Aug 022025
 


Samuel Colman The Edge of Doom 1836-38

 

Trump ‘Prepared’ For Nuclear War With Russia (RT)
Trump Moves Two Nuclear Subs Closer To Russia After Medvedev Tweets (NYP)
White House Makes Trump Nobel Peace Prize Claim (RT)
The Artificial Demon (James Howard Kunstler)
The BRICS Hit Back: Trump’s Old Tricks Meet New World (Sibal)
Chuck Grassley Releases Declassified John Durham Annex (CTH)
Durham Annex Bombshell Exposes New Twist in Russian Collusion Hoax (Margolis)
Sitting US Senator Now Implicated in Russia Hoax Cover-Up (Margolis)
Orban Hammers ‘Weak and Ridiculous’ EU (RT)
The Art of the Defeat: Kamala ‘Writes’ Memoir About 2024 Campaign (Margolis)
Marco Rubio Discusses Current Geopolitical Events and Russia Hoax (CTH)
Why Western Education Is Doomed (Marsden)
Ghislaine Maxwell Is Quietly Moved To Cushy New ‘Club Fed’ Prison (NYP)
Rule by Quacks (Paul Craig Roberts)
Pediatricians Organization Says Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions for Children (Dick)
CDC Recommended Vaccine Schedule 1986 vs. 2019 (CHD)
‘Dead zone’ In Gulf of America Shrank Sharply In 2025 (JTN)

 

 

Sachs

Ritter

Tuberville

CBDC
https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1951190664194171030

MAGA

Brennan

 

 

The next time you dislike your life, remember it’s all about perspective. I have a friend who reads 2-3 books a week, works out twice a day, has no financial worries, and has people who want to have sex with him all the time. And yet he constantly complains about how much he hates prison.

 

 

 

 

“Well, you just have to read what he said. He was talking about nuclear. When you talk about nuclear, we have to be prepared. And we’re totally prepared..”

Why does Trump react to tweets? He can just as easily ignore them.

Trump ‘Prepared’ For Nuclear War With Russia (RT)

President Donald Trump has said he cannot treat any talk of nuclear weapons lightly and that the US must always be “totally prepared” for any potential confrontation, responding to what he described as an inappropriate “threat” made by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump explained his alleged order to deploy two nuclear submarines closer to Russian waters, saying the move was necessary to ensure national security. “Well, we had to do that. We just have to be careful. A threat was made, and we didn’t think it was appropriate,” Trump said. “So I do that on the basis of safety for our people. A threat was made by a former president of Russia, and we’re going to protect our people.”

Earlier on Friday, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that he had ordered the deployment of two US nuclear submarines to what he called “the appropriate regions,” in reaction to remarks made by Medvedev on social media. Trump condemned the former Russian leader’s rhetoric as “foolish and inflammatory,” warning that “words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences.” The dispute escalated after Trump referred to Medvedev as a “failed” leader and warned him to “watch his words.” Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, responded with a scathing message warning against provoking Moscow too far, referencing the legendary ‘Perimetr’ automatic nuclear retaliation system, which dates back to the Soviet era and is presumed to still exist in Russia.

“And about India’s and Russia’s ‘dead economies’ and ‘entering very dangerous territory’ – well, let him remember his favorite movies about ‘the walking dead,’ as well as how dangerous the fabled ‘Dead Hand’ can be,” Medvedev wrote. Though Russia has never officially confirmed the existence of the system, it is widely believed by Western analysts to serve as a last-resort deterrent in the event of a decapitating strike on the Russian leadership. The White House and the Pentagon have not provided any further comments, and Trump’s claim about the submarine redeployment remains impossible to verify, since the exact locations and patrol areas of US nuclear submarines are among the military’s most closely guarded secrets.

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“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care..”

Trump Moves Two Nuclear Subs Closer To Russia After Medvedev Tweets (NYP)

President Trump said Friday he had ordered two nuclear submarines moved closer to Russia in response to “highly provocative statements” by a top Kremlin official. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, had taunted Trump directly in a recent post on X, saying “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war.” “I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without revealing the location of the vessels. “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,” he added. The Pentagon referred requests for additional information to the White House, which declined to comment on the record.

Medvedev, a close ally of Putin and deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, taunted Trump in a series of posts on X. Trump had threatened Russia with secondary sanctions if Moscow does not stop its ongoing war on Ukraine by Aug. 8. Medvedev wrote in his post that Trump “should remember two things” as he issues his threats on Moscow — that “Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran” and that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.” “Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!” Medvedev mocked. The former Russian president often makes aggressive remarks on social media and is less diplomatic toward the US than Putin in his public comments. Medvedev served as president from 2008 to 2012 and was widely seen as a puppet of Putin, who at the time was only allowed to serve two terms in a row.

While the Russian president has held off on commenting on Trump’s upcoming sanctions, Medvedev has taken to X numerous times to directly condemn the threat. “Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care,” Medvedev wrote on July 15. Medvedev, 59, was even more belligerent under former President Joe Biden, arguing in November of 2024 that if the US were to send nuclear weapons to Ukraine, then Russia would have grounds to respond with an atomic attack. He also raged against Trump directing the US military to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities, writing on June 22, “at this rate, Trump can forget about the Nobel Peace Prize — not even with how rigged it has become. What a way to kick things off, Mr. President. Congratulations!”

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As the kids are dying in Gaza. Can the Nobel really sink any lower?

White House Makes Trump Nobel Peace Prize Claim (RT)

US President Donald Trump should have received a Nobel Peace Prize years ago, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed, citing his role in multiple international peace agreements. Despite several nominations during his first presidency, Trump has not won the award. At a briefing in Washington on Thursday, Leavitt said Trump had intervened in conflicts such as the Thailand-Cambodia dispute by threatening to withhold US trade deals, which she claimed had led to a swift ceasefire. “We had about one peace deal every month,” Leavitt stated. Trump has repeatedly argued he deserves the award, saying in June that he has been overlooked because “they only give it to liberals.”

Several foreign leaders have recently nominated the US president for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed Trump a nomination letter earlier this month, crediting his role in mediating a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Before any ceasefire talks began, however, the US launched a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in June, aiming to cripple Tehran’s capabilities. Trump later said he didn’t want to cite Hiroshima or Nagasaki as examples, but claimed that just as those bombings had ended World War II, the 2025 strike had ended the Iran conflict. The comment drew sharp criticism from Japanese officials, who called it morally reckless and offensive.

Cambodia’s deputy prime minister also nominated Trump for his role in calming a border dispute with Thailand earlier this year. The Pakistani government publicly backed his nomination, highlighting his involvement in the India-Pakistan ceasefire talks. India, however, has firmly rejected claims of US involvement in the ceasefire, dismissing the notion of any third-party mediation. Trump had vowed to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours if re-elected – a promise he later walked back, suggesting a 100-day timeline instead and calling the original claim “a little bit sarcastic.” In July, his administration approved advanced arms deliveries to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles funded by EU NATO allies. Russia condemned the move as a provocation and accused the US of escalating the conflict under the guise of support.

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“With apologies for bluntness, the mainstream press fucked around, now the mainstream press is finding out.” —Matt Taibbi

The Artificial Demon (James Howard Kunstler)

By now, it must be kind of obvious that Mr. Putin of Russia was staged-up into a demon for the convenience of Hillary Clinton — resulting in a decade of deformed US foreign relations that has dragged us to the edge of a third world war. Nice work, Democratic Party! I will proffer a harsh truth to you: the best outcome in Ukraine would be for Russia to win the war as expeditiously as possible, neutralize and disarm the place, change-out its illegitimate government, and let it revert to being the frontier backwater it was for eight decades previous, when it was not a problem for the other nations of the region. Mr. Putin has put up with our country’s psychotic nonsense with remarkable patience. The idea that he seeks to conquer western Europe was a preposterous confection of the neocon crazies in our State Department and Intel “community.”

The long game for the neocon crazies has been to use NATO as the instrument to break up Russia and gain control of its resources. This was after Secretary of State James Baker told Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, in discussions over German reunification, that “not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.” Starting in 1999 with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, sixteen additional nations were induced to join NATO, encroaching on Russia’s borders, with new military bases and missiles. It was a stupid game.

And it failed. Ukraine was the final gambit. The US destabilized it on purpose in 2014, installed a series of governments we could control, made it a ward of US taxpayers, sprinkled it with bio-weapons labs and money laundries, and gave Mr. Zelenskyy the go-ahead to start shelling the Donbas provinces adjacent to Russia. After years of that, Mr. Putin moved to stop it in 2022. The development of drone weapons, along with US-based satellite targeting tech, has prolonged the war. But, of course, the Russians, too, have modernized their own weapons arsenal to match that. The current state of things is a slow Russian grind to defeat a Ukraine that has run out of available fighting men and is apparently short of all weapons besides its drones.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump promised to end the Ukraine war in a New York minute. That proved more difficult and complicated than he realized. He said lately in so many words that he has “lost patience” with Mr. Putin for failing to join a ceasefire as a prelude to peace talks. Accordingly, Mr. Trump set a fifty-day deadline and then shortened it to twelve-days, running out on August 8-9 (accounting for time zones). Failure to comply will cause Russia to suffer a new round of sanctions. Mr. Putin has shrugged off that threat, saying that time has proven Russia to be sanction-proofed.

Some kind of game is afoot in all this. Neither Trump nor Putin could possibly want to turn this fiasco in Ukraine into a greater war that will destroy what’s left of Western Civilization. You might find this startling, but for all our efforts to anathemize Russia, it is still a part of Western Civ. After its soviet experiment failed, Russia wanted above all to reintegrate economically with Europe, but the neocons here and the globalists of Europe would not allow that. They became determined instead to wreck Russia — a vicious ethos likely to have emanated from the UK, with its lingering imperial delusions. (For Germany, it has brought only economic suicide.)

You might suspect that Mr. Trump has to pretend to be tough with Russia to counter the still-lingering suspicion — germinated by the Hillary Clinton campaign a decade ago — that he is “Putin’s puppet.” By coincidence, strange or not, that trope is now unraveling with the release of the RussiaGate intel archive that the rogue DOJ and FBI squirreled away since the Trump 1.0 term in office. Mr. Patel found a trove of documentary evidence in a burn-bag in a back room at FBI headquarters. DNI Tulsi Gabbard retrieves more previously-hidden evidence by the day from the vast NSA data base. It ought to be clear now that the initial Hillary Clinton campaign prank metastasized into the worst perversion of abusive government power in our country’s history, and is yet on-going.

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“Trump positions himself as a peacemaker and openly aspires to win a Nobel Peace Prize, while at the same time bombing Iran and assisting Israel in perpetuating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

The BRICS Hit Back: Trump’s Old Tricks Meet New World (Sibal)

US President Trump has rattled Washington’s ties with New Delhi to an unexpected degree. Countries, including, India were prepared for rough diplomatic weather after Trump won his second term, but did not anticipate the kind of onslaught he has unleashed on the global system and diplomatic norms. Trump’s latest attack on India and the BRICS countries explains this underlying dynamic. The BRICS aspire to play a greater political, economic and financial role in global affairs. This aspiration is based on shifts of economic and concomitant political and financial power towards the so-called emerging powers or middle-income countries. BRICS countries have already begun to use their national currencies in trading with each other as much as possible. The use of draconian financial sanctions on Russia by the West has accelerated this process.

Today, almost all trade operations between Russia and China are conducted in rubles and yuan. India too is encouraging the use of its national currency in payment transactions with select countries. A significant portion of the trade between India and Russia is now settled using a rupee-ruble mechanism. Washington cannot use secondary sanctions to prevent countries, including India, from using the US dollar to trade with Russia and then oppose de-dollarization if these countries are compelled to use alternative payment mechanisms. If the US continues to weaponize the dollar, it will inevitably lead to the very “de-dollarization” that Trump is concerned about. India has officially disowned any de-dollarization agenda – not the least because the US is its biggest trade partner in goods and services. India seeks more investments and technology transfers from the US. In many ways, New Delhi’s ties with Washington are the most important for achieving its growth and developmental goals.

