “Unlimited” Energy Resources – Putin (RT)

Russia has an unlimited amount of energy resources, President Vladimir Putin said during a BRICS media gathering on Friday. He noted the importance of commodity exports to China, and described Russia as the most reliable supplier. Putin said mutually beneficial cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is helped by the fact that they are neighbors and do not need to transport fuel and other goods by water. “The entire border is shared, and the energy resources in Russia are simply unlimited,” Putin stated. Chinese representatives are happy to buy Russian energy resources, the president noted, adding that Russia ranks fourth in its share of China’s trade. Russia’s trade with China topped $65 billion in the first half of this year, with levels of natural-resource exports hitting new highs, Vedomosti reported in July, citing Chinese customs data.

Exports of Russian goods to China jumped 4% year-on-year, surging to a record $65.2 billion between January and June of this year, with oil and gas supplies accounting for nearly 90% of shipments, according to the latest figures. During that period, China purchased mineral oil and other petroleum products worth $50 billion, compared to $47 billion in the same period of last year. Russia has the world’s largest natural gas reserves and is the second-largest producer of natural gas. It is the third-largest producer of oil, accounting for over 12% of global production, and its share of the enriched uranium market is estimated at 40%. The country is also among the ten largest producers of nickel, and the world’s third largest producer of titanium.

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“The contribution will be repaid using profits generated by Moscow’s frozen assets, the paper reports.”

• US To Pay $20 Billion Into Loan For Ukraine – FT (RT)

The US is set to provide up to $20 billion to Ukraine as part of a G7 loan, which will then be repaid using proceeds generated by the Russian assets immobilized by the West as part of Ukraine-related sanctions, Financial Times has reported, citing sources. Kiev’s backers have been trying to accelerate negotiations over the loan in an effort to secure funding to Ukraine before the end of the year, due to mounting concern that Washington’s aid to the country could be cut off if Donald Trump wins the upcoming US election, FT noted, in an article posted on Friday. The former US president has repeatedly threatened to scale back assistance to Kiev if he were elected. The US and its allies have frozen an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian state after the Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022. The bulk of the money, nearly €197 billion ($214 billion) is being held by Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear.

The immobilized funds have generated €3.4 billion ($3.7 billion) in interest as of mid-July, according to the depository. Moscow has denounced the freeze as “theft” and said that any seizure of its funds would be against the law and would further undermine global trust in the Western financial system. In June, G7 members agreed to grant Kiev a $50 billion loan to be financed by interest from the frozen Russian assets. The US and the EU were initially expected to provide $20 billion each as Canada, Japan and the UK were set to jointly lend the rest of the massive loan. Later, to reassure allies that the bloc’s sanctions regime on the funds is not lifted, Brussels proposed a three-year extension of the EU’s mandate to freeze Russian assets. EU lawmakers have been renewing their sanctions every six months by unanimous decision, meaning that each vote may bring about a break in restrictions. Hungary opposed the proposal, and announced plans to postpone the decision until the US presidential elections on November 5.

Last week, the EU approved its own contribution of up to €35 billion to the G7 loan, but the bloc would need to contribute less if Washington provided the full $20 billion, Reuters reported last week. The funds, which will be managed by the World Bank, will be used for several purposes, including defense or humanitarian needs. US senior officials, however, told FT that Washington would provide the full agreed $20 billion, even if the EU failed to convince Hungary’s premier Viktor Orban to drop his veto on extending EU sanctions, which had previously been voiced among the US demands. According to two sources cited by the paper, G7 finance ministers will make a statement on the distribution and structure of the loan on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings on October 25.

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“An unnamed US official confirmed the authenticity of the documents to CNN, describing the leak as “deeply concerning.”

• Secret US Intelligence Files On Israel Leaked – CNN (RT)

The US has launched an investigation after its highly classified intelligence reports about Israel’s preparations for possible strikes on Iran were leaked online, CNN reported on Saturday, citing three people familiar with the matter. The apparent security breach occurred amid unprecedented tensions between Israel and Iran as the Jewish state had vowed to respond to a barrage of missiles fired by Tehran in the beginning this month. On Friday, two documents were posted to the anonymous Telegram channel Middle East Spectator, which covers events in the region and is critical of Israel. The first document, apparently prepared by the Pentagon’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, says that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had “continued key munitions preparations and covert UAV activity on October 16 almost certainly for a strike on Iran.”

The second document contains a detailed report about a “large-force employment exercise” conducted by the Israeli Air Force on October 15-16. An unnamed US official confirmed the authenticity of the documents to CNN, describing the leak as “deeply concerning.” The official told the network that the ongoing probe is aimed at determining who had access to the top secret files that eventually made their way to social media. The Telegram channel, which published the documents, released a statement on Saturday, claiming that it had received the files from “an anonymous source on Telegram who refused to identify himself.” The channel further claimed that it had “no connection to the original leaker.”

On October 1, Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the war in Gaza and the assassinations of top members of pro-Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. According to the IDF, the majority of the projectiles were intercepted. The only direct casualty by the attack was a Palestinian man from the West Bank who was killed by a falling missile fragment. Israel did not specify how and when it would retaliate, with some reports saying that the IDF were planning to strike military targets in Iran, rather than nuclear or oil facilities. Israel would make “final decisions based on our national interest,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday.

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“As much as intelligence can generate strategic benefits for one side, it is the military itself that decides the outcome of a conflict by fighting on the battlefield – where Tel Aviv has so far failed..”

• Assassinations Continue, But Israel Will Not Win The War (SCF)

Israel continues its strategy of carrying out as many targeted killings as possible. After killing Ismail Hanyeh, Tel Aviv managed to eliminate the then “new” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a joint artillery, drone and sniper attack on the city of Rafah. It is possible that Sinwar’s exact location was obtained through Israeli intelligence sources in conversation with the IDF, which shows that Tel Aviv does indeed have an efficient system of control and surveillance. Israel has been known worldwide in recent decades for maintaining an efficient intelligence system and controlling the internal and external activities of its citizens. However, since October 7, 2023, Israeli intelligence has undergone a gradual process of discrediting, mainly due to the fact that it was not efficient in predicting Operation Storm Al Aqsa.

Many analysts began to doubt Israel’s capabilities after these events, while others began to spread conspiracy theories about alleged Israeli deliberate inaction to provoke a war. All of these narratives seem similarly unfounded. On the one hand, they exaggerate Israel’s power, while on the other, they downplay the seriousness of the Zionist regime’s capabilities. Israel does indeed have a very efficient intelligence system, capable of monitoring the internal and external activities of its citizens. However, this system is not infallible and can make serious mistakes – such as the October 7th, which appears to have been the result of Israeli intelligence neglecting Gaza due to the strategic priority of monitoring Iran. The failure of Israeli intelligence resulted in the current war, which has been the greatest historical humiliation for Israel since its founding.

However, the capabilities of Israeli intelligence cannot be diminished. Local agencies have a great capacity to obtain sensitive information and are willing to use any method to assassinate people identified as “legitimate targets.” This is how Israel has managed to kill several Palestinian, Lebanese and possibly Iranian leaders in recent months. Information is obtained from reliable sources, passed to military or intelligence-linked professional assassins, and then ambushes and sabotages are successfully carried out. Having failed militarily, Israel will certainly escalate its actions in the intelligence arena, betting on the tactic of targeted assassinations to try to demobilize the enemy, affecting the morale of the Resistance troops. The main problem with this type of strategy is that it has already proven ineffective several times, especially against cohesive groups united by strong ties of ideology, religion and political agenda – as is precisely the case with Hamas and all the other militias of the Axis of the Resistance.

Sinwar was assassinated because he was the leader of Hamas – and he became the leader of Hamas because Hanyeh was assassinated before him. This line of assassinated leaders is likely to continue, as this is the expected fate of almost all major leaders of the Resistance’s organizations. In the end, a war is not won by intelligence alone. As much as intelligence can generate strategic benefits for one side, it is the military itself that decides the outcome of a conflict by fighting on the battlefield – where Tel Aviv has so far failed. It is possible that more Resistance leaders will die in the future, but that does not change the fact that Israel is unlikely to win this war, with the policy of targeted assassinations being just a way to disguise the military incompetence of the Zionist regime.

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“This isn’t about terrorism at all. It is about frightening those opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the West’s collusion in it, into silence.”

• Police Escalate Britain’s War on Independent Journalism (Cook)

The U.K. government and police — the British state — made clear Thursday they are waging a war of intimidation against the country’s independent journalists in a desperate attempt to silence them. Ten Metropolitan police officers made a dawn raid on the home of investigative journalist Asa Winstanley and seized his electronic devices under the U.K.’s draconian Terrorism Act. A letter from the Met indicates that the associate editor of The Electronic Intifada is being investigated by the force for “encouraging terrorism.” Winstanley is the latest — and most high profile – independent journalist to be targeted by counter-terrorism police in recent weeks. Earlier, Richard Medhurst was arrested at Heathrow airport on returning to the U.K. Then Sarah Wilkinson was arrested and her home ransacked.

Winstanley has repeatedly embarrassed the British establishment by exposing its covert and deep ties to Israel and its collusion with the Israeli lobby. In his book Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn, Winstanley exposed in shocking detail how anti-Semitism was weaponised against the former Labour leader. The book would have made uncomfortable reading for his successor, Sir Keir Starmer, now Britain’s prime minister, because it documents his role in the smear campaign. While in opposition, Starmer’s Labour Party threatened to expel Winstanley as a member – he resigned in protest instead – and have made legal threats against him.

As The Electronic Intifada website notes: “Now that Labour is the UK’s ruling party, it has the potential to use the apparatus of the state against those it views as its own – or Israel’s – political enemies.” There is precisely no reason for police to raid Winstanley’s home or seize his electronic devices. The preposterous accusation of “encouraging terrorism” clearly relates to his online work, which is fully in the public domain. The British state wants to insinuate through the dawn raid and confiscation of his devices that he is somehow harbouring secret or classified information, or in illicit contact with terror groups, and that incriminating evidence will be forthcoming from searches of those devices. It won’t. If there were any real suspicion that Winstanley had such information, the police would have arrested him rather making a public show of a 6 a.m. raid and search they knew beforehand would turn up nothing.

This isn’t about terrorism at all. It is about frightening those opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the West’s collusion in it, into silence. If the British state is going after someone like Winstanley, you are supposed to conclude, they will surely soon come for me too. Even the name of the “counter-terrorism” raid is performative: “Operation Incessantness.” The message the state wants to send is that it will not rest till it has us all behind bars. Don’t believe this nonsense. The police have nothing on Winstanley. Exposing information about Israel and its genocide, and the British government’s culpability, is not a crime. At least not yet. They want you to think it is, of course. They want you scared and mute. Because every time you go out and protest, you remind the world that the British government, and their bully-boys in blue, are the real criminals – for enabling genocide.

Read more …

Mongolia.

• The Geoeconomic Drivers of SCO-BRICS Synergy (Pepe Escobar)

One week before the absolutely crucial BRICS summit in Kazan, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held a summit in Islamabad. This convergence is important in more ways than one. The summit in Pakistan involved the Council of the Heads of Government of SCO member-states. Out of it came a joint communique stressing the need to implement decisions taken at the SCO annual summit last July in Astana: that’s where the heads of state actually gathered, including new SCO full member Iran. China, following the rotating SCO chairmanship of close ally Pakistan – now under a dodgy administration fully endorsed by the military goons who keep ultra-popular former Prime Minister Imran Khan in jail – has officially taken over the SCO presidency for 2024 to 2025. And the name of game, predictably, is business.

The motto of the Chinese presidency is – what else – “action”. So Beijing took no time to start promoting further, faster synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), whose predominant power is Russia. Cue to the Russia-China strategic partnership fast advancing trans-Eurasia economic corridors. And that brings us to a couple of key connectivity subplots featured prominently at the Islamabad summit. Let’s start with the fascinating Steppe Road – which is a Mongolian idea crystalizing as an upgraded economic corridor. Mongolia is an observer at the SCO, not a full member: reasons for it are quite complex. Still, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin raved about the Steppe Road with his SCO interlocutors. The Mongolians came up with the idea of a Taliin Zam (“Steppe Road” in Mongolian) back in 2014, containing no less than “Five Great Passages”: a maze of transport and energy infrastructure to be built with investments totaling at least $50 billion.

These include a 997 km-long transnational expressway linking Russia-China; 1,100 km of electrified railway infrastructure; the expansion of the – already running – Trans-Mongolian Railway from Sukhbaatar in the north to Zamyn-Uud in the south; and Pipelineistan of course, as in new oil and gas pipelines linking Altanbulag in the north to Zamyn-Uud. Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai was as enthusiastic as Mishustin, announcing that Mongolia has already finalized 33 Steppe Road projects. These projects happen to neatly align with Russia’s own Trans-Eurasian Corridor – a connectivity maze which includes the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Trans-Manchurian Railway, the Trans-Mongolian Railway and the Baikal Amur Mainline (BAM).

Back in July at the SCO summit, Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh spent quite some time discussing the finer strategic points of Eurasian logistics. Then Putin visited Mongolia in early September for the 85th anniversary of the joint Soviet-Mongolian victory over the Japanese at the Khalkhin Gol River. Putin was received as a rock star. All that makes perfect strategic sense. The Russia-Mongolia border is 3,485 km-long. The USSR and the Mongolian People’s Republic established diplomatic relations over a century ago, in 1921. They have been working together on key projects such as the Trans-Mongolian gas pipeline – yet another Russia-China connection; modernization of the Ulaanbaatar Railway joint venture; Russia supplying fuel to the new Chinggis Khaan International Airport; and Rosatom building a nuclear power plant.

Mongolia harbors the proverbial wealth of natural resources, from rare earth minerals (reserves may reach an astonishing 31 million tons) to uranium (prospective reserves of 1.3 million tons). Even as it applies what is called the Third Neighbor approach, Mongolia needs to maintain a careful balancing act, as it is on the radar non-stop of the US and the EU, with the collective West pressing for less Eurasia cooperation with Russia-China. Naturally Russia holds a major strategic advantage over the West, as Moscow not only treats Mongolia as an equal partner but can provide its neighbor’s needs when it comes to energy security. What makes it all even more enticing is that Beijing envisions the Steppe Road as “highly consistent” with BRI, complete with the proverbial enthusiasm hailing the synergy and “win-win cooperation” between both projects.

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One day

 

 

He tried
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847560247075897399

 

 

Brown bear
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847410666183020553

 

 

Dog bear
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847677256442777706

 

 

Artwork
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847337882119524482

 

 

Beethoven

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 19 2024

Oct 192024
 
 October 19, 2024  Posted by at 8:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  63 Responses »


René Magritte Youth 1924

 

• Why Women Should Vote for Trump (Tiffany Marie Brannon)
• The Collapse of Kamala Harris (Hammer)
• The Three Layers of Culpability (Kunstler)
• Trump Pokes Fun At His Subpoenas, Kamala’s Absence During Al Smith Dinner (JTN)
• Harris’ One Answer To Bret Baier That Americans Just Don’t Believe (JTN)
• Obamas To Hit Campaign Trail With Harris (RT)
• Judge Chutkan In Jack Smith’s Trump Probe Unseals More Docs (JTN)
• CBS Could Be In Trouble Over Kamala Interview (RT)
• Could Biden Create Global Upheaval in His Remaining Time in Office? (Sp.)
• The Debate – General Staff vs Kremlin, Helmer vs Doctorow (Helmer)
• Zelensky ‘Feels Noose Tightening Around His Neck’ (Sp.)
• Zelensky’s Victory Plan A Delusional Distraction From Diplomacy And Peace (SCF)
• Zelensky’s Plan Sells Ukraine to West – Lavrov (Sp.)
• EU Looking To Expand Fines Against Musk (RT)
• Colonial Legacy Of The Nile Threatens Peace In Africa And Beyond (Ryzhenkova)

 

 

 

 

Al Smith
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847100390237499809
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847118287089397871

https://twitter.com/i/status/1847095450211377631
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847098080752971896
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847108883992793229

Elon waste
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847062684803469367
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847029976849437043

Barron
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846554094665601076

Kimbal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847076821851951407

Trump 34
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846987041852346491

RFK

Delaware

AIPAC

Apple

 

 

 

 

“..voting for the rich white man in this election doesn’t make you evil. It makes you wise.”

• Why Women Should Vote for Trump (Tiffany Marie Brannon)

Dear fellow women, You are being played… And falling for this particular confidence scheme won’t just cost you, it’ll cost all of us. I’m an affluent 30-something divorced, white, childless, American woman with multiple postgraduate degrees, and a busy career. I’ve lived abroad in several metropolitan cities and I own my home. According to every single statistic, I should be a J.D. Vance-loathing single cat lady. I should also really hate Donald Trump. But I don’t. Lest we forget, the presidency is not a popularity contest. There seems to be some confusion on that front. You aren’t casting a ballot for Prom Queen, you’re voting for the leader of the free world. It’s why that little thing called the Electoral College exists. I’ve heard other women say they’re voting for Vice President Kamala Harris because “she’s more iconic” than Trump. My response: what about inflation, foreign or domestic policy, war, immigration, education, human trafficking, or any other serious issue?

The truth is, if you actually voted for real pro-women policies, you’d vote for Trump. And the Left knows this. That’s why the Democratic Party has spent untold millions making Abortion the #1 issue for women. White women alone make up 40% of the electoral vote and 89 million American women total are registered to vote, making us the largest voting bloc in the nation. In 2020, swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania saw women vote at record rates, with Biden winning 57% of female voters.We hold serious power. Hence why Democrats want to convince women that the unrestricted right to abortion is more important than the right to vote, freedom of speech, or any other right you can think of. Make abortion equalitarian with being female and tell them they are physically under attack by the GOP. Oh, and also by the Supreme Court. We can’t forget them.

Democrats have done such a good job with this indoctrination that, in a recent viral video, young women said they would rather have the right to an abortion over the right to vote. What are they teaching girls in schools these days? Yet even if you’re a passionately pro-choice voter, it’s silly to consider abortion as the critical issue at stake in this election. After all, Trump has already said he doesn’t favor a national abortion ban and that he would veto any such bill. According to KFF, only 14% of American women – or 7% of the American population – have had an abortion at some point in their life, 21% being Black, 19% Hispanic, and 11% White women. In contrast, 100% of Americans – women included – have to buy food, pay medical bills, and want to know their tax dollars are going to help them in an emergency. Just ask the victims of Hurricane Helene as they were offered a measly $750 after FEMA gave billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars away to noncitizens and foreign countries under the Biden Harris Administration.

We’ve been inundated with the message that voting for an objectively unpopular and recognized failure of a Vice President because she loves abortion, possesses a female reproductive system, and is of minority ethnicity is more important than anything else that matters. Ladies – don’t be so easily fooled. Trump’s record speaks for itself and is deserving of closer attention by female voters. The former president approved the largest paid parental leave program in history, guaranteeing 12 weeks of paid leave. He directed more than $200 million per year to technology education grants for women and programs that encouraged STEM careers. He founded the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, the first-ever government program focused on advancing women’s “full and free participation” in the global economy. Trump also shone a spotlight on under-the-radar domestic women’s issues, establishing a task force for missing and murdered Native American women.

Under the Trump administration, women’s unemployment reached the lowest level in 67 years and women received over 70% of new jobs. Last I checked, those policies affect far more than 14% of the female population. Even Trump recognizes this. He recently observed, “Women want to have safety. They want to have a strong military. They want to have a strong police force… They want to be in their house and they want to be safe. … I hope they like my personality… But to me, it wouldn’t be very important, the personality.” He’s right. This is not a personality contest. It’s not about which candidate is more “iconic.” It is our duty as citizens to vote for the best policies, laws, and chances for us and our loved ones to thrive for years to come. Women voters are no exception to this rule. So, from one would-be single cat lady to a nation of others, consider this: voting for the rich white man in this election doesn’t make you evil. It makes you wise.

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“Will the last person hanging around Harris-Walz campaign headquarters please turn off the lights?”

• The Collapse of Kamala Harris (Hammer)

On July 26, in the aftermath of the Democratic Party’s ruthless midsummer coup of their own democratically elected presidential nominee, this column predicted that the elevation of dimwitted cackler-in-chief Kamala Harris to the party’s presidential slot would “spectacularly backfire.” More specifically, I wrote: “Practically, the path to winning 270 Electoral College votes still runs through the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is frankly bizarre for Democrats to swap out the man who talks ceaselessly about his hardscrabble Scranton upbringing for a Californian who boasts the most left-wing voting record of any presidential nominee in modern history.” I’m feeling pretty good these days about that prognosis. Harris recently campaigned in Erie, Pennsylvania—a crucial regional hub in this election cycle’s most important battleground state.

Conspicuously absent from that snoozefest was incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.). Harris tried to pass off the snub as a nothingburger, suggesting that Casey was doing the more important work of knocking on doors and getting out the vote. This doesn’t pass the laugh test. Facing a spirited challenge from Republican hopeful Dave McCormick, Casey has clearly concluded that Harris’ immense Bay Area lefty baggage—her history of endorsing the Green New Deal, a national fracking ban, and crippling electric vehicle mandates—is an electoral albatross around his neck. It’s tough to blame Casey. Other vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbents, such as Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), reached the same conclusion a while ago. Such a conclusion makes a great deal of sense: A recent Marist national general election poll, for instance, shows Trump up a whopping 10 points on Harris with registered independents. If that margin ends up being anywhere near accurate, it is extraordinarily difficult to see a scenario in which Trump loses.

Harris has recently been engaging in what the psychology profession calls “projection,” ludicrously criticizing Donald Trump for avoiding the media when it was actually Harris who infamously avoided a single one-on-one sit-down interview for weeks on end following the Biden coup. In reality, Trump recently sat down for two interviews with Time magazine, whose owner is a vocal Harris donor. Harris declined a Time interview nonetheless. Prior to this week’s desperate, last-second change of course, which saw her sit down with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Harris had only deigned to sit down with the most obsequious media imaginable.

One can only wonder how bad the Harris-Walz internal polling must be to impel her to ditch the far-left “Call Her Daddy” podcast and the friendly ladies of “The View” for the considerably more mainstream Baier. Desperate times sure call for desperate measures. Democrats routinely blast Republicans as misogynistic, but their own chronic misandry is so bad that Kamala is apparently considering a sit-down with podcast king Joe Rogan, whose own brand of woke-skeptical irreverence sharply clashes with Harris’ identity politics obsessions and overt race-based pandering. The tables sure have turned. Will the last person hanging around Harris-Walz campaign headquarters please turn off the lights? Snark aside, this race isn’t over yet. But the Harris-Walz camp cannot possibly be feeling too good right now, either.

Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for their predicament. Throughout this interminable campaign season, they have studiously avoided substantive discussion of the four issues that Americans consistently tell pollsters are most important to them this cycle: the economy, inflation, immigration, and crime. Instead, they have repeatedly attempted to shift the electoral terrain back to the few issues that poll in their favor: namely, abortion and the Jan. 6 jamboree at the Capitol. In this, they have completely failed. The American people still care above all about the same four basic quality-of-life issues that they have cared the most about for years now. It is Democrats’ fault that they are so woefully out of touch with the voters’ sentiments on those issues and that the Biden-Harris administration’s track record polls as poorly as it does.

