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Debt Rattle February 28 2026

Feb 282026
 
 February 28, 2026  Posted by at 10:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  118 Responses »


Keith Haring Untitled 1983


• Substitution of a Tariff for Income Tax Would Re-create Free Americans (PCR)
• Who Rules America? Not Americans. (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The Man Who Might Wreck the Country (James Howard Kunstler)
• ‘I Did Not Have Relations With That Man, Jeffrey Epstein’: Bill Clinton (ZH)
• Hillary: I Didn’t Know Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Was An ‘Acquaintance’ (JTN)
• Hillary Deposition on Epstein Briefly Halted Due to Leaked Photograph (CTH)
• Even CNN Admits Democrats Are in Big Trouble on Immigration (Matt Margolis)
• Brutal: Democrats Walked Straight Into This (ZH)
• Jack Smith’s Secret Orders Targeting Patel and Wiles Should Alarm Us (Turley)
• What Susan Rice Really Meant by Her Retribution Threat (Victor Davis Hanson)
• Kristi Noem Says DHS Staffers Put Spyware on Her Phone and Laptop (AmG)
• Biden Admin ‘Invited’ Fani Willis To Get Lucrative Grant (HUSA)
• Paramount Wins Bidding War For Warner Bros. After Netflix Drops Out (ZH)
• Ukraine Marked This Major Shift In Global Politics (Lukyanov)
• McDonald’s Germany HIDES Food Ads During Ramadan (MN)

 


 

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2027641193358594157?s=20 Elon interview Elon interview part Tucker Epstein

 


 

 


 


Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration…

He says, like Trump, but independent of Trump, that tariffs set Americans free. But who’s listening to him? After 100+ years, people can no longer think beyond income tax.

• Substitution of a Tariff for Income Tax Would Re-create Free Americans (PCR)

On February 25, I wrote on this website that the most important part of President Trump s State of the Union address was the refusal of Democrats to stand if they agreed with his statement: the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Actually, there is an equally important element in his address, perhaps more important, and that is President Trump’s statement that tariffs would eventually replace the system of income taxation. This is perhaps the most important sentence ever stated in a state of the union address. As far as I can tell, the only attention it received was that the Supreme Court had recently invalidated Trump s tariffs.


As I have pointed out for decades to no avail not even libertarians have noticed the income tax enacted in 1913 converted free Americans into serfs or slaves. The reason I can say this is that the historical definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor. Serfs and slaves do not own their own labor. Serfs owed a portion of their labor to their feudal lord. Normally it did not exceed 30% of their labor. Slaves owed 50% of their labor to their owners, the other half of their labor going to their own maintenance as an effective and loyal workforce. There is no way around the fact that the historical definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor. The land enclosures freed serfs from their obligation to feudal Lords, and created a labor market in which untaxed wages were paid to laborers for their labor. Free men appeared once they owned their own labor and sold it at market wages.

The income tax that passed in 1913 did not materially enserf or enslave Americans, because the tax rate was so low and applied to such a tiny percentage of incomes that it had no material effect. That is how they got it in place. But once in place, the income tax grew quickly, both up in the tax rate and broadly in the percentage of the population subject to income taxation. By the time of the John F Kennedy administration the tax rate on middle income Americans exceeded the tax rate on the labor of medieval serfs, and the tax rate on upper incomes exceeded the tax rate on 19th century slaves on American cotton and tobacco plantations. As the Kennedy tax rate reductions were not indexed, by the time of the Reagan administration the tax rates again exceeded those on medieval serfs and 19th century slaves.

The Reagan administration indexed the new tax rates, and this has held the appropriation of the labor of the middle class to that appropriated by feudal lords. For the upper income class, the official tax rate is higher than that on medieval serfs, but there are methods depending on the economic activities of the upper income class that keep the tax rates for some of them below that of medieval serfs. Regardless, the upper class does not own all of its own labor and is no more free than the lower class. A tariff is a tax on your purchases, not on your labor. If you purchase domestic products made from domestic resources, you do not have to pay the tariff. If you purchase imported goods or domestic goods made partially from imported products, you pay a tariff based on the content of foreign input in to the product. The purpose of tariffs is to protect domestic production from foreign competition, not as Trump uses them to bludgeon foreign countries to obey his orders.

Tariffs are in effect a consumption tax, not a tax on labor and capital. Therefore, a country with a consumption tax instead of an income tax will have higher growth and higher living standards. All of this completely obvious and correct information has been ignored in the United States since 1913, a period of 113 years. For over a century American GDP and personal incomes have been held down by the liberals and leftists who have the outlook of communists and prefer equal incomes in poverty to higher incomes with inequality.

It is extraordinary that Donald Trump, a real estate developer, understands this, but the American Economic Association is incapable, being brainwashed as it is by a century of indoctrination. When you read economists, you learn that their only concern about the income tax is that it is fair. By fair, they mean that it must fall heaviest on the higher incomes. A flat tax rate that taxes everyone at the same rate, which seems consistent with the Constitutional mandate of equal treatment under the law, is considered unfair. The fact that a tax on income means that the taxpayer has lost his freedom and now owes part of his labor to the government, the equivalent of a feudal lord or 19 century plantation owner, is beyond the comprehension of economists.

The consequence is that we will remain serfs and slaves with only a partial ownership of our own labor.

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“The flooding of its borders by many different immigrants, whose entry was facilitated rather than opposed, has turned the United States into a Tower of Babel in which there is no longer even a common language.”

• Who Rules America? Not Americans. (Paul Craig Roberts)

The Zionist American media such as NPR are blaming US Attorney General Bondi for withholding Epstein files in order to protect President Donald Trump. Here are the charges from NPR, which has no evidence except its alleged “investigation” of documents that NPR claims exist, but which NPR has not seen:“The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump. Some files have not been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appear to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, as well as notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor.” https://www.npr.org/2026/02/24/nx-s1-5723968/epstein-files-trump-accusation-maxwell


Of course, NPR’s investigatory ability is nonexistent. NPR is a propaganda institution whose agenda is to undermine traditional white America which NPR presents as racist and exploitative. NPR’s charges, like those of the rest of the whore American media that prostitutes itself to serve official narratives, seek to divert focus off investigating whether Epstein was conducting an Israeli Mossad blackmail operation in order to conform American, British, and European foreign policy in the Middle East with Israel’s. Dear reader, have you noticed that absolutely no one wants to investigate the real issue? This very fact tells you how real the issue is. Epstein’s job, for which he was well paid, was to compromise a few highly placed American, British and European officials in positions to influence American, European and British policy in the Middle East and make sure that it was aligned with Israel’s.

That is what the Epstein saga is about. It is being covered up by the US government, the British government and the European governments, all of whom support Israel’s Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. US ambassador to Israel, Huckabee, demonstrated Washington’s support for Greater Israel in his interview with Tucker Carlson when he said that Israel should just go ahead now and take the entire Middle East.mThe power Israel has over America is obvious when it is easier for President Trump to deport a foreign student in America legally present to study at an American university who dares to mention or criticize the Israeli genocide of Palestine than it is for President Trump to deport an immigrant-invader who is here illegally.

The power Israel has over America is obvious. A Christian prayer cannot be said in an American school, but the Republican legislature in Texas can be bribed to pass legislation that makes mandatory the indoctrination of American school students in Texas with Israeli religious and political propaganda. If the Zionist legislation becomes law in Texas, future Texans will grow up indoctrinated as Israelis and not as Americans. And MAGA-Americans think Republicans are our salvation. The United States of America long ago ceased to be an independent country. Indeed it is no longer even a nation. The flooding of its borders by many different immigrants, whose entry was facilitated rather than opposed, has turned the United States into a Tower of Babel in which there is no longer even a common language.

Today the United States is Israel’s military force. The United States destroys countries that are opponents to Israel’s Zionist agenda of Greater Israel, a territory that comprises in its extent the entirety of the Middle East as so many Israeli government officials have publicly made clear over and over and over. Yet it makes no impression on Americans when an Israeli minister holds up on public television for all to see a map that shows that Israel as defined by Israel is the entirety of the Middle East from the Nile to Pakistan. It never occurs to insouciant, indoctrinated American citizens that for a quarter of a century under the guise of “the War on Terror” Americans with their blood and money have been fighting to create Greater Israel for Israel. Instead of recognizing their deception, the Americans chant: “you can’t be an American if you don’t love Israel.” Unfortunately, many Americans do not understand the subservience of American domestic and foreign policy to Israel. Consequently, the United States no longer exists as an independent country. The United States exists as the puppet of Israel, and our president, Donald Trump, is the chief puppet.

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“That a government’s primary responsibility is to its citizens should not be a controversial proposition.” —Coddled Affluent Professional on X

• The Man Who Might Wreck the Country (James Howard Kunstler)

The zeitgeist is a rough beast, hard to ride as it slouches into the unknown. Our country is trying to hang on while a party of goblins vexes and needles the beast from behind, and you cannot make them stop. Sense-making gets to seem impossible. We don’t have an explanation from Senate Majority Leader John Thune as to why he will not do what is within his power to do: pass election reform, known as the SAVE Act, by changing the filibuster procedure. At midweek Sen. Thune said Republicans were “not unified on pursuing a talking filibuster.” Understand that bringing back a real filibuster, with continuous speech in the well of the Senate, only requires the Majority Leader’s say-so, meaning Mr. Thune is prevaricating, concealing the truth.


Which might be that he does not want to pass election reform. It appears he wants to set up the midterm elections with the now-familiar kit of unverifiable mail-in ballots, millions of non-citizen motor-votes, and dragged-out vote-counting so that Democrats will seize control of the House (if not the Senate) in order to crank-up the impeachment machine again and finally get rid of President Trump. It does not look like anything else, certainly not any kind of cunning game. What might change that would be an FBI analysis of the 2020 election year ballots, voter rolls, and vote tabulation tapes recently extracted from the Fulton County, Georgia, Elections Hub, leading to indictments.

