Jul 112025
 


Pablo Picasso Female bust 1943

 

Trump To Send $300 Million Worth Of Weapons To Ukraine – Reuters (RT)
NATO Will Pay for US Weapons Designed to Be Supplied to Ukraine – Trump (Sp.)
US Lacks Interest in Boosting Aid to Ukraine – Jeffrey Sachs (Sp.)
Ukraine and EU ‘Already Lost’ [to Russia] – Orban (RT)
Alan Dershowitz Says He Knows Who’s On The Epstein List (ZH)
Will Pam Bondi Get Axed After the Epstein Debacle? (Margolis)
Trump and Musk Allies Fight For Control of DOGE – WSJ (RT)
Kiriakou: How Intelligence Agencies Gather Blackmail on Politicians (ZH)
Von der Leyen Survives No-Confidence Vote, Dissent Surprises Brussels (TASS)
EU Will Soon Collapse Without Russian Resources – MEP (RT)
Everybody Loves Marco (PJM)
America’s Cops Are Finally Safer. Can You Guess the Reason Why? (Margolis)
Globalism Destroyed American Jobs (Paul Craig Roberts)
Most US Law Enforcement Funds Are Going To Immigration & Border (ZH)
Did Joe Biden’s Doctor Just Confirm a Cover-Up of His Health? (Margolis)
Greece Suspends Asylum Applications For Arrivals From North Africa (RT)
What Just Happened In Rio Should Terrify The West (Ibragimov)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1942986868989055479

bannon
https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/1942959341415575610

Glenn

Bird flu

 

 

 

 

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a longtime skeptic of expanded aid to Kiev, reportedly ordered the pause without consulting Trump..”

Trump To Send $300 Million Worth Of Weapons To Ukraine – Reuters (RT)

US President Donald Trump will for the first time use his authority to send weapons drawn from Pentagon stockpiles directly to Ukraine, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the decision. While the Trump administration has so far only delivered weapons approved under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) allows Trump to supply arms to Ukraine in an emergency. The new shipment could reportedly be worth around $300 million and may include Patriot surface-to-air missiles as well as medium-range rockets. The move would mark a reversal of the Pentagon’s recent decision to halt some deliveries over concerns about depleting domestic stockpiles.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a longtime skeptic of expanded aid to Kiev, reportedly ordered the pause without consulting Trump. The president confirmed earlier this week that he would send additional arms to Ukraine, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio later told reporters that the pause “unfortunately was mischaracterized.” During his election campaign, Trump criticized Biden’s unconditional aid to Kiev and called Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “the greatest salesman on Earth” for persuading Democrats to keep weapons flowing.

Weapons supplies remain critical, as Ukrainian forces continue to lose ground to Russia and face increasing difficulties replenishing their ranks with new conscripts. Moscow has maintained that foreign arms will not prevent it from achieving its objectives. Last month, President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Russia considers Western countries supplying weapons to Ukraine as “de facto direct participants in the conflict.”

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It’s nothing personal, it’s strictly buiness.

NATO Will Pay for US Weapons Designed to Be Supplied to Ukraine – Trump (Sp.)

US President Donald Trump said NATO, whose member Washington is, will pay for American weapons that the alliance will subsequently supply to Ukraine. “We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%. So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons,” Trump told NBC News. He said the agreement was reached at a NATO summit in June. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz previously announced his readiness to purchase Patriot missile systems from the United States for their transfer to Ukraine. He discussed it with Trump, but there is no final decision yet.

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“The American people, including Trump’s voter base, have no interest in this war. This was, and remains, a Deep State project..”

US Lacks Interest in Boosting Aid to Ukraine – Jeffrey Sachs (Sp.)

The US will not significantly increase arms supplies or financing to Ukraine, because American society, including voters of US President Donald Trump, are not interested in this war, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Sputnik. “Still I do not believe that the US will significantly expand its role in supplying arms or financing Ukraine. The American people, including Trump’s voter base, have no interest in this war. This was, and remains, a Deep State project,” a well-known American economist said.

Trump announced his intention to supply the Kiev regime with “some more weapons” on Monday, but did not clarify the specific types of military aid his administration plans to send or whether Patriot missiles demanded by Ukraine would be included. Axios reported earlier on Tuesday that Trump had promised to immediately send 10 Patriot interceptor missiles to Kiev and provide assistance in finding other means of military supplies.

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“..there will come a bitter moment when European leaders – apart from us and the Slovaks – will have to admit that they followed a mistaken strategy and were therefore defeated in this war.”

Ukraine and EU ‘Already Lost’ [to Russia] – Orban (RT)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said both Ukraine and the EU have already lost the conflict with Russia in an interview with the YouTube channel Patriota, which was posted on Wednesday. He argued that the war cannot be won on the battlefield and should be resolved through diplomacy. The Hungarian leader suggested that “there will come a bitter moment when European leaders – apart from us and the Slovaks – will have to admit that they followed a mistaken strategy and were therefore defeated in this war.” “I believe the EU has already lost the war. Ukraine is holding on – although it’s retreating – but I think Ukraine has also lost,” Orban said. The Hungarian leader did not specify what specific strategy he was referring to, but his government has consistently opposed EU sanctions targeting Russia and refused to send weapons to Kiev.

Budapest has instead called for negotiations to find a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. Orban stressed that resolving the Ukraine conflict on the battlefield is “impossible” and insisted that it can only be ended through diplomacy, which would also help reduce, or completely prevent, further casualties. He added that the EU should never have entered this path and that it is now crucial to “slow down, stop, thank the generals for their service, bring back the diplomats and foreign ministers, and begin working toward peace.” Orban’s comments come as key EU powers have continued to advocate continued military support for Ukraine. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested on Wednesday that diplomacy has been “exhausted” and vowed to keep sending arms to Kiev.

France’s defense minister has also called the demilitarization of Ukraine – one of Russia’s key demands – a “red line,” arguing that Kiev must retain a standing army if it ends up being denied NATO membership. However, other leaders have voiced skepticism. Czech President Petr Pavel, a pro-Russia hardliner, recently said the EU must reconsider its Russia strategy, warning that fighting Moscow “endlessly” would lead to massive casualties and economic damage to both Ukraine and the EU. Russia has repeatedly denounced Western military backing for Ukraine, saying it only prolongs the war. President Vladimir Putin have also described Europe’s sanctions and attempts to phase out Russian energy as “economic suicide.”

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“..I’m bound by confidentiality from a judge and cases, and I can’t disclose what I know..”

Alan Dershowitz Says He Knows Who’s On The Epstein List (ZH)

Two days after the FBI leaked a memo to Axios revealing that the Epstein case is effectively ‘closed’ (he killed himself and there’s no ‘list’ of clients) – former Epstein attorney and associate Alan Dershowitz says he knows exactly who’s on the ‘Epstein list,’ and why it’s being suppressed from the public. “I have seen – remember I was accused falsely,” Dershowitz said on the Sean Spicer show. “Let me tell you, I know for a fact documents are being suppressed. And they’re being suppressed to protect the individuals. I know the names of the individuals. I know why they’re being suppressed. I know who’s suppressing them. But I’m bound by confidentiality from a judge and cases, and I can’t disclose what I know. But I – hand to God, I know the names of people whose files are being suppressed in order to protect them, and that’s wrong.”

