Menu Icon

Debt Rattle May 18 2025

May 182025
 
 May 18, 2025  Posted by at 9:31 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


Salvador Dali Neo-Cubist Academy (Composition with Three Figures) 1926

 

• Putin Is ‘At The Table’ For Ukraine Talks – Trump (RT)
• Trump to Have Phone Calls with Putin and Zelensky on Monday (DS)
• Putin-Zelensky Meeting ‘Possible’ – Kremlin (RT)
• Russia’s Maximalist Demands At Istanbul Peace Talks Revealed (ZH)
• Kiev’s Backers ‘Frustrated’ By Trump’s Stance On Ukraine Talks (RT)
• US Opposes ‘Endless Negotiations’ On Ukraine – Rubio (RT)
• Talks In Istanbul Are A Start…The Real Show To Come Is Trump And Putin (SCF)
• The Istanbul Kabuki – Decoded (Pepe Escobar)
• Istanbul Talks 2.0 Are A Great Chance For Zelensky To Accept Reality (Amar)
• What Does Russia Have To Gain From The EU Now? (Bordachev)
• Trump’s Middle East Theatricals Were All About Putting Bibi In His Place (Jay)
• Trump Just Made a Huge Move on Tariffs (Margolis)
• Scott Jennings, Bill Maher Light It Up on Trump’s Powerful Speech (Arama)
• Moody’s Delivers First US Credit Rating Downgrade Since 1917 (RT)
• Biden’s DOJ – Merrick Garland was AG In Name Only for a Specific Reason (CTH)

 

 

 

 

Alex

 

 

“The steps we examine would not have either defense or deterrence as their prime purpose… Rather, they are conceived of as elements in a campaign designed to unbalance the adversary, causing Russia to compete in domains or regions where the United States has a competitive advantage.”

https://twitter.com/rinalu_/status/1923732232293781742

 

 

Patel

Clinton list
https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/1923770579917603022

SCOTUS
https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/1923823175810646037

Homan
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1923467551855739257

Data

Ed Dowd

Orban
https://twitter.com/zoltanspox/status/1923366358357533027

Logan

 

 

 

 

“I think Putin is tired of this whole thing.”

You bet.

• Putin Is ‘At The Table’ For Ukraine Talks – Trump (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to resolve the Ukraine conflict, his US counterpart, Donald Trump, has said. He added that he is certain Washington and Moscow will be able to make a deal and put an end to the hostilities. On Friday, Russian and Ukrainian delegations held a meeting in Istanbul, which marked the first direct talks since 2022. Both sides agreed to exchange lists of conditions for a potential ceasefire, conduct a major prisoner swap, and discuss a follow-up meeting. In a Fox News interview aired the same day, Trump pushed back against the notion that Putin does not want to engage in any kind of talks over Ukraine. “He is at the table, and he wanted this meeting,” the US president said, adding: “I think Putin is tired of this whole thing.”

According to Trump, however, his involvement is essential to a breakthrough in the peace process. “I always felt there can’t be a meeting without me because I don’t think a deal’s gonna get through,” he said. Nevertheless, he expressed optimism about the chances of reaching a settlement. “I have a very good relationship with Putin. I think we’ll make a deal. We have to get together, and I think we’ll probably schedule it.” When pressed again on whether he sees Putin as an “obstacle to peace,” Trump shifted the focus to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky. “I had a real rough session with Zelensky, because I didn’t like what he said. He was not making it easy… He doesn’t have the cards,” he said, explaining that Ukraine is fighting against a “massive army.” Trump was apparently referring to a public spat with the Ukrainian leader during which he accused Zelensky of ingratitude for past US military aid and “gambling with World War III.”