They’ve had this mass of material for a month. There was already plenty of preliminary evidence of fraud from earlier investigations — which is how come U.S. Magistrate Judge Catherine Salinas of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia found probable cause to approve a search warrant for the FBI. They must have an idea by now of what the evidence shows. It’s not that complicated.There’s no fixed statutory timeline for a referral. The FBI can pass along the matter to the DOJ for prosecution whenever they determine the evidence is sufficient. Referrals are customarily secret, as they occur during ongoing investigations and involve sensitive, non-public information. DOJ policies emphasize confidentiality in pre-charging stages to protect investigations, potential witnesses, sources, and the integrity of any future prosecution.

In general, the public learns of an FBI referral only indirectly — through later developments like indictments, or news media reporting via “sources.” Criminal referrals on the Fulton County case might have already been made, and indictments might be forthcoming. That would have to prompt some kind of attitude adjustment for Senate Majority Leader Thune on behalf of election reform. It could happen at any time. It would at least put Senator Thune between a rock and a hard place. It’s well-understood that at least 80-percent of people polled want the SAVE Act passed There is no debating position that reasonably argues against it. You might have noticed that Mayor Mamdani of New York City called for volunteers to shovel snow in the latest blizzard, and that anyone who stepped-up was required to show two types of photo ID to work the job.

Yet, Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), aligns with the party’s longstanding opposition to voter ID laws, including the SAVE Act. No need to go figure on that. It’s just arrant dishonesty. The president emphasized clearly why the Democrats are against election reform in this week’s State of the Union speech: because the party can only win elections by cheating, by employing massive systematic fraud. He said it so that everybody tuned-in could hear it, and the Democrats just sat stone-faced on their side of the chamber — and that was only minutes after they refused to stand for the proposition that the government’s main job was to act in the interest of American citizens.

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It’s the picture of Bill in a dress that gets to me. That didn’t come from nowhere.

• ‘I Did Not Have Relations With That Man, Jeffrey Epstein’: Bill Clinton (ZH)

Former President Bill Clinton on Friday told lawmakers that he had no clue about crimes carried out by Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who visited the Clinton White House at least 17 times while Bill was president, before letting Clinton fly on the ‘Lolita Express’ dozens of times. “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said in a statement prepared for a closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York. “I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see.”


“My brief acquaintance with Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light, and … I never witnessed during our limited interactions any indication of what was truly going on,” said the 79-year-old former president, adding “I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing.” Which is weird, because Epstein had a picture of Clinton in a blue ‘Monica Lewinsky’ dress and red pedo club shoes on his wall… Clinton became the first former president forced to testify to Congress – and did so just one day after his wife, Hillary Clinton, testified before the same panel. nWhile Clinton was interviewed in a closed-door session, the GOP chairman of the committee, James Comer, said they would be asking Bill about trips he took on Epstein’s plane, and the White House visits Epstein made while Clinton was president.

Another GOP lawmaker on the panel, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, said that Clinton would be “thoroughly asked” about pictures of him featured in the Epstein files – including one of him soaking in a jacuzzi, and another of him swimming with Ghislaine Maxwell. According to the Epoch Times, an FBI document stated that a person whose name was redacted and was not an Epstein victim reported that she was invited to an orgy with Clinton, but did not attend. Law enforcement emails said that an Epstein victim said she met Epstein through another victim who had traveled with Epstein and Clinton to Africa. Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane in 2002 and 2003, according to previously known flight logs and photographs.


He has said previously through a spokesperson that those trips involved work for the Clinton Foundation and that he never went to Epstein’s island, although he briefly went to Epstein’s home in New York and logs showed Epstein went to the White House while Clinton was president.As Bloomberg notes, ‘Clinton took several trips on Epstein’s private plane before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges that included procurement of a minor to engage in prostitution. Epstein also donated $1,000 to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and $20,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 US Senate campaign. A charity controlled by Epstein contributed $25,000 to the Clintons’ private foundation.’ Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, told the BBC earlier this month that Bill was only flying on the Lolita Express “for his charitable work.”

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Why would Epstein say (paraphrased) that she was prettier in person? I’d gamble that they did meet.

• Hillary: I Didn’t Know Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Was An ‘Acquaintance’ (JTN)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters Thursday after her deposition to the House Oversight Committee that she told lawmakers that she did not know Jeffrey Epstein and only knew his associate Ghislaine Maxwell as an “acquaintance.” The comment is in line with what the former official has been stating since she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, were thrust back into the spotlight over their alleged affiliations with the convicted late-sex offender. Hillary Clinton said she had not been aware of any crime that Epstein had committed and that she was confident her husband had not been aware of any crime either. Hillary Clinton also maintained that she never flew on Epstein’s jet or visited his notorious island.


“I don’t know Jeffrey Epstein. I knew Ghislaine [Maxwell] as an acquaintance,” she insisted. “I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein.”Hillary Clinton also insisted that her daughter Chelsea Clinton was not particularly close to Maxwell after it was reported that Maxwell attended her wedding and vacationed with her in 2009. “She came as the plus one, the guest, of someone who was invited,” Hillary Clinton said. The former first lady additionally insisted that her husband’s relationship with Epstein ended “several years before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light.” Bill Clinton is expected to testify in front of the House Oversight panel in New York on Friday. The Clintons have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

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Because it identifies her lawyer?

• Hillary Deposition on Epstein Briefly Halted Due to Leaked Photograph (CTH)

Clinton is claiming that she didn’t know Jeffrey Epstein. However, a leaked photograph of the deposition shows the author of her statement likely sitting right next to her. They paused the deposition because the picture was made public.


Apparently, Cheryl Mills is still around as Clinton’s personal lawyer.

https://twitter.com/EricSpracklen/status/2027087568852918440

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“.. for Democrats who spent the last several months convinced that immigration was finally turning into their weapon, Harry Enten threw a torrent of cold water on that pipe dream.”

• Even CNN Admits Democrats Are in Big Trouble on Immigration (Matt Margolis)

Democrats have made no secret of the fact that their closing argument for the 2026 midterms will center on affordability, but if sentiment about the economy improves, which the Trump administration is banking on, Democrats will need something else to run on. It’s obvious that Democrats have been hoping that immigration enforcement and the outrage they’ve been trying to foment over it could be that issue. After a year of wall-to-wall immigration drama dominating the news cycle, they were convinced that the public would finally recoil and punish Republicans at the ballot box.That was the bet. But that fantasy is now crashing hard into reality, as CNN’s own polling analyst just handed Democrats some brutally inconvenient news.


On Thursday morning, Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst, walked through the numbers on immigration heading into the 2026 midterm cycle. It’s not good news for the Democrats. “This, I think, is so important to note,” Enten said. “After all the events in Los Angeles, after all the events in Minneapolis, after all the events of the last year on immigration, can Democrats actually take advantage on this issue?” “A look at the polling suggests actually, no, they’re in a worse position — in a worse position — than they were at this point during Donald Trump’s first term,” he said, before looking at the numbers, which showed that back in 2018, Democrats held roughly a six-point advantage when voters were asked which party they trusted more on immigration. Now, that edge has flipped, with Republicans holding the advantage instead.

“So this whole idea that Democrats are gonna be able to take advantage of the immigration issue actually doesn’t bear itself out in the polling, despite everything that’s been going on,” Enten noted. Host John Berman tried to make sense of it, and he offered that maybe voters just don’t trust Democrats to do better even if they’re uncomfortable with Trump’s approach. Enten confirmed exactly that. “They think Democrats will do a worse job on immigration than Republicans.” Think things couldn’t get worse? Try again. Trust in border security numbers was even more lopsided. Republicans held a 13-point advantage on border security back in 2018. That advantage has grown to 15 points, and honestly, I’m surprised it’s not more. So the issue Democrats thought might be softening for Republicans has, if anything, hardened further in the GOP’s favor.

“When you put it all together, you put immigration with border security and the idea that Democrats will be able to take the ball and run away on it, the polling data suggests, no, no, no, this is actually an issue that Republicans should be more comfortable running on than Democrats,” Enten said. “Democrats running on immigration may actually be to the Republicans’ advantage.” Read that last line again. Democrats campaigning on immigration could actively help Republicans. And then there’s the Biden comparison. And it really gets ugly here for the left. Yes, Trump’s approval rating on immigration has dipped from its peak. But Enten put it all in context. Biden’s approval rating on immigration at a comparable point in his presidency stood at a dismal 34%, while Trump’s stands at 45%.

That’s an 11-point gap. “You can’t just look at something in isolation. You have to compare it to the alternative. And in this particular case, when you take a look at immigration, and you compare Republicans to the alternative, Democrats, this is an issue that Republicans should really like, and President Trump should like the comparison to Joe Biden.” Among other things. In the end, for Democrats who spent the last several months convinced that immigration was finally turning into their weapon, Harry Enten threw a torrent of cold water on that pipe dream.

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“Rep. Rashida Tlaib appeared to chant “KKK” while Republicans chanted “USA!”—a moment ripe for its own ad. ”

• Brutal: Democrats Walked Straight Into This (ZH)

A new advertisement from conservative group American Sovereignty hammers Democrats for staying seated during President Trump’s State of the Union call to prioritize American citizens over illegal aliens, using footage that lays bare their priorities. The ad, which dropped Thursday, features Trump stating, “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Republicans rose in applause while Democrats remained glued to their seats, with overlays labeling the divide and accusing Dems of siding with “illegal immigrant criminals.” The spot cuts to Trump’s “These people are crazy” remark before closing with “Republicans are for you.”