But that does not preclude India from establishing other partnerships to reduce over-dependence on one country, balance its external relations and hedge against the excesses of US foreign policy. Trump has exacerbated the disruptions caused by Washington’s frequent use of sanctions as a political weapon by also weaponizing tariffs. He is convinced that by imposing arbitrarily determined tariffs on imports from other countries he will compel them to enter into negotiations with the US to obtain relief by lowering their high tariffs on American products. But India on Wednesday sent a clear message: it is determined to protect the interests of its own businesses, farmers and people. Trump’s use of tariffs as lever, like in the case of Brazil, where he has cited President Lula’s treatment of his predecessor Bolsanaro as reason for imposing 50% levies, is being closely monitored by the world’s governments.

Trump has repeatedly targeted BRICS since his return to the Oval Office. He had threatened the countries with tariffs if they contonie to pledge to create a new common currency or support any alternative to the US dollar. Trump appeared to harbor the illusion that BRICS was ”dead” following his threats – which have now materialized into action. In reality, the BRICS summit held in Brazil this July showed no visible signs of intimidation. On the contrary, such overt displays of American economic coercion may well drive more countries toward alliances that seek to challenge the dominance of any single global power. The administration in Washington appears to lack realism in its assessment of global trends. Trump positions himself as a peacemaker and openly aspires to win a Nobel Peace Prize, while at the same time bombing Iran and assisting Israel in perpetuating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

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“Obviously, the DNC and the people running the Open Societies Foundation (Soros) knew what the Clinton campaign was doing; they also knew the FBI was assisting the Clinton campaign.”

Chuck Grassley Releases Declassified John Durham Annex (CTH)

The FBI, CIA, ODNI and DOJ declassified the annex to the John Durham investigation of the origin of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. The declassified annex was released today by Senator Chuck Grassley. First, the basic outline. The John Durham Annex outlines how the CIA received information in mid-2016 from a “credible foreign source,” talking about Hillary Clinton’s campaign working with the FBI to manufacture a Trump-Russia conspiracy, as an October surprise. Beginning in 2014 and continuing through 2016, Russian hackers gained access to the email accounts and main accounts of the Soros Foundation/Open Societies Foundation who was working with the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign. What the hackers discovered was a trove of information showing how the Clinton Campaign was constructing a smear job against Donald Trump with the manufacturing of a fraudulent Trump-Russia conspiracy.

The emails and communication showed the Clinton Campaign was directly working with the FBI to create the smear. A CIA source gained custody of the Russian analysis of the information. The information was then shared with the CIA, who evaluated the Russian framework as “authentic” and “valid.” The CIA then shared that information with the FBI, who said the information was “unreliable.” Obviously, the FBI held a conflict of interest because the information received outlined their misconduct. So, the FBI claimed the information gained from the hack was false and likely Russian propaganda. However, the CIA deemed it credible because it was clearly happening in real time. Additionally, this information was then used in the summer of 2016 by CIA Director John Brennan to brief President Obama on what the Russians knew about the Clinton Campaign working with the FBI to create this false political narrative.

Part of what the Russians knew from their intercepts was that President Obama would not support the Clinton campaign directly, but Obama had instructed Attorney General Loretta Lynch to assist Hillary Clinton’s efforts. Lynch would work with FBI officials to exonerate Hillary Clinton from her email server scandal and then greenlight the FBI to assist with the Trump-Russia smear. The 29-page annex then goes into details about who was communicating with whom and what the joint Clinton-FBI agenda was. The information inside the Durham Annex is remarkable in that it shows the planning of the Clinton Campaign to use Fusion GPS and the FBI to smear Donald Trump with the false Trump-Russia narrative.

The declassified Annex has two central components. First, it walks through the evidence against Clinton and the FBI organizing the operation. Second, it then takes a rather remarkable look at how the FBI manipulated the information around Carter Page to support the Clinton/FBI operation. All of the information contained within the declassified annex is not entirely new; however, the clear and compelling evidence it provides highlights the operation as it unfolded. Obviously, the DNC and the people running the Open Societies Foundation (Soros) knew what the Clinton campaign was doing; they also knew the FBI was assisting the Clinton campaign.

The term “special services” in this context is the FBI.

Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect would then push the Trump-Russia narrative into the media. That’s exactly what happened.

I strongly suggest everyone to take the time to read carefully the 29-page declassified Annex. The entire outline of the operation to discredit candidate Donald Trump is within it. CIA Director John Brennan then briefs President Obama to tell him the Russians’ are aware of the op. The Obama administration then begins making moves to target Russia, as both an enhancement to the Clinton operation and as a defensive move to protect themselves from discovery as the operation continues.

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“..explosive allegations that the FBI may have been doing George Soros’ bidding during Operation Crossfire Hurricane.”

Durham Annex Bombshell Exposes New Twist in Russian Collusion Hoax (Margolis)

In a bombshell development that should rattle every American, newly declassified documents confirm what conservatives have said all along: the Trump-Russia collusion narrative wasn’t just baseless; it was a deliberate political hit job that the highest levels of the Obama administration orchestrated, with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign at the helm and the FBI eagerly playing along. But it gets worse. Buried in a classified annex to John Durham’s report, which is finally seeing the light of day after the Biden administration kept it under wraps, are explosive allegations that the FBI may have been doing George Soros’ bidding during Operation Crossfire Hurricane.

This intel, which Durham acquired and shared with a Senate committee, was reportedly so sensitive that whistleblowers say it never saw daylight until now. The hoax wasn’t just a smear campaign. It was a weaponized operation, and the American people were the targets. After Tulsi Gabbard declassified the annex, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley released it to the public this morning. And buckle up because if the testimony witnesses provided to Durham is accurate, the Soros Foundation wasn’t just tangentially involved in this political hit job; it was knee-deep in it. We’re talking elbows-in, fingerprints-all-over level involvement in what now looks like one of the most brazen abuses of power in modern political history. Just the News has the details:

“Newly-declassified so-called Clinton Plan intelligence included intercepted communications from a George Soros ally which suggested that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Donald Trump was plotting a “long-term affair to demonize” Trump by linking him to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and that the Clinton campaign expected that “the FBI will put more oil into the fire.” The revelations, including intercepted purported communications from Leonard Benardo, a top official at George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and communications by Clinton foreign policy adviser Julianne Smith, provide new insight into information that the U.S. intelligence community received in July 2016 – just before the FBI launched its politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The bombshell allegations about a plot to falsely link Trump to Putin in an effort to distract from Clinton’s classified emails scandal are found within a formerly classified but now largely-unredacted appendix from special counsel John Durham’s 2023 report on the origins and conduct of the Russiagate investigation.”

According to the newly declassified annex, U.S. intelligence, including the FBI, received information suggesting that Clinton personally approved a scheme to link Donald Trump to Russian hackers in order to distract from her own email scandal. And it was a Hillary-approved plan. “HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] approved [Campaign adviser Julie’s] idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections,” the email read. “That should distract people from her own missing emails.” The plot outlined how a Clinton adviser pushed a long-term plan to “demonize Putin and Trump,” using media outlets, CrowdStrike, and ThreatConnect to launder the narrative under the guise of cybersecurity analysis. Durham concluded that there’s credible evidence that the Clinton campaign’s plan to tie Trump to Russian hackers was real and that the campaign followed through with it.

“The office’s review of certain communications involving Smith provided possible additional support … to the notion that the Clinton campaign was engaged in an effort or plan in late July 2016 to encourage scrutiny of Trump’s purported ties to Russia, and that the [Clinton] campaign might have wanted or expected the FBI or other agencies to aid that effort (‘put more oil into the fire’) by commencing a formal investigation of the DNC hack,” Durham’s classified annex reads.These are not wild conspiracy theories. The documents have shattered the illusions of even the most stubborn deniers.

“Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton’s political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele Dossier and other means,” Sen. Grassley said in a statement. “History will show that the Obama and Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump. This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history.”

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“..Sen. Warner’s involvement marks a turning point. This scandal no longer stops with the intelligence agencies; it now reaches deep into Congress..”

Sitting US Senator Now Implicated in Russia Hoax Cover-Up (Margolis)

In recent weeks, a scandal of epic proportions has come to light, confirming that the Obama administration rigged intelligence to concoct the Russia collusion narrative against Donald Trump, and the conspiracy went all the way to the top: Barack Obama himself. This is no longer hearsay, thanks to two explosive document releases from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. They reveal a conspiracy coordinated between the highest levels of America’s intelligence community and the White House — an open assault on the presidency in retaliation for Trump winning the election. Barack Obama personally ordered the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment to rely on the notorious, unverified Steele Dossier, an opposition research hit job that even career analysts derided for its lack of credibility.

The dossier’s only real value was its utility: fueling Democratic cries of collusion and giving the legacy media a weapon to batter the new administration. Inside the agencies, voices of dissent were crushed. Analysts warned the dossier was junk, but their objections were overruled. The process became not about facts but about constructing a narrative at any cost. Amid this corruption, a senior analyst tried to do the right thing. He witnessed former CIA Director John Brennan warping intelligence and sought to raise the alarm. But speaking the truth in a rigged game is a recipe for punishment. When the analyst tried to report his concerns, he was promptly silenced by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), then the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose interest in oversight seemed to depend on political expedience.

Then, intimidation from the very top set in. According to notes obtained by The Federalist, then-DNI James Clapper’s right-hand man threatened the analyst’s career, making it clear that professional advancement hinged on parroting the party line. “The notes made public for the first time today recount a conversation the top analyst in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) had with an unnamed superior who worked closely with the then-Director James Clapper, according to sources familiar with the document,” explain Margot Cleveland and Mollie Hemingway. According to a person familiar with the notes, the analyst documented his recollection of the conversation on March 31, 2023 — more than six years after the conversation occurred.

The delay, The Federalist’s source explained, occurred because the analyst’s efforts to share his concerns, first with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC), and then later with Special Counsel John Durham and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, proved unsuccessful. Only later did the analyst receive an inquiry for more information about his claims, leading to the drafting of the summary of his recollections. Those notes capture the analyst claiming in early January that his supervisor told him, “There is reporting you are not allowed to see,” adding that “if you saw it, you would agree” with the ICA. After noting he concurred “with varying confidence with most of the 2017 ICA’s Key Judgements,” the analyst explained that he “would need to review any reporting myself in order to consider it.”

“You need to TRUST ME on this,” Clapper’s crony countered, stating to the analyst he “would need to demonstrate [his] ability to ‘outgrow’” his refusal to sign off on assessments he did not share, in order to be recommended for a promotion. The analyst remained firm, according to the notes, which led his exasperated superior to reply, “I need you to say you agree with these judgements, so that DIA will go along with them!” Unlike the left’s celebrated whistleblowers, this analyst was ignored, stonewalled, and silenced for daring to expose the truth. Despite him raising concerns with the IC Inspector General, John Durham, and even Sen. Warner, no one listened — because his story threatened the power structure in Washington. For over six years, the same institutions that claim to protect democracy worked to bury his warnings. Now, the documents show something far worse than mere misconduct: a deliberate scheme to weaponize U.S. intelligence against a sitting president and subvert the will of the voters.

The Russia hoax wasn’t a mistake; it was a slow-motion coup dressed up as national security. And unless the people behind it face real consequences, there can be no restoring trust in the intelligence community. The evidence is now overwhelming that senior Obama officials didn’t just manufacture the Russia collusion hoax, but they actively worked to suppress anyone who challenged it. With the help of a sitting U.S. senator, they silenced a whistleblower to keep their deception buried. Sen. Warner’s involvement marks a turning point. This scandal no longer stops with the intelligence agencies; it now reaches deep into Congress. Lawmakers weren’t merely complicit; they played an active role in a coordinated plot to mislead the American people and undermine a duly elected president.

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“We are what we are. Weak, ridiculous, loud-mouthed. We educate others, but we have no strength when it comes to negotiating. We show neither talent nor ability. So it’s the worst combination.”