SPICER: Just out of curiosity without names, are these poiticians, business leaders, both?
DERSHOWITZ: They’re everything, and look – let me tell you… a lot of them are – at least one of them is somebody who was accused. Others are accusers, and the judges have said – if somebody calls themselves a victim, we’re not going to give any information about them – but they may not be victims, they may be perpetrators. So we don’t have information about false accusers. We know there have been many false accusers who have accused innocent people for money, and those records are being deliberately, willfully suppressed – and they shouldn’t be suppressed. If the accusation is allowed out, so should the material that diminishes the credibility of the accuser. We want total transparency on this. Every single document. No redactions. That’s what I’ve said from day one… I waive any of my rights to privacy, anything there is about me, I’m happy because it will be exculpatory.”

On Wednesday, President Trump and AG Pam Bondi completely botched a reporter’s question over Epstein – with Trump lashing out, saying “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Then Bondi jumped in – saying “First, to back up on that. In February, I did an interview on Fox and it’s been getting a lot of attention because I was asked a question about the client list. And my response was ‘it’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed,’ meaning the file – along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That’s what I meant by that. Also to the tens of thousands of video – they turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein. Child porn is what they were. Never gonna be released. Never gonna see the light of day. To him being an agent; I have no knowledge of that. We can get back to you on that.”

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“Bondi, she argues, either “willingly humiliated some of the president’s most loyal supporters” or is simply “lazy and incompetent.”

Will Pam Bondi Get Axed After the Epstein Debacle? (Margolis)

Is Pam Bondi’s tenure as President Trump’s attorney general hanging by a thread? Megyn Kelly thinks so. According to her, the Epstein debacle has exposed a level of incompetence and political tone-deafness that even the most loyal Trump supporters can’t ignore. In her recent analysis, Kelly didn’t pull any punches about Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files. She called out Bondi’s performance as not just a misstep, but a full-blown embarrassment — one that may have sealed her fate in the Trump administration. Bondi, she argues, either “willingly humiliated some of the president’s most loyal supporters” or is simply “lazy and incompetent.” There’s no sugarcoating here. Kelly points to Bondi’s much-hyped promise to deliver the Epstein “client list,” only for Bondi to produce a pile of nothing: recycled, publicly available documents masquerading as bombshells.

For a base hungry for accountability and truth, this was a slap in the face. Kelly’s words cut to the heart of the matter: “If you’re going to make a spectacle out of finally revealing the Epstein files, you’d better have the goods. Pam Bondi didn’t.” Instead, Bondi delivered nothing new, just a parade of letdowns that left Trump supporters feeling duped and insulted. Kelly’s assessment is that Bondi’s actions were not just a failure; they were a betrayal of trust. And when Bondi tried to shift the blame, Kelly wasn’t buying it. Bondi’s excuse that the FBI gave her the wrong documents only made things worse. Kelly zeroed in on the lack of follow-through: promises of further revelations that never materialized and wild, unsubstantiated claims about “tens of thousands of kiddy porn or child pornography material” that only muddied the waters.

Kelly harshly criticized Bondi for briefing pro-Trump influencers with a binder full of what turned out to be old, recycled information. She accused Bondi of either being too lazy to vet the material or deliberately setting up the president’s allies — like Kash Patel and the vice president — for embarrassment. Either way, she argued, it reflects badly on Bondi. “So she’s either lazy and incompetent, or she willingly humiliated some of the president’s most loyal supporters. Neither one of those is good,” Kelly said. “And that’s why, I’m sorry, but I’m going to predict her days are numbered as a member of the Trump administration. You know, Trump, he’s not dumb. But I just don’t think, I don’t think Trump created this.”

Perhaps even more telling was the way that Trump, always quick to reward loyalty and results, conspicuously left Bondi out of his praise in a recent post on Truth Social: The FBI, under the direction of Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, is back to the basics: Locking up criminals, and cleaning up America’s streets. We have the Greatest Law Enforcement professionals in the World, but “Politics” and Corrupt Leadership often prevented them from doing their job. That is no longer the case, and now, they have been unleashed to do their jobs, and they are doing just that. Keep it up — MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN! In Trump’s world, omission is often the loudest condemnation. As Kelly sees it, unless Bondi can pull off a miracle, she’s finished. And she may have a point.

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“DOGE staffers are being questioned in closed-door meetings about whether they support President Donald Trump or Musk..”

Trump and Musk Allies Fight For Control of DOGE – WSJ (RT)

A power struggle is underway at the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), The Wall Street Journal has claimed. Allies of Elon Musk are reportedly trying to retain influence as the White House moves to scale back the agency’s power. Current and former officials told the outlet that DOGE staffers are being questioned in closed-door meetings about whether they support President Donald Trump or Musk, the tech billionaire who led the department until last month. Musk quit as the head of DOGE amid disagreements with Trump over a sweeping tax and spending package called the Big Beautiful Bill, which included a $5 trillion debt ceiling hike. He criticized the legislation as undercutting DOGE’s mission to reduce federal spending.

Tension and paranoia have reportedly taken hold inside DOGE’s shrinking ranks. White House officials are now said to be working to limit the department’s influence. Despite resigning, Musk’s influence reportedly persists through Steve Davis, a longtime aide who left his government post in May. Davis has continued to interact with DOGE staff, and according to some insiders, still issues guidance. In private conversations, he has supposedly even claimed his departure was “fake news.” A DOGE official close to Musk, however, said Davis’ contact with staff is informal. Some in DOGE say Musk loyalists are pushing for a reboot under as DOGE 2.0, with a focus on modernizing government websites and IT systems rather than downsizing staff.

Others, including White House officials, suspect Musk and Davis are leveraging government ties for private business interests. WSJ noted that the struggle poses political risks for Musk, whose companies Tesla and SpaceX rely on federal contracts and are currently facing financial pressure. Last week, Trump escalated the feud, telling reporters: “We might have to put DOGE on Elon… DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.” On July 5, Musk announced the launch of the America Party, which he says will break the two-party system and win enough Congressional seats to gain leverage.

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“That, he says, is EXACTLY what Epstein was to intelligence agencies: someone with access (like the copy machine repairman) who quietly delivered leverage on the world’s elite.”

Kiriakou: How Intelligence Agencies Gather Blackmail on Politicians (ZH)

You’ll see how this connects to Epstein. John Kiriakou reveals his superior got a promotion and a medal when he recruited a copy machine repairman. At first, Kiriakou laughed, but then he realized the brilliance of the plan when he learned that the repairman secretly sent every document from a prime minister’s office straight to the CIA. How did he do it? By planting a tiny device on the copy machine. “He [my trainer] said, all of us want to recruit the prime minister. We’re not going to recruit the prime minister. We’re not even going to have access to the prime minister. But the prime minister’s got a copy machine in his office. “And every once in a while, that machine is going to need to be cleaned and serviced.