As we highlighted in previous coverage, Democrats’ behavior during the SOTU revealed whose side they’re on—and it’s not the American people. Many boycotted the event or sat through applause for victims of illegal alien crime, exposing their allegiance to open borders over citizen safety. They doubled down afterward, with figures like Debbie Wasserman Schultz labeling the speech “absolutely revolting” for prioritizing Americans. Even more telling, Rep. Rashida Tlaib appeared to chant “KKK” while Republicans chanted “USA!”—a moment ripe for its own ad. The ad’s release comes as Republicans eye midterms, with a GOP spokesperson telling the Washington Examiner that vulnerable House Democrats should “get comfortable re-watching the moment they revealed they’re nothing more than America-hating scums who stayed glued to their seats.”

The Democrats handed Republicans a raft of campaign material just in time for the midterms. They don’t even try to hide their hate for Americans If they can’t stand for ‘protect Americans first,’ what exactly are they standing for? This ad marks the first in a seven-figure blitz targeting battleground states like North Carolina, Michigan, and Georgia, per Politico, aiming to leverage the SOTU optics for electoral gains.Trump himself called out Democrats during the speech, saying “you should be ashamed of yourself” for not standing, a moment echoed in White House criticisms and conservative commentary. As midterms loom, this footage serves as a stark reminder: Democrats’ refusal to stand for American priorities hands Republicans ammunition to rally voters against policies that put citizens last.

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“If past orders are any indication, the Patel and Wiles orders were likely based on sweeping generalities and demands for absolute secrecy. That is the signature of Jack Smith.”

• Jack Smith’s Secret Orders Targeting Patel and Wiles Should Alarm Us (Turley)

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith has long operated under Oscar Wilde’s rule that “the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” Over the last few months, the public has learned of a wide array of secret orders targeting members of Congress, Trump allies, and others. Now, the Administration has learned that FBI Director Kash Patel and White House Susie Wiles were also targeted by Smith in 2022 and 2023 when they were private citizens. Smith was a controversial choice as Special Counsel because of his history of excessive legal arguments and tactics, including his unanimous loss before the Supreme Court in tossing out the conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell.


His tendency to stretch the law to the breaking point also did not play well with juries in high-profile cases, as in his case against John Edwards, which ended in acquittal. Despite such criticisms, Smith immediately returned to his past pattern of tossing aside any restraint or caution. Even Democrats this year expressed objections to his targeting of Republican members of Congress, including former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Smith told carriers not to tell members of Congress that their calls were being seized. Not only did such records reveal potentially confidential sources, ranging from journalists to whistleblowers, but Smith’s gag order prevented Congress from responding to check the abusive demand.

accounts of the orders contained equally disturbed elements. Reuters reported that “in 2023, the FBI recorded a phone call between Wiles and her attorney, according to two FBI officials. Wiles’ attorney was aware that the call was being recorded, and consented to it, but Susie Wiles was not.” It is astonishing to hear of a lawyer agreeing to the FBI recording of an attorney-client meeting as a general matter. However, to do so without informing your counsel would be a breathtaking invasion of such protected communications. There is much we still do not know.

its face, these orders appear consistent with the earlier abusive demands. Smith had virtually no basis for targeting Republican members and Trump allies. It was a fishing expedition in which Smith simply compiled lists of every well-known ally of President Trump.There are also concerns over the response to this controversy. There are reports of 10 FBI employees being fired. Agents often carry out the orders of superiors in such investigations. The Administration should assure the public that these agents were afforded due process before being ousted due to their work on orders. The recently disclosed files from these investigations are an indictment of Smith himself. He was given a historic mandate to investigate a former president.

than exercise a modicum of restraint to show the public that this was not a partisan effort, Smith yielded to his worst temptations in targeting a long list of Republicans. In his prior testimony, Smith offered little to justify these orders beyond a shrug that such secret orders routinely occur. However, he was targeting a “who’s who” listing of top political opponents to President Biden and the Democrats.To make matters worse, Smith struggled to release damaging information (and even schedule a trial) on the very eve of the 2024 presidential election. Every action that Smith only magnified his agenda to influence the election. He became a prosecutor consumed by his antagonism toward Trump and his unchecked power.

was sacred for Smith. His demands in the investigation from the courts included a wholesale attack on free speech values. Ultimately, these files are not only an indictment of Jack Smith but also of former Attorney General Merrick Garland, who failed to exercise his authority to oversee Smith and protect core constitutional values.It is essential that Congress and the Administration fully investigate Smith’s surveillance demands. Smith has long demanded accountability for others while evading such accountability for his own actions. If past orders are any indication, the Patel and Wiles orders were likely based on sweeping generalities and demands for absolute secrecy. That is the signature of Jack Smith.

Indeed, Smith appears to have replicated his increasingly infamous record with the collapse of two high-profile cases and lingering questions over his judgment and actions. He has again yielded to his temptations, and the public has paid the price.

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“We’re going to come back. People don’t like Trump. It’s our turn to come back. We’re not going to play by the old rules. No, no, no. We’re going to be tough. You better get your … ”

• What Susan Rice Really Meant by Her Retribution Threat (Victor Davis Hanson)

Susan Rice, the former U.N. ambassador under the Obama administration, national security adviser, and also served in various capacities with former President Joe Biden, gave an interview on a podcast with Preet Bharara. He is that very liberal federal prosecutor that developed quite a name for himself in New York, going after, I think, targeted a lot of people based on their politics. But nonetheless, it was one of the strangest interviews because she flat out, candidly, with no reservations, sent a message to people who were conservative, Republican, or Trump supporters, and she used “Game of Thrones” imagery. “You’ve taken the need of [President] Donald Trump. You have allowed him to bully you.”


She was talking about the so-called elites in the academic world, in the corporate world, in the institutional world. “And we’re not going to forget,” she says, “that you did that. And you better have your documents ready because when we come back into power, we’re going to … ” And the implication was: take you to court, make you pay, shake you.I don’t know what she was talking about, but it was a direct threat.But here’s what’s strange about it: Start with Susan Rice herself. If you look back through her latter years with the Obama administration, it was nothing but a complete disaster. She was the one that, you remember, that the CIA and the Obama administration wheeled out on a Sunday afternoon to explain the Benghazi attack that killed the four Americans at the annex and the consulate.

Five times she told the American people that those attacks were spontaneous, and they were because of some right-wing Coptic video maker who caused it all. That was not true. That was a preplanned, either an al-Qaeda or ISIS or some type of radical Islamic preplanned assault. People knew what they were doing. They were well armed. They were well organized. Why did she go out five times and mislead the American people? Because the Obama administration had been warned prior that their security was too lax and they did not want to give the impression that that attack was preventable, which it was. She was the one that also assured us, Americans, that when former President Barack Obama issued those red lines and said if Bashar al-Assad and his Syrian forces move WMD around or still have it, that’s going to be intolerable, i.e., I’m going to take it out.

When they didn’t do that and they backed out, and we knew they had it, she lied to the American people and said, essentially, that they no longer had WMD.Remember also she wrote, just wrapping up her career, she wrote a little memo to herself in the last weeks of the Obama administration about Michael Flynn. She went to a meeting, and it was pretty clear in that meeting they had planned to subvert the incoming administration with the false narrative of Russian collusion and that somehow Mike Flynn, the national security adviser-designate, had been colluding with the Russians, but that was not true.

But then she wrote a fake memo to herself suggesting that they hadn’t really done that, that it was all up and up. And then, of course, she and others had requested the unmasking of people related with Trump in otherwise confidential files. So, she doesn’t have a good record. That’s why she didn’t have a high-profile position in the Biden administration.But there is also some real problems with what she said. She never said to corporate America, to the academic world, to the institutional world, to the political world what they had done wrong. She just said, “We’re going to come back. People don’t like Trump. It’s our turn to come back. We’re not going to play by the old rules. No, no, no. We’re going to be tough. You better get your … ”

Well, what had they done? What had they done? If she’s implying they let people off, or they laid people off that were associated with DEI, that was in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling barring race-based preferences in academic life. If she means that Donald Trump does not have the authority to issue an executive order stopping DEI, the whole idea of executive orders goes back to the beginning, almost to the republic. But more importantly, Barack Obama was the one who said, “I have a pen and I have a phone and I’m going to use it.” And that’s when he lost control of Congress and he issued, up until that time, almost the greatest number of executive orders. So, if she’s not going to tell us that anybody committed a felony or misdemeanor, and yet she’s going to punish them, that doesn’t sound too legitimate..

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“They helped me identify that some of my own employees in my department had downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me to record our meetings..”

• Kristi Noem Says DHS Staffers Put Spyware on Her Phone and Laptop (AmG)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem revealed on Thursday that certain DHS staffers had allegedly installed spyware on her phone and computer, as well as on devices belonging to other political appointees. “You wouldn’t even believe what I’ve found since I’ve been in this department,” Noem told conservative podcaster Patrick Bet-David . Noem said she discovered the spyware last year with the assistance of former DOGE chief Elon Musk and his team. “They helped me identify that some of my own employees in my department had downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me to record our meetings,” Noem said. Bet-David was flabbergasted by the bombshell revelation. Stop it!” he exclaimed. Wow!” “They had done that to several of the politicals,” Noem added.


The DHS Sec. said that if it wasn’t for Musk’s technology experts, there would probably still be spyware on DHS laptops and phones. Noem also disclosed that a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) was just recently discovered containing files “no one knew existed.” “An employee walked by a door and wondered what it was and started asking questions,” she explained, adding that when Trump officials went inside to check it out, they found “individuals working there that had secret files that nobody knew about” on controversial topics.mnNoem told Bet-David that the secret files were turned over to attorneys for review.