The US president went on to criticize the policy of assisting Ukraine adopted by his predecessor, Joe Biden. “Every time… he [Zelensky] came to Washington, he walks out with $100 billion… I think he’s the greatest salesman in the world, far better than me,” Trump said, adding that Congress has grown frustrated with this as well. The Ukrainian leader was initially reluctant to agree to the talks in Istanbul proposed by Russia without any conditions, insisting that they should be preceded by a 30-day ceasefire. Moscow has not ruled out the idea in principle, but said Kiev could use the pause to rebuild its battered military. Despite initial pushback, Zelensky sent a delegation to Istanbul after Trump insisted that “Ukraine should agree to this immediately.”

Read more …

First call is Putin. Makes you wonder what Trump will tell Zelensky after that call. Because we know what Putin will say.

• Trump to Have Phone Calls with Putin and Zelensky on Monday (DS)

In an effort to stop the “bloodbath” in the war between Russia and Ukraine, President Donald Trump will have separate phone calls with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday. Trump will first speak with the Russian leader and the “subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday morning. “I will then be speaking to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and then, with President Zelenskyy, various members of NATO,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end. God bless us all!!!”

Russia invaded Ukraine over three years ago, a move Trump says would not have happened had he been president at the time. Trump has made ending the war between the two countries a key priority of his administration. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump and Putin have spoken by phone but have not met in person. Trump has met twice with Zelenskyy, first in a contentious meeting at the White House in February. The two leaders met alone at the Vatican on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in April. The announcement of the Monday phone calls comes one day after delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul for the first direct talks between the two nations since March 2022.

Putin proposed the direct peace talks but chose not to attend the meeting in Istanbul. Trump encouraged Zelenskyy to meet with Putin after the Russian leader suggested the talks and Zelenskyy flew to Turkey, but ultimately did not attend the meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was present for the talks on Friday, but acknowledged beforehand that he did not expect a breakthrough without key leaders in the room. Following the less than two-hour meeting in Istanbul, Ukrainian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that Russia is demanding Ukraine pull all its troops out of the regions Russia has claimed before a ceasefire is agreed upon.

While no clear results toward peace were reached during Friday’s meeting, the two nations did agree to a large prisoner swap of 1,000 prisoners of war on each side. Vladimir Medinsky, a top Kremlin aide who led the Russian delegation, said each delegation did agree for both sides to present a ceasefire plan in detail and that talks will continue. “Ukraine is ready to take all realistic steps to end this war,” Zelenskyy wrote on X Friday. “President Trump wants to end this war,” Zelenskyy continued in a series of posts on X. “We need to keep working closely with him and stay as coordinated as possible. Long-term U.S. support is also essential. An American backstop is needed. It’s important that we all work together, on every level, to make that happen.”

Read more …

What would be the use?

• Putin-Zelensky Meeting ‘Possible’ – Kremlin (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky could hold talks if the ongoing peace efforts between Russian and Ukrainian delegations result in progress and firm agreements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday. His comments come after the first direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev since 2022. On Friday, Russian and Ukrainian representatives sat down for a two-hour Turkish-mediated meeting in Istanbul. The sides agreed to exchange their ceasefire proposals and to discuss a potential follow-up meeting, according to Moscow’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky. Moscow and Kiev also agreed to a major prisoner exchange, he said, adding that Russia is “satisfied” with the results of the talks and is ready to “resume contacts” with Kiev.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Peskov said a meeting between Putin and Zelensky “is possible but only as a result of the work of the delegations of both sides and reaching specific agreements.” He added that a key issue for Moscow remains the question of who Ukraine would authorize to sign any potential agreements reached by the negotiators. Peskov was referring to the fact that Zelensky’s presidential term expired last year. The Ukrainian leader refused to call a new election, citing martial law. Russia considers him “illegitimate,” insisting that legal authority in Ukraine now lies with the parliament. Peskov also declined to comment on leaks regarding the terms Russia reportedly presented to Ukraine during the talks. “Negotiations… must be conducted strictly behind closed doors. This is in the interest of the effectiveness of these negotiations,” he said.