So you recruit the copy machine repairman. And when he goes in there to make his repair or to clean the drums or whatever, he installs a little device that we give him so that every time somebody makes a copy, it transmits a copy back to the CIA.” What happened next? He said, “I got a promotion. I got a medal. I got a photo op with the director. It made my career…” Because this flow of information was pure leverage for the CIA:

“You know what they’re thinking. You know their next move. You know who their enemies are and who their allies are. Maybe it’s their position on trade negotiations. Maybe the prime minister has a health problem you need to plan for. You never know what might come through,” Kiriakou explained.“That ONE critical nugget is all it takes.” That, he says, is EXACTLY what Epstein was to intelligence agencies: someone with access (like the copy machine repairman) who quietly delivered leverage on the world’s elite.

https://twitter.com/JohnMcCloy/status/1942990582466437625

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30% dissent is a lot.

Von der Leyen Survives No-Confidence Vote, Dissent Surprises Brussels (TASS)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suspects certain “external forces” are trying to divide the EU, but her narrow escape in today’s no confidence vote shows that the problems may be internal. “As external forces seek to destabilize and divide us, it is our duty to respond in line with our values. Thank you, and long live Europe,” von der Leyen wrote on X. The European Union “needs strength, vision, and the capacity to act,” she argued. Earlier, a diplomat in Brussels told TASS that the results of the no-confidence vote on the EU chief “sent shockwaves through Brussels.” Even supporters of the motion expected some 15% to 20% of members to support the move, and “the share of those dissatisfied with the work of the European Commission exceeded these expectations,” he said.

The diplomat also opined that the vote “will not affect the political course being pursued by the European Commission.” According to him, next, the EC “will probably launch a large-scale media campaign for damage control, one that is likely to attribute the discontent with how the European Commission runs things to external forces,” he explained. Von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament at a plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday. The vote followed allegations of corruption and misconduct in the EU’s procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. Out of 553 MEPs who showed up to cast a ballot, 360 voted to reject the motion, with 175 in favor and 18 abstaining.

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”[Von der Leyen], you will destroy the EU, and I am convinced that the EU will soon collapse because you are doing everything to make it happen..”

EU Will Soon Collapse Without Russian Resources – MEP (RT)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is leading the EU down a path of self-destruction by attempting to sever energy ties with Russia, Slovak MEP Milan Uhrik has said. In May, von der Leyen unveiled a plan to phase out all Russian oil and gas imports by the end of 2027, as part of the EU’s REPowerEU roadmap, which aims to eliminate the bloc’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and shift to renewable sources. ”[Von der Leyen], you will destroy the EU, and I am convinced that the EU will soon collapse because you are doing everything to make it happen,” Uhrik said in a speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday. Moscow has argued that EU restrictions are self-defeating, causing surging energy prices and weakening the bloc’s economy. Since 2022, Germany has fallen into recession, while growth across the EU has stagnated.

Brussels is also discussing an 18th sanctions package targeting Russia’s energy and financial sectors. The proposal stalled after Slovakia vetoed it last week. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico argued that Slovakia was “fighting for our households and businesses” against “harmful ideological decisions” from Brussels. Neighboring Hungary also blocked the measure, warning it would cripple its energy security and spike prices. Uhrik stressed that Russian hydrocarbons remain vital for Slovakia’s industrial base. “Without them, our industry would either not function or would not be competitive,” he said. He urged fellow Slovak politician Maros Sefcovic, currently the EU’s commissioner for trade and economic security, to “stand up for Slovakia” on the issue.

Uhrik also took aim at NATO’s proposal to raise member states’ defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. “No, thank you – that’s enough. We just don’t want this,” he said, adding that Slovaks did not envision such a future when they joined the EU.Von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday over her handling of COVID-19 vaccine procurement. The politician previously dismissed her critics as “conspiracy theorists” acting in the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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“In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said that “I never was very, let’s say, approving of Marco because he was kind of a neocon war hawk and now he’s had this incredible transformation.”

Everybody Loves Marco (PJM)

Marco Rubio may just be the most popular guy in Donald Trump’s Cabinet right now. It’s not just me saying that; the rest of the administration seems to think so, too. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles appeared on the “Pod Force Once” podcast with Miranda Devine on Wednesday, and she had what the New York Post called a “glowing endorsement” for the Secretary of State. Wiles said she often sits in Cabinet meetings and marvels at the “energetic” team Trump has put together: “But I was sitting in a Cabinet meeting one day, and they do tend to go on a while , and so I was jotting down in my notebook the, you know, how I saw the Cabinet — and these numbers are wrong, but order of magnitude correct — five published authors, seven billionaires, 11 lawyers, a couple of minorities, a Democrat or two. It is an amazing group of people that he put together.”

She singled out several people, but she seemed especially proud of Rubio. “Marco Rubio was born for this,” she said, adding that he had “quickly assimilated… in his NSC position.” She’s not the only person I’ve noticed praising the man who, once upon a time, wasn’t all that beloved by Trump and his MAGA base. In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said that “I never was very, let’s say, approving of Marco because he was kind of a neocon war hawk and now he’s had this incredible transformation.” Today, the Health and Human Services secretary says he and Rubio are aligned on most things. He also pointed out that Rubio may be the funniest man in the Cabinet. “He says things that make people belly laugh every cabinet meeting,” he told Carlson.

Vice President JD Vance told Fox News last month that Rubio was probably his “best friend in the administration” and said they hang out all the time (to be a fly on the wall for those conversations). The president himself has even said he sees Rubio as the next potential leader of the MAGA movement. Back in May, when Trump appeared on “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker asked him, “When you look to the future, Mr. President, do you think the MAGA movement can survive without you as its leader?” “I think we have a tremendous group of people,” the president responded. “We talked about a number of them. You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who’s fantastic.”

I always thought it was interesting that he mentioned Rubio first in that interview. But, as the Post points out, numerous polls show that Vance has a strong lead over Rubio, and, in some cases, even Ron DeSantis beats him when people are asked who they’d like to have as president in 2028. Trump also gave the Secretary a nice compliment during the NATO Summit a couple of weeks ago. After Rubio fired off at the media, setting the record straight on whether or not Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been set back significantly, the president said, “You know what Marco reminded me — he did such a nice job there — it was nine years ago I had to debate this guy. It was not easy. I think he even got better. But when you were into your little thing, I said this is what I had to debate this guy.”

I’d also like to mention that anytime I write about Rubio — and I do often — I get a pretty big stream of feedback from y’all suggesting that he would make a great contender for 2028 for president or vice president for Vance. I see it on X, too. For what it’s worth, earlier today, I was going through my own X/Twitter archives looking for something completely unrelated and realized I was pushing for a Rubio for president long before it was cool. I have receipts that go as far back as 2010.