Orban Hammers ‘Weak and Ridiculous’ EU (RT)

The European Union’s recent dealings with the US have reinforced Brussels’ image as a weak yet overconfident partner prone to lecturing others, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Speaking on Friday during his regular interview on Kossuth Radio, Orban took aim at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her handling of trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump. He claimed she had failed to secure a balanced agreement and made side commitments – such as pledging to purchase US arms, presumably for Ukraine – that she had neither the authority to offer nor the capacity to fulfill.

Orban described the resulting trade arrangement as “an economic own goal,” and suggested the EU had lost ground in a trade dispute that remains unresolved. The Hungarian leader, a frequent critic of Brussels, said the bloc’s foreign policy approach was incoherent and ineffective, painting a picture of dysfunction at the top. “We are what we are. Weak, ridiculous, loud-mouthed. We educate others, but we have no strength when it comes to negotiating. We show neither talent nor ability. So it’s the worst combination.”

He likened EU diplomacy to “a little hamster huddling in the corner, hissing at everyone, arguing with everyone, humiliating ourselves, and then still thinking we are in a position to lecture others about human rights, democracy, and behavior.” Orban was commenting on a perceived diplomatic slight toward top EU officials during their visit to Beijing earlier this week. Members of the delegation, led by von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, were seen exiting shuttle buses at the airport upon arrival before eventually being offered individual transportation. The footage shown by Chinese media prompted speculation that the reception was not in line with the dignitaries’ rank.

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“There are currently no details about what kind of advance she got for the book, which probably means it was really small.”

The Art of the Defeat: Kamala ‘Writes’ Memoir About 2024 Campaign (Margolis)

It looks like Kamala Harris isn’t fading away into the sunset just yet. Brace yourselves; she’s writing a book. After tanking so spectacularly in the 2024 election that her future in public office is all but shot, she’s chosen the classic liberal consolation prize: the post-defeat memoir. Harris has announced a memoir about her failed presidential campaign, titled “107 Days.” The video announcement, which she delivered with all the forced earnestness we’ve come to expect from the former vice president, attempts to reframe her presidential campaign as something noble, inspirational, and worth commemorating. You can already tell this book will be 300-plus pages of agonizing prose, blaming everything and everyone for her defeat, except Harris herself.

Even the title, “107 Days,” feels like a not-so-subtle attempt to plant the idea that she never really had a fair shot. It’s not her fault she burned through over a billion dollars and lost every swing state; it was just “the circumstances” that made victory impossible. The whole thing reads like a preemptive excuse masquerading as a reflection. “Just over a year ago, I launched my campaign for President of the United States,” she said. “107 days traveling the country fighting for our future, the shortest presidential campaign in modern history.” Apparently, Harris has spent her post-office time reminiscing about those three and a half months of political mediocrity, cobbling together what she calls a “journal” into a book. “Since leaving office, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on those days,” she said, explaining she was “pulling my thoughts together… in essence writing a journal that is this book.”

Of course, she insists the book offers more than just an extended therapy session. She promises a “behind-the-scenes account” and insists it’s filled with “candor and reflection,” which in Harris-speak likely means recycled talking points and plenty of passive voice. “I believe there’s value in sharing what I saw, what I learned, and what I know it will take to move forward,” Harris added, though she neglected to explain how losing to Donald Trump by a landslide in 2024 qualifies her to lecture anyone on how to “move forward.”In other words, it’s the spiritual sequel to Hillary Clinton’s “What Happened?” She goes on to claim that one “truth” kept coming back to her while supposedly writing this book. That truth? “Sometimes the fight takes a while.” A poetic way of saying: I lost, but I’m still pretending it mattered.

Finally, Harris assured her dwindling fan base, “I will never stop fighting to make our country reflect the very best of its ideals, always on behalf of the people.” Translation: I’m not done chasing relevance. In what feels like the latest stop on Kamala Harris’s never-ending farewell tour minus the applause, “107 Days” is shaping up to be yet another entry in her growing library of hollow slogans and forced gravitas. “I cannot wait for you to read this,” she declares, which is ironic, because most Americans won’t. Simon & Schuster is publishing the book, which comes out in September. There are currently no details about what kind of advance she got for the book, which probably means it was really small.

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“..an evaluation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the frustration of the Trump administration to find a way to settle the issues..”

Marco Rubio Discusses Current Geopolitical Events and Russia Hoax (CTH)

Secretary of State/National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, appears for an interview with Brian Kilmeade to discuss recent events in the world of geopolitics in addition to the events now surfacing with the declassification of the Trump-Russia hoax documents. The beginning of the conversation starts with an evaluation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the frustration of the Trump administration to find a way to settle the issues. The second subject is the status of U.S-India relations now that trade negotiations have stalled. The conversation then moves to the ongoing declassification of information. At 07:30 of the interview Rubio is asked about his previous SSCI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Rubio talks about his prior role as Chairman of the SSCI and the efforts of the Intelligence Community to manipulate public opinion.

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Try woke spelling.

“Shur, whi not rite a sentins like this won, wear awl the wurdz sound rite but luk lyke they flunked owtta speling skool?”

Why Western Education Is Doomed (Marsden)

In France, the attempt to institute a similar post-knowledge educational system has seen middling results. High school math classes were ditched entirely in 2019 under President Emmanuel Macron. But the outcome was such a disaster that it was reversed for the 2023/24 school year. This year’s French final standardized exams for high schoolers and middle schoolers, which have just taken place, saw the French media publish a bunch of instructions that were given to the test graders to dummy things down for France’s future Nobel Prize hopefuls. “The first is to not deduct points for spelling or grammar mistakes. What matters is not compliance with the spelling code, but intelligibility,” said France’s RTL.

Oh, so something like this, you mean? “Shur, whi not rite a sentins like this won, wear awl the wurdz sound rite but luk lyke they flunked owtta speling skool?” Because that fits the stated criteria. Imagine an email from that colleague when he or she gets into your workplace.mnnApparently, graders were also told not to remove all points when a student is asked to conjugate a verb – and then gets the root of the same verb that was just listed wrong. Maybe the verb they replaced whatever was right in front of their eyes with doesn’t even exist, but the ending is right. Only half the points are taken away for that.

The final philosophy exam had to explain the meaning of the word “preponderant,” because it was apparently considered too hard for kids about to head off to university, RTL reports. The media outlet also pointed out that graders of the oral exam, read from a text that the student has 20 minutes to prepare, were only to focus on the student’s performance at the end of the session, to account for nerves. This may or may not have been read off a student’s page:

“Hai, my naym is Sam. I hav two bruthurs and wun sistur. We lyk to play soker togethur. My mum cuks gud fud and my dad lukes to wach mooviz wif us. I lyk drawin and playin vidyo gayms. Thansk for lisnin! Do I pas high skool now?” Oui, oui! A+. Every day seems to bring a new revelation about how the West’s Wokémon Academy is doing. In a world where feelings outrank facts and spelling is optional, it’s anyone’s guess what our ‘graduates’ will actually know and be equipped with for real life. But hey, at least their safe spaces are well-furnished.

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This is after talking to Deputy AG Todd Blanche for 9 hours this week.

”Maxwell is supposed to be locked up until 2037. Yet inmates “typically only go to a camp if you have just a couple years left,”

Ghislaine Maxwell Is Quietly Moved To Cushy New ‘Club Fed’ Prison (NYP)

Notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has quietly been moved to a cushy Texas prison camp known as Club Fed as she tries to hash out a deal to divulge her sordid secrets about late pedophile ex Jeffrey Epstein. The 63-year-old convicted child sex trafficker was transferred from a lockup in Florida to the minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed to The Post on Friday. No reason was given for the move, but it comes days after she met Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche twice while trying to seek immunity and a deal to spill her secrets about Epstein. The notorious madam — who is serving 20 years for helping Epstein groom and abuse underage girls — will now be neighbors with white-collar criminals, including Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced fraudster convicted of ripping off investors in her now-defunct blood-testing company Theranos.

“It’s one of the best prisons for anyone to go to,” Josh Lepird, regional vice president for the prison officers’ union that includes Maxwell’s new camp, told the Houston Chronicle on Friday. “When you hear people say ‘Club Fed,’ they’re talking about places like FPC Bryan. ”Maxwell is supposed to be locked up until 2037. Yet inmates “typically only go to a camp if you have just a couple years left,” Lepird told the outlet. “But if someone is a cooperating witness, they can request a lower security level.”

Her unexpected move from Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee was handled directly by BOP officials, rather than US Marshals, according to the New York Sun, which said it included a “brief stopover” in FCI Oakdale in Louisiana. No reason was given for the unexpected move. Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Marcus, also declined to elaborate, saying, “We can confirm that she was moved but we have no comment.” However, the sudden transfer comes a week after Blanche — the DOJ’s second-in-command and formerly President Trump’s defense lawyer — huddled with the disgraced British socialite and her lawyer at the US Attorney’s Office in Tallahassee.

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“Sit down with a double martini to help keep you calm, and try to think of even one American institution that serves a public interest..”

Rule by Quacks (Paul Craig Roberts)

Adam Dick of the Ron Paul Institute reports that the American Academy of Pediatrics last Monday called for mandated vaccinations of children for the full plethora of vaccines and the elimination of all exceptions. The irresponsible American Academy of Pediatrics served as despicable shills for Big Pharma’s murder for profit of children by insisting that every child be infected with the spike protein from the Covid vax. The academy’s support for mandatory vaccination of children with the 54 shots, many known to be toxic and dangerous and the cause of the extraordinary increase in childhood illnesses since the mass vaccination, fortunately for me after my generation, was imposed on naive parents, is proof that the American Academy of Pediatric is a collection of incompetent quacks on the take from profit-driven Big Pharma.

In my opinion, every member of the academy should be arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced for conspiracy to commit murder. American doctors are so indoctrinated by Big Pharma’s control over medical education and research that Americans can no longer trust their doctors. Americans can’t trust their hospitals either. Reports are emerging of hospitals harvesting for profit the organs of patients before they are dead. The value of money has replaced the value of life in American health care. We see it everywhere. For example, cancer cures such as Ivermectin and Fenbendzole are being suppressed in order to save the high profit chemotherapy and radiation treatment. It seems the entire purpose of medical research, 70% of which is funded by Big Pharma grants, is to protect Big Pharma’s control of health care practice.

Sit down with a double martini to help keep you calm, and try to think of even one American institution that serves a public interest. The health system serves profit. The educational system serves left-wing ideology by teaching white kids that they are racists and born into the wrong body and by replacing a merit-based society with DEI ideology. The military serves the power and profit of the military/security complex. Take it from here and extend the list. Is there any way short of massive violence for Americans to regain control over their lives?

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“Shots mandates for children are already widespread in America. But, that is not good enough for AAP. It appears determined to eliminate the ability of almost all parents to opt their children out of the mandates.”

Pediatricians Organization Says Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions for Children (Dick)

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) distinguished itself as an obsessive shots pusher and freedom theatener during the coronavirus crackdown. It was admonishing that children — who were at very minimal risk from coronavirus — be subjected to the quack practices of masking and social distancing to protect them until they became “fully vaccinated” with experimental coronavirus “vaccine” shots. The AAP was also calling on pediatricians to evangelize for giving these dangerous and ineffective shots to nearly all children in the age groups for which the United States government had approved the shots. Luckily for many American children, their parents resisted the AAP supported effort. But, many other parents, placing confidence in pediatricians that peddled the AAP line, went along.

While the coronavirus crackdown has receded into the past, the AAP, an organization claiming 67,000 members, is still pushing shots and threatening freedom on a grand scale. The latest example is the policy statement the AAP issued on Monday titled Medical vs Nonmedical Immunization Exemptions for Child Care and School Attendance. In the policy statement, the AAP endorses the presence of laws and regulations requiring children to receive “immunizations” as a prerequisite for attending school or daycare. Further, the AAP supports eliminating philosophical and religious based exemptions from such mandates — the means by which the vast majority of parents who have opted out across America have been able to protect their children from receiving some or all of the plethora of shots listed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) childhood vaccination schedule.