The Kremlin spokesman noted that Russia has not held talks with the US on the results of the negotiations in Istanbul, adding that Moscow is not currently contemplating altering the line-up of its delegation, while confirming that the sides “agreed to exchange the list of ceasefire terms.” Ukraine and its backers initially demanded that Moscow agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire as a prerequisite for talks. Russia expressed concern that a pause would only benefit Kiev and allow it to regroup its battered troops. Instead, it proposed holding direct negotiations without preconditions. While initially reluctant to accept the offer, Zelensky changed his mind after US President Donald Trump insisted that “Ukraine should agree to this [Istanbul talks] immediately.”

Read more …

What exactly is supposedly “maximalist” about terms everyone has known for years?

Russia doesn’t really want the regions, but it wants the Russians who live there, to be safe. And not just for today. No-one in the Kiev side can guarantee that.

• Russia’s Maximalist Demands At Istanbul Peace Talks Revealed (ZH)

The Kremlin has said on Saturday that a future meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelensky is still ‘possible’ – despite no breakthroughs at Friday’s Istanbul talks by delegations representing the warring sides. Putin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said a meeting between the Russian president and Zelensky “is possible but only as a result of the work of the delegations of both sides and reaching specific agreements.” Peskov underscored that one of the major hurdles is remains the question of who Ukraine would authorize to sign any potential agreements assuming the negotiations could produce firm settlement proposals. Moscow’s stance all along has been that Zelensky is illegitimate given he canceled elections under martial law, and has run far past his authorized term in office. Kiev, however, has said that the national constitution allows for this in war time.

As for the content of Friday’s talks and reports that Moscow demanded a Ukrainian troop withdrawal from all the four easter territories, including Donetsk, he said, “Negotiations… must be conducted strictly behind closed doors. This is in the interest of the effectiveness of these negotiations.” One key thing the two sides did agree to is a large prisoner swap involving 1,000 POWs – which would be the single biggest of the war.

But Ukraine has rejected the Kremlin’s demand of de-facto recognizing the loss of its territories. Zelensky has time and again emphasized “this is Ukraine’s land” – and has vowed to fight on, despite mounting losses and serious manpower issues. The following is reportedly among Moscow’s top list of demands, which can be described as maximalist (at least from the West’s perspective), per a new Bloomberg report:
• Ukraine agreeing to neutral status regarding NATO
• No foreign troops in Ukraine
• No nuclear weapons in Ukraine
• De-facto recognition of Crimea and lost eastern territories as now Russia’s
• Withdrawal of Kiev forces from these territories before a ceasefire takes effect

But once again, Peskov has not officially confirmed this list, and precise details discussed at Istanbul remain subject of speculation amid leaks to the press. The US and Russia on Saturday held a phone call, in a post-Istanbul talks debriefing: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone call with his US counterpart Marco Rubio, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, to discuss the direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in Istanbul. “Lavrov noted the positive role of the United States in helping Kiev eventually accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to resume the Istanbul talks,” the foreign ministry statement said, adding that Russia was ready to continue working with the US on the matter.

Meanwhile: “We didn’t say five. We said eight.”…

The White House is likely to latch on to anything positive regarding these talks that it can; however, President Trump has clearly been exerting pressure for more speedy resolution, and is growing impatient. The Europeans are ready to slap more sanctions on Moscow, and Washington has also warned that this would essentially be plan B if Russia doesn’t cooperate. But Russia’s fresh maximalist demands will be a hard sell.

Read more …

“Russia has stated that the Ukraine conflict could be settled if Kiev commits to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognizes the “territorial reality on the ground.”

• Kiev’s Backers ‘Frustrated’ By Trump’s Stance On Ukraine Talks (RT)

European NATO members are “frustrated” with US President Donald Trump’s “constant swerving” on Ukraine peace talks, which undermines their ability to pressure Russia, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources. Kiev’s backers are uncertain regarding what Trump will do following the inconclusive Turkish-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Friday, according to the news agency. The meeting was the first direct engagement between the belligerents since 2022. Key European NATO members initially believed that Trump supported their plan to impose new sanctions on Russia if it rejected the demand for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine, the article said. Moscow has stated that it is open to a ceasefire “in general,” but has expressed concern that it would only give Ukraine time to regroup and rest its battered forces.