Perhaps if the Harris-Walz ticket does go down in flames, Democrats will pause and take a long, hard look in the mirror. Perhaps they will recognize that promising late-term abortion is a peculiar way to pander to women, that pledging mass amnesty for illegal aliens is a counterproductive way to pander to Hispanics, and that dangling marijuana legalization is an outright offensive way to pander to Blacks. Perhaps. But if history is any indication, they probably won’t.

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“Most of all, Mr. Trump has to defeat the sick belief that anything goes and nothing matters.”

• The Three Layers of Culpability (Kunstler)

The Great Fright among the elite of the party ruling our country steals across the land chillingly now from sea to shining sea — as if all those ghouls, werewolves, zombies, and tormented wraiths assembled in the front yard Halloween displays send up one mighty wail of despair: Donald Trump will seek revenge against his enemies if you elect him! they scream into the pale moonlight. Well, he ought to, of course, and remember: they are your enemies, too — the FBI thugs battering down your doors at five in the morning, the malicious US attorneys manufacturing phony felonies, the Soros-owned DAs and party-owned judges, and the thousands of spooks from agencies both known and unheard-of surveilling your every move, every purchase, every journey, every thought. Consider that it is not whether Mr. Trump might seek revenge but whether justice, and the mental health of the nation, require an accounting for the real crimes of actual persons against the people of America lo these years of the Woke Jacobin Inquisition.

Finally, as the days dwindle down to November 5, you understand exactly what motivates the three layers of evil heaping America with malice and punishment. Layer one: the officers of the political establishment, a.k.a., “the blob” or Deep State, both current and emeritus. You know now that they are motivated to stay out of courts-of-law (and, ultimately, prison). Figures such as John Brennan, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, Chris Wray, Anthony Fauci, Alejandro Mayorkas, Barack Obama, and many more, exude culpability for doing real harm to US citizens. They do not want to do time. As Dr. Johnson famously said: “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” They see Donald Trump’s poll number go hockey stick and they tremble in their Beltway mansions. On the Kubler-Ross transect of grief, they are just now wavering between the stages of anger and bargaining.

Second layer: the lawfare lawyer gang deployed to keep the blob safe from investigation and prosecution: Marc Elias (the mail-in ballot fraud genius), Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord (authors of every get-Trump legal brief), and many others who work with them, are motivated by the gigantic fees they command from the Democratic National Committee and other cut-out orgs that funnel payments to them. The Elias Law Group alone is rumored to have raked-in millions from one client, the Kamala Harris campaign. This is apart from whatever lawyerly zeal they exercise so enjoyably in their blood-lust for Mr. Trump and his associates. Remember: Jacobins are sadists who derive pleasure from cruelly punishing their adversaries. It probably motivates them more than the money involved, since ambitious Beltway lawyers can always and easily make bundles of money from the most mundane services to the blob.

Third Layer: the news media. The motives of these birds are the flimsiest: social status and professional stature. They operate within a self-referential reward bubble that provides psychological nourishment as long as they go along with the mumurations of their flock. They will be easiest to turn around as the national mood turns (and is now turning, sharply). A year from now, don’t be surprised if they treat Mr. Trump as a revered hero who saved the country from the malignant blob — and pretend that they never thought otherwise. By then, it will be too late for some, of course, and actual figures such as Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, NBC’s Nicolle Wallace, will be drowning in their own slime trails.

Now, whether Mr. Trump would actively seek revenge is a thing apart from the paranoia of his adversaries. On the one hand, he seems aware that his own place in history will rest not on looking backward to the harms inflicted on him as the sacrificial goat for the sins of “the deplorables” — the many Lawfare cases against him will likely be reversed in higher courts, or just dropped — but on attending to and fixing the many obvious, reality-based problems afflicting the nation: inflation, the horrendous debt, the libido for war induced by military contractors and neocons, the return of productive industry and jobs that pay living wages, sealing the border and expelling dangerous aliens, and stopping the race-and-gender hustles, to name a few things.

In 2016, Mr. Trump floated the idea of defaulting on US debt, or negotiating its terms. Sounded outrageous to some at the time. Now, with the BRICs org meeting to de-dollarize their trade arrangements, might be a ripe time to make such a move. He can reverse “Joe Biden’s” 2021 reversal of his border policies by executive order on day one, put a stop to the “sanctuary city” idiocy, and end all cash incentives to illegals currently inside the USA. He can negotiate a reasonable end to the Ukraine conflict that leaves that country neutral, as everyone knows it should be. He can incentivize the return of factory production with US companies. He knows (and you know) that there is a huge agenda of practical problems to face. Mr. Trump does not need the aggravation of stirring up further grievance and resentment among the defeated Wokesters. He needs them to get aboard a national reclamation project, get their minds right, and lend a hand.

Speaking of hands, on the other hand, remember that the signal weakness of Julius Caesar was pardoning his enemies. Since Mr. Trump is best known as a deal-maker, I believe he will seek to make a deal with the blob. The deal will be for them to cooperate in the prosecution of certain key figures in exchange for not demolishing their agencies altogether. Some of these people — Garland, Mayorkas, Fauci, Brennan, and Wray, for examples — really do need to do some ‘splainin’ in front of juries. That may be sufficient to clarify for history some of the damage the Woke insanity did to our country. We can’t pretend that nothing happened. Most of all, Mr. Trump has to defeat the sick belief that anything goes and nothing matters.

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“These days, it’s really a pleasure [to be] anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance..”

• Trump Pokes Fun At His Subpoenas, Kamala’s Absence During Al Smith Dinner (JTN)

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday night poked fun at both himself and rival Vice President Kamala Harris during a speech at the Al Smith charity dinner in New York City. The dinner is a historic night where presidential candidates often make lighthearted jokes about each other while raising money for Catholic charities. Trump, who attended the event alongside his wife Melania Trump, joked about his recent court cases in the Big Apple, and claimed that he was happy to be in New York without a subpoena, The Independent reported. “These days, it’s really a pleasure [to be] anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance,” Trump said. “Anytime I don’t get a subpoena, I’m very happy.”

Trump also teased Harris for not attending the event in person, while also commenting on a recent viral video of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer feeding a woman a chip in the same manner that a Catholic priest gives someone Communion. “I must say, I was shocked when I heard that Kamala was skipping the Al Smith dinner,” Trump observed. “I’d really hoped that she would come, because we can’t get enough of hearing her beautiful laugh. She laughs like crazy. We would recognize it any place in this room … Instead of attending tonight, she’s in Michigan receiving communion from Gretchen Whitmer.” Harris decided to skip the event to campaign in Wisconsin, becoming the first major party presidential candidate to skip the dinner since 1984, but did address the audience in a pre-recorded video.

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“In the period after Biden’s debate meltdown, Harris insisted Biden was “sharp as a tack.”

• Harris’ One Answer To Bret Baier That Americans Just Don’t Believe (JTN)

Vice President Kamala Harris largely demurred on tough questions in her interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, offering a concrete and definitive answer on only one key question. Unfortunately for her, it’s the one answer Americans just don’t buy. Harris’ ties to President Joe Biden have been a double-edged sword for her, as she simultaneously tries to distance herself from him and his unpopular administration while also asserting that she was a major player in the White House over the past four years. Ostensibly justifying her candidacy, however, was Biden’s failing mental health. When asked about Biden’s current mental health situation, she offered an unequivocal answer: Biden is fine. But that answer raised eyebrows. During the interview Baier pressed her on Biden’s cognitive decline, a development that became plain for all to see during his debate with former President Donald Trump and which served as the ostensive reason that top Democrats pressured him to step aside.

“You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game [and] ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished?” Baier asked her. Harris, for her part, deflected the premise of the question and insisted that “Joe Biden is not on the ballot.” She notably, however, took great care to assert that the president is competent to remain in office. “Joe Biden, I have watched in – from the Oval Office to the situation room, and he has the judgment and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people,” she insisted. Baier pushed back, asking “I understand you met with him at least once a week for three and a half years. You didn’t have any concerns?” “I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump,” Harris retorted, “which is why the people who know him best, including leaders of our national security community, have all spoken out, even people who worked for him in the Oval Office, worked with him in the Situation Room, and have said he is unfit and dangerous and should never be President of the United States again.”

Harris’s response appears to undercut the premise for her candidacy to some extent, given that public perception of Biden’s mental faculties after the debate largely drove the pressure for him to step aside and permitted her elevation. In the period after Biden’s debate meltdown, Harris insisted Biden was “sharp as a tack.” Her continued insistence that he remains sharp puts her in opposition to the overwhelming majority of the public, who have witnessed a litany of Biden’s awkward gaffes, ramblings, and forays off script. While conservatives had long suggested that Biden suffered from mental and physical decline, the sentiment became the consensus opinion after the presidential debate, during which he often stumbled over his answers and appeared lost on stage. A CBS News/YouGov survey released in late June, after his debate with Trump, found that 72% of registered voters did not believe Biden had the mental and cognitive health to serve as president. Only 27% believed he did.

A Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll after the debate, meanwhile, found that 66% of registered voters had doubts about Biden’s mental fitness while 74% said he had shown he was too old to be president. Fifty-four percent expressed the belief that he was “getting worse.” In explaining his decision to step aside, Biden did not mention internal party pressure or concerns over his mental fitness, but implicitly acknowledged his age by saying “I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.” The Trump War Room distributed the clip on social media, with many respondents questioning Biden’s decision to leave the race if those close to him genuinely believe he is fit to continue in the White House.

The Baier interview came as part of a major media blitz by the Harris campaign to familiarize voters with the candidate at the 11th hour and to push back on claims she had ducked substantive interviews. The campaign had touted her willingness to appear on Fox News, a generally right-leaning outlet perceived as hostile territory. She has still not held an unscripted, open-question press conference. Indeed, pro-Harris media celebrated the interview as a rebuttal to her critics who fretted over her penchant for softball interviews with friendly news outlets. On the right, Harris attracted considerable mockery over her evasive answers and habit of redirecting questions to permit her to attack former President Donald Trump. While several such clips went viral, her one attempt at a concrete answer may prove the most damaging in that it begs the question: Why isn’t Biden at the top of the ticket?

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Too late.

• Obamas To Hit Campaign Trail With Harris (RT)

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will join US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in swing states Georgia and Michigan next week, according to media reports. Harris is set to appear with the former president in Georgia on October 24 and with Michelle Obama in Michigan on October 26, the Associated Press reported on Friday, citing a senior official from the Harris campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity. The latest polls put Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump neck-and-neck nationally, while Trump leads Harris with 52% to 45% in Georgia, and Harris is ahead of Trump 47% to 45% in Michigan. Barack Obama and his wife remain “immensely popular” with supporters of the Democratic Party, Reuters noted. Their appearance could boost Harris’ chances in states where victory margins are thin, the agency added.

The former president recently campaigned for Harris in Pittsburgh, and is scheduled to appear in the coming days in the swing states of Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Michelle Obama is set to campaign for the first time this election cycle. Harris, while serving as district attorney of San Francisco, supported Barack Obama’s successful presidential bid in 2008. The former president also reportedly helped usher President Joe Biden out of the race after the 81-year-old’s disastrous debate against Trump in June. Joe Biden served as vice-president during Obama’s two terms in office from 2009 to 2017. The New York Post claimed earlier this week that Biden and Obama shared a private conversation at a memorial service in Washington, reportedly agreeing that Harris wasn’t as strong as the outgoing president.

The current election race has seen several high-profile endorsements of the rival candidates. Among celebrities to support Harris are singers Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Bruce Springsteen, and actors George Clooney, Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence. Trump has been endorsed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, rapper 50 Cent, politician and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., commentator Tucker Carlson, retired professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, and actor Jon Voight.

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“1,900 pages of documents..”

• Judge Chutkan In Jack Smith’s Trump Probe Unseals More Docs (JTN)

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s federal Jan. 6 election interference case, on Friday unsealed nearly 1,900 pages of documents from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation for the public to view. Trump has said the release of such documents ahead of the election on Nov. 5 is election interference in itself. Trump’s legal team has said the “asymmetric release of charged allegations and related documents during early voting creates a concerning appearance of election interference.” The judge in the case disagreed. “If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, that withholding could itself constitute — or appear to be — election interference,” she argued in her order on Thursday evening.

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“..going to the news is an act of extending trust. Now, the thing about trust is that once it’s lost, it’s very difficult to regain.”

• CBS Could Be In Trouble Over Kamala Interview (RT)

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has grounds to hear a complaint against CBS for deceptively editing an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a Republican-appointed commissioner has said. Earlier this month, the broadcaster aired two different answers by Harris to the same question, one in a preview and the other in the actual ‘60 Minutes’ show, prompting accusations of misleading editing to make the sitting vice-president sound more coherent than she actually was. The Center for American Rights (CAR) filed a complaint to the FCC on Wednesday, accusing the network of “deliberate news distortion,” which would be an actionable offense under the regulator’s rules. “What this claim is alleging is that an act of distortion took place,” Commissioner Nathan Simington told Fox News Digital on Friday.

The FCC has “certainly contemplated the possibility of distortionary reporting taking place via splicing,” he explained, noting that in a previous proceeding the commissioners “gave the example of substituting a yes answer to one question or a no answer to an entirely different question.” Simington reminded the audience that the FCC can’t regulate what can be said or written, given that the US has the First Amendment to the Constitution that protects freedom of speech and the press. However, CBS could still find itself in trouble for “abuse of public trust,” he said. “I think everyone agrees that deliberately misleading the public is a bad idea,” the commissioner said, adding that if CBS did so, Americans should be upset, “because people go to the news in order to learn about things that they would never be able to learn about themselves.

In other words, going to the news is an act of extending trust. Now, the thing about trust is that once it’s lost, it’s very difficult to regain.” Simington is one of the two Republicans on the five-member FCC. He was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020. Trump will face Harris in the November 5 election for the White House, after the Democrats pressured President Joe Biden to drop out of the race in July. Trump accused ‘60 Minutes’ of perpetrating “the greatest fraud in broadcast history” by swapping Harris’ responses. FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, responded by accusing the former president of attacking free speech and democracy itself. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” she said last week.

The CAR complaint specifically names WCBS-TV in New York, which is owned and operated by CBS Corporation, rather than an affiliate who could assert plausible deniability. While Simington would not speculate about a possible probe, he said the FCC might levy a fine or place conditions on the network’s license renewal, if CBS is found to have deliberately distorted the Harris interview. A day before the CAR complaint was filed, House Speaker Mike Johnson accused CBS of selectively and deceptively editing his own interview. The Louisiana Republican offered proof by posting raw footage recorded by his office, alongside what actually aired, on X (formerly Twitter).

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“..We’re not sure whether he is cooperating or not or whether he’s going to watch the Democratic Party go into the wilderness.”

• Could Biden Create Global Upheaval in His Remaining Time in Office? (Sp.)

Though Joe Biden’s presidential term is nearing its end, he can still “make major decisions that can never be overturned” while still in the office, says Professor Joe Siracusa, political scientist and dean of Global Futures at Curtin University. “For example, in the next four months and here we’re talking about January 20th, 2025, he could in this short period of time encourage President Zelensky to negotiate with the Russian Federation about a diplomatic solution of the war in Ukraine,” Siracusa suggests. “He could encourage the Israelis to attack Iran and drag the United States into a conflict that might ultimately involve the Russian Federation,” Siracusa continues.

Aside from affecting global affairs, Biden’s decisions may also affect the outcome of the upcoming presidential election in the US, seeing how Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is Biden’s vice-president and thus “will pretty much have to wear what he does,” Prof. Siracusa points out. For instance, Biden could “give the Ukrainians the green light to use American offensive weapons on their border to hit inside Russia itself” or “encourage the Israelis to attack the oil and gas installations in Iran, threatening world prices.” “In terms of the United States leverage with its allies, and here we’re looking at Israel and Ukraine, allies such as they are, could get the United States in a lot of trouble down the road that would affect the system for a long time,” the scholar remarks.

That said, while Biden still has “plenty of time to get in trouble,” there is “probably not enough time for a major diplomatic breakthrough,” Prof. Siracusa observes, making it unlikely that the 46th POTUS could be aiming for some sort of legacy-defining success in foreign policy. “I think in the next four months, Joe Biden has to decide whether he’s really going to help Kamala Harris become the next president,” Prof. Siracusa adds. “He’s very angry that he was pushed aside, particularly since he seems to have reclaimed his cognitive abilities. We’re not sure whether he is cooperating or not or whether he’s going to watch the Democratic Party go into the wilderness.”

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“Who takes seriously the Rupert Murdoch approach to truth – you don’t read the London Times or Fox News to determine what is true.”

• The Debate – General Staff vs Kremlin, Helmer vs Doctorow (Helmer)

“The winners of the war are the Russian General Staff. Everyone in Russia understands that the Russian Army is winning and will win this war…I believe Gilbert is wrong on the history of the negotiations that have gone on since before this war began… It’s [Russian] military protection that guarantees [Ukrainian] permanent neutrality… Second, I think that Gilbert is wrong on the foundation of policy…The US policy does not date when Gilbert has put it from Madeleine Albright [US Secretary of State 1997-2001]…US policy since 1945 has been to destroy Russia and prevent Russia from ever forming a kind of partnership with Germany in Europe. If such a German-Russian partnership post-war were to develop, that would end US control of Europe… This is not a neocon invention. It goes back to non-Ukrainian, non-Jewish decision makers during World War II in the United States…Thirdly, Gilbert is wrong on method…

What Gilbert is saying is that he watches Russian television talk shows… This is an absurd method for understanding either President Putin’s role in the command structure, or the General Staff’s role, or what the future security of Russia is required to be in a settlement…Who takes seriously the Rupert Murdoch approach to truth – you don’t read the London Times or Fox News to determine what is true. Therefore, the notion that we should watch Russian television with that group of talk show presenters as an example of what is the truth of Russian debate is inappropriate.” “I’m sorry, Gilbert is well-meaning but we are not talking about Doctorow — we are talking about Doctor Zero…If we don’t settle the outcome of the war according to Russia’s security needs now, by the time there is the next [Russian] presidential election, there will be more war.”

“The issue isn’t what [President Vladimir] Zelensky says publicly. The major security threat for Russia is in the secret annexes [of the Ukrainian ‘Victory Plan’]…What went into the US secret annex in Greece [1981-87] was the deployment of US nuclear weapons aimed at Moscow…Secret annexes mean secret weapons, secret deployments, and dual-capable bombs, missiles and warheads…We know we are back in the world of nuclear targeting on Russia…That brings us back to the general problem – what’s US policy toward Russia? Can anything, anything a US administration ever offer Russia be trusted unless the Russian Army is in place? And that brings us back to the Gorbachev treason, repeated as the Yeltsin treason. No Russian president — no Russian president can repeat those two things. The Russian Army won’t tolerate it, and neither will the Russian people…Without the Russian Army, the signature of the US on an agreement is worthless.”

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“..doing everything imaginable to foment a NATO war and hope to save his life if not his political power..”

• Zelensky ‘Feels Noose Tightening Around His Neck’ (Sp.)

Volodymyr Zelensky’s so-called “victory plan” that was recently unveiled to the public and met with a rather lukewarm reaction from the NATO countries may represent the Ukrainian ex-comedian taking a page from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s playbook, suggests international relations analyst Gilbert Doctorow. Just like Netanyahu, having realized that Israel bit off more than it can chew with its “three front war” and seeing the only chance of victory in dragging the US “into the fight on his side,” so Zelensky seems to be trying to do the same, Doctorow explains to Sputnik. “He knows his armies are suffering a disastrous defeat and that in a matter of a few months all of Ukraine east of the Dnepr will be in Russian hands,” he elaborates.

“His only way to stay in power and to salvage something of Ukraine is to bring NATO into the battle at his side right now. Immediate admittance of Ukraine into NATO, his point one of his 5-point plan, would immediately make NATO a co-belligerent and widen the war to a NATO-Russia war.” Another point of Zelensky’s scheme is involving strikes using Western weapons deep into Russian territory. If implemented, this would “immediately make NATO a co-belligerent and start a NATO-Russia war which NATO and the US in particular absolutely refuses to do,” the analyst notes. “Zelensky feels the noose tightening around his neck and is doing everything imaginable to foment a NATO war and hope to save his life if not his political power,” Doctorow concludes.

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“There must be an end to the ideological disease if the world is ever to establish lasting peace.”

• Zelensky’s Victory Plan A Delusional Distraction From Diplomacy And Peace (SCF)

After weeks of touting a so-called victory plan, the former comedian and illegitimate Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky finally revealed his big idea. It is a bad joke indeed. Zelensky, who outlived his electoral mandate months ago and then cancelled scheduled elections, is not even a legally elected leader. He is the head of a junta that is running a war racket and milking Western taxpayers for hundreds of billions of dollars. Last month, he began briefing U.S. president Joe Biden about a “victory plan”. Zelensky also lobbied the presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. All was kept secret about the plan – although Trump did not seem impressed at the time. This week, the military-fatigue-wearing former comic met with the heads of the European Union to unveil how the NATO-backed Kiev regime would defeat Russia. Seeing him sitting at a big round table with European politicians has become farcical. This is while Russian forces are grinding down remnants of Kiev’s foot soldiers and NATO mercenaries in the eastern region of former Ukraine.

The Kiev regime’s puppet has nothing new to offer. It all boils down to begging for more weapons and money and desperate wishlists of long-range missiles to hit Russian territory with, joining the NATO alliance – and the ultimate insanity, giving the neoNazi regime nuclear warheads. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban called Zelensky’s latest star-turn ludicrous and a frightening, desperate gamble to start World War Three. The game is up for the Ukrainian conman and his corrupt regime. Ukraine has been destroyed with over 600,000 Ukrainian soldiers having perished for no good reason – only for a proxy war that the U.S.-led NATO axis wanted in a delusional attempt to somehow defeat Russia. Zelensky and his cabal went along for the ride, making money from the war racket. Even in the Western media, there are sobering admissions that the proxy war has turned out to be a disastrous defeat for the NATO-backed side.

This conflict should never have happened. Russia had offered a comprehensive set of proposals at the end of 2021 to address its long-term security concerns about NATO’s expansion and its relentless promotion of a NeoNazi front in Ukraine on its doorstep. Moscow’s reasonable attempt at diplomacy was dismissed by an arrogant U.S. and NATO, thinking that a military strategic defeat could be achieved against Russia. It was the Western powers that opted for war instead of diplomacy. Through their criminal recklessness, many Ukrainian military lives have been wasted and the former Soviet republic has been shattered. The lands that Russia took were historic Russian territories and they will not be given back. The Kiev regime has forfeited any right to negotiate. It’s remorseless aggression and Russophobia means that the only solution is its complete eradication. Russia is dismantling the regime and its NATO pretensions by force.