The only exemption basis, declares the AAP in its policy statement, should be “medically indicated exemptions to specific immunizations as determined for each individual student.” As this phrasing from the policy statement indicates, this medical exemption route turns out to deny exemption for most children and can even limit the applicability of medical exemptions that may be granted to just one or some of the mandated shots. Showing a child has already been hurt by shots is part of one of the limited routes to maybe obtain a medical exemption. Such an exemption will, by definition, be too late. As I wrote in April of 2023, the medical exemption for vaccines “could more accurately be called the mirage exemption” given that it is unavailable to almost all children.

The AAP policy statement further says that, even once granted, medical exemptions should have hanging over them the possibility of being revoked at any time. The policy statement directs that “all pediatric health care providers” should “recertify the need for these exemptions on a regular basis.” Here today, gone tomorrow. The AAP also appears to want to shut the door on any doctors who try to grant medical exemptions in any but the most stingy manner. The policy statement declares that “states and territories should develop policies to ensure that any medical exemptions are appropriate and evidence based.” It is not the doctor’s determination after all. Big Brother will be there to crack down on any doctor who swims against the current. Shots mandates for children are already widespread in America. But, that is not good enough for AAP. It appears determined to eliminate the ability of almost all parents to opt their children out of the mandates.

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Who finds this a good thing?

CDC Recommended Vaccine Schedule 1986 vs. 2019 (CHD)

In the early 1980s, children received three vaccines for seven illnesses—two combination vaccines (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella) and a polio vaccine—totaling two dozen doses by age 18. In the decade following 1989 (beginning soon after the NCVIA’s implementation), the CDC packed multiple doses of several more vaccines into the childhood schedule, including those for Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), hepatitis B (on the day of birth) and varicella (chickenpox), as well as a rotavirus vaccine (withdrawn a year after its introduction)

Next, in the first decade of the 2000s, the CDC recommended an even larger batch of new vaccines, going after not just children but also adolescents and adults: hepatitis A, HPV, meningococcal conjugate, pneumococcal conjugate, rotavirus (again) and zoster (shingles), along with an adult tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis booster (Tdap) and a massive expansion of influenza vaccine recommendations for all ages . At present, the childhood vaccine schedule requires almost six dozen doses through age 18 for sixteen diseases.

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We’re not all used to ‘Gulf of America’ yet.

‘Dead Zone’ In Gulf of America Shrank Sharply In 2025 (JTN)

The Gulf of America’s “dead zone” has shrunk significantly this summer, with scientists measuring a hypoxic area of just over 4,400 square miles — roughly a third smaller than last year and far less than the long-term average, federal officials announced Wednesday. The dead zone, a stretch of oxygen-depleted water that forms annually off the Louisiana and Texas coasts, is caused primarily by excess nutrients washing into the Gulf from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. This year’s zone, measured during a July 20–25 survey aboard the research vessel Pelican, was 4,402 square miles — 21% smaller than NOAA’s early-season estimate and the 15th smallest on record, according to NOAA-supported scientists from LSU and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

“This year’s significant reduction in the Gulf of America’s ‘dead zone’ is an encouraging sign for the future of this area,” said Laura Grimm, acting NOAA administrator. “It highlights the dedication and impactful work of NOAA-supported scientists and partners, and serves as a testament to the effectiveness of collaborative efforts in supporting our U.S. fishermen, coastal communities, and vital marine ecosystems.” The measured area is equivalent to roughly 2.8 million acres of bottom habitat temporarily made unavailable to marine life such as fish and shrimp due to low oxygen levels. That marks a 30% drop from 2024, when the zone spanned a massive 6,703 square miles — more than 1.3 times the long-term average and nearly 3.5 times larger than the target goal of 1,930 square miles set by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force.

Despite this year’s improvement, the five-year running average remains high at 4,755 square miles—still more than double the federal benchmark. Dead zones emerge when excess nutrients — mostly nitrogen and phosphorus from upstream agriculture and wastewater — fuel algae blooms. As algae die and sink, their decomposition consumes oxygen in bottom waters. Without sufficient oxygen, marine species must flee or perish.= In 2024, the area west of the Mississippi River experienced heavy hypoxia with extremely low oxygen readings and little water mixing, according to NOAA. “The stratification of warmer surface water over cooler, saltier bottom water was strong enough to prevent oxygen replenishment,” researchers wrote in a followup report.

Some bottom waters saw oxygen drop across the lower five meters of the water column. Even with relatively low chlorophyll readings — indicating modest live algae near the surface — researchers noted high concentrations of degraded algae and organic detritus near the seafloor, still enough to drive significant bacterial oxygen consumption. The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force, a coalition of federal and state agencies, has worked for over two decades to reduce nutrient pollution flowing into the Gulf. The EPA established a dedicated Gulf Hypoxia Program in 2022 to accelerate these efforts.

“The Gulf of America is a national treasure that supports energy dominance, commercial fishing, American industry, and the recreation economy,” said Peggy Browne, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Water. “I look forward to co-leading the work of the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force to assess evolving science and address nutrient loads from all sources.” So far, nitrogen loading from the Mississippi River has not declined since the 2001 adoption of the Hypoxia Action Plan, scientists noted. NOAA’s June 2025 forecast, which had predicted a dead zone of 5,574 square miles, was based on U.S. Geological Survey nutrient data from spring river flows and fell within model uncertainty ranges.

NOAA’s Coastal Hypoxia Research, Ocean Technology Transition, and Uncrewed Systems programs are working to improve monitoring and prediction tools. This year, several autonomous surface vehicles were deployed alongside ship-based crews to compare mapping methods. Researchers said ASVs may provide a more cost-effective way to track dead zones in the future. NOAA also partners with the Northern Gulf Institute and Gulf of Mexico Alliance to expand observational capabilities and state-level technical support.

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DOGE: regulations

IVM
https://twitter.com/newstart_2024/status/1951236472314450127

Pelosi
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1950982971533439364

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 122019
 


Jean-Francois Millet Harvesters Resting1850-53

 

Chelsea and Julian are in Jail. History Trembles. (Craig Murray)
Julian Assange Branded ‘Narcissist’ By Judge As He Faces US Extradition (Ind.)
They Will Punish Assange For Their Sins (Turley)
Assange ‘Direct Participant In Russian Efforts To Undermine West’ (Hill)
Tulsi Gabbard: Assange Arrest Is A Threat To Journalists (Hill)
Grave Threats To Press Freedoms (Greenwald, Lee)
5 Years (G.)
‘Rude, Ungrateful And Meddling’: Why Ecuador Turned On Assange (G.)
‘Swedish Software Developer’ Linked To Wikileaks Arrested In Ecuador (RT)
Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Died Today (ZH)
Democrats Call AG Barr’s ‘Spying’ Claim Conspiracy Theory (RT)
Shadow Banking Is Now A $52 Trillion Industry (CNBC)
May Hopes For Final Shot At Forcing Withdrawal Deal Through Parliament (Ind.)
UK Government ‘Halts No-Deal Planning’ After Committing £4 Billion (Ind.)
IMF Says Brexit Delay Means Businesses Face More Uncertainty (G.)

 

 

Former UK diplomat Craig Murray is quite upbeat.

Chelsea and Julian are in Jail. History Trembles. (Craig Murray)

If a Russian opposition politician were dragged out by armed police, and within three hours had been convicted on a political charge by a patently biased judge with no jury, with a lengthy jail sentence to follow, can you imagine the Western media reaction to that kind of kangaroo court? Yet that is exactly what just happened in London. District Judge Michael Snow is a disgrace to the bench who deserves to be infamous well beyond his death. He displayed the most plain and open prejudice against Assange in the 15 minutes it took for him to hear the case and declare Assange guilty, in a fashion which makes the dictators’ courts I had witnessed, in Babangida’s Nigeria or Karimov’s Uzbekistan, look fair and reasonable, in comparison to the gross charade of justice conducted by Michael Snow.

One key fact gave away Snow’s enormous prejudice. Julian Assange said nothing during the whole brief proceedings, other than to say “Not guilty” twice, and to ask a one sentence question about why the charges were changed midway through this sham “trial”. Yet Judge Michael Snow condemned Assange as “narcissistic”. There was nothing that happened in Snow’s brief court hearing that could conceivably have given rise to that opinion. It was plainly something he brought with him into the courtroom, and had read or heard in the mainstream media or picked up in his club. It was in short the very definition of prejudice, and “Judge” Michael Snow and his summary judgement is a total disgrace.

We wrapped up the final Wikileaks and legal team meeting at 21.45 tonight and thereafter Kristian Hrafnsson and I had dinner together. The whole team, including Julian, is energised rather than downhearted. At last there is no more hiding for the pretend liberals behind ludicrous Swedish allegations or bail jumping allegations, and the true motive – revenge for the Chelsea Manning revelations – is now completely in the open.

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Deport this clown.

Julian Assange Branded ‘Narcissist’ By Judge As He Faces US Extradition (Ind.)

Julian Assange has been branded a “narcissist” by a judge as he faces both a UK prison sentence and being extradited to the US. The Metropolitan Police said the Australian hacker was initially detained at the Ecuadorian embassy for failing to surrender to court. He had been summoned in 2012 over an alleged rape in Sweden, where authorities are now considering reopening their investigation into those allegations.After arriving at a London police station on Thursday morning, the 47-year-old was additionally arrested on behalf of the US under an extradition warrant.


Mr Assange was taken to Westminster Magistrates’ Court and found guilty of breaching bail hours later. He faces a jail sentence of up to a year. He denied the offence, with lawyers arguing that he had a “reasonable excuse” could not expect a fair trial in the UK as its purpose was to “secure his delivery” to the US. District Judge Michael Snow described the defence as “laughable”, adding: “Mr Assange’s behaviour is that of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests. He hasn’t come close to establishing ‘reasonable excuse’.” He remanded Mr Assange in custody ahead of a future sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court.

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“Assange will be convicted of the felony of causing embarrassment in the first degree.”

They Will Punish Assange For Their Sins (Turley)

The key to prosecuting Assange has always been to punish him without again embarrassing the powerful figures made mockeries by his disclosures. That means to keep him from discussing how the U.S. government launched an unprecedented surveillance program that scooped up the emails and communications of citizens without a warrant or probable cause. He cannot discuss how Democratic and Republican members either were complicit or incompetent in their oversight. He cannot discuss how the public was lied to about the program. A glimpse of that artificial scope was seen within minutes of the arrest. CNN brought on its national security analyst, James Clapper, former director of national intelligence.

CNN never mentioned that Clapper was accused of perjury in denying the existence of the National Security Agency surveillance program and was personally implicated in the scandal that WikiLeaks triggered. Clapper was asked directly before Congress, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper responded, “No, sir. … Not wittingly.” Later, Clapper said his testimony was “the least untruthful” statement he could make. That would still make it a lie, of course, but this is Washington and people like Clapper are untouchable. In the view of the establishment, Assange is the problem. So on CNN, Clapper was allowed to explain (without any hint of self-awareness or contradiction) that Assange has “caused us all kinds of grief in the intelligence community.”

Indeed, few people seriously believe that the government is aggrieved about password protection. The grief was the disclosure of an abusive surveillance program and a long record of lies to the American people. Assange will be convicted of the felony of causing embarrassment in the first degree. Notably, no one went to jail or was fired for the surveillance programs. Those in charge of failed congressional oversight were reelected. Clapper was never charged with perjury. Even figures shown to have lied in the Clinton emails, like former CNN commentator Donna Brazile (who lied about giving Clinton’s campaign questions in advance of the presidential debates), are now back on television. Assange, however, could well do time.

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Mark Warner conspired with James Comey to keep Assange from talking to the DOJ, as John Solomon revealed last June in How Comey Intervened To Kill Wikileaks’ Immunity Deal. Assange offered to prove there was no link to Russia in the DNC emails case. Now he remains silenced, and Warner can continue to make these crazy claims.