Of course, a lot can change between now and then, and I hate when we get too ahead of ourselves in politics — it’s like putting out Christmas decorations in stores in August — but there is no denying that Rubio is Trump and the GOP’s star at the moment. He’s won over the hearts and minds of much of Trump’s base, and he knows how to work the swamp. He’s great on domestic policy, and he’s even better on foreign policy. With few exceptions, leaders around the world respect him and consider him a friend. They want to work with him. And assuming nothing changes, he’ll have Trump’s backing.

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“A new report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reveals a staggering 53% drop in officer fatalities..”

America’s Cops Are Finally Safer. Can You Guess the Reason Why? (Margolis)

There’s a new reality unfolding across America, and it should give every law-abiding citizen a reason to breathe a little easier: police officers are safer on the job today than they were in recent years, and the Donald Trump presidency deserves the credit. Under Joe Biden (and Barack Obama), the men and women who wear the badge have been under siege—not just by criminals, but by a relentless anti-police movement fueled by the radical Left and amplified by their allies in the media and the Democratic Party. The “Defund the Police” crowd, with progressive politicians and activists cheering it on, did everything in its power to demonize law enforcement and turn public sentiment against those who risk their lives to keep our communities safe.

The deaths of Michael Brown and George Floyd were weaponized to push a narrative that painted every cop as a racist villain and every police department as a threat. But Americans had had enough. They saw the chaos, the rising crime, the lawlessness that swept through cities where leftist policies were given free rein. They understood that a society without respect for law enforcement is a society teetering on the brink. That’s why, when the time came, voters sent a message: they wanted law and order restored, and they wanted a president who would stand with the police, not against them.

Since President Trump’s return to the White House, the numbers speak for themselves. A new report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reveals a staggering 53% drop in officer fatalities compared to the previous year. Traffic-related deaths have been cut in half. Deaths from assaults, stabbings, and other causes have plummeted. For the first time in more than half a century, the nation is on pace for fewer than 100 line-of-duty deaths by year’s end.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s the direct result of a cultural shift away from the anti-police hysteria that defined the Left’s agenda. Under Trump, the message from the top is that our police are heroes, not villains. They deserve respect, support, and the resources they need to do their jobs. The days of the White House turning its back on law enforcement are over. The days of criminals being emboldened by soft-on-crime policies are ending. “We as an organization never like to use the words ’good news’ when we’re talking about or reporting on even a single police officer’s death, but I would call this a very welcome and encouraging trend line,” Bill Alexander, the CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, told The Washington Times.

Mr. Alexander said the nation is on pace to see fewer than 100 line-of-duty deaths by the end of this year, which would be a first for the country in the more than 50 years officer deaths have been tracked.The executive credited better law enforcement training for giving officers the tools to defuse tense situations both gracefully and safely. Mr. Alexander also said Mr. Trump’s election last fall marked a culture shift away from the anti-police fervor that was so prominent in the previous five years. “The profession writ large was targeted and demonized to, I might argue, an unfair degree,” the CEO said.

“Across almost every line of communication, whether that was popular media, social media, mainstream media, maybe even to a worrying degree from too many of our elected officials, again, targeting the profession,” Mr. Alexander said. “I think that that was having a really detrimental impact on a number of interactions between the public and law enforcement.” The radical Left won’t admit it, but its anti-cop crusade was a disaster. It endangered officers, emboldened criminals, and left communities less safe. Now, with Trump at the helm, that dangerous experiment is being reversed. The numbers prove it. The streets prove it. And the families of America’s law enforcement officers know it better than anyone. The Trump presidency is saving the lives of law enforcement. That’s a fact the Left can’t spin, and it’s a victory every American should celebrate.

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“Now, you tell me how is America a superpower instead of an emperor without any clothes? Why should anyone be afraid of a country that pays its bills by printing debt instruments?”

Globalism Destroyed American Jobs (Paul Craig Roberts)

For many years I reported monthly on the jobs reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the years the new jobs were consistently in health and social assistance, waitresses and bartenders, and government employment. Manufacturing jobs making things that could be exported to pay for imports simply were not present. I emphasized that the jobs offshoring policy associated with globalism was de-industrializing the United States and destroying the middle class and the ladders of upward mobility that had made America an opportunity society. I held accountable the economic professors at Harvard and Dartmouth who promised that the lost of US manufacturing jobs, which they derided as “dirty fingernail jobs,” would be replaced by higher paid clean fingernail tech jobs. No such jobs ever appeared for the displaced manufacturing work force which has ceased to exist.

Fortunately, the US dollar being the world reserve currency allows the US to pay its bills by printing Treasury bonds. As Treasury bonds are the reserves of most foreign central banks, there has been a constant demand for more reserves. Thus, financing the US debt has been no problem. When US debt grows, so do the reserves of the world’s central banks. No problem. David Stockman in 45 years has been unable to learn this. The problem is internal. Manufacturing jobs are high productivity, high value added. Therefore the wage is high. The replacement jobs–stocking big box store shelves are low productivity. Consequently, the growth of income from wages stagnated and declined. Today American living standards are based more on credit than on productivity. Engineering and design follow manufacturing. When manufacturing leaves, so do engineering and design.

America was the loser. China was the winner. Wall Street forced American manufacturers to offshore their production to China in order to raise profits from lower labor and compliance costs. Wall Street ordered US manufacturers to “meet the Chinese price” or Wall Street would finance takeovers of the companies and move their production offshore. Clearly, Wall Street is an anti-American entity. I remember when Washington’s strategic thinkers said it would be 50 years before China would be a problem for American hegemony. The offshoring of US manufacturing, technology, and business knowhow reduced the time to 5 years. Today on a purchasing parity comparison, the Chinese economy exceeds that of the US. This is what globalism did for America. It made the American economy subordinate to China.

American economists were too well paid by globalists for me to draw them into a debate. Instead, they stayed with their propaganda, and America lost the ladders of upward mobility. To worsen the situation, the Democrats and Republican business interests left the borders open to millions of immigrant invaders who have overwhelmed educational, health, and housing services and driven down wages in the low productivity jobs. Today the profits of fruit and vegetable growers and meat slaughter houses depend on cheap immigrant-invader wages. But this is only the beginning. According to Bloomberg News, Artificial Intelligence will soon eliminate 20-40% of the jobs in America’s largest cities. Robotics are eliminating other low skilled wage jobs. What will America do with a population displaced by the digital revolution and AI?

Civilizational collapse stares us in the face, and not a single media source mentions the fact. Let’s look at June’s jobs report. It is the same as those I reported over many years. Where are the 147,000 jobs? Health care and social assistance provide 58,600 jobs. Leisure and hospitality provide 20,000 jobs. State and local education provide 63,500 jobs. That accounts for June’s new jobs.Clearly this is not a robust economy. Except for the 20,000 leisure and hospitality jobs, most of the rest are financed by government budget. Now, you tell me how is America a superpower instead of an emperor without any clothes? Why should anyone be afraid of a country that pays its bills by printing debt instruments? The reason is that the US has nuclear weapons and is under Israel’s direction. That is sufficient to terrify the world.