Ultimately, the United States and its NATO accomplices will have to recognize that their criminal machinations in Ukraine have been vanquished. The war must come to an end by accepting Russia’s rightful demands for security on its terms. It could have been done the easy way through diplomacy. But the West chose the hard way. The Kiev regime is a sordid residue that must be discarded like its former Nazi forebears was. Talk about a “victory plan” is nothing but a cruel joke that prolongs the agony of the Ukrainian people. American and European leaders need to understand that their war fantasies are finished. Sooner rather than later, the work of diplomacy and reason must begin. That means treating Russia with the respect that it deserves.

The trouble is the Western political elites are so ingrained with arrogance and ideological animosity towards Russia, it is hard to see how they will sober up to begin the task of genuine peace negotiations. Until that happens, Russia has every right to smash the enemy and ensure that NATO never threatens its nation. When the Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany in 1945 it was a tremendous victory and blow against fascist aggression. However, tragically, as history has shown, the cause for world peace was not secured. Because it wasn’t the end of Western imperialism. The beast returned over and over again. There must be an end to the ideological disease if the world is ever to establish lasting peace.

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“..on the one hand, [Zelensky] sold all the land and the valuables that it holds, and on the other hand, offered up his country as a private military company..”

• Zelensky’s Plan Sells Ukraine to West – Lavrov (Sp.)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s so-called victory plan suggests that Ukraine will hand over its natural resources to Western allies in exchange for weapons and turn the Ukrainian army into a private military company, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. “Zelensky, in these points of his, spoke so veiledly about the economic side of the issue. According to the leaks, the secret annexes… stipulate that he is ready to place all of Ukrainian natural resources under the management of his Western masters, hand over controls over them, effectively to sell Ukraine,” Lavrov told reporters after a foreign ministers’ meeting on the South Caucasus.

Some leaks suggest that Zelensky’s main purpose is to get weapons no matter what, Lavrov added. He said that Western countries had already made it clear this was an “unacceptable scenario” that increased risks for the West.
“According to the leaks, also accompanied by a secret annex, the Ukrainian army will be ready to defend Europe and deploy its soldiers under a contract … maybe even replacing US contingent that is already in Europe after it wins. So just, on the one hand, [Zelensky] sold all the land and the valuables that it holds, and on the other hand, offered up his country as a private military company,” Lavrov said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova brushed off Zelensky’s “victory plan” as a set of incoherent slogans that would push NATO into a direct conflict with Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the conflict would end when Kiev realized the futility of its policy. Zelensky presented the three-point plan, which also includes three secret additions, in parliament on Wednesday. He proposed that allies invite Ukraine to join NATO, lift restrictions on strikes deep into Russia and deploy a “comprehensive non-nuclear deterrence package” on Ukrainian soil to contain Russia. The plan envisions an end to the conflict no later than 2025.

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“..it is currently considering whether sales from his other businesses, namely SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and The Boring Company, should be included in determining potential fines against X.”

• EU Looking To Expand Fines Against Musk (RT)

The EU could target all of Elon Musk’s private businesses when calculating fines for X (formerly Twitter), Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Brussels has been considering fines against X since the bloc’s former tech czar, Thierry Breton, accused the platform of failing to properly police illegal content and violating the EU’s 2022 Digital Services Act (DSA). The decision on whether to penalize X now lies with the EU commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager. According to Bloomberg, Brussels recently warned Musk that it is currently considering whether sales from his other businesses, namely SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and The Boring Company, should be included in determining potential fines against X.

The outlet’s sources noted that Tesla Inc’s sales would not be included in such calculations because it is a publicly traded company and not under the billionaire’s full control. Under the DSA, the EU can slap online platforms with fines of up to 6% of their yearly global revenue for failing to combat illegal content and disinformation and follow the bloc’s transparency rules. Bloomberg’s sources noted, however, that no final decision to penalize X has yet been made and that the size of any potential fine is still under deliberation. They also stated that the platform may avoid penalties altogether if it complies with the bloc’s demands.

While X has not officially responded to the report, Musk previously vowed to appeal any potential DSA fines through a “very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth.” In August, ahead of his interview with former US President Donald Trump, Musk was also threatened by Breton with facing a “full toolbox” of legal repercussions if he did not step up censorship of “harmful content.” In response, the billionaire posted a meme, telling the EU commissioner to “take a big step back and literally, f**k your own face.” Since purchasing Twitter in 2022, Musk has pledged to turn the platform into a more transparent space that is committed to free speech and is devoid of censorship.

Read more …

“.. about 85% of the water that flows into the Nile comes from the Ethiopian highlands, yet Ethiopia can use only 1% of that volume of water.”

• Colonial Legacy Of The Nile Threatens Peace In Africa And Beyond (Ryzhenkova)

This past summer, a significant and somewhat unexpected development occurred when the parliament of South Sudan ratified the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), also known as the Entebbe Agreement. Some 14 years after several East African countries initially signed the agreement, the ratification of the document officially called into question Egypt and Sudan’s historic rights to the water of the Nile. The Entebbe Agreement was originally signed in 2010 by Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and Burundi. South Sudan joined the agreement in 2012. However, a key provision required the document to be ratified by the parliaments of at least six countries in order to establish a special commission that would be permanently headquartered in Uganda. After South Sudan ratified the document, the necessary quorum was finally achieved.

On October 13, Ethiopia officially announced that the agreement had entered into force. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described this moment as a “historic milestone” in the collective efforts of the signatory countries to “foster genuine cooperation in the Nile Basin.” The Entebbe Agreement nullifies the historical water allocations to Egypt and Sudan (55.5 billion cubic meters annually for Egypt and 18.5 billion cubic meters for Sudan), determined by colonial-era agreements from 1929 and the 1959 Agreement “for the full utilization of the Nile waters” between the two countries. A total of 12 African countries are located in the Nile Basin: Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Together, these nations are home to 40% of Africa’s total population.

Known as the longest river in Africa (and possibly in the world), the Nile competes only with the Amazon in terms of length. It stretches approximately 5,600km from Lake Victoria, where the White Nile originates, to the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile Basin covers an area of 3.4 million square kilometers. The Blue Nile, which begins in Ethiopia, merges with the White Nile in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, before flowing into the Mediterranean Sea via Egypt. Since ancient times, the waters of the Nile have been used for irrigation and, today, they play a crucial role in electricity generation. The Nile is particularly important for Egypt – 95% of its population resides along the banks of the river and in the Nile Delta. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus famously referred to Egypt as “the gift of the Nile.” Major Egyptian cities, including the capital Cairo and Alexandria, are situated along the banks of this river.

Currently, official statistics indicate that Egypt faces a water deficit of up to 20 billion cubic meters per year, while its total annual water requirements reach 80 billion cubic meters. The country’s economy relies heavily on the Nile, with approximately 97% of its water supply coming from this river. Though Egypt lies downstream, colonial-era agreements still grant it not only a larger share of the river’s water but also the authority to oppose the construction of dams and other water projects in upstream states. As a result, economic development in these countries poses a threat to Egypt’s water needs. Interestingly, about 85% of the water that flows into the Nile comes from the Ethiopian highlands, yet Ethiopia can use only 1% of that volume of water.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Maps
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847208577473089833

 

 

Crossing
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846592234868601199

 

 

Mudfish
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847243993538564392

 

 

Snoop

 

 

Pippillota
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847267916187869580

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 18 2024

Oct 182024
 
 October 18, 2024  Posted by at 8:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  51 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Bather on the beach 1920

 

• RNC Chairman Michael Whatley: Results Will Be Known On Election Night (JTN)
• The Election Will Decide President Trump’s Legal Fate (Davis)
• Elect Kamala and Install a Sociopath Regime (PCR/Greenwald)
• If Trump Wins, Guess Who Will Be In Charge Of Certifying The Election? (Snyder)
• Harris Adopts a Purely Pedestrian View of the Presidency (Turley)
• Democratic Election Lawyer Marc Elias’ History Of Legal Failures (JTN)
• CNN Panel Goes Berserk When Guest Suggests ‘Field’ Blacks Voting For Trump (ZH)
• Trump Blames Zelensky For Conflict With Russia (RT)
• Ukraine May not Operate a Full F-16 Squadron for Months to Come (Sp.)
• Ukraine Must Have Nukes or NATO – Zelensky (RT)
• Ukraine Claims It Could Have Nuclear Weapons Within Weeks – Bild (RT)
• 10 Facts The West Must Understand Before Talking To Putin (Remchukov)
• The Insanity Of Repetition: Israel’s Return To The Lebanese Quagmire (Raiss)
• The Israeli Spies Writing America’s News (Macleod)
• SpaceX Sues California over Political Targeting (AmG)
• EU Commissioner Labels Musk ‘Promoter Of Evil’ (RT)
• Nvidia CEO Blown Away After Musk Sets Up 100,000 GPUs In 19 Days (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Tucker

CNN
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846693917971845148

Trump ad

Bret Baier


https://twitter.com/i/status/1846777546228003103

OMG Meta

Scott Ritter Iran

Maguire

Angry guy

 

 

Sounds very optimistic.

• RNC Chairman Michael Whatley: Results Will Be Known On Election Night (JTN)

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley predicted Wednesday that results for the 2024 election will be known on election night. “I think we’re going to know on election night,” Whatley said on the “Furthermore with Amanda Head” podcast. “I feel really good about where we’re going to be, and we like the map right now. We like the polls right now. I like the voter registration numbers.” As the 2024 presidential election gets closer, the GOP has been embracing early voting, unlike their strategy in 2020, and Whatley said it was paying off. “I like the early voting numbers that are coming in right now,” Whatley said. “We’re very upbeat. And I think we are going to know on election night.” He went on to predict that America would be “very excited” and ready to welcome former President Donald Trump back into the White House. He also encouraged Americans to have a plan to vote. “It’s great if you want to vote early,” he said. “It’s great if you want to vote by mail. It’s great if you want to vote on Election Day. You have to make a plan, execute the plan and deliver that vote. There’s absolutely no substitute for it.”

Read more …

“President Trump’s fate is now in the hands of one more jury: the American people.”

• The Election Will Decide President Trump’s Legal Fate (Davis)

President Trump’s fate depends in large part on the election result. If Vice President Harris prevails, it is certain that Jack Smith will continue to prosecute Trump, unless the Supreme Court determines that his appointment is unconstitutional. At that point, however, the other political appointees in the Kamala-Walz Justice Department could resume control of the prosecution. Trump might prevail at trial before a reasonable jury in Florida, but his conviction before a highly biased D.C. jury would be a virtual certainty. There is also no reasonable doubt that Judge Chutkan would hammer him at sentencing. She has shown how ardently anti-Trump she is, and she also has been one of the most harsh sentencers of January 6 defendants. If she gets the chance, she will make sure that Trump rots in a cage for the rest of his life.

A Trump victory in November would ensure that he would not go to prison based on Bragg’s case at least until 2029 if at all, if the appellate courts fail to stop this clearly illegal political persecution. Even though Trump does not have a criminal record, it is likely that, if given the chance, Judge Merchan would send him to Rikers Island, the notorious jail where prisoners await trial and those convicted serve short sentences. Judge Merchan’s daughter Loren would certainly raise a lot of money off that republic-ending travesty. If Trump prevails, it is doubtful that Judge Merchan would try to throw Trump in prison in the month and a half between the potential sentencing and the inauguration. If he were to act rashly, however, either a higher court in New York or the United States Supreme Court would almost certainly put a stop to his shenanigans.

The Georgia appellate courts should end Fani Willis’ lawfare against Trump. If Trump wins the White House again, even if the case is not dismissed, Trump would not face trial until at least 2029. By that point, a new district attorney might decide to drop the case. The Georgia Court of Appeals hopefully will put an end to this and disqualify Willis, a decision that should be affirmed in short order by the Georgia Supreme Court. Given her disgraceful conduct, Willis has more than earned that remedy.

If Vice President Harris prevails, the Supreme Court almost certainly will no longer be a safeguard against the anti-Trump lawfare. The Vice President has indicated that she is open to packing the Court with hardcore leftists who undoubtedly will be clones of Judges Merchan, Engoron and Chutkan. They will serve as rubber stamps for Smith, Bragg, James and Willis. Trump thus will spend the rest of his life in prison based on charges that never should have been brought. He also might face the lesser consequence of bankruptcy if a Supreme Court packed with leftists gives its blessing to the nearly half a billion dollars in judgments against him from New York courts.

This election will decide whether the lawfare waged against President Trump for so many years and on so many fronts will be rewarded or punished. Several juries have rendered verdicts, and President Trump has appealed. In mere weeks, voters will deliver the most crucial verdict, and it is unappealable. President Trump’s fate is now in the hands of one more jury: the American people.

Read more …

“Kamala Harris’s campaign apparently unsatisfied with continuing to drag around Dick and Liz Cheney, released a new ad featuring the wise words of John Bolton..”

• Elect Kamala and Install a Sociopath Regime (PCR/Greenwald)

Tonight: Donald Trump gave a speech last week in which he denounced the warmongering of George Bush, Dick Cheney and Barack Obama as achieving nothing other than what he said was, quote, “leaving a bunch of dead people.” Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’s campaign apparently unsatisfied with continuing to drag around Dick and Liz Cheney, released a new ad featuring the wise words of John Bolton, the person who is almost certainly the most psychotic and unhinged warmonger to reach national office in the last several decades. Perhaps only John McCain and Lindsey Graham compete with him for that title. The Harris campaign continues to be shaped and driven by reliance on the support of some of the worst sociopaths of the D.C. swamp and the military-industrial complex. When one views the ideology and policies of the Democratic Party that all makes sense and we’ll examine all of that.

Then: Both public polls and campaign internal polls continue to show the worst nightmare possible for the Democratic Party and the Harris campaign, namely the ongoing migration of both Latino voters and even Black voters, primarily Black men away from the Democratic Party and toward Donald Trump. We’ve actually seen this trend for several years now, even as the national media spends every day calling Donald Trump a white supremacist, but it has intensified over the last year with more and more nonwhite voters, signifying that they don’t want to vote for the Democratic Party.

While the Harris campaign reacts with desperate pandering or hectoring accusations of misogyny from Barack Obama, liberal media outlets like The New York Times do what they always do when they see nonwhite voters or other, quote-unquote, “marginalized groups” they believe they own failing to vote and think as they’re told to do, namely, they unleash deeply racist screeds, arguing that these nonwhite voters are not coming to their own conclusions because of their own faculties, but instead are being manipulated and hypnotized by much smarter and more conniving influencers. We’ll take a look at The New York Times latest attack, basically on the intelligence of nonwhite voters who refuse to do as they’re told.

And finally: Nick Cruse of the Revolutionary Black Out Network is one of the most vocal and incisive critics of the Democratic Party and its condescending tactics to deceive various groups of voters to believe that they’re on their side. He is a friend of the show, he’s been on before because of how great his commentary is, and he has a lot to say about Kamala’s latest, desperate last-minute pandering, including her brand new agenda for the Black man and the blatantly false gestures she and her campaign and followers are now making on Israel and Gaza. He’ll talk with us tonight about all of that and more.

Read more …

” I fear that there will be unprecedented chaos in our streets. Hopefully I am wrong about that. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. But in our current political environment, I am certainly not optimistic about what is ahead.”

• If Trump Wins, Guess Who Will Be In Charge Of Certifying The Election? (Snyder)

Do you know who will be in charge of certifying this election? In January 2021, it was Vice-President Mike Pence, and we all remember how that turned out. Well, an even more interesting scenario is shaping up this time around. In January 2025, Vice-President Kamala Harris will be in charge of certifying the election. In other words, if Donald Trump wins the person that he was running against will be in charge of certifying his victory. This is a major defect in our system, and it could potentially set the stage for widespread chaos if things do not go smoothly. With each passing day, a Trump victory is looking even more likely. For example, a brand new Gallup survey has found that the percentage of Americans that identify as Republicans has jumped by four points since late September…

“With just 20 days left until Election Day, a new Gallup poll has revealed a concerning trend for Democrats. According to the poll, more Americans are identifying as Republicans or independents, with fewer calling themselves Democrats. Conducted from October 1-12, the poll shows a significant shift in political affiliations since mid-September, causing potential challenges for Democrats ahead of the crucial vote. The data shows that 31% of respondents now identify as Republicans, marking a 4-point increase from the previous poll conducted in late September. Meanwhile, only 28% of Americans consider themselves Democrats, a 3-point drop over the same period. The number of independents, while still holding a significant share at 41%, dropped by 1%.”

Another new survey shows that national support for Trump has risen dramatically since early August… “The presidential race is swinging in former President Donald Trump’s direction, according to a national poll released by Marquette. The latest survey shows both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris tied with 50 percent support each in a two-way race with leaners included. This reflects a four-point swing in Trump’s direction, as the last poll — released August 1 — showed Harris up by four points, garnering 52 percent support to Trump’s 48 percent support. The survey also took a look at the results with a “full field” and found Harris up by a single percentage point — 48 percent to Trump’s 47 percent support. Another four percent said “other.” For greater perspective, the last survey showed Harris up by eight points in the full field, with 50 percent to Trump’s 42 percent.”

[..] On Jan. 6, 2025, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to preside over Congress and count the electoral votes that will make either her — or Donald Trump — the 47th president of the United States. And like her predecessor Mike Pence, who resisted enormous pressure from Trump to upend the 2020 election results, Harris says she won’t interfere. Hopefully that is true. But would she really just stand aside and hand the presidency to a man that she has described as a “threat to democracy”? Just consider what Harris said about Trump earlier this week… “A second Trump term is a huge risk for America. He is increasingly unstable and unhinged. And he is out for unchecked power and control over your lives”. If she truly believes that Trump is going to end democracy in the United States, wouldn’t she feel compelled to take action? That is a question that a lot of people will be asking. Already, many on the left are suggesting that the 14th Amendment could be used to block Trump from taking office. The following is what Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says…

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. “I really hope that Democrats do not consider such a course of action if Trump wins the election. And I really hope that we see a very peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins. Unfortunately, many of our leaders continue to make statements that are not helpful at all. For example, Joe Biden just said that he is very much looking forward to seeing Donald Trump get sentenced and put away…

Joe Biden said the quiet part out loud and admitted that his DOJ is working to jail Trump after the election. “The same guy who has three other major cases waiting for him when he loses,” Biden said referring to Jack Smith’s federal cases against Trump. “And by the way, 34 felonies,” Biden said after he sent his DOJ hatchetman Matthew Colangelo to New York to get Trump. “He got the sentence kicked back, but I want to watch that sentence,” Biden gleefully said hoping Trump is jailed. If Donald Trump loses this election, he is going to go to prison for the rest of his life. So the truth is that this election means everything to Trump. Of course this election also means everything to tens of millions of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum. No matter what the outcome is, I fear that there will be unprecedented chaos in our streets. Hopefully I am wrong about that. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. But in our current political environment, I am certainly not optimistic about what is ahead.

Read more …

“The interview had a seasonal feel with Halloween approaching like a political reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven where every question is answered by “Nevermore.”

• Harris Adopts a Purely Pedestrian View of the Presidency (Turley)

Last night, millions tuned in to watch Fox’s Bret Baier interview Vice President Kamala Harris in a brief but substantive exchange. One of the most interesting aspects of the interview was the purely pedestrian view of the presidency that Harris presented in the interview. Harris repeatedly responded with “I will follow the law” while refusing to say where she personally stands on immigration, transgender athletes, and other issues. After confining interviews to largely softball forums like The View, Harris faced a serious journalist who pushed for actual answers on policies. While confined to a short time by the Harris campaign, Baier kept pulling Harris back to these questions to cut off the evasions that have characterized past interviews. Baier noted that she has previously campaigned on some of these issues and publicly declared that she worked for such things as gender transitioning operations for undocumented persons.

Harris now refuses to state her position on such issues and says “I will follow the law.” Yet, Harris is not adopting that pedestrian model in other areas like abortion rights where she is pledging to use executive powers to resist pro-life laws. The Biden-Harris Administration has used such orders to negate both constitutional and statutory authority. That includes orders that were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on issues like the national eviction moratorium. Notably, Harris did flip her position on decriminalizing unlawful entries. Despite running on that pledge in her earlier unsuccessful run for the White House, Harris now says that she is against such decriminalization. As with her past opposition to fracking and gun rights, the change is likely to draw criticism that Harris is adopting a new persona for a close race.

The refusal to give her position on these issues is reminiscent of Joe Biden’s last campaign where he simply refused to say if he opposed packing the Supreme Court with an instant liberal majority. What is different is that Harris previously stated strong and public positions on these questions but is now refusing to confirm that she continues to support those policies, including some that rank near the top of issues for voters. Baier did a heroic job in trying to prevent the filibustering of the interview and push for answers on these questions. It was the first such interview where Harris faced a dogged interviewer. Given the frantic effort of the staff to end the interview (after showing up late), it is likely to be the last. The mantra of “I will follow the law” ignores that a president plays a major role in the legislative process and has considerable executive powers in determining how such laws are enforced.

The presidency is more than a promise of “joy” and compliance. It is about leadership on issues that matter to voters. The interview had a seasonal feel with Halloween approaching like a political reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven where every question is answered by “Nevermore.” That could well be the theme of the Harris campaign. When pressed on contradictions or controversies, Harris seemed to declare “Nevermore Trump” over and over again. We will see if that is enough in a matter of a few weeks. In the meantime, real journalists will be left seeking answers that never come, exclaiming like Poe’s protagonist “tell me—tell me, I implore!” However, “Quoth the [Harris] ‘Nevermore.’”

Read more …

“..we saw the rules changes that [Marc] Elias and his operation were able to impose on states through the litigation process of 2020. And they’re already starting that up again this year.”

• Democratic Election Lawyer Marc Elias’ History Of Legal Failures (JTN)

Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias has had a history of legal misses as he has pushed for changing election laws on behalf of left-wing groups and candidates over the years and continues litigation during the 2024 presidential election cycle. While Elias has secured many legal victories for Democratic candidates and left-wing organizations through election lawsuits, he has also suffered legal setbacks that have significantly impacted elections. Elias started Elias Law Group in 2021 after leaving the Democratic law firm Perkins Coie amid the probe by special counsel John Durham into the Steele dossier. He continued representing the Democratic Party and many of its candidates and PACs at his new law firm. Last year, the Democratic National Committee ended its professional arrangement with Elias over various strategic disagreements. A few months later, President Joe Biden’s campaign split with Elias.

Elias is anything if not relentless. This year Elias will be aiding Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign with post-election lawsuits and recounts, and has provided services for other Democratic groups, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee, the Senate Majority PAC, and House Majority PAC. On Saturday, Elias posted on X, “My firm is currently litigating 69 voting and election cases in 21 states. We are not done fighting and we are not done winning.” Election litigation played a significant role in the 2020 presidential election amid irregularities and recounts, and most famously, Democrats insisted that Al Gore was the “real” victor in 2000, taking the case to the Supreme Court. Failed candidate Hillary Clinton and other Democrats would later call Republicans “election deniers,” but she herself implied that the 2016 race was “stolen” from her.