Assange ‘Direct Participant In Russian Efforts To Undermine West’ (Hill)

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) blasted Julian Assange on Thursday after the WikiLeaks founder was arrested in London, casting him as an ally in Russia’s efforts to influence politics in the U.S. and Europe. “Julian Assange has long professed high ideals and moral superiority. Unfortunately, whatever his intentions when he started WikiLeaks, what he’s really become is a direct participant in Russian efforts to undermine the West and a dedicated accomplice in efforts to undermine American security,” Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “It is my hope that the British courts will quickly transfer him to U.S. custody so he can finally get the justice he deserves,” Warner said, while praising the Ecuadorian government for withdrawing Assange’s asylum.


[..] Manning’s document dump contained approximately 90,000 Afghanistan War–related reports, 400,000 Iraq War–related reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs and 250,000 State Department cables between January and May 2010, many of which were labeled classified, according to Assange’s indictment.

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Now, Mark Warner represents the same party as Tulsi Gabbard does. And Hillary. If I were Tulsi, that would make me very uncomfortable.

Gabbard: Assange Arrest Is A Threat To Journalists (Hill)

Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) condemned the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday, calling the arrest a threat to journalists. “The arrest of #JulianAssange is meant to send a message to all Americans and journalists: be quiet, behave, toe the line. Or you will pay the price,” Gabbard tweeted. The Democrat’s remark came hours after police in London arrested Assange, citing charges he is facing in the U.S. Assange is accused of conspiring to hack into computers in connection with WikiLeaks’s release of classified documents from former Army private and intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.


The indictment filed under seal last year in Virginia and released Thursday alleges that Assange helped Manning crack a password stored on a Defense Department computer, which was connected to a government system that stored classified information. U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers have also voiced concerns about WikiLeaks’s actions during the 2016 election, when they published troves of hacked emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The U.S. has said that Russian hackers were behind stealing the emails. However, Assange has dismissed criticisms surrounding his actions, arguing he acted like other journalists would have by seeking to leak classified documents viewed as in the public interest.

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It’s all old hack. Pun intended.

Grave Threats To Press Freedoms (Greenwald, Lee)

The first crucial fact about the indictment is that its key allegation – that Assange did not merely receive classified documents from Chelsea Manning but tried to help her crack a password in order to cover her tracks – is not new. It was long known by the Obama DOJ and was explicitly part of Manning’s trial, yet the Obama DOJ – not exactly renowned for being stalwart guardians of press freedoms – concluded it could not and should not prosecute Assange because indicting him would pose serious threats to press freedom. In sum, today’s indictment contains no new evidence or facts about Assange’s actions; all of it has been known for years.

The other key fact being widely misreported is that the indictment accuses Assange of trying to help Manning obtain access to document databases to which she had no valid access: i.e., hacking rather than journalism. But the indictment alleges no such thing. Rather, it simply accuses Assange of trying to help Manning log into the Defense Department’s computers using a different user name so that she could maintain her anonymity while downloading documents in the public interest and then furnish them to WikiLeaks to publish.

In other words, the indictment seeks to criminalize what journalists are not only permitted but ethically required to do: take steps to help their sources maintain their anonymity. As long-time Assange lawyer Barry Pollack put it: “the factual allegations…boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source. Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges.” That’s why the indictment poses such a grave threat to press freedom. It characterizes as a felony many actions that journalists are not just permitted but required to take in order to conduct sensitive reporting in the digital age.

[..] The Obama DOJ tried for years to find evidence to justify a claim that Assange did more than act as a journalist – that he, for instance, illegally worked with Manning to steal the documents – but found nothing to justify that accusation and thus never indicted Assange (as noted, the Obama DOJ since at least 2011 was well aware of the core allegation of today’s indictment – that Assange tried to help Manning circumvent a password wall so she could use a different user name – because that was all part of Manning’s charges).

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The Guardian says Assange can get max 5 years. I don’t believe that for a moment.

5 Years (G.)

Can Assange appeal against an extradition decision?Yes, and there are many levels of appeal he can pass through before a final decision is made. In fact, this is exactly what happened to the request from Sweden. Assange challenged the decision to extradite him to Sweden all the way up to the supreme court, the highest court of appeal for civil cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. He can appeal against a judge’s decision to refer an approved extradition request back to the hme secretary and he can also appeal against a decision by the home secretary himself to execute that approved order. To give an idea of timescale, Assange presented himself to the Metropolitan police on the Swedish extradition request on 7 December 2010 and the supreme court hearing was held on 1 and 2 February 2012.

Can Julian Assange be charged with additional offences once he has been extradited to the United States? Normal practice is that anyone extradited can only be prosecuted in the country that sought them for the offences specified on the extradition indictment. That restriction is known as the rule of specialty. There are two possible but difficult-to-use exemptions. The first is that if it could be argued new information had come to light since his extradition, extra charges could conceivably be brought. “That almost never happens,” says Nick Vamos, the former head of extradition at the Crown Prosecution Service who is a partner at the London law firm Peters and Peters. “American prosecutors would also have to seek the consent of the UK to bring in further charges.”

The second exemption covers what happens after someone has been extradited, convicted and then chooses to remain in the country. Essentially the extraditing country has to allow the prisoner time to run away after they have served their sentence. “After a short period, however, usually two months,” Vamos explained, “anyone who remained in the same country would be deemed to be treated like a local citizen and could be charged for other offences”. Neither conditions are likely to be met in Assange’s case. “The US has only put one charge on the indictment and it carries the maximum term of five years in prison. Assange has the opportunity to assent to it. It’s relatively light sentence by US standards.”

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The Guardian must have a smear piece on Assange of course. This time they apparently could not locate Luke Harding, so they sent his stupid twin Dan Collyns. The two were responsible for the bombshell fake news piece on Manafort visiting Assange.

‘Rude, Ungrateful And Meddling’: Why Ecuador Turned On Assange (G.)

Ecuador’s decision to allow police to arrest Julian Assange inside its embassy on Thursday followed a fraught and acrimonious period in which relations between the government in Quito and the WikiLeaks founder became increasingly hostile. In a presentation before Ecuador’s parliament on Thursday, the foreign minister, José Valencia, set out nine reasons why Assange’s asylum had been withdrawn. The list ranged from meddling in Ecuador’s relations with other countries to having to “put up with his rudeness” for nearly seven years. Valencia said Ecuador had been left with little choice but to end Assange’s stay in its London embassy following his “innumerable acts of interference in the politics of other states” which put at risk the country’s relations with them.

His second point focused on Assange’s behaviour, which stretched from riding a skateboard and playing football inside the small embassy building to mistreating and threatening embassy staff and even coming to blows with security workers. Valencia said the whistleblower and his lawyers had made “insulting threats” against the country, accusing its officials of being pressured by other countries. He said Assange “permanently accused [embassy] staff of spying on and filming him” on behalf of the United States and instead of thanking Ecuador for nearly seven years of asylum he and his entourage launched “an avalanche of criticisms” against the Quito government. He referred also to the guest’s “hygienic” problems including one that was “very unpleasant” and “attributed to a digestive problem”.

But Assange’s deteriorating health was also major concern, the minister said, as he could not be properly treated in the embassy building. He added the fact the UK would not consider granting him safe conduct meant Ecuador faced the prospect of him staying “indefinitely in the diplomatic headquarters”. The minister went on to say Ecuador could not extend asylum to a person fleeing justice and there was no extradition request for Assange when Ecuador ended his asylum. The UK had offered sufficient guarantees of due process to Assange, Valencia added, and that he would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty.

Finally, there were “multiple inconsistencies” in how Assange had been granted Ecuadorean citizenship and his stay had proved very costly, the minister said. Ecuador had spent more $5.8m on its guest’s security between 2012 and 2018 and nearly $400,000 on his medical costs, food and laundry, he added. Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, had made little secret of his desire to evict Assange from the embassy building in Knightsbridge, west London, where he had lived since June 2012. Moreno has variously described Assange as a “hacker”, an “inherited problem” and a “stone in the shoe”.

In a video address on Thursday, he accused Assange of breaching the “generous” asylum conditions offered by Ecuador and of meddling in the internal affairs of other states. Moreno claimed Assange had installed forbidden electronic equipment in the embassy, had mistreated guards and “accessed the security files of our embassy without permission”. The final straw came “two days ago”, Moreno suggested, when WikiLeaks directly “threatened the government of Ecuador”. On Tuesday Assange’s legal team gave a press conference in which they accused Quito of illegally spying on him.

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2 for the price of one.

‘Swedish Software Developer’ Linked To Wikileaks Arrested In Ecuador (RT)

Ecuador’s Interior Minister has confirmed that a person who is alleged to have links to WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested as he attempted to take a flight to Japan. She also spoke of two ‘Russian hackers.’ Ecuador’s Interior Minister María Paula Romo said Thursday that a man was taken into custody in one of the airports as he was about to board a plane to Japan. There is little official information about his identity or the reasons for his arrest, with Romo telling a local radio station the individual was arrested on Thursday afternoon for the purposes of investigation. Shortly after Assange’s own arrest in London earlier that day, Romo hinted that the Ecuadorian government is about to unleash a crackdown on Assange’s supposed web of connections on the Ecuadorian soil.

She claimed that a “key” member of WikiLeaks, who is also “close to Julian Assange,” has been a resident of Ecuador for several years and has engaged in malicious activity to undermine the government. “We have sufficient evidence that he has been collaborating with destabilization attempts against the government, ” Romo said. The minister claimed that the individual used to accompany Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Rafael Correa government, Ricardo Patiño, on trips overseas. “Along with Ricardo Patiño he has traveled twice last year to Peru and also to Spain,” she said, adding that the two also took a trip to Venezuela in February this year one day apart.

While the Interior Ministry did not reveal the identity of Assange’s supposed helper, an anonymous official told AP that the arrested man was a Swedish software developer by the name of Ola Bini, a resident of Ecuador’s capital Quito. Bini appears to run a Twitter account under his own name, which is filled with reposts of news developments surrounding Assange around the time of the publisher’s arrest. Bini also retweeted the news about Romo announcing that a person who is “part of WikiLeaks” is living in Ecuador. He called “very worrisome” her remark that the information on the individual and the “two Russian hackers” might be soon handed over to prosecution. That was the accounts last tweet before going silent for 14 hours at the time of writing.

Read more …

Yeah, the story of Assange working for Trump is pretty much done. But they’ll just make him Putin’s puppet and keep smearing.

Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Died Today (ZH)

It bears repeating, given the nearly past three years of ‘Russiagate’ collusion hysteria which focused heavily and uncritically on the role of WikiLeaks in both Hillary’s defeat and the rise of Trump, and centrally the “Russian connection” supposedly tying it all together: there seems yet more daily and weekly evidence demonstrating how absurd the claims were and are. With Thursday’s dramatic UK arrest of WikiLeaks founder and leader Julian Assange, revealed to be based largely on a US extradition request, which we’ve all now learned has been pursued for the past two years by the Trump Department of Justice, another conspiracy theory bites the dust.


Journalist Aaron Maté points out “over the last 2 years, just as Maddow et al were feverishly speculating that Trump and Assange secretly conspired, Trump’s DOJ was secretly trying to extradite Assange.” So much of it continues to unravel. Maté continues: “The conspiracy theory never slowed even after Roger Stone’s indictment revealed that a) Trump camp had no advance knowledge of WL releases b) they tried to find out from Stone, who also had no advance knowledge. Maté adds that further “Stone had no such knowledge because he had no actual contact to WikiLeaks.”

Read more …

She doth protest too much?!

Democrats Call AG Barr’s ‘Spying’ Claim Conspiracy Theory (RT)

The very same congressional Democrats who maintain ‘Russiagate’ was real are denouncing Attorney General William Barr’s claim there was improper surveillance of the Trump campaign as a conspiracy theory. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) demanded of Barr to retract his statement, made earlier on Wednesday, that “spying did occur” during the 2016 presidential campaign. Barr “must retract his statement immediately or produce specific evidence to back it up. Perpetuating conspiracy theories is beneath the office of the Attorney General,” Schumer tweeted. House Democrats were also pushing the “conspiracy theory” talking point on Wednesday, with Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler (D-New York) contrasting it to what he said was fact of Russiagate, and Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-California) calling it “another destructive blow to our democratic institutions.”