The secretary went on to say she has seen “eye-opening” data from Customs and Border Protection (CPB) and the National Laboratories regarding the scientists who traveled to the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology in China to conduct gain of function experiments on coronaviruses. “It was eye-opening,” she said. The FBI and Department of Energy (DOE) have determined with moderate/low confidence that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan lab. Noem told Bet-David that she never doubted that the “deep state” (entrenched liberal resistance within the bureaucracy) existed, but never would have guessed that it was a bad as it is. “I’m still every day trying to dig out people who don’t love America, not just in this department, but throughout the federal government,” she said.

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“The $2 million award was part of roughly $18 million the Biden DOJ provided to Willis’s office between 2021 and 2024.”

• Biden Admin ‘Invited’ Fani Willis To Get Lucrative Grant (HUSA)

The DOJ under the Biden administration “invited” disgraced Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to apply for a generous taxpayer-funded grant as she prosecuted President Donald Trump. The arrangement came to light after Willis referenced the grant in December 2022 correspondence with DOJ Senior Advisor Scott Pestridge of the Office of Justice Programs. The document was first revealed on Thursday by Just the News through open records requests filed by the outlet and nonprofit America First Legal. According to Just the News, Willis referenced the Office of Justice Programs’ Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative grant, which ultimately awarded her office $2 million.


The timing of the award coincided with her office’s aggressive prosecution of Trump, who at the time was running for president against then-President Joe Biden. m“I want to document your recognition of our progress and services provided with dynamic partners, as we complete sole source steps for our new grant award, a grant in which you invited us to apply,” Willis wrote to Pestridge, according to Just the News. Willis described the award as a “sole source” grant, indicating her office faced no competing applicants.The $2 million award was part of roughly $18 million the Biden DOJ provided to Willis’s office between 2021 and 2024. She claimed the funds would help “at-risk” youth avoid falling into crime or assist with reintegration into society, according to Just the News.

Documents released by Willis’s office in response to open records requests show her office maintained consistent coordination with the DOJ after Trump left office in 2021, when she became one of several left-leaning prosecutors pursuing cases against him. She later charged Trump under Georgia’s RICO statute, accusing him of attempting to subvert the 2020 election results in the state. Her case ultimately unraveled after it was revealed that she had engaged in an affair with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she selected to lead the prosecution. Willis took vacations with Wade while her office paid him, later claiming she reimbursed him in cash, though she never produced receipts to substantiate those payments. Both Wade and Willis were ultimately disqualified from leading the case. After Trump returned to office in 2025, the prosecution was effectively nullified.

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Big changes. Larry Ellison is anything but woke.

• Paramount Wins Bidding War For Warner Bros. After Netflix Drops Out (ZH)

Late on Wednesday, we highlighted an aggressive options trade where a call spread buyer in Netflix options had bet $14 million that Paramount would end up buying Warner Brothers after Netflix walks, something which Polymarket had indicated very much since the start of this particular M&A saga…


… and 24 hours that unknown trader is richer by about $40 million (and a guaranteed visit by the SEC), because late on Thursday, Paramount emerged victorious in the fight to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix said it wouldn’t match the David Ellison-led company’s latest offer for the iconic Hollywood property. The news sent Netflix shares soaring 10% after hours, demonstrating what the market thought of the deal (not to mention $2.8 billion breakup fee). With the winds of political change shifting, and the DOJ making it very clear that it preferred Paramount to end up the winner in the contested race, Netflix – which would have had to move regulatory mountains to complete the deal – pulled the plug on its deal soon after the Warner board of directors said it determined Paramount’s $31-per-share offer for the entire company was superior to Netflix’s bid for Warner’s movie and television studios and HBO Max streaming service.

“We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match,” Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement. “This transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” the pair said. Assuming regulators approve, and they will, Paramount will own not only Warner Bros. and HBO, but also many popular cable networks including the nevertrump collective known as CNN, TNT, TBS and Food Network. The deal would represent a major ground shift for the entertainment industry, which is trying to adapt to seismic shifts in audience habits and technology. “

Once our Board votes to adopt the Paramount merger agreement, it will create tremendous value for our shareholders,” said Warner Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav. As the WSJ notes, the culmination of the months-long process marks a stunning come-from-behind win for Paramount, whose overtures had previously been rebuffed at every turn by Warner. After multiple unsolicited bids from Paramount last year, Warner opened a sale process that ended with Netflix as the winning suitor. Netflix in December signed a deal to buy Warner’s studios and HBO Max for $27.75 a share, or $72 billion. Of course, anyone who had been paying attention, and sensed which way the political winds blow, would have known the outcome as far back as December.

Shortly after, Paramount launched a hostile takeover effort, going directly to shareholders with a $30-per-share bid for the whole company, including the cable networks Netflix didn’t want. When Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired control of Paramount last August, going after Warner became his top priority. Paramount was seen as too small to compete against deep-pocketed giants such as Disney, Netflix and Amazon. Since announcing its deal with Warner, Wall Street has punished Netflix stock which lost over $170 billion in market value since last September, when Netflix was first seen – by those who don’t know how to read online betting markets – as a potential bidder for Warner, through this past week.


But then earlier this week, Paramount submitted its revised bid of $31 a share, or about $81 billion, just around the time Trump’s DOJ started sniffing around Netflix’s business model. The offer included an increased $7 billion termination fee that Paramount would pay if the transaction failed to close due to regulatory concerns. Paramount said it would foot the bill for the $2.8 billion breakup fee Warner would owe Netflix. Additionally, Paramount accelerated the timing of its proposed “ticking fee” of 25 cents per share, which it would pay to Warner shareholders for each quarter its deal hasn’t closed, to start after Sept. 30 instead of in January.

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Ukraine is where Russis woke up.

• Ukraine Marked This Major Shift In Global Politics (Lukyanov)

Four years ago, Russia’s decision to launch a military operation in Ukraine stunned almost everyone, including supporters and critics alike. Few believed Moscow would take such a drastic step. For decades, the prevailing assumption in global politics had been that force was no longer a legitimate way to resolve disputes. When military action did occur, it was wrapped in euphemisms such as humanitarian intervention and the defense of human rights. In practice, this meant that military power was considered acceptable only when used to reinforce the existing international order, the liberal world order, and therefore only by its architects, above all the United States. Russia broke that rule.


The operation in Ukraine was the culmination of contradictions that emerged after the Cold War. Moscow had long opposed NATO’s eastward expansion and the systematic dismissal of its security concerns. These objections were formally laid out in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s memorandum of December 2021, which called for a revision of the principles underpinning European security since 1990. This was also an implicit admission of failure. Russia had been unable, through diplomacy alone, to secure respect for its interests. The previous model of relations with the West had reached its end. Any new model would require a fundamental reordering of the international system, just as East-West relations once shaped the entire global structure during the Cold War. Ukraine, for reasons both historical and geopolitical, found itself at the center of this

Four years on, Russia’s immediate objectives have not been fully achieved. The operation has lasted far longer than anyone anticipated. Yet the world itself has undeniably changed. The Ukraine conflict did not cause these changes, but it accelerated processes already underway. Russia’s actions demonstrated something many suspected but few dared to test: Western power has limits. Despite dire warnings from Washington, most countries outside the US alliance system refused to join punitive measures against Moscow. They chose their own interests instead. This came as a shock to the Biden administration, which attempted to revive a Cold War framework of “free world versus tyranny.” That effort failed. The problem was not rhetoric, but reality.

Many states important to the US neither met the criteria of the so-called “free world” nor showed any enthusiasm for pretending they did. As Western pressure failed to halt Russia’s campaign, perceptions of a broader crisis in global authority only deepened. By 2023-24, Moscow had reinforced an alternative vision of international cooperation, notably through BRICS and similar groupings. These were not ideological alliances, but pragmatic ones. Serving as signs of a world increasingly organized around choice rather than loyalty.The real turning point came with the change of administration in Washington. The liberal world order was no longer treated as a sacred structure to be preserved, but as an obstacle to American national interests.

US dominance remained the goal, but it was redefined in bluntly transactional terms: securing material advantages and extracting value wherever possible. Where the Biden administration sought to maintain the old system, albeit unsuccessfully, the Trump administration speaks openly about restoring Western power without the institutions or courtesies that once accompanied it. At the Munich Security Conference this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that Americans are “not interested in polite managed decline of the West.” The message was clear. The US has entered a struggle for a new division of the world, and intends to act while its accumulated advantages still give it leverage

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As an ad campaign, pretty brilliant. But Germany is NOT a muslim country. Europe has been Christian for 2000 years. Europeans should honor and respect their ancestors a lot moe than they do at present. Europeans are losing their identity and indeed themselves. And they don’t even see it. They just let islam take their countries.

• McDonald’s Germany HIDES Food Ads During Ramadan (MN)

McDonald’s latest marketing stunt in Germany syncs billboards to show empty packaging by day and full meals only after sunset, drawing backlash for prioritizing a minority’s religious observance over the broader customer base. As Ramadan unfolds, McDonald’s Germany has rolled out a campaign that effectively erases tempting food visuals from digital billboards during fasting hours, a move seen by critics as yet another concession to cultural shifts driven by mass immigration.The fast food chain’s digital out-of-home posters display empty fries containers and burger boxes throughout the day, filling them with food images precisely at sunset when Muslims break their fast.

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2026686539888001397

According to Newsweek, the ads carry the message “Happy Ramadan” and use sun-synced data tied to local prayer times to trigger the switch from empty to full.