In 2020, there were as many as 400 lawsuits brought by both Republicans and Democrats regarding election procedures and laws as election administration was quickly changed during the COVID-19 lockdowns leading up to the presidential election. Democratic and left-leaning plaintiffs filed election lawsuits, 180 in all. However, only 18% of the Democrats’ cases were won, with 40% lost on the merits and 42% lost on procedural grounds. Elias posted on X on Monday, “With only 22 days until Election Day, there are still 192 voting and election cases pending in 38 states.” He added that the top five states with election cases are Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arizona. The Honest Elections Project (HEP), an election integrity group, released a report in January with 14 election reforms that it says states should implement.

One recommended reform of “Ensur[ing] that elected lawmakers write election laws” explains that “Lawmakers, not courts and bureaucrats, make the laws that govern elections. But partisan special interests, spearheaded by left-wing lawyer Marc Elias and allied left-wing groups, use frivolous lawsuits and collusive settlements to weaken and rewrite election laws for political gain.” HEP Executive Director Jason Snead previously told Just the News, “One of the biggest threats that we’re gonna face between now and November is gonna be just a torrent of left-wing litigation.” He explained, “We saw the chaos, we saw the confusion, we saw the rules changes that [Marc] Elias and his operation were able to impose on states through the litigation process of 2020. And they’re already starting that up again this year.”

Elias was successful in ensuring many election changes were made during the COVID-19 lockdowns, such as rules expanding mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes. However, in recent years, he and his law firm have encountered significant setbacks or losses in court. In May, a Wisconsin federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Elias’ law firm that sought to toss out the witness requirement for absentee voting. U.S. District Judge James Peterson ruled against their attempt to cancel the witness requirement for voters who cast absentee ballots.

Read more …

“blacks who support Kamala Harris are ‘house African Americans,’ while working class ‘field’ African Americans support Donald Trump..”

• CNN Panel Goes Berserk When Guest Suggests ‘Field’ Blacks Voting For Trump (ZH)

Two CNN hosts went absolutely berzerk after a guest quoted Malcom X to suggest that blacks who support Kamala Harris are ‘house African Americans,’ while working class ‘field’ African Americans support Donald Trump. During a Wednesday appearance on CNN News Central, co-anchor Sara Sidner hosted pro-Trump radio host Shelley Wynter vs. pro-Harris ex-DNC Vice-Chair Michael Blake to discuss the race, when Wynter articulated that working class ‘field’ black men, ‘who work with their hands’ and ‘who build’ things are Trump supporters, while paper-pushing ‘house’ African Americans are voting for Kamala Harris. Sidner and Blake went into hysterics and refused to let Wynter continue his point.

SARA SIDNER: Kamala Harris has been doing interviews on Black media. Trump, though, is overperforming in polling with both groups compared to past Republicans. Here is what he said when he was campaigning in Pennsylvania.
DONALD TRUMP: Any African-American or Hispanic– and you know how well I’m doing there — that votes for Kamala. You got to have your head examined because they they are really screwing you. They are really screwing you.
SARA SIDNER: And it is Kamala, for the record, But he is denigrating voters for making a choice that he does not like. Shelley, to you, what does he achieve with this.
SHELLEY WYNTER: Well how is it, wait? First of all, how is he denigrating voters?
SARA SIDNER: He’s saying that they are being, for lack of a better word, screwed.
SHELLEY WYNTER: Taken advantage of the they’re being taken advantage of. They’re paying higher pricing. They’re the working class, the ones that he’s talking about, working class, lower middle class. They’re paying more for food. They’re paying more for gas and they’re being taken advantage of.
SARA SIDNER: He also said that they you know, they had to have their head examined. That that’s that is not something that is a compliment.

SHELLEY WYNTER: Obama just told me the same thing. Obama just told me the same thing.
SARA SIDNER: He did not use those words.
SHELLEY WYNTER: … He inferred them. He implied them. He certainly did. He even threatened us with. We’re lucky Michelle’s not here. I mean, come on. Let’s not make things up. Let’s be honest here. And let’s really be clear what’s being said. If you’re an African-American man. Look, let me boil this election down in the African-American community to a very simple, I’ll reference the great Malcolm X. This race is between House African-Americans and field African-Americans and the field African-Americans are going for Donald Trump. I’m talking about your men. I’m talking about your men who build, your men, who put things together, your men who work with their hands, your men who do things, not the men who push paper on, the men who are connected to power and want to continue to be connected to power.

Read more …

And Biden.

• Trump Blames Zelensky For Conflict With Russia (RT)

The Ukraine conflict is a lost cause and the country’s leader Vladimir Zelensky should have never allowed it to happen, former US President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said. During his appearance on PBD Podcast, hosted by Patrick Bet-David, on Thursday, Trump noted the lavish military aid provided to Kiev by Washington amid the fighting with Moscow as an example of the wastefulness of the administration of US President Joe Biden. Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, are “the worst president and vice president in history,” he said. “It is so bad what they are doing to our country on the borders; it is so bad what they are doing with the money.” Ukrainian leader Vladimir “Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I have ever seen. Every time he comes in [to the US] we give him a hundred billion dollars. Who else got that kind of money in history?” the former president stressed.

”That does not mean I do not want to help him because I feel very badly for those people [in Ukraine]. But he should never have let that war start. That war is a loser,” he said. However, later in the conversation, the Republican presidential candidate said: “I do largely blame Biden” for the outbreak of the fighting between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. ”If you watch his words [in the run up to the conflict], his words were the exact opposite of what he should have been saying. He instigated that war…. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is no angel, but everything Biden said was wrong,” Trump pointed out. “That should have never happened,” he said of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

Read more …

Nothing good will come of this.

• Ukraine May not Operate a Full F-16 Squadron for Months to Come (Sp.)

The first batch of F-16s, which was delivered to the Ukrainian military in late July, failed to change the situation on the battlefield in favor of the Kiev regime, with the Ukrainian Air Force confirming that one such jet crashed just weeks after the first batch supply. The United States has changed its program to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, adding “younger cadets” with no prior flight experience, the Wall Street Journal has cited unnamed officials as saying. “It is a mix. Some have been experienced pilots, and we still are receiving more experienced pilots. But there’s also those that do not have that kind of pilot training and experience,” one of the officials said The decision to refocus the training on the cadets rather than experienced air force members may extend the timeline in when the Kiev regime could start to operate a full squadron of F-16s on the battlefield “by many months,” according to the sources.

They argued that even before the decision was taken, Ukraine would hardly have 20 F-16s and 40 pilots to operate them until spring or summer next year at the earliest. The insiders also said that the move to change the training program is the result of a lack of experienced Ukrainian pilots “with requisite English-language abilities who can be spared from the battlefield.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier warned the United States and its NATO allies that Moscow perceives the presence of nuclear-capable F-16s in Ukraine as a nuclear threat. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in turn emphasized that Ukraine’s Western-supplied F-16 jets would not have the power to alter the situation on the battlefield. He warned that if these fighter jets are deployed from the territory of third countries, they will be considered legitimate targets for Russian forces. The president further stated that the F-16s, just like other Western equipment delivered to Kiev, would be destroyed.

Read more …

“The secretary general of the US-led bloc, Mark Rutte, said on Thursday that Ukraine may not even be the next nation to become a member.”

• Ukraine Must Have Nukes or NATO – Zelensky (RT)

Ukraine can protect itself either by becoming a nuclear state or a member of NATO, Vladimir Zelensky said on Thursday, claiming that he had offered the same line of reasoning to former US President Donald Trump. Speaking at a press conference after promoting his ‘victory plan’ for the conflict with Russia to European officials, Zelensky suggested that Ukraine would need nuclear weapons, should it not be granted NATO membership. “Which of the big nations, the nuclear nations, suffered? Everyone? No, just Ukraine,” he stated, referring to the signatories of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. The document involved the US, UK, and Russia extending security assurances to Kiev in return for the removal of Soviet nuclear weapons from Ukraine.

“Speaking to Donald Trump, I told him: ‘What is the way out for us?’ Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, and they will serve as protection, or we need to be in some kind of an alliance. We don’t know any effective alliances except NATO,” Zelensky added. Ukraine’s choice is to become a NATO member, Zelensky said, claiming that Trump had found his reasoning justified. Ukraine has never controlled nuclear weapons, but claims it was formerly among the major atomic powers before agreeing to relinquish them. In February 2022, weeks before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Zelensky expressed regret at the decision in a speech at the International Security Conference in Munich, suggesting that his country had “every right” to reverse it.

Zelensky last met Trump during his visit to the US in late September. The Ukrainian leader was touring the country to present his ‘victory plan’ to President Joe Biden and the two presidential candidates from the main parties, Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump. He also became embroiled in controversy over a visit to a munitions plant in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, which Trump supporters claimed was evidence of Zelensky campaigning for Democratic candidate Harris. Zelensky confirmed this week that an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO was on his list of requests to Western donors. The secretary general of the US-led bloc, Mark Rutte, said on Thursday that Ukraine may not even be the next nation to become a member.

Read more …

“We have the material, we have the knowledge. If the order is given, we will only need a few weeks to have the first bomb..”

• Ukraine Claims It Could Have Nuclear Weapons Within Weeks – Bild (RT)

Kiev has the capability to build a nuclear weapon “in a few weeks,” German tabloid Bild reported on Thursday, citing a high-ranking Ukrainian official. The report comes after Vladimir Zelensky alluded to such a possibility during a visit to Brussels on the same day. The Ukrainian leader claimed his country needs either nuclear weapons or membership of NATO. Zelensky is currently promoting his ‘victory plan’ to Ukraine’s Western backers, which he argues can end the conflict with Russia. Bild has now revealed that a Ukrainian official involved in weapons procurement claimed “a few months ago” that Kiev was willing to go nuclear. “We have the material, we have the knowledge. If the order is given, we will only need a few weeks to have the first bomb,” the unnamed official said, according to the German tabloid. He added that the West should “think less about Russia’s red lines and more about ours.”

Zelensky’s adviser Dmitry Litvin denied Bild’s report, however, telling the Ukrainian outlet Strana on Thursday that it was “nonsense” and suggesting that the German tabloid “can be confused with Russian propaganda.” In his speech on Thursday, Zelensky claimed to have informed US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about Kiev’s possible atomic aspirations. “Speaking to Donald Trump, I told him: What is the way out for us? Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, and they will serve as protection, or we need to be in some kind of an alliance. We don’t know any effective alliances except NATO,” Zelensky said. He also claimed that Trump agreed with him. The former president has made no mention of Zelensky’s nuclear proposal, however.

In the time since their meeting, he also made the case in an interview that nuclear weapons were the greatest threat to humanity and that he had hoped to make a global deal on eventual denuclearization during his first term in the White House. The leadership in Kiev has long argued that the US and its allies had an obligation to protect Ukraine because of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which the US, UK and Russia gave security assurances in exchange for the removal of Soviet nuclear warheads from Ukraine’s territory. Moscow has maintained that the 2014 violent coup in Kiev put the West in breach of the memorandum and that a hostile, nuclear-armed Ukraine on its doorstep is an intolerable threat to its security. Zelensky’s adviser Dmitry Litvin denied Bild’s report, however, telling the Ukrainian outlet Strana on Thursday that it was “nonsense” and suggesting that the German tabloid “can be confused with Russian propaganda.”

Read more …

“The fact is, the president is here to stay.”

• 10 Facts The West Must Understand Before Talking To Putin (Remchukov)

1. Putin makes all fundamental decisions personally, on the basis of his own ability, expertise, and sense of historical responsibility. A vivid example of this was the president’s speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 14, in which he outlined the key provisions of Russia’s foreign policy priorities and his vision for the formation of a new international order. Most participants in the meeting expected the head of state to speak for no more than half an hour. In practice, Putin spoke for almost 80 minutes on theses he had written out himself, which he later explained to journalists.

2. The task of ensuring the security of the country and protecting Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine, which Putin has been facing since 2014, has become the main existential factor of his rule. He will not hand over power to anyone before the final, internationally guaranteed settlement of this issue. He cannot give up control until there is a final, globally recognized solution. Anything short of this would mean handing his successor a messy bunch of unresolved problems. Today, no one in Putin’s entourage is better at solving problems than the president. He knows this and is firmly convinced of it.

3. Putin will not resign. At the beginning of September, a schoolgirl in Tuva asked the president: “How would you spend your days if you were an ordinary man, i.e. not the president?” Putin replied succinctly and clearly: “It’s hard for me to imagine that now.” This is his most important message of recent times – both for Russians and outsiders. Putin is saying that in your own future planning, proceed from the basis that I will be in the Kremlin. In this way, the president has delivered a reality check to the many Western politicians and indeed Russian opposition activists who have been dreaming and deluding themselves, claiming that “if there is Putin, there is a problem; if there is no Putin, there is no problem.” The fact is, the president is here to stay.

4. It is now clear that after more than two years of a nuclear threat hanging over us all, the world is ready for real negotiations on this issue. However, there are doubts about whether talks will be successful. The most serious Western politician – and someone who actually understands the consequences of nuclear war – is US President Joe Biden. Sadly, he will be gone in a few months. Neither Kamala Harris nor former President Donald Trump has the foreign policy credentials to even grasp the importance of this issue and the dangers involved.

5. The past years and months of the Ukraine conflict, the brutal sanctions, and the radical transformation of the driving forces of the Russian economy have clearly demonstrated that it is time for our own domestic public and political consciousness to decisively abandon the notion, once sown by the Polish/American thinker Zbigniew Brzezinski, that Russia’s greatness rests on its unity with Ukraine. If the country is torn out of Moscow’s sphere of influence, Russia’s status as a great power will come to an end, he warned.

But that was then, and this is now. Today it is obvious that Russia’s place in the world is guaranteed regardless of the degree of proximity to any country or group of countries. Liberation from speculative constructs in the minds of influential ideologues is a powerful factor in normalizing the development process and assessing fundamental risks and opportunities. Russia can be a great and important power regardless of the degree of integration with other states. The greatness of a country is measured by the level of well-being and opportunities of its citizens, by achievements in health care, education, science, and technology.

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Kornet.

• The Insanity Of Repetition: Israel’s Return To The Lebanese Quagmire (Raiss)

In the days following 8 October, Hezbollah’s battlefield updates have consistently emphasized one key phrase: direct hits – Israeli radar stations obliterated, military convoys shattered by precise strikes, and armored vehicles reduced to smoldering wreckage. These operations, carried out in support of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, have been so devastatingly effective that Tel Aviv invoked military censorship, desperate to conceal the full extent of its losses, as it has been doing throughout the conflict on the northern front over the past year. But behind the phrase “direct hits” lies a weapon few might recognize – the Kornet missile. Although not always visible to the viewer, the Kornet’s role is unmistakable. First deployed by Hezbollah in 2006, the Kornet transformed into a battlefield game-changer, proving its worth in ambushes against Israeli Merkava tanks.

On 11 August 2006, 24 Merkava tanks rolled into a deadly trap, as if swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle, vanishing under a barrage of Kornet missile fire. By the end of it, 11 tanks lay in ruin – charred remains of Israel’s once-feared armored division. This decisive moment showcased Hezbollah’s mastery of asymmetric warfare, where small, mobile units equipped with precision-guided Kornets could dismantle Israel’s armored might. The Merkava, long regarded as the symbol of Israeli dominance in ground warfare, was designed to excel in direct combat. However, in the unforgiving Lebanese terrain, the Kornet missile revealed a critical vulnerability: the Merkava’s reliance on heavy armor, which, despite its thickness, was helpless against the Kornet’s ability to pierce reactive plating.

The missile’s precision focused on the tank’s soft spots – its engine and lower hull – areas that conventional defenses struggled to protect against long-range, guided strikes. The once-formidable Merkava, crippled in its ability to maneuver through Lebanon’s rugged landscape, became an easy target for well-planned ambushes. Now, with Israeli convoys once again making daily incursions into Lebanon – repeating the very missteps of 2006 – it’s as if history is whispering its warnings, only to be ignored. Israel’s persistence in retracing these familiar steps shows a refusal to reckon with past lessons, locked in a cycle that leads to the same inevitable failures. The Kornet missile, first deployed by Hezbollah during the 2006 war, has become a defining force in its tactical operations.

This Russian-made, laser-guided anti-tank missile, capable of penetrating up to 1,200 millimeters of reactive armor from distances of up to 5.5 kilometers, turns Israel’s Merkava tanks into unsuspecting prey caught in carefully planned ambushes. Hezbollah’s elite Radwan special forces, particularly within the Aziz and Nasr units, utilize this weapon with precision, turning each ambush into a coordinated strike that devastates Israel’s most advanced armored forces. The Kornet’s range allows Hezbollah fighters to strike from concealed positions and swiftly reposition, ensuring they remain elusive in the heat of battle. These units, operating across the varied terrain of southern Lebanon, have made the Kornet indispensable in their strategy of attrition warfare.

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“Ravid is far from the only Israeli ex-spook working at top U.S. media outlets, working hard to manufacture Western support for his country’s actions..”

• The Israeli Spies Writing America’s News (Macleod)

One year after Oct. 7 attacks, Netanyahu is on a winning streak.” So reads the title of a recent Axios article describing the Israeli prime minister riding on an unbeatable wave of triumphs. These stunning military “successes,” its author Barak Ravid notes, include the bombing of Yemen, the assassinations of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the pager attack against Lebanon. The same author recently went viral for an article that claimed that Israeli attacks against Hezbollah are “not intended to lead to war but are an attempt to reach ‘de-escalation through escalation.’” Users on social media mocked Ravid for this bizarre, Orwellian reasoning. But what almost everybody missed is that Barak Ravid is an Israeli spy – or at least he was until recently. Ravid is a former analyst with Israeli spying agency Unit 8200, and as recently as last year, was still a reservist with the Israeli Defense Forces group.

Unit 8200 is Israel’s largest and perhaps most controversial spying organization. It has been responsible for many high-profile espionage and terror operations, including the recent pager attack that injured thousands of Lebanese civilians. As this investigation will reveal, Ravid is far from the only Israeli ex-spook working at top U.S. media outlets, working hard to manufacture Western support for his country’s actions. Ravid has quickly become one of the most influential individuals in the Capitol Hill press corps. In April, he won the prestigious White House Press Correspondents’ Award “for overall excellence in White House coverage”—one of the highest awards in American journalism. Judges were impressed by what they described as his “deep, almost intimate levels of sourcing in the U.S. and abroad” and picked out six articles as exemplary pieces of journalism.

Most of these stories consisted of simply printing anonymous White House or Israeli government sources, making them look good, and distancing President Biden from the horrors of the Israeli attack on Palestine. As such, there was functionally no difference between these and White House press releases. For example, one story the judges picked out was titled “Scoop: Biden tells Bibi 3-day fighting pause could help secure release of some hostages,” and presented the 46th President of the United States as a dedicated humanitarian hellbent on reducing suffering. Another described how “frustrated” Biden was becoming with Netanyahu and the Israeli government.

Protestors had called on reporters to snub the event in solidarity with their fallen counterparts in Gaza (which, at the time of writing, comes to at least 128 journalists). Not only was there no boycott of the event, but organizers gave their highest award to an Israeli intelligence official-turned-reporter who has earned a reputation as perhaps the most dutiful stenographer of power in Washington. Ravid was personally presented with the award by President Biden, who embraced him like a brother. That a known (former) Israeli spy could hug Biden in such a manner speaks volumes about not only the intimate relationship between the United States and Israel but about the extent to which establishment media holds power to account.

Read more …

“..engaged in naked political discrimination..”

• SpaceX Sues California over Political Targeting (AmG)

On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against a California state agency over alleged political discrimination against the company. As reported by Politico, the lawsuit stems from the California Coastal Commission’s (CCC) decision to reject SpaceX’s plans to increase the number of experimental rocket launches from the Space Force base in Santa Barbara County. Lawyers from the Los Angeles-based firm Venable LLP, which represents SpaceX, claimed that the CCC made its decision purely due to political differences with Musk, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump and a vocal critic of Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.).

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Los Angeles, asserts that the CCC and its 12 members “engaged in naked political discrimination” in last week’s debate over a proposal by the Department of Defense (DOD) to expand the number of SpaceX launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The proposal would have seen the number of launches increase from 36 to 50. “Rarely has a government agency made so clear that it was exceeding its authorized mandate to punish a company for the political views and statements of its largest shareholder and CEO,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit named all 12 members of the commission, as well as executive director Kate Huckelbridge and alternate commissioner Gretchen Newsom, as defendants. The commissioners are appointed by the governor and the legislature. On Thursday, they voted 6-4 in favor of rejecting the DOD plan. However, the debate over the motion prior to the vote quickly veered away from the specifics of the plan itself, and instead focused on Musk’s support for Trump. “Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” said Commissioner Newsom, who bears no relation to Governor Newsom. Newsom and Chairwoman Caryl Hart both criticized Musk’s political stances before voting against the deal.

“Many things are said in the course of meetings, whether it’s a Coastal Commission meeting, whether it’s a legislative meeting, whether it’s a planning department,” said Chairwoman Hart on Tuesday, in an attempt to justify her vote. “The basis for this decision is the commission’s conclusion that SpaceX, as a private company engaged in private activities, needs to apply for a coastal development permit.” Although Musk has generally remained a political moderate, he began expressing support for President Trump following the first assassination attempt against him on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania. Since then, Musk has launched the pro-Trump America Pac, which has donated $45 million to supporting Trump’s campaign every month since July. Musk himself appeared onstage with President Trump at his return rally in Butler, just over two months after the assassination attempt; during his speech, he reaffirmed his support for freedom of speech, and urged the audience to get as many people as possible out to vote in the coming election.

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“..X has become “the main hub for spreading antisemitism.”

• EU Commissioner Labels Musk ‘Promoter Of Evil’ (RT)

X CEO Elon Musk is unable to “recognize good and evil,” said outgoing EU commissioner for values and transparency, Vera Jourova, accusing the tech billionaire of failing to curb antisemitism on his platform. “We started to relativize evil, and he’s helping it proactively. He’s the promoter of evil,” Jourova told Politico magazine in an interview published on Wednesday, arguing that X has become “the main hub for spreading antisemitism.” Jourova has never met Musk in person. She argued, nevertheless, that “even without this personal meeting, I would say that out of all the bosses I met, he is the only one who is not able to recognize good and evil.” The official added that she was “really scared by digital platforms in bad hands,” and that “we have to be sure that the innovations are developed to do good to people.” She further argued that Musk’s platform failed to take “sufficient action” to tackle antisemitism.

Musk hit back at Jourova on X, saying “if she wants to know what evil looks like, she just needs a mirror.” In 2022, the EU adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA), which allows officials to fine online platforms as much as 6% of their yearly global revenue for failing to remove illegal content and disinformation or respect transparency regulations. In its preliminary findings released in July, the EU accused X of violating the DSA in “areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.” After finalizing the purchase of Twitter in the fall of 2022, Musk promised to rebrand the platform as a more transparent space that is devoted to free speech and is free of censorship. He pledged to combat hate speech and paid a trip to Auschwitz, the site of a former Nazi death camp in Poland, in January.