Though he was supposed to testify about the Department of Justice’s 2020 budget, Barr found himself answering questions about the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which he said showed no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Unwilling to give up the conspiracy theory they’ve pushed for almost three years, Democrats are demanding Barr release the full, unredacted Mueller report. “I don’t trust Barr, I trust Mueller,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) told AP. “He is acting as an employee of the president,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland). “I believe the Attorney General believes he needs to protect the president of the United States.”

Read more …

Haven’t heard from DBRS in a while.

Shadow Banking Is Now A $52 Trillion Industry (CNBC)

Nonbank lending, an industry that played a central role in the financial crisis, has been expanding rapidly and is still posing risks should credit conditions deteriorate. Often called “shadow banking” — a term the industry does not embrace — these institutions helped fuel the crisis by providing lending to underqualified borrowers and by financing some of the exotic investment instruments that collapsed when subprime mortgages fell apart. The companies face less regulation than traditional banks and thus have been associated with higher levels of risk. In the years since the crisis, global shadow banks have seen their assets grow to $52 trillion, a 75% jump from the level in 2010, the year after the crisis ended.


The asset level is through 2017, according to bond ratings agency DBRS, citing data from the Financial Stability Board. The U.S. still makes up the biggest part of the sector with 29% or $15 trillion in assets, though its share of the global pie has fallen. China has seen particularly strong growth, with its $8 trillion in assets good for 16% of the total share. Within shadow banking, the biggest growth area has been “collective investment vehicles,” a term that encompasses many bond funds, hedge funds, money markets and mixed funds. The group has seen its assets explode by 130% to $36.7 trillion. It poses particular danger because of its volatility and susceptibility to “runs” and is part of the “significant risks” DBRS sees from the industry.

Read more …

Groundhog.

May Hopes For Final Shot At Forcing Withdrawal Deal Through Parliament (Ind.)

Theresa May has paved the way for a final shot at pushing a Brexit deal through the House of Commons ahead of European elections in May. The prime minister and her aides repeatedly highlighted that the country could avoid the ignominy of electing British MEPs to the European parliament if the Commons passes a deal in the coming weeks.= It would also mean Britain would not need the full extension of the Article 50 negotiating period until 31 October offered by European leaders last night – a proposal that saw Tory Brexiteers demand Ms May resign on Thursday. No 10 said talks with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour to find a compromise that might enjoy a Commons majority would not continue “for the sake of it”, in a sign they are not progressing.


Officials underlined the PM’s desire to bring a series of options before MPs for voting – including her original withdrawal deal – if talks with Mr Corbyn collapse. Having to take part in European elections on 23 May would be a humiliation for the prime minister, with her spokesman refusing to even say on Thursday that she would campaign. In a Commons statement following Wednesday’s EU summit, Ms May insisted it is still possible Britain could avoid voting in the elections if MPs pass a deal before then. She added: “The choices we face are stark and the timetable is clear. I believe we must now press on at pace with our efforts to reach a consensus on a deal that is in the national interest.”

Read more …

6,000 people were working on it.

UK Government ‘Halts No-Deal Planning’ After Committing £4 Billion (Ind.)

The government has halted all emergency planning for a no-deal Brexit despite committing £4bn to preparations, according to reports. A leaked email reportedly sent to all civil servants in an unnamed “front line Brexit department” said no-deal operational planning had been suspended with “immediate effect”. The decision was made by cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill, according to the email seen by Sky News. Downing Street said departments were taking “sensible decisions” about the timing of their no-deal preparations following the agreement by EU leaders to extend the Article 50 withdrawal process to 31 October. However the move is likely to infuriate Tory Brexiteers already angry at the latest delay to Britain’s departure from the EU.


The government has committed a staggering £4bn to no-deal preparations, but some MPs believe the six-month extension shows Theresa May was never prepared to countenance leaving without a deal. Former Brexit minister Steve Baker, who is now deputy chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, accused the government of acting out of “sheer spite”. “Officials have worked exceptionally hard to deliver our preparedness and deserve better,” he tweeted. According to Sky, the email said: “In common with the rest of government, we have stood down our no-deal operational planning with immediate effect.

Read more …

“..some smaller businesses “won’t survive” the delay because they had ploughed resources into planning for a spring Brexit.”

IMF Says Brexit Delay Means Businesses Face More Uncertainty (G.)

The decision to extend the UK’s Brexit deadline will mean another six months of uncertainty for business, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned. Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, said that while she welcomed the fact that Britain would not leave the EU without a deal on Friday, nothing had been resolved. The decision gave more time for discussions between the political parties and for companies to prepare for all options, Lagarde said. “On the other hand, it is obvious it is continued uncertainty. And it does not resolve, other than by postponing what would have been a terrible outcome.”


The IMF said earlier this week that leaving the EU without a deal risked pushing the UK into a two-year recession. UK business leaders have warned the government against wasting the Brexit extension, sounding the alarm that another deadlock in six months’ time would inflict renewed damage on the UK economy. Stephen Phipson, the chief executive of the manufacturing lobby group Make UK, said some smaller businesses “won’t survive” the delay because they had ploughed resources into planning for a spring Brexit. Businesses lower down the manufacturing supply chain have been forced to borrow money to pay for stockpiling. The extra burden of financing their lending for another six months could push some companies under, he said.

Read more …

Feb 042019
 


Rembrandt van Rijn Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer 1653

 

That statement is going to make me real popular, right? Any criticism of Robert Mueller for many people equals support for President Trump. But it doesn’t, and Mueller really is a coward and a liar, and it’s not hard to make that case, it’s even easier than how he makes his cases, because we can actually prove ours. We also don’t have to pervert the law, but he does.

Robert Mueller is a coward because he again, in his indictment of Roger Stone last week, makes claims against people who can’t defend themselves, and who moreover have in at least one case, that of Julian Assange, previously and repeatedly denied those claims. And Robert Mueller’s a liar because many of his claims are evidently not true; but though he will never be able to prove them, and he knows it, he still makes his ‘case’ based on them.

It’s also public knowledge that Mueller has lied since at least the WMD facade. On February 11 2003, then FBI director Mueller testified before Congress: “..as Director Tenet has pointed out, Secretary Powell presented evidence last week that Baghdad has failed to disarm its weapons of mass destruction, willfully attempting to evade and deceive the international community. Our particular concern is that Saddam Hussein may supply terrorists with biological, chemical, or radiological material.”

We know today he was lying, as was Colin Powell (and the entire Bush administration). Which is also interesting because a number of Mueller’s accusations against various ‘suspects’ are basically just that: someone has lied to Congress and must be punished for it. This is again the case in Roger Stone’s indictment, which would ring awfully hollow without it. And we don’t have to know how true that accusation is to realize that it’s being brought by someone who himself lied to Congress, but was never indicted for it. That is curious no matter how you look at it.

So what would happen if Mueller takes any of his present indictments into a courtroom? Note: as long as he treats those he indicts the same way he treated Paul Manafort and others, he’ll probably never have to present anything in a court; every ‘suspect’ will sign a plea deal because he threatens to destroy them, their freedom, their finances, their families. But what IF he did, purely hypothetically? What proof -not allegations- could he present to a judge about Russians hacking US-based servers or computers?

And what evidence of Julian Assange working with Russians, or with the Trump campaign? He has none. All there is is US intelligence agencies making claims without providing evidence. And they are a party to the whole story, they are not mere observers, so no judge worth his/her salt can accept their word on anything just because it’s them saying it. Even the FBI has to present evidence. In court, that is.

In the meantime, in the absence of a courtroom, Robert Mueller has been free to accuse people for 20 months now, without proof. And what those 20 months have shown us culminates in the Roger Stone indictment, which makes clear -once more- that there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

 

Given his legal status, Mueller should be invested with the power to demand he gets the opportunity to talk to Assange. And in the unlikely event that he’s not provided with that opportunity by his superiors, at the very least he must stop talking about Assange. Can’t talk TO him, then stop talking ABOUT him. Sure, he never mentions his name, but that’s just more cowardice. We all know who Organization 1 is in Mueller’s indictments. And we all know who spoke for Organization 1 before he was muzzled.

Mueller could for instance travel to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, after negotiating, both with the man himself and with ‘authorities’ from Ecuador, UK and US, to have a meeting with Assange. Considering his importance as head of an investigation into collusion that might topple a president and start a new cold war with Russia, that should be easy to do. But Mueller hasn’t talked to Assange. Nor has he indicated that he tried.

Mueller accusing Assange without talking to him should raise suspicions that he is not interested in finding the truth, but has other goals. And that shines a dark light on his entire investigation. Because of the fact itself, but also because Assange is a pivotal person in the entire Russia collusion narrative. Mueller can’t make his case without accusing, defaming Assange.

Assange is crucial in the Mueller indictment of 12 Russians issued conveniently three days before the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, he’s crucial in the case made against Paul Manafort, and he’s again crucial in the indictment of Roger Stone. Without Assange, Mueller’s hands are empty. Julian is presented as the conduit between Trump and Russia. No conduit, no connection. And Assange has always denied the entire thing, all of it.

 

People who have been accused of, let alone indicted in, a crime, must be given their day in court, says American law, to be able to defend themselves against their accusers. But Assange is not, which means Robert Mueller is no less than a grave threat to the entire American justice system. Not Mueller alone, for sure, but he, along with the Attorney General and Deputy AG (and believe it or not, the President), are immediately responsible for the way the justice system is being perverted. That is very serious business.

As I said above, Mueller first, supposedly accidentally, dragged Assange into his investigation three days before the July 16 2018 Trump/Putin meeting in Helsinki, when he indicted 12 Russians and ‘Organization 1’. That indictment is here. It was arguably the first tangible thing that came out of the investigation, and while it was heralded as gospel by everyone who wants Trump to hang, it was shot so full of holes by others in no time that the term ‘tangible’ perhaps needs to be replaced.

That first indictment was not based on facts, it was based on faith (in US intelligence). 12 Russians who can’t defend themselves were grouped together as Guccifer 2, whose Russian lineage was also shot to smithereens within hours, and then there was Assange. Last week’s indictment, that of Roger Stone, perhaps -we can’t even be sure- alludes to Stone colluding with either Russians or Assange, but it carries no evidence of any collusion.

As WikiLeaks tweeted: “The indictment doesn’t have any reference to Stone talking to Assange, or Assange talking to Stone, or anyone at WikiLeaks telling him anything, whatsoever. It’s literally old men reading the news and wishing for things.

 

The job of a Special Counsel, his/her mandate, is to gather evidence of those crimes (s)he has been tasked with investigating. That mandate can be wide, but certainly not unlimited. The job at hand is not to suggest that things MIGHT have happened. It is not to blindly follow everything US intelligence may or may not claim is true, because all accusations will eventually have to be proven in a courtroom.

And it is not to point fingers at people for things the Special Counsel can’t prove they’ve done, or to accuse people who cannot defend themselves against whatever it is he or she might say (because then (s)he might say anything).

Mueller has never charged Assange with anything, despite the fact that Julian is all over all of his indictments. Mueller also refuses to talk to Assange, ostensibly because that way he can continue to accuse him of all manner of unproven ‘crimes’, and if he doesn’t have to prove what he accuses Assange of, he can accuse anyone of being in touch with Assange and conspiring to enact all sorts of collusion.

 

It’s a pity that America is so divided into a pro-Trump and anti-Trump side, and never the twain shall meet, because the perversion of the justice system exemplified by the Mueller investigation is very real; it’s rotting from the inside. This has not about Trump, if anything it’s about the justice system granting someone the right to defend themselves, which is being violated by Robert Mueller on a daily basis.

In early 2017, the DOJ attempted to set up meetings with Assange, who in the process offered evidence that there was no Russian involvement in the files WikiLeaks published in 2016. Those attempts, when near completion, were halted by Mueller’s very good friend James Comey and Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.).

Warner last week in his capacity as Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman said about the Stone indictment: “It is clear from this indictment that those contacts [between Stone and WikiLeaks] happened at least with the full knowledge of, and appear to have been encouraged by, the highest levels of the Trump campaign..” No, Mr. Warner, that is sort of the exact point here. It is not clear. Nor is it true. And you know that, sir.