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Look at the money you can save if you just leave the border open…

Most US Law Enforcement Funds Are Going To Immigration & Border (ZH)

Two thirds of all federal law enforcement funding in the United States for fiscal year 2025 is going to immigration and border enforcement, according to a CATO Institute analysis of data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Together, immigration and border enforcement will receive more than $33 billion. This includes funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at $19 billion, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at $10 billion, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at $281 million, the Department of Homeland Security’s general offices at $3.2 billion and 20 percent of the Coast Guard’s budget – approximately $2.2 billion. However, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, CATO notes that the actual value is even higher, as the Trump administration is “diverting thousands of agents from other federal law enforcement agencies and much of the military to enforcing immigration and border law.”

According to CATO analysts, the amount spent on immigration and border enforcement agencies is 36 times higher than spending on tax and financial crimes enforcement (IRS-Treasury), 21 times higher than funding for firearms enforcement (ATF), 13 times higher than on drug enforcement (DEA), 10 times higher than spending on the Secret Service and 8 times higher than the FBI budget. These figures are based on current calculations and do not yet reflect the additional increases expected under H.R. 1 – the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The CBP projects that this will direct an extra $168 billion over the coming years to immigration and border enforcement agencies, along with more funding for agencies that indirectly support immigration law enforcement. Unlike normal fiscal year appropriations, H.R. 1 makes these funds available over five years, though they can be accessed for up to 10 years, so long as they are committed by 2029.

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HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is a US federal law that establishes national standards for protecting sensitive patient health information.

Did Joe Biden’s Doctor Just Confirm a Cover-Up of His Health? (Margolis)

In a move that should obliterate whatever remains of the myth of transparency in Washington, Joe Biden’s longtime physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, finally showed up for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee—and proceeded to not answer a single question.n But while O’Connor may have refused to talk, his silence said plenty. According to Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), O’Connor was asked two simple but devastating questions: “Were you ever told to lie about the president’s health?” and “Did you ever believe President Biden was unfit to execute his duties?” O’Connor didn’t say “No,” he pleaded the Fifth both times—choosing constitutional protection over basic accountability.

“This is unprecedented,” Comer said. “And I think that this adds more fuel to the fire that there was a cover-up.” He’s right. When a sitting president’s personal doctor refuses to answer whether he was told to lie to the American people, it’s not just troubling—it’s damning. This isn’t some minor bureaucratic hiccup or a routine legal maneuver—this is the doctor who, for years, stood between the American people and the truth about Joe Biden’s fitness for office. Now, when given the chance to clear the air, he chooses silence. Although O’Connor had previously refused to cooperate, somehow, pleading the Fifth now instead of answering those two questions looks worse. Let’s not pretend this is normal. O’Connor’s refusal to answer even basic questions about Biden’s condition raises the obvious question: What, exactly, is he trying to hide?

Of course, we all know the answer. For years, the Biden White House dismissed legitimate concerns about the president’s health as partisan attacks, hiding behind carefully worded reports from O’Connor. Those glowing annual assessments were the backbone of the cover-up, reassuring the public while Biden visibly declined. Let’s be clear: O’Connor’s refusal to answer questions isn’t about medical ethics—it’s about political damage control. This is the same doctor who repeatedly vouched for Biden’s fitness while the public watched a very different reality unfold. If there’s nothing to hide, why not answer questions? Why invoke your right not to incriminate yourself? Comer said it is “clear there was a conspiracy to cover up” Biden’s cognitive decline.

New York Post: “The only question O’Connor did answer before the deposition concluded was confirming his name, according to an Oversight spokesperson, who pointed out that doctor-patient privilege would have allowed the witness to answer at least some questions. Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as physician to the president during Barack Obama’s first term, agreed with that interpretation. “In my opinion, [the first question] doesn’t involve HIPAA,” Kuhlman told The Post. As for the second question, Kuhlman advised, “I don’t think that’s covered by HIPAA,” because it “doesn’t sound like that’s specific health information that they’re seeking.”

When asked whether he would answer questions under oath that don’t directly relate to a patient’s health, Kuhlman said: “In my role as a physician caring for a patient, I probably would.” Dr. O’Connor’s refusal to answer questions about Biden’s health isn’t just a legal tactic—it’s an admission that there’s something worth hiding. The American people have every right to demand answers. The time for stonewalling is over.

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Is it starting again? Western Crete Coast Guard: 9,000 arrivals so far this year. “..963 arrivals were recorded last Sunday alone, marking a 380% increase in migrant flows compared to the same period last year.”

Greece Suspends Asylum Applications For Arrivals From North Africa (RT)

Greece has suspended the processing of asylum applications from people coming to the country from North Africa for three months, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced, warning that those arriving illegally by boat will be arrested and detained. The temporary measure will allow the government to effectively address the surge in migrant arrivals, the Greek official said in a post on X on Wednesday. “The Greek Government sends a message of determination that the passage from North Africa to Greece is closing… [and] to all traffickers and all their potential customers that the money they spend may be completely wasted, because it will be difficult to reach Greece by sea,” he declared.

The move comes just a day after Libya’s eastern-based government in Benghazi blocked the entry of an EU delegation, including Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Thanos Plevris, who had visited the country for talks on curbing illegal migration. Libya became a key transit point for human trafficking and migration to Europe via the Mediterranean following a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that led to the overthrow and assassination of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Greek officials have reported a sharp rise in migrant arrivals on the southern islands of Crete and Gavdos in recent months, with more than 9,000 people landing there since the beginning of 2025. According to the Greek City Times, Vasilis Katsikandarakis, president of the Western Crete Coast Guard Personnel Union, has stated that 963 arrivals were recorded last Sunday alone, marking a 380% increase in migrant flows compared to the same period last year. “The migration issue is suffocating us,” Katsikandarakis said, claiming that “thousands more are waiting in North Africa.” On Tuesday, EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner, Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, and Maltese Minister for Home Affairs Byron Camilleri met with Libya’s UN-recognized government in Tripoli to discuss efforts to combat illegal migration along the Central Mediterranean route.

Following the meeting, the Tripoli-based administration’s prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, said he had tasked the Interior Ministry with drafting a national migration plan rooted in practical cooperation and a commitment to lasting solutions. The EU officials had been scheduled to hold talks with the rival administration in Benghazi but were declared unwelcome for allegedly violating Libyan laws. The EU has struggled to manage the migration crisis since 2015, with Greece, Italy, and Spain receiving the highest number of arrivals across the Mediterranean. The bloc plans to tie its development aid and trade relations with African nations to their cooperation in curbing small boat departures to Europe, Politico reported Wednesday, citing an internal draft document.

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BRICS.

“..the liberal model of globalization is losing viability as the center of economic and political activity shifts decisively toward the Global South – developing countries with rising demographic, resource, and technological potential.”