X has “the least amount of antisemitism” compared to other platforms, Musk argued, adding that “it’s never going to be zero if you’ve got 600 million people on the platform.” Musk also has accused the European Commission of wanting to make him sign “an illegal secret deal” while seeking to quietly censor speech on X.

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“Never been done before – xAI did in 19 days what everyone else needs one year to accomplish. That is superhuman – There’s only one person in the world who could do that – Elon Musk is singular in his understanding of engineering.”

• Nvidia CEO Blown Away After Musk Sets Up 100,000 GPUs In 19 Days (ZH)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says Elon Musk pulled off a “superhuman” feat by setting up a supercluster of 100,000 H200 Blackwell GPUs in just 19 days – a process he says takes everyone else “one year to accomplish.” According to Tom’s Hardware, the xAI team reportedly went from “concept” to full-ready compatibility with Nvidia’s “gear” in less than three weeks – including running xAI’s first AI training run. From start to finish, the process involved building the massive X factory where the GPUs would reside and equipping the entire factory with liquid cooling and power to make all 200,000 GPUs operational. That’s not to mention all of the coordination between Nvidia’s and Elon Musk’s engineering teams to get all of the hardware and infrastructure shipped and installed precisely and in a coordinated manner. What’s more, Huang says that networking Nvidia’s gear isn’t as simple as networking traditional data center servers. “The number of wires that goes in one node…the back of a computer is all wires,” he said, adding that Musk’s integration of 100,000 H200 GPUs has “never been done before,” and probably won’t be repeated by anyone else anytime soon.

Watch:

Nvidia

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Trump SNL

 

 

Survival
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846808880296136837

 

 

Ducks

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 17 2024

Oct 172024
 
 October 17, 2024  Posted by at 8:43 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  78 Responses »


Ivan Kramskoy Christ in the desert 1920

 

• I’m Voting For Him And Here’s Why (Jason)
• Musk Stumps For Trump In Pennsylvania, Donates Nearly $75 Million To PAC (ZH)
• Joy Reid: Black Male Trump Voters Part Of A ‘Global Fascist Phenomenon’ (ZH)
• US Election Betting Skyrocketing (RT)
• Harris Pledges Break From Biden’s Course In Fox Interview (RT)
• US Democrats Worried About Pennsylvania – Politico (RT)
• Ukraine Wants To Join NATO While Biden Is US President – Envoy (RT)
• Zelensky Presents ‘Victory Plan’ To Ukrainian Parliament (BBC)
• British Military Believes Kiev ‘On The Verge Of Losing’ – Daily Express (RT)
• How The West Doomed Ukraine (Diesen)
• Ohio Supreme Court Upholds Anti-Ballot Harvesting Directive (JTN)
• Trump Urges Georgians To Vote Early Amid Record Breaking Turnout (JTN)
• Liz Cheney Under Fire for Improper Contacts with Jan. 6 Witness (Turley)
• The Zionist Lobby Wins, But The US Loses (SCF)
• Dmitry Rogozin For President (Helmer)
• How Do We Get Off the Road to Armageddon? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Could The SCO Summit Save The BRICS+ New Order? (Pacini)
• BMW Says EU Ban On Gasoline Cars From 2035 Is “No Longer Realistic” (ZH)

 

 

Leads in all swing states.

 

 

Trump poll and Trump Media.

 

 

Ackman
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846214495779119179

Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846441735641264246

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846213396452053410

Voter ID

Gutfeld Musk
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846444714117288154

Engineer

Trump Faulkner he’s good in this

BB

 

 

 

 

X thread.

• I’m Voting For Him And Here’s Why (Jason)

I can’t stand Donald Trump. He is braggy, he insults people for no reason, and he is just a brutal personality. But my mind is made up. I’m voting for him and here’s why:

* He puts Americans and their well-being first. Kamala will not.

* He will bring @elonmusk into his cabinet to be the efficiency czar and get rid of waste. This alone may be the best single reason to vote for him.

* He will bring @RobertKennedyJr into his cabinet to Make American Healthy Again. He will finally get to the bottom of why our food companies are destroying the health of our children.

* I’m sick of the way the media lies continuously about @realDonaldTrump, starting with the incessant racism claims. They are just nonsense. The latest thing I learned? He sent his plane to fly Nelson Mandela home after he was in jail with the U.S. wouldn’t do it. Racist? No.

* I’m sick of the U.S. being embroiled in foreign wars. Trump will keep us out of them again. He’s just crazy enough that foreign nations will stand down. They have no fear of Kamala. They will fear him.

* Trump sees this country as fundamentally good. Kamala sees it as inherently evil.

* Trump will end the nonsense of the open border which makes our country less secure, less financially stable, and brings in millions of people illegally who compete for Americans’ jobs.

* This government has to print billions to care for the illegals. That makes all of our dollars less valuable and makes prices zoom upward.

* He will stockpile Bitcoin.

* He will keep men out of women’s bathrooms and women’s sports.

* He is a heavyweight personality and negotiator. Kamala is a phony personality and a lightweight negotiator.

* The people who want Kamala Harris to win are the most annoying people in the country. They have pushed for pronouns, masks, endless vaccines, cancel culture, riots, blatant racism towards whites, gender confusion, undermining the U.S. constitution.

* He will upset the current political system. He was nearly the victim of assassination 3x. And he keeps going. He’s not the best in interviews, but he at least puts himself out there. Over and over and over. Kamala hasn’t done a single press conference.

* Harris and the media trying to prop her up hid Biden’s cognitive decline. They accuse @realDonaldTrump of being a threat to democracy. Yet she was installed as the nominee with no votes. She wants to pack the Supreme Court. She wants to eliminate the filibuster. She sued @RobertKennedyJr to keep him off the ballot. And the threat to democracy is Trump? Nonsense.

* Those who support Harris look at Trump supports as vile, stupid, ignorant, and fascists. They disown family members or disinvite them from Thanksgiving dinner of they support Trump. This is disgraceful.

* Every time she talks, I try to give her a chance. But she is the most phony and condescending politician I have ever seen. Ever. I can’t do it. I won’t do it.

* She and those who support her are resistant to Voter ID and believe requiring an ID is racist. Her Department of Justice is suing the state of Virginia for trying to purge the voter rolls of illegals. Why would we not want 1 vote per 1 U.S. citizen? Is it more racist to believe people from the inner city are perfectly capable of securing a government issued ID? Or to believe they are incapable?

That’s it. I’m done. Thanks for hearing me out.

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“America PAC was created to support six key values: secure borders, sensible spending, safe cities, a fair justice system, self-protection, and free speech..”

• Musk Stumps For Trump In Pennsylvania, Donates Nearly $75 Million To PAC (ZH)

Businessman Elon Musk is touring Pennsylvania until Monday to stump for former President Donald Trump, where he’ll give talks to votors across the state. “Tomorrow night through Monday, I will be giving a series of talks throughout Pennsylvania,” Musk wrote early Wednesday on X. “If you’d like to attend one of my talks, there’s no attendance fee. You just need to have signed our petition supporting free speech & right to bear arms & have voted in this election.” “To clarify, you need have voted in Pennsylvania,” he added. Of note, the deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state, is Oct. 21.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1846417963609440502

Meanwhile, Musk has donated nearly $75 million to his America PAC, and was the sole donor of $74,950,020 according to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). The PAC set a goal to get 1 million voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendments by Oct. 21. “Sign our petition in defense of YOUR Constitutional rights to Free Speech & Bear Arms!” the PAC wrote on X earlier this month. “For each registered swing state voter you refer that signs the petition, you get $47!” As the Epoch Times notes further, Musk is the world’s wealthiest person, with a net worth of $246.8 billion, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list. He announced the launch of the America PAC back in May, stating at the time that it was created to “support candidates who believe in the core values of America.”

According to its mission statement, America PAC was created to support six key values: secure borders, sensible spending, safe cities, a fair justice system, self-protection, and free speech. The super PAC has since become the seventh-largest outside spender during the 2024 election cycle, spending a total of $106,031,817, according to a tally by OpenSecrets. The pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc, has spent $253,970,695 this election cycle, and the pro-Harris super PAC, Fast Forward USA, has spent $263,417,307 according to the non-profit. Earlier filings from September show that America PAC received millions of dollars in donations from Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale’s Lonsdale Enterprises, venture capitalist Doug Leone, and Sequoia Capital partners Shaun Maguire, among others.

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You left out “racist”. And why not throw in “misogynist”.

• Joy Reid: Black Male Trump Voters Part Of A ‘Global Fascist Phenomenon’ (ZH)

While it’s true that not many Americans watch MSNBC’s Joy Reid and take her seriously (her show ‘The ReidOut’ is #14 on the list of most popular news commentary shows in the US according to viewership), she does remain a symbol of the woke left and her views often give us a glimpse into the collective hive mind of progressives. Similar to women on shows like ‘The View’, Reid is a standard bearer for perpetually angry, post-menopausal cat ladies that do sadly tend to vote in large numbers. These are the same women coming out in droves to support Kamala Harris based purely on her gender and skin color. They are the same women that supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 simply because they wanted a woman president and they didn’t care who it was. And generally speaking it is these kinds of women that use shaming tactics as a means to control the people around them. Their only source of power in life is to henpeck others into submission.

The problem for Harris is that childless cat ladies are not a large enough demographic to ensure a presidential win; she needs men to vote for her as well. As many critics have pointed out, this is rather ironic given the fact that Democrats and leftist activists have spent the better part of the last decade calling masculinity a “toxic” and oppressive social disease that needs to be eliminated. They have worked hard to demonize all men as potential rapists, misogynists, mass shooters and fascists. Now, not surprisingly, progressive women want men to lift them out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves. But they don’t want to admit they were wrong about men or apologize for their behavior and accusations, no. That would be asking far too much. Instead, they have turned to the same old shaming tactics they always use to get what they want.

This week Joy Reid suggested that Kamala Harris’ plunge in the polls is due in large part to a ‘global fascist phenomenon’ led by white males. She also argues that pockets of ‘black and brown men’ are a part of this supposed fascist takeover. The campaign to drag black voters back to the Democrat plantation continues. Reid’s comments come not long after Barack Obama (also a henpecker) tried to shame black men into voting for Harris by accusing them of bias against her because she’s a woman. As 2016 taught Americans, it’s foolish to blindly trust the polls and the election isn’t over until it’s over – That said, numerous indicators suggest that Harris does not inspire trust or optimism among most Americans.

Minority voters including black men have been loudly explaining why they don’t like Harris, and her being a woman is rarely on their list of complaints. Here’s what most American voters care about according to the surveys: The failing economy and stagflation, mass immigration and open borders and foreign policy leading to WWIII. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if they are white, black, brown, man or woman, these are the issues that concern people the most. Electing the first black woman president is irrelevant compared to these problems. Black male voters in particular are walking away from the political left, not because they are turning “fascist”, but because they’re finally waking up to the game being played with their futures.

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“Trading platform Kalshi [..] is offering investors the opportunity to stake up to $100 million on the result of the November vote..”

• US Election Betting Skyrocketing (RT)

Election betting using so-called ‘prediction markets’ is skyrocketing in the US after a ban on the practice was recently lifted, according to media reports. Platforms are currently forecasting a narrow win for Republican candidate Donald Trump against Democratic rival Kamala Harris. Trading platform Kalshi, which last week won its legal fight against a US regulator in a Washington court, is offering investors the opportunity to stake up to $100 million on the result of the November vote. The court’s decision came after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) failed to demonstrate harm to elections, despite arguing that such bets are similar to gaming and could undermine democratic integrity. The CFTC’s appeal against the ruling is ongoing. In the first days since the ban was lifted, more than $12 million has been taken in, according to Kalshi founder Tarek Mansour.

He added that the platform is working to attract more traders and several institutional investors. The bets are structured as binary options, priced up to $1 per contract. As of Monday, contracts favoring the former US president traded at 54 cents, while those for current Vice President Harris were at 47 cents. The prices also reflected a widening gap between Trump and Harris that has fluctuated between 51 and 49 cents for either candidate since the market opened a week ago. Although betting prices may indicate belief among traders that Trump will win the election, experts are cautious, saying that only the participation of institutional players could bring a clearer assessment.

“You may want more institutional money because while these investors might have their own particular political views, they’ll have studied the outcome and their wagers represent especially informed opinion,” Grant Ferguson, a political scientist and a follower of prediction markets at Texas Christian University told the Financial Times on Tuesday. Offshore prediction platforms such as Polymarket have also seen a surge in bets with over $1.9 billion staked on the presidential race. Experts expect volumes to soar tenfold as election day approaches.

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She said “There is not a thing that comes to mind” when asked how she would differ from Biden. She was chastised for it. So they reinvented her. Easy as pie.

• Harris Pledges Break From Biden’s Course In Fox Interview (RT)

US Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has distanced herself from the political course set by President Joe Biden, in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. In previous media appearances, Harris had avoided drawing contrasts between herself and the outgoing president. “You’re not Joe Biden, you’re not Donald Trump, but nothing comes to mind that you would do differently?” Fox host Bret Baier asked the Democratic candidate. “Let me be very clear, my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris replied, pledging to draw on her “professional experiences” and bring in “fresh new ideas.” “For example, as someone who has not spent the majority of my career in Washington DC, I invite ideas: whether it be from the Republicans who are supporting me, who were just on stage with me minutes ago, and the business sector and others, who can contribute to the decisions that I make,” the vice president continued.

Referring to the Harris campaign’s slogan, “Time to turn the page,” Baier pressed the Democrat nominee about what she would turn the page to, having already been vice president for three and a half years. Harris pivoted her answer to her Republican rival. “Well, first of all, turning the page from the last decade in which we have been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump,” she replied, accusing the former president of dividing the American people. Harris had been widely criticized in the media over her recent interview on the Late Show, for evading a question on what “major changes” her presidency would bring, compared to Biden’s. “Sure, well I’m obviously not Joe Biden,” she told host Stephen Colbert last week, adding that neither is she Donald Trump, to cheers from the studio audience.

“And so when we think about the significance of what this next generation of leadership looks like, were I to be elected president, it is about – frankly, I love the American people, and I believe in our country,” she said, going on to praise the American work ethic, ambition and character. In an interview on ABC last week, Harris was also asked how she would have done things differently to Biden. “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of – and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact,” the presidential nominee said. Trump seized on the remark, writing on his Truth Social platform the following day: “Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate.” Harris took over as the Democratic party’s contender for the election after Biden stepped down earlier in the year, after a disastrous televised debate against Trump raised concerns over his mental state.

Kamala Fox

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“..she “empowers a culture” that has left local elected officials feeling “unengaged and disrespected.”

• US Democrats Worried About Pennsylvania – Politico (RT)

Some of the top Democrats in Pennsylvania are reportedly unhappy with the way Vice President Kamala Harris has run her campaign in the biggest battleground state in the upcoming US presidential election. Pennsylvania accounts for 19 Electoral College votes and Democrats are hoping their traditional strongholds of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will come through for Harris on November 5 against Republican Donald Trump. Both parties are on track to spend over $500 million in TV advertising there, more than in any other state. “Democrats fret that any mistake here, big or small, could tip the election away from them,” Politico reported on Wednesday, citing insider sources.

“Pennsylvania is such a mess, and it’s incredibly frustrating,” said one elected Democrat, who asked to remain anonymous. “I feel like we’re going to win here, but we’re going to win it in spite of the Harris state campaign.” Harris’ campaign manager for Pennsylvania, Nikki Lu, has drawn criticism from the Philadelphia set. One strategist claimed that she “empowers a culture” that has left local elected officials feeling “unengaged and disrespected.” Lu is from Pittsburgh, on the other side of the state. Philadelphia City Councilmember Kendra Brooks told Politico that “there’s been a lot of struggles” within the campaign, due to “folks coming into Philadelphia that are making assumptions about what needs to happen in Philadelphia and not necessarily having the relationships to move Philadelphia politics.”

Lu has also been accused of not doing enough to attract black and Latino voters, seen as key Democrat voting blocs. While complaints about voter outreach are common among Pennsylvania Democrats, “this level of frustration and finger-pointing is not,” Politico noted. The campaign’s initial Latino coalition manager, Mariel Joy Kornblith Martin, quit after just two weeks on the job and sent a memo to state party leaders in August complaining she was not given the data or the infrastructure she needed. A Harris campaign official said Martin’s claim was “untrue.” According to former Philadelphia city council member Maria Quinones-Sanchez, the campaign has become “so scientific around door-knocking and connecting, that they forget that culturally, Latinos like just noise.”

“We need young African American men to come home. We need African American women… to come out in record numbers, and disaffected African Americans,” said Ryan Boyer, an important Philadelphia labor leader. He accused Lu of being “slow” to reach out to surrogates that could help with the black community, such as Mayor Cherelle Parker. Lu herself did not comment to Politico. Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez sent a statement that the Democrats were “running the largest and most sophisticated operation in Pennsylvania history,” with 50 staff reaching out to black voters and another 30 to Latinos. In recent weeks, however, the campaign brought in President Barack Obama’s former field director for Pennsylvania, Paulette Aniskoff, as well as several other operatives with ties to Philadelphia.

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“..a major part of Joe Biden’s legacy as president..” What, the end of NATO?

• Ukraine Wants To Join NATO While Biden Is US President – Envoy (RT)

Admitting Ukraine into NATO before the end of the year could be a major part of Joe Biden’s legacy as president, Kiev’s envoy to the bloc, Natalia Galibarenko, has said. Vladimir Zelensky has pitched immediate membership in the US-led bloc as part of his ‘victory plan’, which he presented on Wednesday. Galibarenko explained the reasoning behind this in an interview with Reuters in Brussels, recorded the day before. “Our idea is that giving Ukraine [an] invitation at this moment is a political signal,” she told the agency. “We sincerely believe that it can be part of the legacy of current American administration.” Russia has demanded Ukraine’s military neutrality, and the specifically the renunciation of its NATO aspirations, as one of the preconditions for the current conflict to end.

According to Galibarenko, fast-tracking Kiev into the bloc would be “like a final, final verdict,” making Moscow unable to press the issue further. Even an invitation by itself, without any practical actions towards membership, would “send a powerful public message,” she argued. While NATO has declared that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to join eventually, it has qualified this by saying it will happen “when allies agree and conditions are met.” The US-led bloc has also told Kiev that it cannot join while at war and declined to give a timeline for accession. Two NATO members, Slovakia and Hungary, have already said they would vote against admitting Ukraine. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has argued that this would mean an open war with Russia, which he is opposed to.

The US has been one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine, approving almost $180 million in military and financial aid to Kiev since 2022. According to Reuters, Galibarenko’s push suggests there is “major uncertainty” in Kiev about what might happen after the American presidential election on November 5. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ candidate for the White House, has “signaled” continued support for Ukraine but has not spelled out any policies. Former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump has promised to end the conflict within a day, presumably by discontinuing the US aid that is sustaining Ukraine.

Speculation about Biden fast-tracking Ukraine’s NATO bid first appeared earlier this month in Financial Times, but has not been substantiated. Then Vice President Biden was entrusted with Washington’s Ukraine policy during President Barack Obama’s second term, and played a key role in the 2014 coup in Kiev. His presidency’s sole foreign policy achievement so far has been to end the US war in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years. The pullout from Kabul in August 2021 ended in a virtual stampede for the exits, however, as the US-backed Afghan government imploded before the advancing Taliban.

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“..the Kremlin rubbished his “ephemeral peace plan,” saying Kyiv needed to “sober up”..”

• Zelensky Presents ‘Victory Plan’ To Ukrainian Parliament (BBC)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented MPs with a long-awaited “victory plan” that aims to strengthen his country’s position enough to end the war with Russia. Zelensky told parliament in Kyiv that the plan could finish the war – which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – no later than next year. Key elements include a formal invitation to join Nato, the lifting by allies of restrictions on long-range strikes on Russia, a refusal to trade Ukraine’s territories and sovereignty, and the continuation of the incursion into the Kursk region of Russia. The Kremlin dismissed the plan with a spokesman saying Kyiv needed to “sober up”.

Addressing MPs, Zelensky also criticised China, Iran and North Korea for their backing of Russia, and described them as a “coalition of criminals”. He said he would present the victory plan at an EU summit on Thursday. “We are at war with Russia on the battlefield, in international relations, in the economy, in the information sphere, and in people’s hearts,” Zelensky told parliament.

The plan outlined by Zelensky consists of five key points:
• Inviting Ukraine to join Nato
• The strengthening of Ukrainian defence against Russian forces, including getting permission from allies to use their long-range weapons on Russian territory, and the continuation of Ukraine’s military operations on Russian territory to avoid creation of the “buffer zones” in Ukraine
• Containment of Russia via a non-nuclear strategic deterrent package deployed on Ukrainian soil
• Joint protection by the US and the EU of Ukraine’s critical natural resources and joint use of their economic potential
• For the post-war period only: replacing some US troops stationed across Europe with Ukrainian troops

Three “addendums” remain secret and will only be shared with Ukraine’s partners, Zelensky said. The plan was presented to US President Joe Biden, as well as presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, back in September. Key allies such as Britain, France, Italy and Germany have also reportedly been shown the plan. However Zelensky’s conditions for peace are increasingly at odds with the situation which surrounds him. In front of MPs he acknowledged the growing fatigue in his country. His own tiredness was etched across his face as he said that “victory has become for some an uncomfortable word and it’s not easy to achieve.” nNational morale has gradually been crumbling under the weight of a mounting death toll, a controversial mobilisation law and never-ending Russian assaults on Ukrainian territory.

It’s increasingly thought any peace deal would have to involve Ukraine conceding territory in exchange for security guarantees. However, there was no hint of a compromise to bring the end of the war closer. Instead, Zelensky doubled down on wanting to force Russia to negotiate and to not cede Ukraine’s territory, through the strengthening of his own military. He also claimed his extensive plan could be implemented with the agreement of his allies, and not Russia. In public, Zelensky evidently still sees this war as existential, and warned of Russian President Vladimir Putin continuing to strengthen his position.

He also seemed to frame his vision as an investment opportunity for Western allies in terms of natural resources and economic potential. The Ukrainian president wants his exhausted troops to keep fighting. But with his army so reliant on Western aid, his “victory plan” will need the approval of the next US president. Immediately after Zelensky finished speaking, the Kremlin rubbished his “ephemeral peace plan,” saying Kyiv needed to “sober up”. The only way the war would end was Ukraine to “realise the futility of the policy it is pursuing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

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“..by significantly increasing military aid, Western nations would enable Ukrainian forces to make Russia “helpless, running somewhere screaming in terror.”

• British Military Believes Kiev ‘On The Verge Of Losing’ – Daily Express (RT)

Behind closed doors, the British military has grim expectations for the Ukraine conflict and believes that Kiev is about to lose, the tabloid Daily Express claimed on Tuesday. Over the past month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has been touting his ‘victory plan’ to foreign leaders. Later this week he is set to unveil it to Ukrainian MPs and the general public, as well as the European Council. What Zelensky will present to his nation on Wednesday will not include specific numbers of requested weapons shipments by donor nations, according to his aide Mikhail Podoliak. As one of the key suppliers of arms to Ukraine, Britain has publicly supported Kiev’s uncompromising position in the conflict with Russia. But private assessments by its generals say the situation is bad for Ukraine, a military source cited by Daily Express said.