A year and a half later, in July 2018, Senator Rand Paul said that if Assange would agree to testify in the US, “I think that he should be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for coming to the United States and testifying” Nothing came from that either. Where was Mueller?

Every single American should be alarmed by this perversion of justice. Nothing to do with what you think of Trump, or of Assange. The very principles of the system are being perverted, including, but certainly not limited to, its deepest core, that of every individual’s right to defend themselves.

Just so Robert Mueller can continue his already failed investigation into collusion that has shown no such thing, and which wouldn’t have been started 20 months ago if we knew then what we know now.

Get off your Trump collusion hobby-horse, that quest has already died regardless, and start defending the legal system and the Constitution. Because if you don’t, what’s to keep the next Robert Mueller from going after you, or someone you like or love? It’s in everyone’s interest to demand that these proceedings – like all legal proceedings- are conducted according to the law, but in Mueller’s hands, they are not.

And that should be a much bigger worry than whether or not you like or dislike a former game-show host.

 

 

Aug 092018
 


René Magritte The evening gown 1954

 

Julian Assange has received an letter from the US Senate asking him to testify in front of them. What to make of that is not entirely clear. Far as I know, Assange offered such testimony multiple times, under the ‘right standards’. The Senate ostensibly wants this to take place behind closed doors, and it’s hard to see how that would fit Assange’s standards. But who knows?

What struck me was that the letter was signed by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA). and especially the latter runs like a red thread through everything that has to do with Assange and the US. It reminded me of what John Solomon said in his June 25 piece ‘How Comey Intervened To Kill Wikileaks’ Immunity Deal’ about Assange lawyer Adam Waldman, who according to Solomon has a ‘Forrest Gump-like penchant for showing up in major cases of intrigue’.

Mark Warner has that, too. What made me return to this is that in his piece yesterday on the Senate request, Tyler Durden, referring to Solomon’s article, wrote: After Assange’s request was run up the flag pole, Senator Warner was issued a “stand-down” order by Comey.. And I thought: I’m not sure that’s entirely correct, and not only because Comey cannot ‘order’ a US Senator to do anything.

The stand down order was not for Warner, he just passed it on to Waldman and his counterpart acting for the DOJ, David Laufman, head of Justice’s counterintelligence and export controls section. NOTE: we don’t even know if the stand down didn’t really come from Warner, or Comey AND Warner, or someone else altogether.

What we do know is that it was a very peculiar order at a very peculiar moment in time, because the intelligence community could have gotten something tangible and valuable out of the negotiations. Solomon: “..officials “understood any visibility into his thinking, any opportunity to negotiate any redactions, was in the national security interest and worth taking,” says a senior official involved at the time.

They were well on their way to -at least potentially- save the lives of CIA operatives and assets. Negotiations had been going on for at least 2 months, and probably more like three. But then Assange offered to provide evidence that he didn’t get the DNC files from Russia. And that seems to have changed the atmosphere. Tyler has some more about this, outside of the Solomon piece:

‘Last August, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher travelled to London with journalist Charles Johnson for a meeting with Assange, after which Rohrabacher said the WikiLeaks founder offered “firsthand” information proving that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia, and which would refute the Russian hacking theory.’ After Trump denied knowledge of the potential deal, Rohrabacher raged at Trump’s Chief of Staff, John Kelly, for constructing a “wall” around President Trump by “people who do not want to expose this fraud.”

NOTE: that meeting took place 4-5 months AFTER the Comey (et al?) stand down order. So Assange was still reaching out and offering to spare individual CIA assets. He has released a lot of the CIA Vault 7 files, but not all. To my knowledge he has held back on that to this day.

 

I don’t know how much you still follow from the pro-Russiagate press, which is about the entire US MSM, but Rohrabacher is habitually called a traitor, a Putin puppet and worse for talking to Russians, just like he is for going to see Assange. Once you start trying to find a way out of the ever tighter woven Russia Russia web, you’re fair game. Even if that’s simply your job as a Congressman, or at least your interpretation of what the job entails.

Back to Solomon for a bit. What he describes is not some amnesty deal, but a “Queen for a Day” proffer. Which in this case was essentially a safe passage guarantee for Assange to leave the Ecuador embassy only to go talk to US government people. We don’t know all the prospective topics of the talks, and they don’t seem to have agreed on a location (London, Washington?!) before the Comey order. Solomon:

Not included in the written proffer was an additional offer from Assange: He was willing to discuss technical evidence ruling out certain parties in the controversial leak of Democratic Party emails to WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. The U.S. government believes those emails were hacked by Russia; Assange insists they did not come from Moscow.

“Mr. Assange offered to provide technical evidence and discussion regarding who did not engage in the DNC releases,” Waldman told me. “Finally, he offered his technical expertise to the U.S. government to help address what he perceived as clear flaws in security systems that led to the loss of the U.S. cyber weapons program.”

That is just funny: Assange offered to help the CIA on its security systems. That must have pissed them off mightily, because it can only mean they really needed to strengthen security (or he wouldn’t have brought it up). But then Waldman reaches out to Warner, in what may well have been a fatal mistake. The talks with the DOJ were going well, and might have been enough. Getting politics involved in it was one took over the line:

[..] Just a few days after the negotiations opened in mid-February, Waldman reached out to Sen. Warner; the lawyer wanted to see if Senate Intelligence Committee staff wanted any contact with Assange, to ask about Russia or other issues. Warner engaged with Waldman over encrypted text messages, then reached out to Comey. A few days later, Warner contacted Waldman with an unexpected plea.

“He told me he had just talked with Comey and that, while the government was appreciative of my efforts, my instructions were to stand down, to end the discussions with Assange,” Waldman told me. Waldman offered contemporaneous documents to show he memorialized Warner’s exact words.

Waldman couldn’t believe a U.S. senator and the FBI chief were sending a different signal, so he went back to Laufman, who assured him the negotiations were still on. “What Laufman said to me after he heard I was told to ‘stand down’ by Warner and Comey was, ‘That’s bullshit. You are not standing down and neither am I,’” Waldman recalled.

A source familiar with Warner’s interactions says the senator’s contact on the Assange matter was limited and was shared with Senate Intelligence chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). But the source acknowledges that Warner consulted Comey and passed along the “stand down” instructions to Waldman: “That did happen.”

Okay, so we have Warner very much in the thick of the DOJ negotiations with Assange. Fast forward to late June 2018, when his name pops up again in a list of 10 Democratic Senators who asked Vice President Mike Pence to, on a visit to Ecuador, ask new president Lenin Moreno, to revoke Assange’s asylum on the London embassy.

 

 

Warner is there, along with such fine human beings as Dianne Feinstein, and the two Dicks Durbin and Blumenthal. Wikileaks, which posted the list, suggested: “Remember them”. Looks like an idea. Why would the Democratic party want Assange delivered to the lions? Oh, right, Russia Russia, the entirely unproven allegations which they are so desperate to tie Assange into.

They can’t prove any of the many allegations of Russian meddling, let alone their role in Hillary’s election loss, and they can’t prove any allegation against Julian Assange, at least none that he could be charged for/with, but tie Russia and WikiLeaks together and they feel they no longer have to prove anything at all, that mere allegations are strong enough.

If there is no crime Assange can be accused of, you just label him a terrorist, and all your legal problems disappear. Because terrorism can be anything, and because of national security reasons, any evidence, whether it exists or not, must be treated in secret. What reason, what grounds, do these Senators have to ask Ecuador to revoke Assange’s asylum? What legal grounds could possibly exist? We have no way of knowing, and because they label Julian a terrorist, we have no right to, either. Or so they claim.

This is called abomination of justice. In the same way that America and Britain’s treatment of him is called torture. And no, that is not too strong a term. A man who has never been charged with a crime by anyone, in any country, is being tortured. Julian has severe, painful, dental problems, he has developed a condition that makes his legs swell, and his bone density is dropping fast due to extended lack of sunlight.

These people have simply decided to wait it out, so they don’t have to go through elaborate legal procedures that they may well lose, to wait until Assange has no choice but to walk out of the embassy, or be carried out on a stretcher or in a coffin. It’s not even possible to list all the British, American, Ecuadorian and international laws his treatment violates.

Someone should give it a try, though. Just like someone should investigate Mark Warner’s role in all of this. Warner was pivotal in killing off the Assange legal teams’ talks with the DOJ, he asked Ecuador to stop Assange’s asylum (which is so illegal you don’t even want to go there), and now he requests for Assange to appear before the US Senate.

Someone investigate that guy. If I can say one last thing, it would be that Warner exemplifies all that is wrong with the US Democratic Party. He’s the Forrest Gump of all their future election losses. The Democrats should be standing up to protect people like Assange, but instead they follow the example of Hillary, who said about Assange “can’t we drone this guy?”.

Yeah, the very guy who’s never been charged with a single crime. She undoubtedly said it in the same tone of voice as her insane cackle of “We came, we saw, he died” about Gaddafi. Looked at Libya lately?

The essence of this is that we will be better people, and better societies, with Julian Assange around to help us be better. Without him, things look a whole lot darker. We need to be able to hold politicians, corporations and secret services to account. And the more they resist this, often in illegal ways, the more we must insist.

The idea was never that we must answer to them. They must answer to us, and we must be able to throw them out when they cross legal and moral lines. It’s beyond the pale that that has to be explained once again. And trying to explain that, with examples, is all that Julian Assange has ever done.

 

 

Aug 092018
 
 August 9, 2018  Posted by at 9:21 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  14 Responses »


Eugène-Louis Boudin Laundresses on the Beach at Étretat 1892

 

Behold The ‘Scariest Chart’ For The Stock Market (MW)
US Senate Calls On Julian Assange To Testify (ZH)
Senate Democrats Circulate Plans for Government Takeover of Internet (Reason)
US To Impose Fresh Sanctions On Russia Over Salisbury Attack (Ind.)
Russia Calls New US Sanctions Draconian, Rejects Poisoning Allegations (R.)
Trump’s Sanctions Admit the End of US Military Dominance (Luongo)
Saudi Arabia Is Selling Off Its Canadian Assets As Row Intensifies (CNBC)
‘Dark Cloud’ Of Trade War Hovers Over Chinese Yuan’s Globalization (CNBC)
Trump Is Giving Protectionism a Bad Name (Moseley)
SEC Questions Tesla Over Elon Musk’s Tweets (WSJ)
Brexit And Housing Crisis Combining To Cause Exodus From London (Ind.)

 

 

Cycles, but distorted.

Behold The ‘Scariest Chart’ For The Stock Market (MW)

A lot has changed since the stock market crash of 2000. Apple Inc. has gone from being just another computer brand to becoming the most valuable company in the world, Amazon.com Inc. went from being an e-book retailer to a byword for online shopping and Tesla’s Elon Musk has risen from obscurity to Twitter stardom. Yet some things never change and Doug Ramsey, chief investment officer at Leuthold Group, has been on a mini-campaign highlighting the parallels between 2000 and 2018. Among the numerous similarities is the elevated valuation of the S&P 500 then and now, which Ramsey illustrates in a chart that he has dubbed as the “scariest chart in our database.”

“Recall that the initial visit to present levels was followed by the S&P 500’s first-ever negative total return decade,” he said in a recent blog post. Price-to-sales ratio is one measure of a stocks value. It isn’t as popular as the price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E, but is viewed as less susceptible to manipulation since it is based on revenue. He also shared a chart which he claims is “unfit for a family-friendly publication” that shows how in terms of median price to sales ratio, the S&P 500 is twice as expensive as it was in 2000.

Read more …

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) pops up all over the place. Involved in killing off talks with Assange in spring 2017, a year later calls for Assange’s asylum to be revoked, then weeks later wants him to testify.