The post sparked sharp reactions online. One user remarked: “What a great way to ignore the majority of your customers ????” Another called it: “This is a sign that your country has been conquered without a shot fired.” A third questioned: “Great idea if you are in the Middle East. What about the non-Muslims? Or do we not count any more?”This campaign echoes recent events underscoring tensions around cultural accommodation in the West. Just days ago, videos of thousands of Muslims gathering for Ramadan prayers in New York City’s Times Square went viral, with observers labeling it a “disturbing display” amid chants of “Allahu Akbar.” Professor Gad Saad quipped sarcastically: “What’s the big deal!? Just a bunch of pious men praying to Allah. I’m sure that it will all work out.”

That incident is tied to broader controversies, including Rep. Randy Fine’s response to activist Nerdeen Kiswani’s claim that dogs are “unclean.” Fine announced the “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act,” aimed at withholding federal funds from areas banning dogs as pets, highlighting concerns over cultural shifts in regions with expanding Muslim communities. Across the Atlantic, a similar dynamic played out in London, where a Metropolitan Police officer defended a Christian preacher’s right to free speech against an angry crowd in Whitechapel, declaring: “In this country, we have freedom of speech.” She added: “I understand that you guys don’t want to hear it, so I would just recommend that you walk away and don’t listen to him. He’s not in your home.”

The episode raised questions about inconsistent policing, contrasting with past arrests of preachers like Pastor John Sherwood for expressing biblical views on family. These developments paint a picture of Western institutions—from corporations to law enforcement—yielding ground to avoid offense, often at the expense of longstanding traditions and majority norms. In Germany, home to millions of Muslim residents following waves of migration, such gestures risk alienating the wider public while fueling debates over integration. As globalism pushes for unchecked diversity, moves like McDonald’s billboard tweak serve as reminders that true coexistence demands mutual respect, not one-sided surrender. Defending core Western values remains essential to preserve the freedoms that built these societie

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Jennings AI Pipelines https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/2027386792878444921?s=20 Glenn Beck

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle September 20 2025

Sep 202025
 
 September 20, 2025  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  59 Responses »


Paul Gauguin Blue Trees (Your Turn Will Come, My Beauty!) 1888

 

• Charlie Kirk’s Tour To Continue, Including Stop At Utah State (CB)
• The Power of God Compels You! (James Howard Kunstler)
• Senate Passes ‘National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk’ Resolution (ET)
• The Real Story Behind Jimmy Kimmel’s Firing (ZH)
• Trump Requests Supreme Court Intervention in Lisa Cook Removal from Fed (CTH)
• Drone Attack Claims Meant To Derail Ukraine Peace Talks – Zakharova (RT)
• Poland’s Attempt To Blackmail China Will Hurt Itself Most (MoA)
• Trump Admits Possibility Of US Government Shutdown From October 1 (TASS)
• US Senators Introduce Bill To Transfer Frozen Russian Assets To Kiev (TASS)
• Medvedev Slams EU’s Ukraine ‘Compensation’ Plan, Vows Response (TASS)
• Kremlin Replies After Trump Says ‘Putin Let Me Down’ (RT)
• EU Names Member States Still Importing Russian Gas (RT)
• EU Spent €8.7 Billion On Russian Imports In Three Months (RT)
• India Ramping Up Russian Oil Imports Amid US Trade Talks (RT)
• How The West Screwed Itself In Energy Geopolitics (Doshi)
• Larry Ellison To Become Most Powerful US Media Mogul Ever – NYT (RT)

 

 

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1968878332008706498

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1969041696940859805

 

 

 

 

We’ve had 10 days for Charlie. That seems about right. Tomorrow’s funeral will be the spectacular culmination. In many religions, once the body is in the ground, it’s time to party, so the deceased arrives in a good mood.

• Charlie Kirk’s Tour To Continue, Including Stop At Utah State (CB)

Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, announced that his “American Comeback Tour” would continue. “Our campus tour this fall will continue,” she said. “There will be even more tours in the years to come. AmericaFest here in Phoenix this December will go on. It will be greater than ever. The radio and podcast show that he was so proud of will go on. And in a world filled with chaos, doubt, and uncertainty, my husband’s voice will remain. And it will ring out louder and more clearly than ever. And his wisdom will endure.” Tyler Bowyer, chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, confirmed that the tour would continue this fall, including a stop at Utah State University on Sept. 30.

A new release from law enforcement suggests a political motive in the killing of Charlie Kirk. Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said accused gunman Tyler Robinson, 22, texted his transgender roommate, urging him to “drop everything” and read a note he had left under his keyboard. “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” the note read, according to charging documents. “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” he added in his texts, referring to Kirk. Furious Republicans have pushed back on the left-wing narrative that Robinson was somehow tied to President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. They have also called out Democrats for days after Kirk’s assassination over their years-long use of harsh rhetoric to describe Trump and his supporters, calling them “Nazis,” “fascists,” “homophobes,” and “threats to democracy,” among others.

In that vein, tensions flared on Fox News’ The Five on Monday after co-host Greg Gutfeld forcefully rejected fellow co-host and lefty Jessica Tarlov’s attempt to frame political violence as a “both sides” issue in the wake of the assassination. Gutfeld opened by noting a one-sided trend. “What is interesting here is, why is only this happening on the left and not the right? That’s all we need to know,” he said. Tarlov interjected, pointing to other recent incidents of political violence, including the killing of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and other attacks that have targeted Democrats. Gutfeld immediately cut her off, raising his voice. “None of us were spending every single day talking about Mrs. Hortman. I never heard of her until after she died.

And the… Don’t play that bulls—t with me. There was no demonization, amplification about that woman before she died. It was a specific crime against her by somebody who knew her.” The back-and-forth escalated as Gutfeld rejected the premise of equivalence between Kirk’s assassination and other killings. “The both sides argument not only doesn’t fly, we don’t care. We don’t care about your both sides argument. That s—t is dead,” he said. He framed the dispute as one between reality and rationalization. “On your side, your beliefs do not match reality, so you’re coming up with these rationalizations, like, ‘What about this,’ or, ‘What about that?’ We’re not doing that, because we saw it happen. We saw a young, bright man assassinated and we know who did it. We are not coming up with rationalizations. We are calm, we are honest, and we are resolute. We’re not defensive.”

Gutfeld argued that left-wing rhetoric had created the conditions for violence. “If you sat around and you defended the mutilation of children, you’re not the good guys. If you sat 600, 700 cases of harassment against Republicans and you said, ‘But what about this? What about this?’ And then you see this murderer after calling somebody a fascist, you realize, ‘Maybe I’m not the good guy.’” He added that Kirk’s assassin, Robinson, had been influenced by what he called “direct-to-consumer nihilism” and radical ideologies. “He was a patsy. He was under the hypnotic spell of a direct-to-consumer nihilism, the trans cult,” Gutfeld said. “If you can decide that biology is false, you can agree that murder is okay and that humanity’s expendable.”

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“You have no idea the fire you have ignited.” – Erika Kirk.

• The Power of God Compels You! (James Howard Kunstler)

He was about as fine a young man as you could have dreamed up in a country so busy disgracing itself, Jesus-like in quality, if not in exact manner. Jesus, after all, was not a family man. But then there was nothing supernatural about Charlie Kirk. He was vividly of this time and place on earth. Now, in death, you can imagine him up on a mural in the post office. They’ve gone and turned him into legend, like Davy Crockett, Joseph Smith, Abe Lincoln. Yeah, it goes that deep. The Woke-Jacobin Left broke into a happy-dance when they heard the news, and I bet 90-percent of them didn’t even know what Charlie was about, except that their minders had painted a bullseye on him and somebody hit it. They have forgotten what their country is about, too. They have unwittingly acted-out Biblical-grade wickedness.

Jimmy Kimmel didn’t just tell a bad joke about the president — “This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish” — he made a Judas of himself. He demonstrated exactly what it means to betray whatever remains of goodness in this land. You are at a loss to understand how bad it got, years of officially enforced insanity, absurdities jammed down your craw, treasonous mischief, vile abuses under color-of-law (Tina Peters still rots in jail in Colorado!), and, lately, gunning down whoever stands in their way. You look at an old, established political party and you begin to see actual demons. You understand that destroying the country might not be enough for them. At this point, nothing will save the Democratic Party from itself. It will not fade quietly into irrelevance like the Whigs did in the 1850s.

No, you are witnessing something more like spontaneous combustion, a conflagration of the vicious and unholy. If you happened to watch Kash Patel in the Senate Judiciary Committee the other day going at Adam Schiff, what you saw was an actual exorcism. Mr. Patel said, “You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate. You are a disgrace to this institution and an utter coward. You continue to lie from your perch and put on a show so you can go raise money for your charades. You are a political buffoon at best! I challenge you to say anything credible to the truth. Go ahead and run to the cameras where you wanna go now!”

He might as well have just said: “I cast you out, unclean spirit, along with every satanic power of the enemy, every specter from hell, and all your fell companions. . . .” In the process, Mr. Patel reminded Senator Schiff that he is Director of the FBI now and, well. . . things have changed. Perhaps other Senators who have trafficked in sedition and malicious perfidy — say, Mark Warner on the Intel Committee — viewed these goings-on with a twinge of dread for what is coming. Notice that no one on the Judiciary Committee dared move to hold Mr. Patel in contempt, because what he said is self-evidently true, and they all know it. Senator Schiff is, of course, already under investigation for mortgage fraud, which is inconvenient enough, but before long he will have to answer graver charges for offenses against the nation, along with many co-conspirators in and out of office.

His over-speaking the witness (Mr. Patel) in committee the other day was the sort of climactic mummery you see in movies when the iniquitous are brought low in an official proceeding — think the babbling Bryan character in Inherit the Wind or Captain Queeg in the Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Schiff knows he is cooked and Mr. Patel just flambéed him. If Mr. Trump had any qualms about turning the full force of the law on this party and its demonic confederates in government and the old news media, then you can safely assume that after Charlie Kirk’s murder every lever of power will be used to get them all into courtrooms under fair and correct proceedings with the basic aim of laying out the truth of what has happened to our country, so that everyone can see what it was.