”I was speaking to a very senior British Army officer today,” the source was quoted as saying. “He told me that Ukraine is on the verge of losing the war against Russia. It’s very serious.” Zelensky has briefed the leaders of key Western nations on his ‘victory plan’, starting with US President Joe Biden in late September and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week. The head of the British government said it was “very important we’re able to show our continued commitment to support Ukraine.” Kiev has been asking for permission to use British-donated Storm Shadow missiles for long-range strikes into Russia. The lifting of restrictions on the use of Western weapons is understood to be integral to Zelensky’s proposal.

The Ukrainian leader had hoped to promote his plan at a gathering of donors in Germany last week, but the event was postponed after Biden canceled his participation to deal with the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Milton. Russia has made significant gains on the battlefield in the past several months, particularly since August, when Ukraine sent some of its best-equipped and experienced troops into Kursk Region. Podoliak claimed in an interview earlier this week that by significantly increasing military aid, Western nations would enable Ukrainian forces to make Russia “helpless, running somewhere screaming in terror.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow will treat Ukrainian long-range strikes with arms provided by Western nations as coming directly from the donors, and will respond accordingly.

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A history of..

• How The West Doomed Ukraine (Diesen)

In February 2022, Russia started its military operation against Ukraine to impose a settlement after a group of NATO countries had undermined the Minsk II peace agreement for seven years. On the first day after the start of hostilities, Vladimir Zelensky confirmed that Moscow had contacted him to discuss negotiations based on restoring Ukrainian neutrality. On the third day, Russia and Ukraine agreed to start peace negotiations based on a Russian military withdrawal in return for this. Zelensky responded favorably to this condition, and he even called for a “collective security agreement” to include Russia to mitigate the security competition that had sparked the war. The talks that followed are referred to as the Istanbul negotiations, in which Russia and Ukraine were close to an agreement before the US and UK sabotaged it, according to numerous claims by people close to the process.

For Washington, there were great incentives to use the large proxy army it had built in Ukraine to weaken Russia as a strategic rival, rather than accepting a neutral Kiev. On the first day after the start of the military operation, when Zelensky responded favorably to starting negotiations without preconditions, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price rejected this stance – saying Russia would first have to withdraw all its forces. “Now we see Moscow suggesting that diplomacy take place at the barrel of a gun or as Moscow’s rockets, mortars, artillery target the Ukrainian people. This is not real diplomacy… If President Putin is serious about diplomacy, he knows what he can do. He should immediately stop the bombing campaign against civilians, order the withdrawal of his forces from Ukraine, and indicate very clearly, unambiguously to the world, that Moscow is prepared to de-escalate.”

This was a demand for capitulation as the Russian military presence in Ukraine was Moscow’s bargaining chip to achieve the objective of restoring Kiev’s neutrality. Less than a month later, Price was asked if Washington would support peace talks, to which he replied negatively as the conflict was part of a larger struggle: “This is a war that is in many ways bigger than Russia, it’s bigger than Ukraine… The key point is that there are principles that are at stake here that have universal applicability everywhere, whether in Europe, whether in the Indo-Pacific, anywhere in between.” In late March 2022, Zelensky revealed in an interview with The Economist that “there are those in the West who don’t mind a long war because it would mean exhausting Russia, even if this means the demise of Ukraine and comes at the cost of Ukrainian lives.”

Israeli and Turkish mediators have since confirmed that Ukraine and Russia were both eager to make a compromise to end the war before the US and UK intervened to prevent peace from breaking out. Zelensky had contacted former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to help with the talks. Bennett noted that Putin was willing to make “huge concessions” if Ukraine would restore its neutrality to end NATO expansion. Zelensky accepted this condition and “both sides very much wanted a ceasefire.” However, Bennett argued that the US and UK intervened and blocked the peace agreement as they favored a long war. With a powerful Ukrainian military at its disposal, the West rejected the Istanbul peace agreement and there was a “decision by the West to keep striking Putin” instead of pursuing peace.The Turkish negotiators reached the same conclusion: Russia and Ukraine agreed to resolve the conflict by restoring Ukraine’s neutrality, but NATO decided to fight Russia with Ukrainians as a proxy.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu argued that some NATO states wanted to extend the war to bleed Russia: “After the talks in Istanbul, we did not think that the war would take this long… But following the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, I had the impression that there are those within the NATO member states that want the war to continue – let the war continue and Russia gets weaker. They don’t care much about the situation in Ukraine.” Numan Kurtulmus, the deputy chairman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political party, confirmed that Zelensky was ready to sign the peace agreement before the US intervened: “This war is not between Russia and Ukraine, it is a war between Russia and the West. By supporting Ukraine, the United States and some countries in Europe are beginning a process of prolonging this war. What we want is an end to this war. Someone is trying not to end the war. The US sees the prolongation of the war as its interest.”

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“Anyone returning a ballot for a family member or disabled voter is required to enter county boards of elections offices and fill out an attestation form stating that they are following the law..”

• Ohio Supreme Court Upholds Anti-Ballot Harvesting Directive (JTN)

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the secretary of state’s directive preventing ballot harvesting, ruling that its challengers filed their suit too late. In August, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) issued a directive stating that ballot drop boxes outside county boards of elections can only be used by voters dropping off their own ballots, Dayton Daily News reported. Anyone returning a ballot for a family member or disabled voter is required to enter county boards of elections offices and fill out an attestation form stating that they are following the law. The Ohio Democratic Party sued over the directive, requesting that it be rescinded. However, the lawsuit was not filed until Sept. 27, nearly a month after the directive was issued. The court ruled that the lawsuit was filed too late, as military and overseas ballots were sent out on Sept. 21 and early voting began on Oct. 8, according to the Statehouse News Bureau.

“I’m grateful the court has allowed us to proceed with our efforts to protect the integrity of Ohio’s elections,” LaRose said in a statement on Tuesday. “Political activists tried once again to dismantle the safeguards we’ve put in place, specifically in this case against ballot harvesting, and they’ve been rejected. This is the same policy that’s been used successfully in other states, and it’s designed to protect both individuals and election officials from accusations of illegal voting. The court’s decision should reinforce the confidence Ohio voters have in the security, honesty, and accountability of our elections.” In July, an Ohio federal judge partially struck down a state law restricting who can return absentee ballots for disabled voters, ruling that it violated the Voting Rights Act. LaRose issued his directive about a month later.

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“Go to the polls and vote. Then for the next 21 days get everyone you know to get out and vote. We don’t want to take a chance.”

• Trump Urges Georgians To Vote Early Amid Record Breaking Turnout (JTN)

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night urged Georgia residents to turn their ballots in early, after the state counted a record-breaking 300,000 votes cast during the first day of early voting and a state court blocked a hand-counting ballot rule. Georgia Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling confirmed the number in a social media post, saying the number was “123% higher than the old record for the 1st day of voting.” Tuesday was the first day of in-person early voting in the Southern state, and the first day voters could return absentee ballots. Other states have already begun their early voting, including Arizona, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Virginia. North Carolina will begin its early in-person voting on Thursday.

Trump has been campaigning in critical swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, ahead of the November election. The former president’s urging on Tuesday occurred during a campaign stop in Atlanta. “Early mail-in voting in your state is now underway, and early in-person is underway. But I’ll tell you what, I’m hearing very good things,” Trump said during the rally. “So if you have a ballot, return it immediately. If not, go tomorrow or as soon as you can. Go to the polls and vote. Then for the next 21 days get everyone you know to get out and vote. We don’t want to take a chance.”

The comment comes as a Georgia judge late Tuesday paused a new rule from the Georgia State Election Board that would have forced officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place, determining that it would cause “administrative chaos” because of a lack of preparation and training, according to CNN. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the Democratic nominee for president, is campaigning in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin this week. Trump is also expected to campaign in Detroit, Michigan, on Friday night.

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“..a lawyer shall not communicate or cause another to communicate about the subject of the representation with a person known to be represented by another lawyer in the matter..”

• Liz Cheney Under Fire for Improper Contacts with Jan. 6 Witness (Turley)

Former J6 Committee Co-Chair and Rep. Liz Cheney has long been criticized for her role in creating a one-sided and at times erroneous record of what occurred on January 6th. That includes editing out Trump’s call for supporters to protest “peacefully,” burying evidence on Trump’s offer to supply National Guard support for that day, and highlighting a false account of Trump in his presidential limo that was directly contradicted by witnesses. She now stands accused of unethically contacting a key represented witness to get her to change her testimony. In my view, ethical proceedings are unlikely after the disclosure of ex parte communications with former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson. However, the evidence seemingly contradicts public accounts of how Hutchinson decided to fire her counsel and change her testimony.

Hutchinson was represented by Stefan Passantino, who some clearly viewed as a stumbling block to getting Hutchinson to turn against Trump. Hutchinson would claim under oath that Passantino pressured her to stay “loyal” to Donald Trump and coached her responses to support Trump despite her conflicting accounts. However, newly disclosed evidence allegedly contradicts that account, including Hutchinson telling former Trump aide (and now The View co-host) Alyssa Farah Griffin that “[Passantino’s] not against me complying.” Griffin reportedly responded “I actually agree with Stefan’s approach and think it’s accomplished everyone’s goals. I am happy to tip liz off.” Hutchinson would later dump Passantino and testify to allegations that have been challenged as untrue. That includes the limo allegation that was repeatedly raised by Cheney and others. Hutchinson recounted the story that Trump allegedly grabbed the wheel of the vehicle after the Secret Service allegedly refused to take him to the Capitol.

Cheney and the Committee were aware that the account was directly and clearly refuted by the driver of the vehicle. However, they buried his account and highlighted that claim in its final report as being credible. The new allegation concerns the communications leading up to that changed testimony. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chairman of the House Administration oversight subcommittee has released the new evidence while alleging that Cheney used an encrypted phone app to evade defense counsel in speaking with Hutchinson. Under Rule 4.2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, “a lawyer shall not communicate or cause another to communicate about the subject of the representation with a person known to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the prior consent of the lawyer representing such other person or is authorized by law or a court order to do so.” Cheney is a D.C. licensed lawyer.

At the outset, in my view, Cheney was acting as a member of Congress in this matter. That has always been a rather grey area for lawyers who are also members of Congress. The bar has taken a broad view of the need for lawyers to adhere to these ethical standards. However, it is not clear politically or ethically if the Bar officials would be inclined to pursue Cheney, who has been lionized in Washington for her role in the investigation. Yet, the record does indicate that Cheney was not just aware of the represented status but the policy of the House to respect the rules governing represented parties. In one message Griffin tells Hutchinson, “Her one concern was so long ad [sic] you have counsel, she can’t really ethically talk to you without him.”

That did not appear to prove a barrier. Before Passantino withdrew as counsel, Cheney communicated secretly with Hutchinson. A later message was send to Cheney reading on June 6, “Hi, this is Cassidy Hutchinson. I’m sorry for reaching out this way, but I was hoping to have a private conversation with you (soon), if you are willing.” Cheney responded, “I would be happy to. Let me know what time works for you.”

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“Tel Aviv is exhausting its defense and intelligence resources without achieving any meaningful objective..”

• The Zionist Lobby Wins, But The US Loses (SCF)

The U.S. has apparently made the decision to intervene directly in the large-scale conflict currently taking place in the Middle East. According to recent reports, American military units, including auxiliary groups and special forces, are being sent to Israel to more effectively support Tel Aviv’s forces in their land-to-air operations. The main reason for the U.S. intervention is to support the IDF in air defense operations, and there is an official statement that there is no intention to use U.S. troops on direct combat lines. However, these claims have no practical credibility, since what we are seeing in the Middle East is a progressive escalation. Previously, direct American assistance was limited to the naval front. Now, specialized troops are already operating air defense systems on “Israeli” soil. Soon, it is quite possible that there will be direct American combat involvement both in Gaza and on the border with Lebanon, since Washington clearly does not have the ability to impose limits on Israel.

The arrival of American troops in Israel at this time is highly significant because the Zionist occupation is going through one of the most difficult moments in its recent history. Israel failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives with the genocidal operation in the Gaza Strip, having killed thousands of civilians, but failed to defeat Hamas and free the prisoners of war. Now, after suffering a humiliation during the recent Iranian attack on Zionist military and strategic bases, Israel is carrying out a disastrous invasion of Lebanon, where it suffers from Hezbollah’s high qualification in guerrilla and attrition warfare – in addition to Israeli cities being increasingly easy targets for the Shiite militia’s missiles and drones. It is fair to say that Israel is facing more difficulties now than at any other time in its military history. Tel Aviv is exhausting its defense and intelligence resources without achieving any meaningful objective, falling into a trap from which it will certainly not escape without profound changes in its state structure – if not its actual ceasing of existence as a state.

It would be naive to think that Pentagon strategists are unaware of this type of situation. Despite American propaganda encouraging Israel, senior American defense officials certainly know that entering Israel is strategic suicide for the United States, which is why the Pentagon’s recent decision seems even more irrational. However, it is important to understand that not all decisions made by a state are based on strategic sense and rationality, and that several factors influence it, such as historical and ideological ties and, above all, the stimulus of various lobbies. Contrary to what many experts say, the reality of U.S.-Israeli ties cannot be understood by taking Washington as the main agent of relations. Israel seems to have much more influence on American politics than Washington has in Tel Aviv. It is no coincidence that, despite Democrats and Republicans disagreeing on many issues, they continue to agree on Israel, with support for Zionism being absolute among all American politicians.

In fact, what the decision to send American military personnel to Israeli soil reveals is that it is the Zionist lobby that really controls the main strategic decisions of the United States. Joe Biden and his main allies have made it clear several times that they are not willing to directly support Israel in a major regional war in the Middle East. With elections coming up and major domestic problems in the United States, all Washington wants to do is to resolve its own issues and avoid military engagement. However, American decision-makers do not seem to have enough strength to neutralize the influence of the Zionist lobby, giving in on several important issues, even though all strategic sense advises something different to be done. In the end, it is possible to say that once again the Zionist lobby has won the American political game. It remains to be seen how long the U.S. will be able to resist the pressure from this same lobby for direct intervention.

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“That is to say,” Rogozin has written, “there have been some rather decent people in my family tree”.

• Dmitry Rogozin For President (Helmer)

According to the Russian Constitution amendments adopted in 2020, Vladimir Putin can run for re-election in 2030 and win another term until 2036, when he will be 84. The contest over the presidential succession may thus be postponed for another decade. Or else it is under way already. That’s one of the stakes in the present argument in Moscow over how the Ukraine war should end between the General Staff and the Kremlin – between unconditional capitulation of the regime west of the Dnieper River to the Polish border, and the east-of-Dnieper terms Putin proposed at Istanbul in March 2022, and repeated in a speech to the Foreign Ministry this past June. The debate in Moscow over the terms of Istanbul-I and of Putin’s proposed Istanbul-II involves much more than future control of the territories east of the Dnieper and of the territories to the west.

The question is whether the military trust Putin to administer the outcome of the war which Russian voters believe has been won by the General Staff. In his June 14 speech Putin admitted to his audience of senior Foreign Ministry officials what they all knew – that he and the General Staff had disagreed over the “preservation of the Ukrainian sovereignty over these territories, provided Russia has a stable land bridge to Crimea.” Putin’s “land bridge” and other territorial concessions were dismissed by the General Staff. One candidate has already tossed a military style cap into the succession race: this is Dmitry Medvedev, the one-term president and currently deputy secretary of the Security Council; he is 59 now, 71 in 2036. In his Telegram platform, Medvedev has been a consistent advocate of the General Staff line: “In my opinion, recently, even theoretically, there has been one danger – the negotiation trap, into which our country could fall under certain circumstances.

Namely, the early unnecessary peace talks proposed by the international community and imposed on the Kiev regime with unclear prospects and consequences [Medvedev was referring to Istanbul-I]. After the neo-Nazis committed an act of terrorism in the Kursk region, everything has fallen into place. The idle chatter of unauthorized intermediaries on the topic of the beautiful world has been stopped. Now everyone understands everything, even if they don’t say it out loud. They understand that there will BE NO MORE NEGOTIATIONS UNTIL THE COMPLETE DEFEAT OF THE ENEMY! [Medvedev’s caps]” Medvedev implies criticism of Putin but remains loyal in the hope of negotiating an amicable transfer of power between the two of them. At the same time Medvedev is signalling the General Staff that the military can trust him. But they don’t.

There is another succession candidate who is trusted by both the military and the voters, but who has not announced he is running. Putin is well aware of him; he has repeatedly tried to sideline him. This is Dmitry Rogozin, a presidential campaigner against Boris Yeltsin; Duma deputy and negotiator in Chechnya; ambassador to NATO; deputy prime minister in charge of the military industrial complex; head of Roskosmos, and now, after surviving a Ukrainian assassination attempt, senator for the Zaporozhye region in the Federation Council. Rogozin is 60; in 2036 he will be 72. Rogozin is the son of a Russian Army general, grandson of a Russian Navy officer, great-grandson of a Red Army pilot, great-great-grandson of a general of the Russian Army in the war against Japan of 1904-05. Rogozin’s ancestors have been recorded in the Russian fight against the Teutonic Knights (13th century) and with Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin in the war against the Poles (17th century). “That is to say,” Rogozin has written, “there have been some rather decent people in my family tree”.

In a recently published book, On the Western Front, Rogozin has said more explicitly: “The war against Ukrainian radical nationalism and Russophobia is not a confrontation between armies and military technologies, but our country’s response to an existential threat to our entire people, the entire Russian civilization. This is the restoration of historical justice. This is a common cause, in which the unity of the army, society and its political class must be manifested. This is the opportunity to kick out of the country (and not let back in!) the fifth column of traitors and globalisation-mongers.

The war in Ukraine is a war for Ukraine and Russia, it is a holy war for the right of the Russian people to exist and reunite on their ancestral territory. This is a war against a much stronger and more resourceful enemy, a war to force the collective West, manipulated by the Anglo-Saxons and German revanchists, to recognize Russia’s right to a safe and independent future for our children. Therefore, there should be no ‘red lines’ for us in this war…I consider it fundamentally important to constantly show universal solidarity with our army. It is impossible to maintain the illusion that the army is ‘out there doing its job’, and we continue to live as before.”

Read more …

“In my opinion it is essential that Trump be elected, because it will give America four more years. But the result is unlikely to be renewal of our country. Simply, the can will be kicked down the road.”

• How Do We Get Off the Road to Armageddon? (Paul Craig Roberts)

Two days ago on October 14 I posted my column about a new US Department of Defense Directive, 5240.01, that radically alters the relationship between the US military and American citizens. In the new directive issued one month prior to the election, the US military is authorized to intervene against American citizens and to use deadly force against Americans. I asked why such a drastic reformulation of long established policy unless the Democrats were setting up a coup in place of a lost election. The dramatic change in policy requires more examination than my speculative question, but does not seem to be getting any attention. One would think that those patriots who are convinced that the military will come forward at the last resort and save our freedoms should be alarmed by Department of Defense Directive 5240.01. Those patriots who see Trump as America’s savior should be alarmed by his response.

In a Fox Business interview on October 13, Trump was asked if he anticipated any chaos following the announcement of the election results. Trump said not from his supporters, a surprising statement if the Democrats steal the election. Trump thought that Kamala’s loss could result in disturbances from the woke left-wing, but “it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.” So here we have it: Trump has bought into Directive 5240.01. Having accepted the directive, how can Trump complain if the directive is used against him? It is only a few days before the presidential election and Trump seems again to be in the clutches of advisors composed of the ruling elites. Who are Trump’s advisors? Do they have any sense? Why is Trump aligned with Israel’s genocide of Palestine and attacks on Iran? Is Trump just another warmonger serving the military/security complex and Greater Israel?

Trump directs American hostility toward China, because of the lopsided trade deficit. But it was Wall Street that forced the offshoring of US manufacturing. The trade deficit results when the US corporations bring their offshored production home to America to sell. How can it be that Trump hasn’t a single advisor able to inform him of the real problem? We have to be grateful for Trump. He realizes that America is in dire straits, and he alone has emerged as anyone willing to do anything about it. But Trump is a real estate developer. He does not know issues and their history. His first term proved him to be a poor judge of people as he appointed to his government the very people he had declared to overthrow, and they overthrew him. Judging by his positions on DOD 5240.01, China, Israel, he has learned nothing and has no better advisors. In my opinion it is essential that Trump be elected, because it will give America four more years. But the result is unlikely to be renewal of our country. Simply, the can will be kicked down the road.

It is difficult to rouse the American people to the realities that they face. Americans are the most insouciant of all peoples. They exist surrounded by oceans and friendly countries devoid of military potential. Americans have ruled the world because World War II destroyed all rivals. Americans might be beginning an acquaintance with hardship, having lived on credit card and student loan debt, but despite the deceptions their government inflicts on them — 9/11, Muslim Terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, Covid pandemic, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iranian nukes, Chinese threat, Trump insurrection, Putin’s resurrection of the Soviet Empire, the return of slavery by white supremacists– a large segment of the population still trusts the government that is destroying them. So, what can be done? How can an insouciant population deal with a ruling elite when the population doesn’t understand what is happening?

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“Strengthening Rimland is a necessary condition for the integrity of Eurasia. Not a possibility, but a necessity.”

• Could The SCO Summit Save The BRICS+ New Order? (Pacini)

On Tuesday, Oct. 15 and Wednesday, Oct. 16 in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, is the 24th SCO Summit, the partnership established in 2001 as an outgrowth of the Shanghai Five to promote mutual defense, security and international counter-terrorism across the greater Eurasian region. Today there are 10 full members, namely China, Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia, with Afghanistan and Mongolia as observer members already welcomed and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain as countries in dialogue, Cambodia, Egypt, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, to be joined at this 2024 Summit by guests from ASEAN, the CIS, the UN, and a representation from Turkmenistan.

A long and extensive list of states representing, geopolitically speaking, all of Eurasia and the Rimland coastal zone. Since this is a partnership centered on security issues, and therefore with an at least partially military agenda, we are talking about a meeting that can be a thorn in the side of NATO and the collective West. Strengthening Rimland is a necessary condition for the integrity of Eurasia. Not a possibility, but a necessity. This the Soviet leaders understood, and for that reason they had aimed not only at effective control of most of the areas abutting the Rimland, and thus to the South and East, but also had been far-sighted in weaving strong diplomatic relations and ideological-political cooperation with the countries to the East, so as to ensure lasting stability at the expense of attempts at destabilization coming from the West.