What Just Happened In Rio Should Terrify The West (Ibragimov)

A few days ago, the city of Rio de Janeiro hosted the 17th BRICS summit, marking a significant step forward for the organization amid the accelerating transformation of the global political and economic landscape. Represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia played an active role in the summit’s proceedings, while President Vladimir Putin addressed the plenary session via video link. In his remarks, the Russian leader offered a comprehensive analysis of current global trends, emphasizing that the liberal model of globalization is losing viability as the center of economic and political activity shifts decisively toward the Global South – developing countries with rising demographic, resource, and technological potential.

The Rio summit reaffirmed BRICS’ growing political weight and its ambition to become a key force in shaping the emerging multipolar order. High-level meetings drew global attention not only because of their scale but also due to the substantive outcomes they produced. A total of 126 joint commitments were adopted, spanning critical areas such as global governance reform, the restructuring of international financial institutions, healthcare, climate initiatives, artificial intelligence, and sustainable development.

The declaration adopted at the summit, titled ‘Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance’, underscored BRICS’ commitment to multilateralism, respect for international law, and the promotion of a fair and equitable world order. But beyond the formal language, the summit revealed a deeper shift: BRICS is no longer limiting itself to cautious technocratic dialogue. The bloc is increasingly positioning itself as a cohesive international actor – capable of proposing new frameworks for economic integration, political solidarity, and global coordination.

Crucially, this political reorientation did not begin in Rio. It builds directly on the strategic groundwork laid during the 2024 summit in Kazan, Russia – the largest BRICS gathering to date – which brought together not only member states but also dozens of partners under the BRICS+ umbrella. The Kazan summit established a new level of cooperation and ambition, and Rio served as a continuation of that trajectory. It became the arena where aspirations evolved into policy, and where the Global South began to more clearly articulate its place in the world.

Among the most consequential developments at the Rio summit was the firm commitment to advancing financial sovereignty among member states. Particular emphasis was placed on transitioning to transactions in national currencies – a long-standing initiative championed by Russia and several other BRICS countries. The leaders endorsed this direction, recognizing the need to reduce dependence on dominant reserve currencies. President Putin underscored that this was not merely an economic measure, but a geopolitical move aimed at strengthening the sovereignty of participating nations and insulating them from external pressure.

In support of this goal, the summit produced agreements to boost mutual investment volumes and accelerate the development of independent payment and settlement mechanisms. These initiatives are designed to lay the groundwork for a more resilient financial architecture – one that bypasses traditional Western-controlled institutions and empowers countries to determine the terms of their own economic cooperation. Increasingly, BRICS views economic autonomy as a precondition for long-term political independence in a world marked by volatility and polarization.

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https://twitter.com/goddeketal/status/1943302172034166796


https://twitter.com/hvgoenka/status/1942953159682670617

A small court in Holland hosts (the first?) vaccine damage court case.
https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1943353968026923029

math
https://twitter.com/vegastarr/status/1942932500168183925

https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1943458617291870441

 

 

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Oct 102019
 
 October 10, 2019  Posted by at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  13 Responses »


Salvador Dali Grandmother Ana sewing 1920

 

Inside Hunter Biden’s Dealings With Shadowy Foreign Firms (ZH)
Joe Biden ‘Personally Paid $900,000 By Burisma’ – Ukrainian MP (ZH)
An Insult To Real Whistleblowers- Kiriakou (RCP)
Shell To Offset Carbon Emissions For British Fuel Buyers (R.)
Federal Reserve Policymakers Increasingly Divided On Way Ahead (R.)
US Tariffs On China Are Working – Wilbur Ross (R.)
Nearly All Goods Traded By US And China Will Have Tariffs By December 15 (R.)
Chinese Consumers Are On A Worrying Staycation (Lam)
California Set To End Private Prisons And Immigrant Detention Camps (R.)
Owner Of Spanish Security Company That Spied On Assange Arrested (El Pais)
PG&E Power Outage: Lines For Gas, Batteries, Groceries And Generators (LAT)
Seven Latam Nations Suggest Maduro Behind Unrest In Ecuador (R.)
For The First Time Ever, Greece Issues Negative Yielding Debt (ZH)

 

 

I’ve been in a Not The Onion mode all day. It started off with reading that Shell is paying to offset its UK customers’ carbon emissions. For blunt stupidity, that’s hard to beat. That Johnson and Johnson was “ordered to pay $8 billion (!!!) after drug causes man to grow breasts” already seemed more logical after that. That Joe Biden made even more money off Burisma than Hunter did, then seemed perfectly normal. It was all uphill from there.

Inside Hunter Biden’s Dealings With Shadowy Foreign Firms (ZH)

According to the FT, Biden’s business interests “often show up in unexpected places.” While Democrats obviously prefer to focus on their impeachment investigation, there’s no denying that Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine, China and elsewhere clearly raise questions about potential conflicts that existed while his father was in office. Joe Biden has denied wrongdoing, but questions linger over his role in the ouster of a top Ukrainian prosecutor, which some have suggested was done to help protect Hunter. When Hunter joined the Navy Reserves in May 2013, he required several waivers (at 42, he was above the age of enlistment, and there was an unspecified ‘drug-related’ incident that also would have disqualified him).

Despite his apparent eagerness to join, Biden was discharged from the Navy the following year after testing positive for cocaine. Soon after, his more successful older brother, Beau, passed away, and his wife Kathleen filed for divorce, citing Hunter’s “spending extravagantly on his own interests including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations.” Next, he started dating his brother’s widow. But in between trips to rehab and legendary drug benders. In 2016, shortly after he started dating Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow, Hunter made plans to stay at a detox center in Arizona. But he somehow got sidetracked during a stopover in Los Angeles, and ended up missing the next wing of his flight. Instead, he traveled to Skid Row, where he was reportedly held up at gun point, but nevertheless apparently succeeded in buying and using crack, causing him to return several times over the following days.

Eventually, Hunter Biden took a Hertz rental car to his treatment center in Arizona, but workers at the Hertz office called the police after finding a crack pipe and baggie of crack, along with Biden’s license and a badge from Beau’s time as Delaware AG. Prosecutors declined to pursue the case, claiming a lack of evidence, but it definitely wasn’t a good look for Hunter. More recently, Hunter has been in the headlines for his whirlwind marriage to a South African Instagram model, and for a paternity suit brought by a woman claiming Hunter is the father of her newborn son. Of course, none of these transgressions have stopped Biden from earning millions of dollars off his family name and connections. In Wednesday’s issue, the FT published a breakdown of Biden’s foreign business interests.

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As I said, perfectly normal.

Joe Biden ‘Personally Paid $900,000 By Burisma’ – Ukrainian MP (ZH)

Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach revealed on Wednesday that former Vice President Joe Biden received $900,000 from Burisma Group for lobbying activities, citing materials related to an investigation. Via Interfax: “Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden received $900,000 for lobbying activities from Burisma Group, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada member Andriy Derkach said citing investigation materials. Derkach publicized documents which, as he said, “describe the mechanism of getting money by Biden Sr.” at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine’s press center in Kyiv on Wednesday”. -Interfax. “This was the transfer of Burisma Group’s funds for lobbying activities, as investigators believe, personally to Joe Biden through a lobbying company.”


“Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the U.S.-based company Rosemont Seneca Partners, which according to open sources, in particular, the New York Times, is affiliated with Biden. The payment reference was payment for consultative services,” said Derkach. Derkach also puiblicized sums of money transferred to Burisma Group representatives – including Joe Biden’s son Hunter. “According to the documents, Burisma paid no less than $16.5 million to [former Polish President, who became an independent director at Burisma Holdings in 2014] Aleksander Kwasniewski, [chairman of the Burisma board of independent directors] Alan Apter, [Burisma independent director] Devon Archer and Hunter Biden [who joined the Burisma board of directors in 2014],” Derkach added.

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“If you are represented by Mark Zaid and you’re claiming to be a whistleblower, you are not…”

An Insult To Real Whistleblowers- Kiriakou (RCP)

Former CIA official and whistleblower John Kiriakou weighed in on Ukraine whistleblower being celebrated by the media. Kiriakou called the person a “so-called whistleblower” that is acting anonymously even though they have no undercover position at the CIA, likely an analyst. “I don’t think this is a whistleblower, not at all,” Kiriakou told FNC’s Tucker Carlson. “I think this is an anonymous source for the Democratic staff in the House of Representatives.” “You can’t hide this person’s identity just to save him from embarrassment or trouble of being recognized,” Kiriakou said. “It’s just not appropriate. If this is a whistleblower, he needs to come forward in public, testify in open session and blow that whistle.”


“Even his attorney, Mark Zaid, is one of these CIA insiders. He’s attached at the hip with the CIA. He’s represented dozens of CIA people. He has a CIA security clearance. If you are represented by Mark Zaid and you’re claiming to be a whistleblower, you are not,” Kiriakou said Wednesday.

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Yup, the British are funny.

Shell To Offset Carbon Emissions For British Fuel Buyers (R.)

Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it would offset the carbon dioxide emissions of around 1.5 million road users in Britain starting later this month under a loyalty scheme. Shell, like other oil companies, has come under pressure from shareholders to show how it plans to reduce its carbon footprint and help cut greenhouse gas emissions, a major cause of global warming. Britons are increasingly concerned about their environmental impact, with thousands of students striking earlier this year and green group Extinction Rebellion carrying out civil disobedience to push for more ambition on climate change.


Sinead Lynch, Shell UK country chair, said the best way for people to cut their road emissions was to use electric vehicles, supplied with renewable power. “But today the majority of people still use petrol and diesel. We can help them address the impact of their emissions by offsetting their fuel purchases,” she said in a statement. From Oct. 17, emissions relating to fuel purchased by customers with the Shell Go+ app or card will be offset for free until September 2020. Shell said about 20% of its customers were registered with the loyalty scheme. It expects the program to cost roughly 10 million pounds ($12.2 million) and offset emissions from around 1.5 million cars.

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It’s too late to repair their nonsense.

Federal Reserve Policymakers Increasingly Divided On Way Ahead (R.)

Most Federal Reserve policymakers supported the need for an interest rate cut in September, minutes of the central bank’s last policy meeting showed, but they remained divided on the path ahead for monetary policy. The readout of the meeting, released on Wednesday, also showed that the Fed agreed it would soon need to discuss increasing the size of its balance sheet following ructions in short-term money markets. Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced an imminent expansion of the central bank’s assets on Tuesday. Fed policymakers at the Sept. 17-18 meeting decided, in a 7-3 vote, to lower the benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point to between 1.75% and 2%.


“Most participants believed that a reduction of 25 basis points in the target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate,” the Fed said in the minutes. The U.S. central bank has lowered borrowing costs twice this year after having raised interest rates nine times since 2015. But what remains unclear from the minutes is how a softening in economic data since that meeting will affect viewpoints on the need for further rate cuts, if at all. In projections that accompanied the September statement, seven of the Fed’s 17 policymakers indicated they forecast one more rate cut this year. Five policymakers did not see any more cuts needed and the other five projected a rate rise by the end of 2019. Investors overwhelmingly expect another rate cut at the next meeting on Oct. 29-30.

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Working? You sure that’s the right term?

US Tariffs On China Are Working – Wilbur Ross (R.)

Tariffs are forcing China to pay attention to U.S. concerns, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in Sydney on Thursday. Ross said the United States would have preferred not to implement tariffs against Chinese goods more than a year ago, but added that it has forced Beijing into action. The trade war has weighed on global growth and roiled financial markets. “We do not love tariffs, in fact we would prefer not to use them, but after years of discussions and no action, tariffs are finally forcing China to pay attention to our concerns,” Ross told a business function held by the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia. “We could have had a deal two-and-a-half years ago without going through the whole tit-for-tat on tariffs that we have.”


Top U.S. and Chinese trade and economic officials will meet in Washington on Thursday and Friday to try to end the escalating dispute. Without a significant breakthrough, Washington is set to hike the tariff rate on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 30% from 25% next Tuesday. Negotiators had made no progress in deputy-level trade talks held on Monday and Tuesday in Washington, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) said, citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the meetings. The two sides have been at loggerheads over U.S. demands that China improve protections of American intellectual property, end cyber theft and the forced transfer of technology to Chinese firms, curb industrial subsidies and increase U.S. companies’ access to largely closed Chinese markets.

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Let’s call it a draw?

Nearly All Goods Traded By US And China Will Have Tariffs By December 15 (R.)

U.S. and Chinese negotiators meet in Washington on Thursday and Friday to try, once again, to defuse a trade war that has roiled markets and triggered tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of goods traded between the world’s largest economies. The meetings come days after the U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisted 28 Chinese companies, and China and the U.S. started reciprocal visa bans. Chinese officials say they have little expectation of significant progress. If negotiators cannot come to an agreement, a new set of punitive U.S. tariffs kicks in on Oct. 15 on about $250 billion of Chinese goods, and then both countries put tariffs on billions of dollars more of each others’ goods on Dec. 15. Here is what is set to take effect in the next few weeks:

U.S. OCT. 15 INCREASE A proposed Oct. 15 tariff rate boosts to 30% a duty of 25% already in place on at least $250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Set to take effect on Oct. 1, the higher tariff was delayed late in September by Trump “as a gesture of good will.” The 25% tariffs were adopted over nearly a year, from an initial tranche of largely non-consumer goods in July and August 2018, including machinery and electronic components such as semiconductors and printed circuit boards and many chemicals. Later the U.S. added consumer goods and building products, including furniture, vacuum cleaners, lighting fixtures, handbags and vinyl flooring.