By the way, and in case you missed it, Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Martin, on or about September 5, visited Tina Peters in her cell in the Colorado State Prison at Pueblo. Peters (who turns 70 today), the former Mesa County Clerk convicted in 2024 of nine felony counts related to a security breach of voting equipment (stemming from efforts to “prove” 2020 election fraud claims), was sentenced to nine years in prison. The DOJ has filed a “review” of her conviction in federal court. I wouldn’t want to be Jena Griswold, Colorado Secretary of State, who spearheaded Tina Peter’s prosecution for daring to voice concern over election fraud.

Then, just this week, the same Ed Martin paid a call to the Fulton County, GA, election headquarters to initiate federal grand jury proceedings to access 148,000 ballots held under seal and unexamined in a county warehouse since the 2020 election. The ballots have long been suspected of irregularities and possible fraud. “Joe Biden” won the state by 11,799 votes out of 5,017,000 cast (a 0.23% plurality), and thus the national election — as did both of Georgia’s Democratic senators, Jon Ossof and Raphael Warnock.

The post -Charlie Kirk America is a new reality. Prepare accordingly.

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They need a Charlie Kirk Day under the same conditions as Martin Luther King Day.

• Senate Passes ‘National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk’ Resolution (ET)

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution on Sept. 18 expressing support for Oct. 14, 2025, to be designated a “National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk,” the conservative commentator who was assassinated during an event at a Utah university on Sept. 10. The resolution, introduced by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), recognizes Kirk’s contributions to civic education and public service. The date coincides with what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday. “Charlie was taken from us in a disgusting act of political violence on September 10, 2025, but his legacy lives on,” Scott told the Senate floor before the resolution’s passage. In his remarks, Scott described Kirk as a “good man” whose life was “shaped by his faith and the idea that in America, debate and discussion are crucial to the betterment of our country.”

“We have the opportunity to carry on his memory by believing in the power of our ideas, discussion, and the values of our nation,” he added. The simple resolution encourages educational institutions, civic organizations, and citizens to observe Oct. 14, 2025, “with appropriate programs, activities, prayers, and ceremonies” promoting civic engagement and the principles that Kirk championed. A simple resolution is used to express the sentiments of a single house and does not create a federally mandated holiday. Kirk’s death has been mourned at vigils and memorial services across the country, where students and community members have gathered to honor his life. This included vigils in Salt Lake City, Washington, Houston, Phoenix, Florida, and cities around the world.

A similar resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.). House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will pass the resolution to honor Kirk and to condemn the “political violence that led to his untimely passing.” “Charlie Kirk was more than a conservative thought leader. He was a fearless warrior of free speech, faith, and the principles that make America the greatest country in the world,” Patronis said on Sept. 16. Kirk, who co-founded nonprofit organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while speaking to a crowd of students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He is survived by his wife, Erika Kirk, and their two young children.

Erika was appointed CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA on Sept. 18. In a live-streamed message on Sept. 12, she emphasized that her late husband’s mission would continue. “I will never let your legacy die,” she said. “I’ll make Turning Point USA the biggest thing this nation has ever seen.” Authorities have arrested Tyler Robinson, 22, as the suspected gunman. He faces multiple charges, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, witness tampering, and committing a violent offense in the presence of a child.

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Dying on the hill of a show that nobody was watching … Seems quite desperate.

• The Real Story Behind Jimmy Kimmel’s Firing (ZH)

After Wednesday’s decision by Disney / ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for lying about the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the left (the architects of cancel culture) exploded with rage – saying that Kimmel’s firing was because major affiliate Nexstar needs the FCC to sign off on its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna. To recap, during Kimmel’s opening monologue on Monday, he suggested that Tyler Robinson – the 22-year-old charged in the fatal shooting at Utah University – was aligned with conservatives. “The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” By Wednesday, he was fired – leading to cries of censorship and ‘free speech’ by the left, which is hilarious.

Yet, according to an insider report by the Wall Street Journal, Kimmel’s ouster was prompted by an immediate revolt by viewers and affiliate networks including Nexstar, and concerned advertisers. “Advertisers and affiliates soon called the network expressing concern about Kimmel’s show… -WSJ” “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division. “Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr blasted Kimmel on Wednesday, telling podcaster Benny Johnson that Kimmel’s comments were “truly sick,” and that there’s a “strong case” for legal action against both ABC and Disney (ABC is a Disney subsidiary). “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” said Carr. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Yet according to Nexstar, Carr’s comments weren’t a factor. “The decision to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesman said.

Disney executives weighed whether Kimmel should address the controversy directly on Wednesday night’s program. According to people familiar with the matter, Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, and Chief Executive Robert Iger decided his planned remarks risked inflaming the situation further. After the conversation between Kimmel and Walden, she and other senior executives thought that the star’s approach could make the situation worse, people familiar with their conversations said. Executives also discussed staff safety, including threatening emails staff on Kimmel’s show had received after Carr’s remarks and the posting of some of their personal information online, the people said. Walden huddled with her team and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger before the two executives decided to temporarily take “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air, the people said. She then informed Kimmel of the decision. -WSJ

According to a person close to the show, Kimmel was planning to say that MAGA was purposefully twisting his words. So, another lie. Hollywood unions and producers criticized Disney’s move, calling it corporate capitulation. Damon Lindelof, co-creator of the ABC drama Lost, said he would not want to work for a company that sidelined Kimmel. Former late-night host David Letterman described the decision as “managed media” and warned of broader consequences. “We all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good,” David Letterman, the former late-night host, said at an Atlantic magazine event Thursday. Actor Ben Stiller said (and then blocked replies) “This isn’t right,” to which Elon Musk replied “He went full retard. Never go full retard.”

Democratic lawmakers and former President Barack Obama accused the Trump administration of censorship, while Trump applauded the decision and urged other networks to follow. “They give me only bad press, but they’re getting a license,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. Some media critics said Kimmel’s benching, coupled with CBS’s recent decision to cancel its late-night show hosted by frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert when its season ends in May 2026, will lead shows to self-censor. Kimmel’s removal comes as CBS prepares to sunset Stephen Colbert’s late-night program in 2026. Media critics say the combination of events could have a chilling effect on political commentary in late-night television.

“The degree of capitulation going forward will to some extent be a function of what kind of financial cudgel the administration has to wield,” said Lee Levine, a retired media lawyer. “Whenever the cudgel has been pretty significant, sooner or later the network caved in the recent past.” For Disney, the choice to take Kimmel off the air was the product of overlapping political pressure, regulatory risk, affiliate revolt, and advertiser anxiety – a convergence that left little room for delay. By late Wednesday afternoon, the decision was made: Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be “preempted indefinitely.” Of course, who was even watching?

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“..interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself..”

NNB: I love this Modern English: “Cook maintains she dindunuffin.”

• Trump Requests Supreme Court Intervention in Lisa Cook Removal from Fed (CTH)

U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer has filed a motion with the Supreme Court requesting intervention in a lower court ruling that blocks President Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
As noted in the filing, “As her removal notice observed, before taking office, Cook had made contradictory representations in two mortgage agreements a short time apart, claiming that both a property in Michigan and a property in Georgia would simultaneously serve as her principal residence. Each mortgage agreement described the representation as material to the lender, reflecting the reality that lenders usually offer lower interest rates for principal-residence mortgages because they view such mortgages as less risky.

When her apparent misconduct came to light, the President determined that Cook’s “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter” renders her unfit to continue serving on the Federal Reserve Board, and at a minimum demonstrates “the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question[her] competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.” App., infra, 29a. To this day, Cook has never attempted to reconcile these representations.”

“The Federal Reserve Act’s broad ‘for cause’ provision rules out removal for no reason at all, or for policy disagreement,” Sauer wrote. “But so long as the President identifies a cause, the determination … is within the President’s unreviewable discretion.”“The President may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself — and refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations,” Sauer wrote.

Cook maintains she dindunuffin.

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“Militants of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime are using drones to hunt defenseless people virtually around the clock, cynically targeting children, women, and the elderly”..

• Drone Attack Claims Meant To Derail Ukraine Peace Talks – Zakharova (RT)

Accusations of Russian drone violations of Polish airspace have been fabricated to demonize Moscow and derail the Ukraine peace process, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Polish officials have claimed that 19 Russian drones entered the country’s airspace on September 10, describing the incident as a deliberate provocation intended to test NATO’s response. Several western European governments have summoned Russian diplomats in protest while NATO has announced additional military measures. In a statement on Friday, Zakharova stressed that the episode follows a familiar pattern and that Russia has again been blamed without any investigation or evidence. She added that Warsaw has refused Moscow’s proposal for consultations and has dismissed facts provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.

“This is clearly yet another element in a large-scale information campaign aimed at demonizing Russia and mobilizing additional support for the Kiev regime, as well as an attempt to undermine a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict,” Zakharova said. Russian officials have said drones used in operations against Ukrainian military targets could not physically have reached Polish territory, and have suggested that the incident may have been a provocation by Kiev designed to pit NATO directly against Moscow. Zakharova also drew attention to the 20-nation “drone coalition” supplying Kiev, accusing its members of ignoring the daily reality of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian civilians.

“Moralizing and demarches by the coalition states regarding Russia’s alleged violations of international law are, in this context, blatantly hypocritical and inappropriate,” she said.According to the spokeswoman, Ukrainian drone attacks killed 16 people and injured 116 more in Russian regions over the summer and early September, with the victims including children. “Militants of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime are using drones to hunt defenseless people virtually around the clock, cynically targeting children, women, and the elderly” while deliberately targeting residential buildings, medical and social institutions, schools, and stores, Zakharova said. She added that by supplying such weapons, Western states have become complicit in the crimes committed by Kiev’s forces.