Rimland stability is not only a strategic issue but also an economic and political one. This meeting of SCO leaders comes just days before the start of the long-awaited BRISC+ Summit in Kazan, dubbed by many as “the event of the year,” from which the organizational line of the new global majority, or at least the programmatic lines of it, could emerge. As described earlier, there is a possibility-not officially stated, but theoretically plausible and confirmed by some rumors-that an alliance between BRICS and SCO, that is, between the two lungs of the emerging multipolar world, one economic and the other strategic, is in the works. This union would lead the new bloc to have a cohesive strength superior to that of NATO and, therefore, to represent not only an adversary, but even an enemy.

There are many reasons for the need for such an alliance: the West continues to promote wars and destruction, with aggressive diplomacy and an exasperated attempt to control the globe, without accepting that the rules-based order no longer applies; International Law is practically dead and it no longer makes sense to reason with paradigms written by the offices of bureaucrats in Washington and New York; genocide is taking place in Palestine and it is almost impossible to intervene because of the balance of war that Israel and the U.S. have created, threatening a nuclear apocalypse and blaming Iran and the Axis of Resistance. But, more than anything else, there are some brief reasons that are particularly urgent:

• the BRICS countries need an integrated defense system that harmonizes differences and specificities, especially now that the partnership is expanding and the new members lack the real military strength of the great powers. This in a multipolar world is normal, because military capacity is redistributed among multiple actors participating in the same scenario, the hegemonic polarizing force is lost, and a balance is set up made up of different magnetisms, which must keep in constant contact and balance in order to subsist;

• the economy of the BRICS countries and the politics of the partnership are in danger of being compromised, the hegemon still being very strong and entrenched, thus with the capacity to undermine the stages of realization of the multipolar transition.

This second point is very topical: think of how the situation in Gaza and Lebanon is undermining delicate diplomatic balances between Israel and Russia, and between Russia and Iran, involving the other Middle Eastern states and provoking antipathy in the Eastern countries that are bearers of peaceful solutions and seek to limit escalation. Think also of the situation in Taiwan, where the U.S. continues to foment a colorful revolution, or Turkey’s double-dealing that is teasing Islamic countries. A solution that gives whiplash to the West’s slowly waning adversaries is urgently needed.

Read more …

Never was of course. Delusional.

• BMW Says EU Ban On Gasoline Cars From 2035 Is “No Longer Realistic” (ZH)

Germany’s car manufacturing giant BMW is warning that an EU ban on the sale of gasoline and diesel cars from 2035 is “no longer realistic” amid slow EV sales as the European auto industry will see a “massive shrinking” with such a ban. European carmakers are already struggling with their EV sales as subsidies in many countries are coming to an end and Chinese low-cost vehicle makers are gaining market share. Last year, the EU member states approved an emissions regulation under which the bloc will end sales of new carbon dioxide-emitting cars and vans in 2035. The rules target 55% CO2 emission reductions for new cars and 50% for new vans from 2030 to 2034 compared to 2021 levels, as well as 100% CO2 emission reductions for both new cars and vans from 2035. Under the regulation, the European Commission will assess in 2026 the progress the EU has made in achieving the target. The Commission will decide whether the targets need to be reviewed.

But BMW’s chief executive Oliver Zipse said on Tuesday at the Paris Automotive Summit that the ban “could also threaten the European automotive industry in its heart.” The current regulations will “with today’s assumptions, lead to a massive shrinking of the industry as a whole,” Zipse added, as carried by Bloomberg. Electric vehicle sales in Europe have been suffering this year. Sales in Germany, for example, are plummeting as Berlin ended subsidies at the end of 2023. Amid slowing sales of EVs, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, ACEA, last month called for urgent action to reverse this year’s trend of declining EV sales. The European auto manufacturers united in ACEA, called on the EU institutions “to come forward with urgent relief measures before new CO2 targets for cars and vans come into effect in 2025.” Europe’s automakers “are playing our part in this transition, but unfortunately, the other necessary elements for this systemic shift are not in place,” ACEA said.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Candace

 

 

Aristotle Time

 

 

Dog toys
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846586910031950085

 

 

New shoes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846594910075470191

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 15 2024

Oct 152024
 
 October 15, 2024  Posted by at 8:29 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  60 Responses »


Andrea Pozzo Ceiling Fresco, Church of St. Ignazio, Rome (entire ceiling is flat) 1685-94

 

• Lawfare is Jihad Against Our Country (James Howard Kunstler)
• ‘Something Very Wrong’ With Kamala Harris – Trump (RT)
• Kamala Harris Has A Major Problem With Male Voters (ZH)
• Trump Plans To Expand Border Patrol By 10,000, Reward Existing Agents (JTN)
• Liberals Are Losing their Minds over Elon Musk (Turley)
• Whoever Wins This Pennsylvania County Is Expected To Win The White House (ET)
• Military Intervention in US Domestic Affairs? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Young Men in US Are Shifting Right, as Many Feel ‘Left Behind’ (Manley)
• Speaker Johnson Says FEMA Spent Just 2% Of $20 Billion In Disaster Aid (JTN)
• US Emergency Workers ‘Hunted By Militia’ – WaPo (RT)
• US Sets Stage for Direct Participation in Middle East War (Miles)
• Imperial Israel (Miles)
• Israel Does What It Does; It Was Always Planned This Way (Alastair Crooke)
• Germany Is Committing ‘Economic Suicide’ – Who’s To Blame? (Amar)
• UK Police Officers Resigning in Droves as Country Roiled by Protest (Miles)
• Ukraine’s Battlefield Situation ‘Critical’ – ex-NATO Official (RT)

 

 

 

 

SNL
https://twitter.com/i/status/1845321115780120975

 

 

Bill ad
https://twitter.com/i/status/1845880958769053735

Jennings

Kamala

O’Reilly
https://twitter.com/i/status/1845673700462592106

Cost cutting

Orban

Kash Patel
https://twitter.com/i/status/1845476000596971736

60m

Jan 6

3rd attempt

 

 

 

 

Jim in fine form. “It’s a tragic turn of fate for our country that the law, and language with it, have been turned into weapons for national suicide.”

• Lawfare is Jihad Against Our Country (James Howard Kunstler)

Marc Elias was the original expeditor of the RussiaGate hoax in 2016 from his perch at Perkins Coie, then Hillary Clinton’s campaign law firm, which laundered payments to Christopher Steele, front-man for Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS political PR shop, which concocted the fraudulent “dossier,” and set in motion a train of DC intel blob legal shenanigans aimed at defenestrating Donald Trump from the White House — the Mueller Investigation, impeachment, etc. While all that was going on through the Trump term, and with the Covid-19 Op providing cover, Mr. Elias engineered the 2020 changes in many states’ election laws and bylaws to permit large-scale mail-in voting, organized ballot-harvesting activities, and the use of drop-boxes for receiving bundled votes. He and his George Soros-financed staff lawyers sued states that attempted to require voter-identification, and provided legal protection for Mark Zuckerberg’s $419-million-dollar assault on election precinct staffing in swing states.

When the 2020 election concluded suspiciously, Mr. Elias and his gang joined lawsuits in every case where the balloting was contested and got more than sixty of them dismissed on the basis of “standing,” without the merits of the cases being heard. This is Lawfare. This time around, 2024, Mr. Elias has done everything possible to ensure that millions of illegal aliens stuffed into swing states will have their putative identities attached to harvested mail-in ballots from addresses such as Walmart parking lots and storage units, and has filed lawsuits wherever a state threatens to require proof of citizenship for voting. He has also filed sixty peremptory lawsuits to obstruct attempts to audit any election count after November 5 — as if it is an affront to democracy to even ask questions about official misconduct. A parallel Lawfare scam underway is the Democratic Party-sponsored 65 Project that seeks to disbar Trump-adjacent lawyers who attempt to challenge any voting irregularities in this year’s election. It’s mission statement reads:

“The 65 Project is a bipartisan effort to protect democracy from these once-and-future abuses by holding accountable Big Lie Lawyers who bring fraudulent and malicious lawsuits to overturn legitimate election results, and by working with bar associations to deter future abuses by establishing clear standards for conduct that punish lies about the conduct or results of elections.” Notice the term “Big Lie” to foreclose any inquiry at all into election fraud. That half the people in this country accept such an Orwellian con tells you the vital role played by the perversion of language in the Democratic Party’s war against the citizens of this land. Exactly who is to say, in advance of the event, that any objection to a vote count is fraudulent and malicious? Answer: the people who have maliciously committed fraud. The Democrats have been grooming the public for years with that phrase, the Big Lie, in exactly the same way that pedos groom innocent pubescents who accept the authority of any grown-up, no matter what debauchery they are subjected to.

It’s a tragic turn of fate for our country that the law, and language with it, have been turned into weapons for national suicide. The net result is a nation that can’t think straight anymore and cannot construct any coherent set of rules to live by. So we find ourselves in a society where stealing is no longer a crime, where border-jumping has been downgraded to a clerical error (“undocumented”), where little children are allowed to decide whether they are male or female, where speech that disagrees with the authorities agenda is “misinformation” subject to censorship and prosecution, where candidates for the highest office get selected “democratically” without any votes cast, and where you can be run-over and ruined financially in court by the bottomless legal resources of the Deep State for just speaking your mind.

Read more …

Am I allowed to find this funny?

”Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way..”

• ‘Something Very Wrong’ With Kamala Harris – Trump (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has called on Vice President Kamala Harris to take a cognitive test, calling her “slow and lethargic.” Harris urged Trump to release his medical records over the weekend, questioning “whether he is fit to be president of the United States.” In a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump declared that “it is very important that Kamala Harris pass a test on cognitive stamina and agility.” “Her actions have led many to believe that there could be something very wrong with her,” he continued. “Even 60 Minutes and CBS, in order to protect Lyin’ Kamala, illegally and unscrupulously replaced an answer she had given, which was totally ‘bonkers’, with another answer that had nothing to do with the question asked.” “Also, she is slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest of questions,” Trump continued. “We just went through almost four years of that, we shouldn’t have to do it again!”

Last week, CBS News broadcast an interview with Harris that had been heavily edited, with the vice president’s lengthy and rambling answers – seen in a preview released before the final broadcast – cut and replaced with completely different responses. Trump initially focused his anger on CBS, declaring that the network should be shut down and sold “to the highest bidder.” However, his latest attack on Harris came after the Democratic candidate questioned his physical and mental fitness. After releasing a statement from her doctor describing her health as “excellent,” Harris called on Trump to follow suit, claiming that his unwillingness to do so demonstrates that he does “not want the American people to see what he is doing and whether he is fit to be President of the United States.” At 78, Trump is 19 years Harris’ senior, and is currently the oldest nominee for president by a major party in US history. Trump released a letter from his doctor last November which stated that his “overall health is excellent” and that his “cognitive exams were exceptional.”

Dr. Bruce Aronwald, Trump’s personal physician since 2021, said his cancer screening tests were all negative, cardiovascular tests were normal, and he had reduced his weight through daily physical activity and an “improved diet.” Trump repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden over his mental and physical fortitude until July, when Biden suspended his reelection campaign after appearing confused during a debate with the former president. With Harris replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket, Trump repurposed his repertoire of insults and jibes to fit his new opponent. ”Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way,” Trump said at a campaign rally last month. “She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country,” he continued, going after Harris for her lax border security performance.

Read more …

Less popular among men than Trump is among women. Wow.

• Kamala Harris Has A Major Problem With Male Voters (ZH)

It’s no secret that men aren’t fans of Kamala Harris – and the Democrat party is in full panic mode over it. Look no further than their recent cringe-fest commercials, Tim Walz awkwardly trying to load a shotgun with his balls, and Barack Obama lecturing black men for their lack of support. They’ve even resorted to oversampling women in polls to achieve the desired result. And who could forget Hillary Clinton suggesting that women who voted for Trump only did so because their husbands pressured them.

This weekend, New York Times opinion podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro’s reaction to JD Vance encapsulated the situation. When asked whether expelling illegal immigrants would exacerbate the housing crisis due to a lack of construction labor, Vance suggested that “You could re-engage men to enter the labor market.” Garcia-Navarro was taken aback – clearly unable to grasp the notion that modern men would want to fill those positions.

Breaking it down in a viral post on X is John Konrad, CEO of maritime news website gCaptain. “Listen to her shock—her disbelief. She doesn’t get it. She thinks men wouldn’t want to work in construction, that we’d rather sit in cushy office jobs, sipping $6 lattes in front of Zoom calls,” Konrad says of Garcia-Navarro. He then lays out one of the major problems with men building things in America – red tape, which Democrats apply liberally to anything they can’t directly control. Why not build ships here? Because our shipyards are buried in OSHA regulations, HR policies, union rules—everything moves at a snail’s pace. I don’t want to build slowly with tons of paperwork and red tape—I want to BUILD. They don’t get it. They don’t see how hard it is to build in this country while making progress, earning a decent living, and having freedom. In South Korea, I had all three, but it wasn’t home.

I could get a shipyard job here but I’d make half what I made in South Korea with four times the paperwork and it would take years to build one ship. No thanks. Lulu is shocked I’d give up my “thinking job.” For construction. Sure, I LOVE my job now—but I’d throw it all away to build again. To construct. It’s like the movie Office Space. My wife said it’s a “guy movie,” and she’s right. Most people think it’s just an office comedy – or think the stapler guy “won” because he’s now rich. But to guys – real men- it’s a hero’s story. The main character leaves it all behind… and ends up working construction! That’s the happy ending. Listen to her voice. Hear the contempt: “They’d work construction?” YES, I WOULD, LULU. And I wouldn’t just build condos. Turn us loose, and we’d build grand ships, towering bridges, and homes with character and strength.

American men are the best builders in the world. But we’re shackled by HR, red tape, DEI, lawyers and endless regulations. All the bullshit the NYTimes constantly advocates for. We are sick of it. We are sick of the Times. We are sick of you Lulu. Sick of you telling us what we want. We want to build… and not build for ourselves but build great things for YOU. Yes YOU Lulu. Great things for women and men and children of all colors and religions and backgrounds. Big great things that advance all of us together. That’s why we look up to @elonmusk —he’s out there building rockets and robots. – ROCKETSHIPS AND ROBOTS!

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“..a 10% raise for all agents, and a $10,000 dollar each retention and signing bonus..”

• Trump Plans To Expand Border Patrol By 10,000, Reward Existing Agents (JTN)

Visiting an Arizona border front exhausted by the Biden-Harris migrant crisis, former President Donald Trump on Sunday unveiled a plan to expand the U.S. Border Patrol by 10,000 employees and reward existing agents with raises and bonuses if he is elected. “I will always stand with the incredible men and women of Border Patrol,” Trump told a rally in Prescott, Ariz., where he was surrounded by frontline Customs and Border Patrol employees. The union representing the 16,000 border agents also endorsed Trump at the event before he laid out his plan.

The former president said Border Patrol agents were suffering from a morale crisis because of the policies of the Biden-Harris administration had let millions slide across the border, and because false accusations earlier in the administration that agents had mistreated migrants. “They have a tremendous shortage because they haven’t been treated right. They want to do their jobs. You know, they consider it bad treatment when you’re not allowed to do your jobs,” Trump said. “I will be asking Congress to approve immediately a 10% raise for all agents, and a $10,000 dollar each retention and signing bonus,” he added.

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“The intense hatred for Musk is due to the fact that he was the immovable object in the path of their formerly unstoppable force.”

• Liberals Are Losing their Minds over Elon Musk (Turley)

This week, Elton John publicly renounced the Rocket Man — no, not the 1972 song, but Elon Musk, whom he called an “a**hole” in an awards ceremony. Sir Elton, 77, is only the latest among celebrities and pundits to denounce Musk for his support of former president Donald Trump and his opposition to censorship. Musk-mania is so overwhelming that some are calling for his arrest, deportation and debarment from federal contracts. This week, the California Coastal Commission rejected a request from the Air Force for additional launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It is not because the military agency did not need the launches. It was not because the nation and the community would not benefit from them. Rather, it was reportedly because, according to one commissioner, Musk has “aggressively injected himself into the presidential race.” By a 6-4 vote, the California Coastal Commission rejected the military’s plan to let SpaceX launch up to 50 rockets per year from the base in Santa Barbara County.

Musk’s SpaceX is becoming a critical part of national security programs. It will even be launching a rescue mission for two astronauts stranded in space. The advances of SpaceX under Musk are legendary. The Air Force wanted to waive the requirement for separate permits for SpaceX in carrying out these critical missions. To the disappointment of many, SpaceX is now valued at over $200 billion and just signed a new $1 billion contract with NASA. Yet neither the national security value nor the demands for SpaceX services appear to hold much interest for officials like Commissioner Gretchen Newsom (no relation to California’s governor, Gavin Newsom): “Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet.”

Newsom is the former political director for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 569. It did not seem to matter to her that increased launches meant more work for electrical workers and others. Rather, it’s all about politics. Commission Chair Caryl Hart added “here we’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race and he’s managed a company in a way that was just described by Commissioner Newsom that I find to be very disturbing.” In my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how Musk became persona non grata when he bought Twitter and announced that he was dismantling the company’s massive censorship apparatus. He then outraged many on the left by releasing the Twitter Files, showing the extensive coordination of the company with the government in a censorship system described by a federal court as “Orwellian.”

After the purchase, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton called upon Europeans to force Musk to censor her fellow Americans under the notorious Digital Services Act. Clinton has even suggested the arrest of those responsible for views that she considers disinformation. Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee called for Musk’s arrest and said that, as a condition of getting government contracts, officials should “require him to moderate his speech in the interest of national security.” Former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich wants Musk arrested for simply refusing to censor other people. Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann called for Musk to be deported and all federal contracts cancelled with this company. As with many in the “Save Democracy” movement, Olbermann was unconcerned with the denial of free speech or constitutional protections. “If we can’t do that by conventional means, President Biden, you have presidential immunity. Get Elon Musk the F out of our country and do it now.”

Of course, none of these figures are even slightly bothered about other business leaders with political opinions, so long as, like McNamee, they are supporting Harris or at least denouncing Trump. Musk has failed to yield to a movement infamous for cancel campaigns and coercion. The usual alliance of media, academia, government and corporate forces hit Musk, his companies and even advertisers on X. Other corporate officials collapsed like a house of cards to demands for censorship — see, for example, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Musk, in contrast, responded by courageously releasing the Twitter Files and exposing the largest censorship system in our history. That is why I describe Musk as arguably the single most important figure in this generation in defense of free speech. The intense hatred for Musk is due to the fact that he was the immovable object in the path of their formerly unstoppable force.

Turley

Read more …

Long article. These are just the juiciest bits.

• Whoever Wins This Pennsylvania County Is Expected To Win The White House (ET)

It’s not just the Erie County Republican Party that’s hard at work trying to flip the county back to Trump’s camp. Leo Williard, a small business owner, has set up what he calls “Trump factories” in two auto dealerships owned by his friend and located just outside downtown Erie. While still managing his own business, Williard told The Epoch Times that he spends hours every week talking to and converting Democratic voters to Trump’s side. Williard said he was inspired to do so by the city of Erie’s Democratic leanings: While the rural and suburban areas are more evenly divided, the city itself votes overwhelmingly for Democrats. Many of those who come into the dealership are from the city, he said. “And we started talking to those people, and I have a table set up in the corner of his office up there that I call the ‘Trump corner.’ I call this whole process the ‘Trump factory,’” Williard said, adding that he was bringing as many as five to 15 Democrats a day over to Trump’s side.

“You can’t believe the people we are turning from Democrat to Trump.” For many, financial concerns—particularly inflation—are the most pressing issue, Williard said, agreeing that inflation could be described as “the No. 1 issue” in the county right now. The modest income of many residents makes the hit harder than it might be in more affluent areas, Williard said. Williard said that Democrats’ decision to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris did energize the Democratic base in the city, but he is confident. “I still think that Erie County, based on the work I see being done and the enthusiasm I see, will go red. I think it will turn the state red,” Williard said. Republicans have seen strong signs for optimism—but recent Democratic victories in the county still undercut any sort of certainty.

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The Biden Regime Has Just Issued a Very Suspicious Directive Permitting Military Intervention in US Domestic Affairs

• Military Intervention in US Domestic Affairs? (Paul Craig Roberts)

The Department of Homeland Security has flagged individuals questioning COVID-19 origins, vaccine efficacy, and election integrity as potential domestic terrorism threats. Is a coup being set in place? A new Department of Defense directive 5240.01 issued September 27, 2024, just prior to the November presidential election allows the US military to use lethal force against American citizens in assisting police authorities in domestic disturbances. A report on this development lists these civil liberties concerns:

Right to protest: There are fears that expanded authority could suppress legitimate protests. Privacy rights: Increased military involvement in domestic intelligence gathering could infringe on privacy. Due process: The military’s role in law enforcement could bypass standard due process protections. Freedom of speech: The broad definition of “national security threats” could target individuals for their political beliefs. Civilian control: The expanded military role could erode civilian oversight of the military.

Unless Trump cuts a deal with Democrats not to hold them accountable and also a deal with the Ruling Elite not to interfere with their control, I can see no way that either will permit Trump to be President. The Biden regime and the Trump Justice (sic) Department and FBI are criminal operations. I can see indictments and arrests for those who have weaponized law enforcement. The Ruling Elite and leading Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and John Kerry can all be arrested, honestly unlike Trump and his supporters, for insurrection as they have openly called for the overthrow of the United States by demanding the overthrow of the First Amendment of the US Constitution. No fooling, this is treason. The US is the Constitution. Advocating the overthrow of the Constitution is advocating the overthrow of the United States. This is a major issue of our time, and it is not mentioned — which displays the control the elite have over what can be an issue subject to notice and discussion.

That one month prior to the presidential election the corrupt Biden regime issued a directive that permits the US military, purged of its patriotic officers, to use lethal force against American citizens is an indication that something is afoot. Why is such a directive suddenly needed, a directive that goes against all previous policy? Here is a possible scenario: If despite the whore media’s assault on Trump and the in-place legalized election theft procedures in the swing states, the Democrats and Ruling Elite conclude that the election can neither be won nor stolen, an orchestrated false flag insurrection is staged that activates Department of Defense directive 5240.01 issued September 27, 2024. Trump, his supporters, the Republican Party, probably sparing the RINOs as a fake opposition party will be needed to carry on the illusion of democracy under one-party rule, will be arrested as insurrectionists. The courts will be helpless as they have no enforcement powers, and any intervention against the coup will be misrepresented as “siding with insurrectionists.”

Absurd! Extreme! Nutcase! No, I am none of these. Just think of all the violations of US law and international law by Democrat officials. They are subject to arrest nationally and internationally. Trump, unless he cuts the deals I mentioned, is a threat to the Ruling Establishment as he can put most of them in prison. How can the Democrats and the Ruling Elite let a man and a movement this dangerous to them become President? They cannot. Unless Trump sells out, he is in a fight to the death. Elon Musk knows it. Musk wondered on Tucker Carlson how long his prison sentence would be if Trump loses the election. Most Americans, however, are too insouciant to realize that if Trump loses the election, or it is stolen from him, or prevented from happening, there will never again be an election in the United States of America. A Stalin type election, perhaps, where 99.9% of the votes are taken by the ruling personage.

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“..financially dependent on their parents with about 30% of those aged 18 to 25 continuing to live at home with a parent..”