U.S. DEC. 15 TARIFF INCREASE Two months later, the U.S. plans to target an additional tariff of 15% at about $300 billion in imports from China. These had already been hit with a tariff of 15% on Sept. 1, in a list mostly of consumer products, based on a Reuters analysis of 2018 U.S. Census Bureau data. It includes flat panel television sets, flash memory devices, power tools, cotton sweaters, bed linens, multifunction printers and some footwear. The largest category of targeted products covers smart watches, smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones and other internet-connected devices spared in a prior round of tariffs, with Chinese imports estimated at $17.9 billion annually by the Consumer Technology Association.

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The numbers are not that impressive, but the trends are clear.

Chinese Consumers Are On A Worrying Staycation (Lam)

China is shopping, just not quite enough. Official numbers after a week-long National Day break showed revenue from domestic tourism climbed 8.5% compared to 2018, the slowest pace in at least 17 years. Retail and dining numbers also failed to dazzle. Beijing wants consumers to help revive a flagging economy, but a weak yuan and the fading impact of tax cuts will keep purse strings tight. Golden Week, which began on Oct. 1, has long offered a snapshot of Chinese consumption. This year, the picture is less than shiny. Spending on retail and dining was up 8.5% compared to a 9.5% increase last year according to Citi, and well below double-digit increases a decade ago. Growth in domestic travel cooled too.

Some 7 million Chinese still ventured overseas, a measure of the country’s increasing wealth, but the number of outbound travellers in the first six days of October fell 15% compared to a year ago. In part that was due to China’s anniversary celebrations, and Hong Kong hardly helped: anti-government protests there have prompted numbers coming over the border to fall precipitously. But it measures wider household concerns. Instead, it was the small luxuries that did well, like trips to the movies. Patriotic flicks including ‘My People, My Country’ – stories inspired by China’s history – drew record box office revenue and over 100 million viewers during the holiday, according to Xinhua.

Beijing, which usually leans on infrastructure to stimulate the economy, has increasingly turned to consumers too. Stimulus measures, including a personal income tax unveiled late last year, did help lift disposable incomes by 8.8% in the first half. That would have been 7.2% without the boost, reckons analyst Ernan Cui of Gavekal Dragonomics. Unfortunately, that’s not feeding into shopping baskets fast enough, given it impacted wealthier households more.

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The very idea of “privately outsourced incarceration” is so insane we should never even consider it.

California Set To End Private Prisons And Immigrant Detention Camps (R.)

America’s largest state prison system is moving to quit the practice of farming out inmates to lockups run under contract by private companies, following a nationwide decline in the for-profit incarceration business. California Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign legislation this week designed to effectively ban private, for-profit corporations from running prisons or immigration detention facilities. Sponsors of the measure say it will end a brief but hapless experiment in privately outsourced incarceration begun as a means to ease overcrowding – an endeavor Newsom branded an outrage when he took office in January.


Bill supporters say private prisons, driven to maximize shareholder profits, lack proper oversight or incentives to rehabilitate inmates, and have contributed to a culture of mass incarceration by making it cheaper to lock up people. They point to research cited in a 2016 U.S. Justice Department Office of Inspector General report that found private prisons spend less on personnel, and are less safe, than public institutions. “This is a total and complete failure, and it’s hurting and abusing Californians,” said state Assemblyman Rob Bonta, a chief author of the bill.

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Yeah, well, the horse and the barn.

Owner Of Spanish Security Company That Spied On Assange Arrested (El Pais)

David Morales, the owner of the Spanish security company that was in charge of protecting the Ecuadorian embassy in London while Julian Assange was living there, has been arrested and released on bail, judicial sources have told EL PAÍS. The director of UC Global S. L. is being investigated by Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, after allegedly ordering the private conversations of the WikiLeaks founder to be spied on, as well as supposedly passing the information collected to the United States’ intelligence services. Morales’ arrest took place on September 17 in the southern Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, which is where the security firm is based. The information had not come to light until now given that the investigation is under seal.


Police officers searched the company’s offices and also seized hard disks and documents, all of which are now being analyzed by the judge in charge of the case, José de la Mata. According to judicial sources, two firearms with their serial numbers erased were found in Morales’ home, as well as €20,000 in cash. Morales was taken to Madrid were he was questioned at the High Court before being released on bail. His passport was taken from him and his bank accounts frozen. He currently has to check in at the High Court every two weeks. [..] After the revelations were published by EL PAÍS, Assange’s defense team filed a criminal complaint against Morales, in which he is accused of alleged privacy offenses as well as the violation of attorney-client privilege, misappropriation of funds, bribery and money laundering.

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A glimpse of your future.

PG&E Power Outage: Lines For Gas, Batteries, Groceries And Generators (LAT)

The massive blackouts imposed across Northern California on Wednesday led to a run on gasoline, portable generators and other supplies while retailers struggled to serve customers. Millions were expected to lose power as Pacific Gas & Electric shut down service in a bid to avoid wind-driven fires caused by downed power lines. Angie Sheets of El Dorado Hills outside Sacramento noticed that generators were flying off the shelves at the local Costco as she shopped for groceries earlier in the week. Considering the nearly $1,000 worth of food she planned to purchase and the imminent power outage, Sheets said she called her husband to talk about buying a generator for their home. “By the time I had done that, the last big generator was gone off the shelves,” she said. Her husband, a law enforcement officer, later found a generator at a Costco in Rancho Cordova.

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You sure it wasn’t Putin? How about Ukraine?

Seven Latam Nations Suggest Maduro Behind Unrest In Ecuador (R.)

Seven Latin American countries reject any attempt by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to destabilize democracies in the region and back Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno as he tries to calm unrest, Peru’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, speaking on behalf of the group. A statement from the Peru’s foreign ministry said that it as well as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Paraguay all expressed their “firm backing for actions taken by President Lenin Moreno” and “reject any action aimed at destabilizing our democracies by the regime of Nicolas Maduro.”

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Still bankrupt though.

For The First Time Ever, Greece Issues Negative Yielding Debt (ZH)

As armies of fixed income strategists battle over whether US Treasuries are facing higher or lower yields, Greece has no such qualms and in a historic shift today, the former bond market pariah and Eurozone’s most indebted nation, joined the exclusive club of negative-yielding European nations when bond investors lined up to pay the nation that was at the heart of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. A sale of €487.5 million of 13-week bills on Wednesday drew Greece’s first-ever negative yield of minus 0.02% as investors now pay Athens for the privilege of lending it cash, as Bloomberg first reported. Greece joins the likes of Ireland, Italy and Spain – not to mention virtually all core Eurozone nations – which benefit from the ECB’s insane monetary policy and deepening fears of a global recession.


It’s been an unprecedented turnaround for twice bankrupt Eurozone member, whose bondholders suffered massive losses back in March 2012 when the country was forced to accept the biggest bond restructuring in history, bringing the Eurozone to the verge of collapse. Just a few years and several trillions in bond purchases by the ECB later, the region is grappling with an altogether different problem – the spread of negative yields, which reduces borrowing costs for governments in a form of soft default, one which is crushing savers, pension funds and insurers, and which has prompted some of the most respected names in finance to shriek in terror as the cost of money in even Europe’s most insolvent nations is now negative.

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