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“Poland is currently the recipient of the largest EU’s agricultural subsidies. Why should Germany and others continue to pay for those when Poland is impeding their trade?”

• Poland’s Attempt To Blackmail China Will Hurt Itself Most (MoA)

Over the last decade China developed the longest railway in the world running more than 8,000 miles from the east coast of China to Spain. The line crosses China, Russia, Belarus and Poland before splitting up into various European connections. Over the last year the railway has carried goods between China and Europe at a value of about $25 billion. The line is now blocked: “Poland’s decision to close its border with Belarus in response to thequadrennial Zapad-2025 military exercises and Russian drone incursion on September 10 has abruptly severed one of the fastest-growing trade arteries between China and the EU.”

“The impact of the closure of the Belarusian border is significant. The land corridor already represents 3.7% of all EU–China trade, up from 2.1% a year earlier. While that share remains small compared to seaborne shipments, its importance lies in speed and reliability.[..] Poland’s government underlined that the decision was driven by security imperatives rather than economics. Warsaw stated that “the logic of trade” was being replaced by “the logic of security,” underscoring the geopolitical risks attached to the Belt and Road corridors.” The Zapad-2025 military exerciss is long over but Poland continues to block the railroad. Its government is taking Europe’s trade with China as hostage to press China to change its policy towards Russia:

“Polish Foreign Minister RadosBaw Sikorski has said that during his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in a suburb of Warsaw on Monday 15 September, he will insist that China put pressure on Russia to stop “a hybrid operation” on Poland s eastern border, which has led to the closure of Beijing s key trade route to Europe. [..] Tensions escalated in May last year, when a Polish border guard was attacked and killed by a migrant. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Belarus and Russia of weaponising migration. Last year, Warsaw threatened to block the export route to the European Union to secure China’s help. Polish then-president Andrzej Duda raised the border tensions issue during his visit to Beijing, which “helped for a few months”, Sikorski said. “But unfortunately, this hybrid operation has intensified again. So, we need to talk again,” he added.

Interestingly the Chinese reporting on the meeting between Wang Ye and Sikorski did not mention the blocking: “At the 4th meeting of Poland-China Intergovernmental Committee on Monday, the two parties exchanged views on the importance of developing effective and economically competitive Eurasian transport corridors and the pivotal role of Poland in this process. The two sides recognized the benefits of providing mutually beneficial services for volumes of goods transported by railway, maritime and air means and of consolidating the existing and potential routes and logistical chains. Both sides expressed their willingness to ensure the safety and accessibility of the China-Europe Railway Express.”

I suspect that, behind the scene, less polite words were used by Wang Yi to express the Chinese view on Poland’s attempt the hinder the freedom of global trade. The migrants do not ride on Chinese freight trains. Blocking the railroad connection between China and Europe to prevent migrants from coming through Belarus is a very crude form of blackmail that will hit back. Should the blockade continue Poland will have to bury all hope of any future investment from China. Western European companies who depend on the railroad connection for their trade will also become more hostile to Poland. The coming defeat of NATO in Ukraine will contribute to the end of the military alliance. Poland’s outrageous behavior makes it more likely that the defeat in Ukraine will also help to break up the European Union. Poland is currently the recipient of the largest EU’s agricultural subsidies. Why should Germany and others continue to pay for those when Poland is impeding their trade?

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It’s all animosity as far as the eye can see. Perfect for a shutdown.

• Trump Admits Possibility Of US Government Shutdown From October 1 (TASS)

US President Donald Trump admitted that the federal government could shut down if Republicans and Democrats in Congress fail to reach a consensus on a bill to fund the government by October 1. “We’ll continue to talk to the Democrats, but I think you could end up with a closed country for a period of time,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’ll take care of the military, we’ll take care of Social Security, we’ll take care of the things that we have to take care of,” he noted, adding that in the event of a shutdown, “a lot of the things that Democrats fight for, which in many cases aren’t very good, will not be able to be paid for.”

“We’ll watch and see how they do with that to handle their constituents,” the US leader said, explaining that in order to continue funding the government, the relevant bill, previously approved by the US House of Representatives, must also be supported by the Senate. “But in the Senate, we have 53 Republicans in total, and we need 60 votes. That means we need Democrat votes [in favor of the bill drafted by Republicans]. And I don’t know if you can make a deal with these people,” Trump concluded.

Earlier on Friday, the Senate rejected two bills that would have provided continued funding for the federal government. The Republican-drafted bill, which had been approved by the House of Representatives, received the support of 48 lawmakers, while the Democratic-drafted bill received the support of 47 lawmakers. Thus, the Senate failed to pass a bill that would have prevented a potential government shutdown on October 1. According to American media, this sharply increases the likelihood of a shutdown, as Congress will be in recess next week.

In March, Trump signed a law to continue funding the federal government until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. This prevented a shutdown that had been expected on March 15. Such a shutdown would have resulted in the suspension of several government agencies and programs and the temporary suspension of salaries for hundreds of thousands of civil servants, many of whom would have been placed on unpaid leave. Since 1977, funding has been interrupted more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The longest shutdown, which occurred during Trump’s first presidential term, lasted 35 days, from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019.

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“Moscow will take immediate action in response to the possible confiscation of its assets in the West.”

• US Senators Introduce Bill To Transfer Frozen Russian Assets To Kiev (TASS)

A group of US senators from both parties introduced a bill that would require Washington to regularly transfer Russian assets frozen in the US to Kiev.According to a document published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, several amendments must be made to laws signed by former President Joe Biden in 2024. These laws allow the US government to confiscate Russia’s frozen assets and provide military assistance to Ukraine. According to lawmakers from both parties, the Washington administration, in particular, should begin transferring the aforementioned funds to Kiev “every 90 days.” It is assumed that the top US diplomat would allocate at least $250 million to Ukraine during this period.

According to the bill, the Washington administration should “implement a robust, sustained diplomatic campaign to persuade US allies” to also start using at least 5% of frozen Russian assets in Ukraine’s interests. US lawmakers estimate that this would initially amount to approximately $15 billion. Senators believe that other countries should transfer funds to Kiev at least once every 90 days. In addition, senators want to require the Washington administration to report on the amount of Russian sovereign assets, including frozen assets, held outside the United States.

Since the start of the special military operation, the EU, Canada, the US, and Japan have frozen approximately $300 billion in Russian assets. Of these, about $5-6 billion are in the US, with most in Europe, including $210 billion held at the Euroclear international platform in Belgium. As the Russian Foreign Ministry has warned, Moscow will take immediate action in response to the possible confiscation of its assets in the West.

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“The boundless folly of the authors of this project will not absolve them from responsibility or retribution.”

• Medvedev Slams EU’s Ukraine ‘Compensation’ Plan, Vows Response (TASS)

Moscow will deliver a firm response to the creation of yet another Russophobic structure within the Council of Europe aimed at extracting “compensation” from Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on his Max channel.”The closer we approach the moment of our ultimate victory over the Kiev neo-Nazis, the further into its own cosmos this strange and senseless organization – the Council of Europe – drifts. Our withdrawal from this discriminatory farcical entity was by no means accidental. A truly psychedelic draft convention has now emerged, proposing the creation of an international claims commission for Ukraine,” he said.

De facto, Medvedev continued, the initiative represents an attempt to establish, under the “umbrella” of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, “yet another anti-Russian quasi-judicial body aimed at extracting from [Russia] compensation for alleged ‘consequences of aggression against Kiev.’” He added, “our firm response to it will not be long in coming. The boundless folly of the authors of this project will not absolve them from responsibility or retribution.”

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“I’m willing to do other things, but not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia,”

• Kremlin Replies After Trump Says ‘Putin Let Me Down’ (RT)

The “emotional” attitude of US President Donald Trump to the Ukraine peace process is “completely understandable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The US leader has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the state of the process lately, admitting that he had previously believed Ukraine “would be easiest” to resolve given his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He’s really let me down,” Trump said on Thursday. Asked for comment on Trump’s remarks, Peskov signaled that Moscow understands his frustration, given the US president’s personal investment in trying to settle the hostilities.

“We assume that the US and President Trump personally maintain their political will and intention to continue their efforts to facilitate a settlement in Ukraine. Therefore, of course, President Trump is quite emotional, so to speak, about this issue. This is completely understandable,” Peskov told reporters on Friday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov touched upon Trump’s remarks in an interview with Russia’s Channel One, suggesting his disappointment stems from his business-like approach to politics. The US president is “a man of action, deals, and business, as he himself constantly emphasizes,” Russia’s top diplomat said.

“When President Trump says he’s disappointed… it’s partially explained by the fact that he wants quick solutions,” Lavrov stated. “In some areas, this may work; in others, it’s unlikely.” In recent weeks, the US president voiced his displeasure with the lack of progress in negotiations, threatening new sanctions on Russia. In the past few days, he has repeatedly reaffirmed his willingness to impose more restrictions on Moscow, but urged Washington’s European partners to halt their purchases of Russian oil first. “I’m willing to do other things, but not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia,” Trump said on Thursday.

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“..the economies of EU countries have already lost €1.3 trillion ($1.5 trillion) due to reduced Russian gas supplies..”

• EU Names Member States Still Importing Russian Gas (RT)

Eight EU countries continue to import Russian gas, media cited European Commission energy spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen as saying. Earlier on Friday, Brussels unveiled plans to ban Russian energy imports to the bloc. Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain are still receiving Russian supplies, either by pipeline or in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Itkonen added that the European Commission does not have data on the shipments’ ultimate end users. Despite repeated pledges to cut dependence, around 19% of the EU’s gas imports still come from Russia – down from about 45% before 2022.