• Young Men in US Are Shifting Right, as Many Feel ‘Left Behind’ (Manley)

According to data from the Pew Research Institute, young men in the US without college degrees are making less money than previous generations and are less likely to be working full time. Fearful of inflation, the housing crisis, and poor job prospects, more young men in the US are switching to the Republican party. Less than two decades ago, young men could be seen as solidly Democratic, a report from NBC News explained citing pollsters and social scientists. But due to fear of a poor economy and a lack of investment in social issues, more young men are turning to the right. “The economic and employment picture for younger men without college degrees is significantly worse than previous generations,” said Dan Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute.

“These sort of traditional norms around masculinity and what it means to be a man and a husband are wrapped up in economic success, and that makes it really, really challenging when their economic outlook is not as bright.”
Richard Reeves, the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, adds that there is a “cultural dislocation among men”. And that they feel as though they don’t really know whether they are going to be “needed” or feel as if they are “failing against the standard that was set 50 years ago about the position of men and women in the labor market.” Overall, a majority of both young men and young women allegedly prefer Vice President Kamala Harris to former President Donald Trump as their next presidential pick. However, 33% of young men identify as being part of the Democratic Party, compared to a previous 42% in 2020, a poll of 18 to 29-year-old by the Harvard Institute of Politics found.

In 2008, for example, former President Barack Obama won the votes of 66% of young men. While Trump has been campaigning on the Biden administration’s “failed” economy, he has also pledged to bring back manufacturing jobs by placing 20% tariffs on imports which economists have warned will trigger widespread inflation and supply chain disruptions. But the economy looks different to young men compared to other Americans, the report adds. Young men are less likely to worry about the costs of prescription drugs, child care or mortgage interest rates. Instead, their income goes rent, dining out and entertainment along with student loan debt.

Rent cost is also the biggest point of economic pain for young people’s wallets. Rent in the US has increased around 20% since 2020, and about two-thirds of young adults said they spend more than 30% of their monthly income on housing while a quarter said more than half of their income goes to housing, the report said citing data from the Bank of America. “You look at what our parents were able to buy for $10,000 back in the day,” said Derek, a focus group participant from Wisconsin who is thinking of voting for Trump. “I just went through trying to buy a house two years ago, and the struggles that you come through. You’ve got to be making $150,000 just to get your standard three-bed, two-bath house nowadays.” As a result, young American men are now more likely to be financially dependent on their parents with about 30% of those aged 18 to 25 continuing to live at home with a parent. As a result, young men are also waiting longer to get married as well as to have children.

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And then they say they’re underfunded.

• Speaker Johnson Says FEMA Spent Just 2% Of $20 Billion In Disaster Aid (JTN)

House Speaker Mike Johnson said over the weekend that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has distributed only 2% of the billions of dollars to disaster relief provided by Congress. “FEMA has distributed 2% of the over $20 billion in disaster relief funding Congress provided,” Johnson said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “They need to do their job and get this assistance to the people in need. Once the total calculations are completed, Congress will address any additional needs,” he continued. Hurricane Helene hit Florida two weeks ago as a Category Four storm, and caused disastrous damage in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Hurricane Milton also hit Florida this week as a Category Three storm.

FEMA has gotten backlash for not spending money properly in the wake of these storms as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters earlier this month that the organization does not have adequate funds to manage disaster relief for the rest of hurricane season. FEMA has previously spent approximately $650 million on grants to nonprofits and local authorities that resettle and aid illegal immigrants, and has sent employees down to the border to help address the increase in unaccompanied minors that began in 2021, Fox News reported. This has been part of an ongoing controversy over whether FEMA being involved in issues related to aid to illegal immigrants at the southern border is affecting their ability, both financially and in terms of manpower, to carry out their emergency work on natural disasters and other emergencies.

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Appalachia.

• US Emergency Workers ‘Hunted By Militia’ – WaPo (RT)

Federal employees responding to Hurricane Helene in Rutherford County, North Carolina, were threatened last week by militias and had to temporarily pull out, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. An email sent on Saturday by an official with the US Forest Service, which assists the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), advised federal responders to “stand down and evacuate the county immediately,” the newspaper said. The warning came after members of the National Guard claimed to have come across what they called “trucks of armed militia saying there [sic] were out hunting FEMA.” The Post said two federal officials confirmed to it that the message was authentic. The newspaper stressed that it was not clear how serious the threat was assessed to be.

One of the sources said employees were moved to a “safe area,” which resulted in recovery work being put on hold in the area. Personnel were back in place by Sunday afternoon, the officials, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, added. Journalist Brianna Sacks, who bylined the story, later published on her X account a message claiming that a firefighter crew had been instructed to avoid certain areas on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee “due to communities being governed by armed militias” there. The Post described the incident in Rutherford County as the latest example of security issues in western North Carolina. In the two weeks since Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of the state, “misinformation and rumors have made the recovery more difficult,” the reports stated, claiming that some locals were refusing to cooperate with federal officials.

“It’s terrible because a lot of these folks who need assistance are refusing it because they believe the stuff people are saying about FEMA and the government,” Riva Duncan, a former Forest Service official, told the news outlet. “And it’s sad because they are probably the ones who need the help the most.” The Appalachian region of the US, which includes western North Carolina, tends to be less affluent and has come to be seen by many as having been left behind by the coastal political elites. It also has a long history of anti-federal sentiment. On Friday, President Joe Biden denounced “reckless, irresponsible, and relentless disinformation and outright lies” for the death threats allegedly received by emergency response workers in remarks about the government’s hurricane response efforts.

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“The arch Zionist and likely intelligence asset’s approval rating as prime minister now stands at only 26%..”

• US Sets Stage for Direct Participation in Middle East War (Miles)

The US and its European client states are doubling down on their support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the waning days of the Biden administration, setting the stage for Western militaries to directly participate in Israeli atrocities or even a broader regional conflagration. A series of events in recent days has demonstrated NATO countries’ deepening commitment to Israel as new UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer leads the way. “US special forces flights to Israel from a British airbase have doubled in frequency since Keir Starmer took over from Rishi Sunak as prime minister,” reported the website Declassified UK recently. “It has… previously been revealed that the US is using Akrotiri to deliver weapons to Israel,” the investigative reporting outlet continued, referring to the UK’s large airbase in Cyprus. “The UK government has long refused to give any details of US use of British territory to support the Israeli assault on Gaza.”

Starmer has been heavily criticized for alleged weaponization of claims of antisemitism during his tenure as leader of the UK Labour Party. After previously signaling cooperation with former leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters, Starmer ultimately expelled Corbyn from Labour and purged pro-Corbyn candidates and party members. A damning report released in 2022 revealed that a manufactured antisemitism crisis within the party was used to undermine Corbyn, who is a prominent anti-imperialist and supporter of the Palestinian cause. The former Czechoslovak government concluded Starmer was a likely Western intelligence asset in an internal report written in the 1980s. Former Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo suggested in 2019 that the United States would work to prevent Corbyn’s election as British prime minister, paving the way for Starmer to fill the role instead. The arch Zionist and likely intelligence asset’s approval rating as prime minister now stands at only 26% according to recent polling.

“In November 2023, a US military official revealed that American special forces were stationed in Israel and actively helping the Israelis,’” noted journalist Matt Kennard. While US military personnel have assisted Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip over the last year, the Biden administration signaled an open commitment of US troops in the country today in a statement released by the Pentagon. “At the direction of the President, [US Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin authorized the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses,” said press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, claiming the move was intended to safeguard the country’s military installations after Iran’s retaliatory attack earlier this month. It is thought that some 100 US troops would be dispatched to Israel to operate the THAAD system.

Observers warn the open commitment of personnel could serve as a casus belli to send troops to fight with Israel if a US service member is injured or killed in a strike on an Israeli military target. The official death toll in Gaza stands at almost 43,000, but a study in the respected British medical journal The Lancet claimed it will ultimately approach 200,000 as Palestinians cope with mass hunger, malnutrition and lack of medical care. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sought the arrest of Netanyahu and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, while the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is investigating Israel on claims of a “plausible” genocide in the Gaza Strip. The possibility of accountability for Israel’s conduct in the Palestinian territory raises the prospect of Western leaders like Starmer and US President Joe Biden being held criminally liable for their enthusiastic support for Israel, which has included the provision of arms, assistance in military planning and diplomatic cover in venues such as the United Nations.

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“UNIFIL has opposed the ultimatum, with Irish peacekeepers vocally rejecting Israeli demands to abandon their observation post..”

• Imperial Israel (Miles)

Relations between Israel and the United Nations have reached a nadir as Tel Aviv has urged UNIFIL to “relocate” some of its 10,000 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. Emboldened by the uncritical backing of the United States, Israel is ramping up its military operation in southern Lebanon – bringing it into confrontation with United Nations peacekeeping forces. Tel Aviv once again came into confrontation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, on Friday, striking the organization’s headquarters and injuring two peacekeepers during a morning attack. Israeli forces struck the same installation the day before, also injuring two. “You will have seen that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) issued a statement this morning saying that two of its peacekeepers were injured after an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall,” stated the spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres after the first attack Thursday.

“The injuries are fortunately – this time – not serious, but the peacekeepers remain in the hospital.” The comments came before a briefing by Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Nestor Owomuhangi on the impact of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza on women and girls. The attacks drew condemnation in the form of a statement released by France, Italy and Spain – which have become increasingly critical of Israeli actions in recent months – as well as unsympathetic coverage in conservative-leaning news outlets like the UK-based Daily Mail. The joint statement expressed “outrage” over Israel’s “unjustified attack,” accusing the country of failure to uphold its obligations under international law by striking UN peacekeeping forces. The three countries called for a ceasefire.

Relations between Israel and the United Nations have reached a nadir as Tel Aviv has urged UNFIL to “relocate” some of its 10,000 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. UNFIL has opposed the ultimatum, with Irish peacekeepers vocally rejecting Israeli demands to abandon their observation post as Israel attempts to press forward with their invasion. The incident led to violent rhetoric from Israelis and their apologists on social media, with former White House advisor Matthew RJ Brodsky calling on Tel Aviv to “drop napalm” on the nonviolent Irish peacekeeping force. The comments led to a rare suspension of a pro-Israel account on the X social media platform and forced Brodsky to resign his current position advising a Republican congressional candidate. Ireland has long been one of the most stalwart defenders of the Palestinian cause in Europe, with activists and politicians in the country frequently comparing the plight of the displaced people to that of Irish resistance fighters during the country’s occupation by the UK.

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“..every two sentences, Uzi would interrupt: “No, no, we’ve got to kill them all”. And other people, members of the Institute, were also just talking continually about killing Arabs..”

• Israel Does What It Does; It Was Always Planned This Way (Alastair Crooke)

With the assassination of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah and a number of the Hizbullah senior leadership in Beirut – expressly without prior warning being given to the Pentagon – Netanyahu fired the start gun on an implicit Israeli widening of war to – using Israel’s term – the ‘octopus’ tentacles’: Hizbullah in Lebanon; Ansarullah in Yemen; the Syrian government and the Iraqi Hash’ad A-Shaabi forces. Well, after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh and part of Hizbullah’s leadership cadre (including a senior Iranian general), Iran – demonised as the ‘octopus head’ – entered the conflict with a volley of missiles that targeted airfields, military bases and the Mossad HQ – but intentionally caused no deaths. Israel thus made the U.S. (and most of Europe) partners or accomplices to a war now definitively cast as neo-imperialism versus the whole of the non-West. Palestinians – the global icons of the aspiration for national liberation – were to be annihilated from historic Palestine.

Further, the bombing in Beirut, and Iran’s riposte to it, now ranges Israel backed and materially supported by the U.S. vs Iran, backed and materially supported by Russia. Israel, the military correspondent of Yedioth Ahronoth warns, ‘must go crazy and strike Iran – because striking Iran “will end the current war”’. Plainly, it marks the end to ‘playing nice’ – of incrementally escalating, one calculated step after another – as if playing chess with an opponent who calculates similarly. Both now threaten to take a hammer to the chess board. ‘Chess is over’. It seems that Moscow too, understands that ‘chess’ simply cannot be played when the opponent is no ‘adult’, but a reckless sociopath ready to sweep away the board – to gamble all on an ephemeral ‘great victory’ move. Looked at dispassionately, either the Israelis are inviting their own demise by over-extending across seven fronts. Or their hope lies with invoking the threat of their demise as the means to bring in the United States.

As with Zelensky in Ukraine, there is ‘no hope’ unless the U.S. adds its fire-power decisively – both Netanyahu and Zelensky assume. So, in West Asia the U.S. is now supporting, no less, than a war against humanity per se, and against the world. This clearly cannot be in America’s self-interest. Do its power-broker Panjandrums realise the possible consequences for it to stand against the World in an act of gross immorality? Netanyahu is betting his house – and now the West’s – on the outcome of his roulette table ‘bet’. Is there a sense amongst the Panjandrums that the U.S. is betting on the wrong horse? Whilst it seems there are some contrarians placed at a high level in the U.S. military who do have reservations – as in every ‘war game’ the U.S. loses in the Near East – their voices are few. The wider political class clamours for revenge on Iran.

The dilemma of why there are so few opposing voices in Washington has been addressed and explained by Professor Michael Hudson. Hudson explains that matters are not so simple; that context is missing. “Everything that’s happened today was planned out just 50 years ago, back in 1974 and 1973. “I worked at the Hudson Institute for about five years, 1972 to ‘76. I sat in on meetings with Uzi Arad, who became Netanyahu’s chief military advisor after heading Mossad. I worked very closely with Uzi there … I want to describe how the whole strategy that led to the United States today, not wanting peace, but wanting Israel to take over the whole Near East, took shape gradually. “On one occasion, I brought my mentor, Terrence McCarthy, to the Hudson Institute, to talk about the Islamic worldview, and every two sentences, Uzi would interrupt: “No, no, we’ve got to kill them all”. And other people, members of the Institute, were also just talking continually about killing Arabs”.

The strategy of using Israel as the regional battering ram to achieve U.S. (imperial) objectives was worked out essentially in the 1960s by Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson. Jackson was nicknamed ‘the Senator from Boeing’ for his support for the military-industrial complex. And the military-industrial complex backed him to become chair of the Democratic National Committee. He was too twice an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 1972 and 1976 Presidential elections. Well, he was backed by Herman Kahn too, who became the key strategist for U.S. hegemony in the Hudson Institute.

Initially, Israel didn’t really play a role in the U.S. plan; Jackson (of Norwegian descent) simply hated communism, he hated the Russians, and had a lot of support within the Democratic Party. But when all of this strategy was being put together, Herman Khan’s great achievement was to convince the U.S. Empire builders that the key to achieving their control in the Middle East was to rely on Israel as its foreign legion. And that arms-length arrangement enabled the U.S. to play the role, Hudson says, of the ‘good cop’, whilst designating Israel to play its role as ruthless proxy. And that’s why the State Department turned over management of U.S. diplomacy to Zionists – to separate and distinguish Israeli behaviour from the claimed probity of U.S. imperialism.

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That can only be Russia..

• Germany Is Committing ‘Economic Suicide’ – Who’s To Blame? (Amar)

Robert Habeck, Germany’s Green minister of the economy, has just had to lower his growth prognosis for 2024 as a whole. So much, in fact, that, instead of the minuscule increase of 0.3% – yes, you read that right: that’s what’s considered good news now in Germany, if it happens, which it does not – the country is looking at a minus of 0.2%. Germany’s economy is not merely stagnant, it is shrinking. When Berlin was still dreaming about that lavish 0.3% growth that is not actually happening, government representatives were speaking of a turning point. Well, there has been a turn alright, another one for the worse. What makes this much worse is that it is not an outlier event or a temporary phenomenon but the new, miserable German normal. Or, as German economists put it, their country is stuck in a “deep structural crisis.” Even the staunchly NATO-philic and Russophobic Economist came to the same conclusions last summer already. Asking (rhetorically) if Germany was “the sick man of Europe,” the journal found that, since 2018, Berlin has been presiding over an economic “laggard.” Before that, Germany was doing quite well.

After the mid-2000s, its economy had grown – cumulatively – by 24%, while Britain added 22% and France only 18%. But, as of last year, the IMF predicted German cumulative growth of only 8% for the period of 2019 to 2029, while it forecast 15% for the Netherlands and 17% for the US. And the way things are going, the IMF may well have been too optimistic. Germany’s deep economic crisis has many causes. They include an aging population; weak digitalization; a surfeit of bureaucracy (but then that has always been the case); corporate taxes that some consider too high (but then someone will always complain about taxes); the country’s failure to overcome the Covid shock more quickly; the massively deteriorating relationship with China, a key market for Germany in general and an indispensable factor in the making of the “good times” before 2018; Germany’s dependency on global supply chains and markets beyond China, which means it is hard hit by the current fracturing of the globalized economy; the insane decision to abandon nuclear energy and, linked to that, the failure of a perfectly messed-up “green transition.”

Yet only the lazy assemble a grab-bag of causal factors and end their analysis with a simple “all of the above.” To do better requires, as a minimum, identifying the most crucial factors. There can be no doubt that two of them are geopolitical: the disruption of the relationship with China and the fact that energy is too expensive, that is more expensive than in many competitor economies. As German experts are acknowledging, this makes producing in Germany “persistently less attractive” than other locations. Put simply, it does not pay any longer to make stuff in Germany. And the reason for that economically lethal state of affairs is well known, even if German politicians and mainstream media won’t admit it: Berlin has cut its economy off from inexpensive Russian gas and oil. And we need to stress the word “inexpensive” because Germans do, of course, still use both. Only they buy them from intermediaries, so they are now expensive.

None of this had to happen. As late as at the beginning of 2022, Berlin could have chosen to promote a reasonable compromise between Russia and the West, which was what was really at stake in the crisis over Ukraine. Back then, especially together with France, Germany could still have charted a course sufficiently independent of the hardliners in the US, with their warmongering camp followers in Eastern Europe and Britain. Berlin could have stopped the insane drive to all-out proxy war in the delusional pursuit of a “strategic defeat” for Russia. If Germany had done so, Ukraine would be much better off, and so would the whole of the EU and Germany as well. All that, however, is water under the bridge. The question now is whether things can be repaired again. There is no reason, unfortunately, for optimism, at least not before fundamental changes in German politics. Under the current government, in any case, it is certain that things will only get worse, because its members display zero interest in even understanding, far less in correcting their mistakes.

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“The UK is suffering the worst decline in living standards of any G7 country..”

• UK Police Officers Resigning in Droves as Country Roiled by Protest (Miles)

Two months after massive anti-immigrant protests made global headlines, new data reveals UK police officers are leaving the profession in record numbers. The Police Federation of England and Wales, a labor organization representing British public security officers, sounded the alarm Sunday, airing its concerns in The Daily Telegraph. “Labour’s plans to put more bobbies on the beat are set to fail because record numbers of officers are quitting or planning to leave,” the newspaper reported, questioning whether new UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would be able to fulfill a key plank of his party’s most recent platform. “Home Office figures show that police officers voluntarily leaving the service has hit a record high of more than 5,000, or 3.4 per cent of the workforce,” the broadsheet continued. “This is more than double the rate four years ago. The federation’s survey of its 145,000 members found that one in five said they were planning to leave the service within the next two years or as soon as possible.”

Starmer’s promise to expand policing comes as rates of crime have risen in the country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Recent data revealed shoplifting has increased by 30% over the last year, continuing a trend observed after stringent lockdowns in the country in 2020. High-profile incidents of “antisocial behavior” such as harassment and vandalism have also made headlines. In late July and early August, the UK was rocked by major anti-immigration demonstrations, culminating in one instance in rioters setting fire to a hotel believed to be housing migrants. The incident resulted in massive counter-demonstrations soon after, in which some confrontations between protesters on both sides of the issue were observed. UK officials baselessly accused Moscow of fomenting the demonstrations via the propagation of “fake news” online, a claim rejected by Russian officials.

Tiff Lynch, the Police Federation’s deputy national chair, blamed meager pay increases for officers’ decision to leave the profession. Police officers’ pay recently received an increase of only 4.75%, Lynch noted, while other public workers received an increase of 5 to 6 percent. Police have endured a pay cut of almost 20% in real terms since 2010, she claimed. The UK has enforced harsh austerity measures since then, which observers have claimed led to a significant decline in living standards. One study asserted that British citizens have lost a half year in life expectancy as a result of the decrease in social spending.

“The UK is suffering the worst decline in living standards of any G7 country,” the British Trades Union Congress claimed recently. “Contraction in UK household budgets is going to get worse – despite falling inflation. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that real house disposable income per head in Britain will fall by an additional 3.4% by the end of the first quarter of 2024. The UK seems set for ongoing political turmoil as well, despite electing a new leader only three months ago. Recent polling reveals new Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s approval rating stands at only 26%. The new head of state has made military assistance to Israel and Ukraine a priority, despite opposition from growing segments of the British public.

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“If there is no political agreement… there Ukraine will suffer a military defeat..”

• Ukraine’s Battlefield Situation ‘Critical’ – ex-NATO Official (RT)

Ukraine will soon have to abandon the key Donbass city of Pokrovsk as its defenses slowly crumble under Russian attacks, General Harald Kujat, a former chief of staff of the German armed forces and chairman of the NATO Military Committee, believes. In an interview with journalist and podcaster Flavio von Witzleben on Sunday, Kujat, who chaired the NATO Military Committee between 2002 and 2005, suggested that Ukraine’s plan to divert Russian units away from Donbass via its Kursk incursion has failed because Russia has not had to curtail its offensive in the region. “Ukraine originally intended… that the Russians would pull combat troops back [to Kursk Region], but this has now turned out to be to its own detriment because the Russians are now tying up the urgently needed Ukrainian reserves that are now missing in Donbass,” he said, describing the Kursk offensive as an “all-in action.”

As a result, Russia is slowly advancing in Donbass at a pace consistent with the desire to minimize losses, Kujat believes. Russia has made gains near Pokrovsk, Kujat noted, describing the city, located some 50km northwest of Donetsk, as “of crucial importance” due to its logistical significance. “Ukraine is still holding its position but it is only a matter of time before this city falls… The situation of the Ukrainian armed forces is critical and it is becoming more and more critical day by day and this is despite the massive material and financial support from the West,” he said. In light of this, the conflict is on a “downward trend” for Ukraine, Kujat said, adding that this trajectory has clearly accelerated. “If there is no political agreement… there Ukraine will suffer a military defeat,” the general projected.

As fighting rages on the outskirts of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly described the situation there as “difficult.” Several Western media outlets have also warned that the loss of Pokrovsk will not only hamper the Ukrainian military’s logistics in Donbass, but will also deal a severe blow to the country’s economy, as the area serves as a key source of coal for its steel and iron industries. The Russian military has been making gains in Donbass in recent weeks, liberating dozens of settlements, including the key stronghold of Ugledar in the southern section of the front. Both Donetsk and Lugansk Regions in Donbass overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in referendums in the autumn of 2022, along with two other former Ukrainian territories.

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