US Senate Calls On Julian Assange To Testify (ZH)

Julian Assange has been asked to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee as part of their Russia investigation, according to a letter signed by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA) posted by the official WikiLeaks Twitter account. The letter, delivered to Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, reads in part “As part of the inquiry, the Committee requests that you make yourself available for a closed interview with bipartisan Committee staff at a mutually agreeable time and location.” Wikileaks’ says their legal team is “considering the offer but testimony must conform to a high ethical standard,” after which the whistleblower organization added a tweet linking to a list of 10 Democratic Senators who demanded in late June that Assange’s asylum be revoked in violation of international law:

[..] Last August, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher travelled to London with journalist Charles Johnson for a meeting with Assange, after which Rohrabacher said the WikiLeaks founder offered “firsthand” information proving that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia, and which would refute the Russian hacking theory. After Trump denied knowledge of the potential deal, Rohrabacher raged at Trump’s Chief of Staff, John Kelly, for constructing a “wall” around President Trump by “people who do not want to expose this fraud.” And in January of 2017, Julian Assange’s legal team approached Clinton-linked D.C. lobbyist Adam Waldman to reach out and see if anyone in the Trump administration would negotiate with the WikiLeaks founder – only to have James Comey kill the deal.

Read more …

More from Sen. Mark Warner. h/t Tyler

Senate Democrats Circulate Plans for Government Takeover of Internet (Reason)

A leaked memo circulating among Senate Democrats contains a host of bonkers authoritarian proposals for regulating digital platforms, purportedly as a way to get tough on Russian bots and fake news. To save American trust in “our institutions, democracy, free press, and markets,” it suggests, we need unprecedented and undemocratic government intervention into online press and markets, including “comprehensive (GDPR-like) data protection legislation” of the sort enacted in the E.U.

Titled “Potential Policy Proposals for Regulation of Social Media and Technology Firms,” the draft policy paper—penned by Sen. Mark Warner and leaked by an unknown source to Axios—the paper starts out by noting that Russians have long spread disinformation, including when “the Soviets tried to spread ‘fake news’ denigrating Martin Luther King” (here he fails to mention that the Americans in charge at the time did the same). But NOW IT’S DIFFERENT, because technology. “Today’s tools seem almost built for Russian disinformation techniques,” Warner opines. And the ones to come, he assures us, will be even worse.

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Evidence is so last century.

US To Impose Fresh Sanctions On Russia Over Salisbury Attack (Ind.)

The US government has said it will impose fresh sanctions on Russia after determining it used a nerve agent in the attack against a former Russian spy in Salisbury. The State Department said the sanctions will be imposed on Moscow because it used a chemical weapon in violation of international law in the attack on former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33. The pair were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent called novichok in Salisbury, UK, in March. Following a 15-day Congressional notification period, the new US sanctions will take effect on or around 22 August, according to a statement.

[..] State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said it had been determined Russia had “used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law, or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals.” “Following the use of a Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to assassinate UK citizen Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal, the United States, on 6 August, 2018, determined under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act) that the government of the Russian Federation has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals,” a statement said.

The sanctions will cover sensitive national security goods, a senior State Department official said. There would, however, be exemptions for space flight activities and areas covering commercial passenger aviation safety, which would be allowed on a case by case basis, the official added. A second batch of “more draconian” sanctions would be imposed after 90 days unless Russia gives “reliable assurances” that it will no longer use chemical weapons and allow on-site inspections by the United Nations.

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Russia should stop trying to deny anything, it makes no difference anyway.

Russia Calls New US Sanctions Draconian, Rejects Poisoning Allegations (R.)

Russia’s embassy in the United States on Thursday called new U.S. sanctions draconian and said the reason for the new restrictions — allegations it poisoned a former spy and his daughter in Britain — were far-fetched. The United States on Wednesday announced it would impose fresh sanctions on Russia after Washington determined Moscow had used a nerve agent against a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, in Britain. Russia has repeatedly denied responsibility for the attack, and Russia’s embassy in Washington said in a statement that Washington’s findings against it in the case were not backed by evidence.

“On August 8, 2018 our Deputy Chief of Mission was informed in the State Department of new ‘draconian’ sanctions against Russia for far-fetched accusations of using the ‘Novichok’ nerve agent against a UK citizen,” the embassy said in a statement. “We grew accustomed to not hearing any facts or evidence.” The U.S. announcement fueled already worsening investor sentiment about the possible effect of more U.S. sanctions on Russian assets and the rouble slid by over 1 percent on Thursday against the dollar, a day after falling toward its lowest level in nearly two years. The Russian embassy said Moscow continued to advocate for an open and transparent investigation into the poisoning.

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Talked about this a while ago. Unwinnable wars.

Trump’s Sanctions Admit the End of US Military Dominance (Luongo)

On March 1st Russian President Vladimir Putin changed the geopolitical game. During his speech he unveiled new weapons which instantly made obsolete much of the U.S military’s physical arsenal. And the panic in Washington was palpable. Since that speech everything geopolitical has accelerated. The US government under Trump has shifted its strategies in response to this. No longer were we threatening North Korea with military invasion. No, Trump sat down with Kim Jong-un to negotiate peace. On Russia, Iran, China, Turkey, Venezuela and even Europe Trump’s war rhetoric has intensified. Trump is only talking about economic sanctions and tariffs, however, leveraging the dollar as his primary weapon to bring countries to heel.

There’s no hint of US invasion, no matter how much John Bolton whispers in his ear or Bibi Netanyahu bangs his shoe on the table. Why? Because US military dominance has always been enforced not by technology but by logistics. Those bases, while expensive, are also the real strength of the US military. They are a financial albatross which the ‘Axis of Resistance’ is using to win a war of attrition against US hegemony. And now, Putin’s new weapons rendered them obsolete in a moment’s time. Once fully deployed there will be no going back to the old world order. So, that’s why Trump talked to North Korea yesterday and why he will talk with Iran tomorrow.

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Friends no more. There are large Jewish communities in Canada. Wonder what they think.

Saudi Arabia Is Selling Off Its Canadian Assets As Row Intensifies (CNBC)

Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic spat with Canada looks set to escalate following a report that the Middle Eastern country has instructed its brokers to sell Canadian assets. Anger between the two countries erupted last week when Canadian officials urged Riyadh to “immediately release” women’s rights activists Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah. Now the Financial Times has reported that the Saudi central bank and state pension funds have instructed third party asset managers to sell Canadian bonds, stocks and cash. The selling is said to have begun on Tuesday. In a sign of its rage, Saudi Arabia has already expelled the Canadian ambassador, frozen trade and investment between Riyadh and Ottawa and halted flights to and from Canada.

Saudi rulers have also stopped all medical treatment programs in Canada and are coordinating for the transfer of all Saudi patients currently receiving care in Canadian hospitals to be moved outside of the country. Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday that “Canada will always stand up for human rights in Canada and around the world, and women’s rights are human rights.” But on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said there was nothing to mediate between the two countries and that Canada knew what it needed to do to “fix its big mistake.”

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Long as it doesn’t trade freely, forget it.

‘Dark Cloud’ Of Trade War Hovers Over Chinese Yuan’s Globalization (CNBC)

The Chinese yuan’s slide is creating challenging headwinds for Beijing’s push to promote its currency globally — a key element in the broader liberalization of the world’s second-largest economy. China wants its currency, also known as the renminbi, to play a leading role in global trade and finance in line with its economic clout. While Beijing has scored some significant milestones, the yuan has been declining, assailed by a weakening economy and a trade war with the United States. One major achievement was in 2016 when it joined the ranks of the dollar, euro, yen and British pound as part of the IMF’s Special Drawing Right (SDR), an international reserve asset.

But there have been bumps as well, most notably in 2015 when authorities suddenly devalued the currency after steadily nudging it higher for years, triggering a sell-off in global markets. The renminbi, or literally “people’s currency,” is now being buffeted by a new challenge as China’s economy is under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff assault. Analysts say its push to become a global currency is likely to suffer a setback. “Renminbi internationalization could be slowing down temporarily in the second half of this year,” Ken Cheung, senior Asia foreign exchange strategist at Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong, told CNBC, citing the disruption caused by the trade war.

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This is much more about Africa, and the US pre-Trump, than it is about Trump himself.

Trump Is Giving Protectionism a Bad Name (Moseley)

While it might not seem like it now, President Donald Trump is a gift to free market-oriented economists and policymakers. His clumsy approach to protectionism has ignited a trade war that inevitably will harm the U.S. economy. When the pendulum inexorably swings the other way after the Trump fiasco, free trade ideology will return with a vengeance. This is a potential tragedy for left-leaning policy analysts who have long been concerned about the excesses of neoliberalism and argued for a more measured use of tariffs to foster local economic development. As such, it critical that we distinguish between Trump’s right-wing nationalist embrace of tariffs and the more nuanced use of this tool to support infant industries.

As a development geographer and an Africanist scholar, I have long been critical of unfettered free trade because of its deleterious economic impacts on African countries. At the behest of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the majority of African countries were essentially forced, because of conditional loan and debt-refinancing requirements, to undergo free market–oriented economic reforms from the early 1980s through the mid-2000s. One by one, these countries reduced tariff barriers, eliminated subsidies, cut back on government expenditures, and emphasized commodity exports. With the possible exception of Ghana, the economy of nearly every African country undertaking these reforms was devastated.

This is not to say that there was no economic growth for African countries during this period, as there certainly was during cyclical commodity booms. The problem is that the economies of these countries were essentially underdeveloped as they returned to a colonial model focused on producing a limited number of commodities such as oil, minerals, cotton, cacao, palm oil, and timber. Economic reforms destroyed the value-added activities that helped diversify these economies and provided higher wage employment, such as the textile, milling, and food processing industries. Worse yet, millions of African farmers and workers are now increasingly ensnared in a global commodity boom-and-bust cycle. Beyond that cycle, they are experiencing an even more worrying long-term trend of declining prices for commodities.

One of the consequences of the hollowing out of African economies has been the European migration crisis. While some of this migration is clearly connected to politics, war, and insecurity in the Middle East and Africa, a nontrivial portion is related to grim economic prospects in many African countries.

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Predicted and predictable. It’s like if Trump can do stuff via twitter, can Musk do the same?

SEC Questions Tesla Over Elon Musk’s Tweets (WSJ)

Securities regulators have inquired with Tesla Inc. about Chief Executive Elon Musk’s surprise announcement that he may take the company private and whether his claim was factual, people familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked whether Musk’s unusual announcement on Tuesday was factual, the people said. The regulator also asked Tesla TSLA, -2.43% about why the disclosure was made on Twitter rather than in a regulatory filing, and whether the company believes the announcement complies with investor-protection rules, the people said. Musk on Tuesday proposed taking Tesla private at $420 a share, about 11% higher than the day’s closing stock price.

He called the funding “secured” for what would be the biggest-ever corporate buyout, but he hasn’t disclosed details. A group of Tesla board members on Wednesday said Musk spoke to them last week about taking the company private. The SEC’s inquiries, which originated from its San Francisco office, suggest Tesla could come under an enforcement investigation if regulators develop evidence that Musk’s statement was misleading or false. It wasn’t immediately clear on Wednesday whether the regulator had opened a formal enforcement investigation based on the answers it received from the company.

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This is going to get so much worse. It’s only 7 months away, but no-one has actually woken up yet.

Brexit And Housing Crisis Combining To Cause Exodus From London (Ind.)

A combination of unaffordable housing and Brexit has led to an “exodus” from London, with an increasing number of young people moving elsewhere to live and work, according to new research. Analysis by think tank Centre for London showed that job numbers in the capital reached 5.9 million at the end of June this year, up 1.9 per cent compared with the same month in 2017 – and the highest level since records began in 1996. However, the group warned that this was driven by a “significant growth” in the number of people moving away from London to rest of the UK, and a slowdown in international migration, suggesting that the city is become a less desirable place to live and work.

London recorded the slowest rate of population growth in over a decade, at almost half the rate of the previous year, the research revealed. A spokesperson for Centre for London said: “The continuing affordability crisis and the prospect of Brexit are dampening the city’s appeal, with the former seen as driving the rise in the number of people in their mid-twenties to thirties leaving the capital.” In July the average rent for London rose above £1,600 for the first time on record, according to the latest Homelet Rental Index, and while house price growth in London has slowed in recent months, the average price in the second quarter of this year was £468,845 – more than double the national average of £214,578.

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