However, the West’s unified front apparently started to crumble after Moscow proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul without any preconditions, according to Bloomberg. The overture prompted the US president to insist that Kiev “immediately” agree to restart dialogue, despite Vladimir Zelensky’s reluctance to do so without a ceasefire.One European official expressed hope that the Istanbul meeting would “make it clear to Trump that the Russians aren’t serious about peace talks,” prompting the US to respond decisively. Some European leaders reportedly believe that Trump may still follow through on earlier threats to impose secondary sanctions and banking restrictions on Moscow.

Others, however, are said to be skeptical about whether Trump – who has repeatedly said he wants to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to settle the Ukraine conflict – has an appetite for drastic measures. At the Istanbul meeting, discussions included ceasefire options, a prisoner exchange, and plans for a potential follow-up meeting. Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s top negotiator, said Moscow is “satisfied” with the results of the Istanbul talks and is ready to “resume contacts” with Kiev. Russia has stated that the Ukraine conflict could be settled if Kiev commits to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognizes the “territorial reality on the ground.” Kiev, however, has ruled out any territorial concessions to Moscow.

Read more …

Then keep Zelensky out of the room. And Europe too.

• US Opposes ‘Endless Negotiations’ On Ukraine – Rubio (RT)

The US does not want negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to drag on indefinitely, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, emphasizing that Washington expects concrete results. He made the remarks after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in three years in Istanbul on Friday. The countries agreed on a prisoner swap involving 1,000 people on each side, and to continue contacts once both parties have prepared detailed ceasefire proposals. “On the one hand, we’re trying to achieve peace and end a very bloody, costly, and destructive war. So there’s some element of patience that is required,” Rubio said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.

“On the other hand, we don’t have time to waste. There are a lot of other things happening in the world that we also need to be paying attention to. So we don’t want to be involved in this process of just endless talks. There has to be some progress, some movement forward,” he added. Rubio said the US would examine ceasefire proposals from both Russia and Ukraine. “If those papers have ideas on them that are realistic and rational, then I think we know we’ve made progress,” he said. The diplomat confirmed that the US is ready to impose further sanctions on Russia if no deal is reached. He expressed confidence that both chambers of Congress would pass Senator Lindsey Graham’s bill introducing 500% tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian oil, natural gas, and uranium.

According to the White House, Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by phone on Saturday, reiterating President Donald Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire. Moscow has rejected demands for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, insisting that talks must address the “root causes” of the conflict, including Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO – a move Russia considers a threat to its national security. President Vladimir Putin has maintained that a lasting truce would require Ukraine to halt its mobilization, stop receiving weapons from abroad, and withdraw troops from Russian territory. He also warned that Kiev would likely use a temporary ceasefire to rearm and regroup.

Read more …

“.. If the talks have any chance of succeeding, the American side must take responsibility for the war it started and fueled..”

• Talks In Istanbul Are A Start…The Real Show To Come Is Trump And Putin (SCF)

The talks in Istanbul this week provide a prospect for peace. It bears emphasizing that the three-year proxy war could have been avoided if diplomacy had been permitted by Washington in early 2022 instead of being sabotaged. Three years on, we have a new president in the White House, and there appears to be a more enlightened policy. Or maybe it’s an implicit admission that the U.S. proxy war agenda is a failure and can’t go on. In any case, Trump and his envoys are unequivocally saying that they want to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine. That’s a big change from his predecessor, Joe Biden, who vowed to back Ukraine for as long as it takes in a fantastical, reckless pursuit to strategically defeat Russia. It was the Biden administration, along with the British government, that intervened to scupper nascent peace talks in March 2022 between Russia and Ukraine for a peace deal. Washington and London coaxed the Kiev regime to fight on with promises of more weapons.