Reuters noted that Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France import LNG, while pipeline deliveries through TurkStream reach Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. With Nord Stream pipelines disabled by sabotage in 2022 and transit via Ukraine halted this year, TurkStream remains the only direct route for Russian pipeline gas into the EU. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday that the bloc intends to end imports of Russian LNG from January 1, 2027, as part of new sanctions proposals. At present, there is no blanket ban, with restrictions limited to certain terminals and re-exports.

Earlier this year, Brussels dropped the idea of an outright LNG embargo after resistance from several member states, including Hungary and Slovakia, but in May set out a roadmap to phase out Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.Moscow has maintained that every new wave of restrictions primarily harms the very countries that initiate them. Presidential aide on international economic affairs, Kirill Dmitriev, said in June that the economies of EU countries have already lost €1.3 trillion ($1.5 trillion) due to reduced Russian gas supplies.

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“..this is the true cost of the EU’s anti-Russian agenda.” “Russophobia is an expensive obsession..”

• EU Spent €8.7 Billion On Russian Imports In Three Months (RT)

EU member states imported €8.7 billion ($10.2 billion) worth of Russian goods in the first three months of 2025 alone, Bild has reported, citing data from the German Economic Institute. In the first quarter of this year, the EU-Russia trade balance was slightly skewed in Moscow’s favor, meaning that the bloc purchased more from its eastern neighbor than it sold. The German media outlet singled out natural gas imports, accounting for €4.4 billion, and crude oil at €1.4 billion as the top two items being imported by Russia to the EU In the wake of the Ukraine conflict escalation in February 2022, the bloc declared its intention to cut economic ties with Moscow. While imports of Russian gas and oil have dropped significantly since, a number of EU nations still source a large proportion of their energy supplies from Russia.

Several member states have watched their industries lose ground globally after switching to costlier alternatives. Also topping the list in early 2025 were Russian fertilizers, iron and steel, as well as nickel, according to Bild. Earlier this year, the European Commission proposed its RePowerEU Roadmap that envisages a complete phase-out of all Russian energy imports by the end of 2027. Hungary and Slovakia, both heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies, have strongly opposed the plan, saying that it would undermine their respective energy security. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto accused certain member states earlier this month of “hypocrisy,” claiming that they are still buying “Russian oil secretly” via Asian intermediaries.

In August, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged that his country was “not just in a period of economic weakness, we are in a structural crisis of our economy,” citing falling earnings by Germany’s major automakers. Commenting on the bloc’s economic woes back in April, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “this is the true cost of the EU’s anti-Russian agenda.” “Russophobia is an expensive obsession,” she concluded.

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They’re not going to stop.

• India Ramping Up Russian Oil Imports Amid US Trade Talks (RT)

Indian refiners intend to continue purchasing Russian crude to meet rising fuel demand, even as New Delhi restarts trade talks with the US for a bilateral deal, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. India’s imports of Russian oil are likely to remain strong for November and December deliveries, although volumes may fall short of recent highs, the media outlet said, citing people familiar with the procurement plans. Deliveries of Russian crude to India rose by 5.6% in August to 1.6 million barrels per day (mbd), according to data from analytics firm Kpler. New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil have drawn the ire of the US, which has slapped 25% punitive tariffs on India, in addition to 25% levies imposed after the two countries could not arrive at a trade deal.

At a press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had imposed “sanctions” on India, a country he claimed to have a close relationship with, in an effort to help bring an end to the Ukraine conflict. ”When I found out that the European nations were buying oil from Russia… And, as you know, I am very close to India, I am very close to the prime minister of India. I spoke to him the other day, I wished him a happy birthday. We have a very good relationship. He put out a beautiful statement, too… But I sanctioned them,” Trump said.

Before Trump’s comments on Thursday, India’s chief economic adviser, V. Ananatha Nageswaran, said he felt the US may soon scrap the penal import tariff on Indian goods and also cut the tariff to 10-15% from the existing 25%, according to a Reuters report. A delegation led by US Trade Representative for South Asia Brendan Lynch held a new round of negotiations with Indian officials in New Delhi on Monday. Following the talks, India’s Commerce Ministry characterized the discussions as “positive and forward-looking.”

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In 1,000 different ways.

• How The West Screwed Itself In Energy Geopolitics (Doshi)

The recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, China, offered vivid optics of a shifting global order. Images of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping sharing smiles and warm embraces spoke volumes about a realignment that few could have predicted at the start of 2025. Against the backdrop of a “binding memorandum” for the Power of Siberia 2 (POS-2) pipeline supplying Russian natural gas to China, this summit was no mere public relations exercise. The summit marks a profound shift in global energy geopolitics, one that underscores Europe’s slide into irrelevance, the competitive headwinds facing US LNG exports and the spectacular failure of former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski’s vision of US strategic supremacy over Russia largely constructed during the tumultuous 1990s.

The United States, in its pursuit of Eurasian hegemony, has alienated a critical ally in India, pushed Russia and China closer together, and left Germany — once an industrial powerhouse — prostrate. This is a tale of hubris, miscalculation and unintended consequences. The Tianjin summit crystallised a new geopolitical reality. The warm camaraderie among the leaders of India, Russia, and China —three of the world’s five largest economies — signalled a growing alignment, not just in rhetoric and optics but in tangible energy partnerships. The “binding memorandum” for POS-2, a 50 billion cubic meter pipeline to deliver gas from Russia’s Yamal fields to China via Mongolia, is a cornerstone of this realignment.

Unlike the existing Power of Siberia 1, which draws gas from Irkutsk (north of Mongolia), POS-2 taps into the same Arctic reserves in Yamal that once fuelled Germany’s industrial might for half a century. For decades, German prosperity rested on a bargain: cheap Russian gas in exchange for high-value German manufactured exports. This was the essence of Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik and the foundation of Germany’s rise as Europe’s economic powerhouse. Russia’s pivot to Asia – accelerated by Western sanctions since 2014 (after the annexation of Crimea) and intensified after the 2022 Ukraine invasion – is now consolidating. With POS-2 and the expansion of existing pipelines, Russia could supply China with up to 100 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually after 2030 when the new pipeline would be up and running.

This is significantly less than the 150 bcm Russia once exported to Europe at its peak. Furthermore, the price for Russia’s natural gas sold to a price-sensitive China will be materially less than what it received from its European customers. But this re-orientation, while costing Russia lost revenues from lower prices and volumes, significantly alleviates Russia’s economic security after the Nordstream pipeline sabotage. It also reduces China’s reliance on seaborne LNG, which is typically two to four times as expensive as piped gas. Critically, this reduces China’s vulnerability to US naval dominance in chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and Straits of Malacca through which all Middle East gas exports to China must pass through.

[..] The results of the sanctions regime have been contrary to what was predicted. In 2022, European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen said that the “Russian industry was in tatters” and it was “taking chips from dishwashers and refrigerators to fix their military hardware”. Von Der Leyen is eating crow now as Germany, France and the UK teeter on the edge of economic and political collapse while Russian shows little sign of being in “tatters”. Russia has pivoted East to forge energy and trade ties with China and India as well as other countries such as Turkey and Brazil.

The POS-2 deal, though not yet a finalised sales and purchase contract between buyer and seller, signals Russia’s success in finding alternative markets for its gas. The “binding memo” still lacks details on price, ‘take or pay’ terms, tenor of the long-term contract and relative contributions to capital costs. Nevertheless, the POS-2 memorandum signed in Tianjin shows that China is now willing to overcome its longstanding reservations over greater dependence on Russia’s energy resources. The gas that powered German factories and made the country the world’s manufacturing export powerhouse will now underpin China’s ambitions for continued economic dominance.

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“..giving Trump “an extraordinarily powerful media ally..”

• Larry Ellison To Become Most Powerful US Media Mogul Ever – NYT (RT)

Billionaire Larry Ellison, 81, is set to become the most powerful media magnate in US history, the New York Times has claimed. In a Thursday opinion piece, the outlet lamented that one of the world’s richest men, and a supporter of US President Donald Trump, is preparing to take control of major American media. The founder of Oracle already holds a large stake in CBS and Paramount through his son David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which closed an $8.4 billion merger with Paramount last month, creating Paramount Skydance Corporation. Within weeks of the merger, Paramount Skydance signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion contract to broadcast and stream Ultimate Fighting Championship events. UFC’s chief executive Dana White, a longtime Trump supporter, spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

”The effect of Mr. Ellison’s gambit could be every bit as consequential, if not more so, than what happened a generation ago when Rupert Murdoch… created what has become Fox News, intensifying our political polarization,” the NYT wrote. Ellison’s expected push into Hollywood and big media could go further than other tech moguls’ forays, according to the outlet. Plans also include joining a consortium with Oracle and Andreessen Horowitz to take a major stake in TikTok as part of a Trump-backed deal. The Ellisons are also reportedly preparing an all-cash bid of up to $80 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. studios.

Ellison could soon control “a powerful social media platform, an iconic Hollywood movie studio and one of the largest content streaming services,” as well as two of the country’s leading news outlets, giving Trump “an extraordinarily powerful media ally,” the NYT claimed. Trump has repeatedly argued that most mainstream outlets, including the NYT, are left-leaning, with bias against conservatives. He has accused them spreading false stories about him to undermine his presidency.

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Elon

https://twitter.com/RickyDoggin/status/1968867510805021009

rfk

Putin
https://twitter.com/RussiaIsntEnemy/status/1968728683767570509

Banff
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1968914318457487776

 

 

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