The result: three more years of intense conflict, which have caused millions of casualties, mainly on the Ukrainian side. The proxy war has come perilously close to provoking an all-out world war between nuclear powers. Trump appears to want peace. If he is genuine in that intention, then the American president will have to address the root causes of the conflict. Russia has consistently explained the deeper causes of NATO aggression and the militarization of Ukraine as a hostile bridgehead on its borders since the CIA-orchestrated coup in Kiev in 2014. The American president has shown petulance at times, urging Ukraine and Russia to get down to a peace deal. He has even threatened Russia with more (futile) economic sanctions. What the Trump administration needs to understand is that resolving deep causes of conflict requires commensurate negotiations and a realistic commitment to lasting geopolitical security arrangements.

The talks in Istanbul this week to explore a peaceful resolution were initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an announcement last week. Russia’s delegation was led by Putin’s senior aide, Vladimir Medinsky. That speaks of consistency and commitment. Medinsky led the peace talks three years ago in Istanbul, which were then sabotaged in April 2022 by the American and British intervention. This week, the Russian side held preliminary bilateral talks with the Americans led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Subsequently, the Russian and Ukrainian delegates engaged in a meeting convened by Turkish diplomats. It was the first direct encounter between Russian and Ukrainian officials since the March 2022 negotiations. It is not clear if follow-up meetings will take place. But at least one might say that talks took place.

The key to any prospect of ending the conflict depends on Washington demonstrating the requisite commitment. Trump said this week again that he would like to hold a summit with Putin as “soon as possible.” The Kremlin has also said that a formal presidential meeting is desirable. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that there must first be adequate preparation for meaningful discussions. That implies that any top-level meeting must be cognizant of Russia’s demands for a resolution, one that deals with the historic, systematic causes of the proxy war. Western politicians and media denying Russia’s perspective are delusional or duplicitous. To claim that the conflict is all about “unprovoked Russian aggression” against “democratic Ukraine” and “Russian expansionism” towards Europe is a travesty.

It’s a bogus narrative that precludes peaceful resolution. Trump seems to be aware of that. But he needs to go beyond a superficial “peace broker” charade. If Trump wants a gimmicky big summit with Putin for PR ratings, as his tour of the Middle East this week illustrates his egotistical wont, he can forget it. The meetings this week in Turkey can be seen as preliminary technical discussions. However, President Trump needs to take the lead. Appropriately, a peaceful resolution will only happen at the senior level of the U.S. and Russian governments. That’s because the United States is the primary protagonist in the proxy war against Russia. It is clear from the antics and theatrics of the Kiev regime this week that there is no prospect of a meaningful, lasting peace if negotiations are confined to that level.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not even have constitutional legitimacy after cancelling elections last year. His erratic behavior of grandstanding and mudslinging at the Russian diplomatic efforts proves that he is not capable of substantive negotiations. The European leaders are also an impediment to achieving an authentic peace settlement. Even before delegations met this week in Istanbul, various non-entity European politicians were disparaging Russia’s diplomatic initiative. Macron, Starmer, Merz, Von der Leyen and Kallas were desperately trying to insult the Russian president, indulging Zelensky’s PR stunt demanding a face-to-face meeting with Putin in Istanbul. The European Union also timed an announcement this week to double its supply of heavy-calibre munitions to Ukraine. Another provocation.

France’s Macron sought to impose a precondition for the talks by demanding a 30-day ceasefire. That was a flagrant attempt to sabotage the negotiations before they even started. These people are not honest about ending the worst war in Europe since the end of World War Two. Disgracefully, they want the bloodshed to continue for their political survival and gratifying their obsessive Russophobic fantasies. If Trump wants to end NATO’s proxy war against Russia, he will have to sideline the European naysayers and the Kiev puppet regime. Their involvement is counterproductive. One suspects that Trump already knows that. An American and Russian agreement at the highest level is the only way to bring the war to an end. It is no use for the American side pretending that they are mere peace brokers. They are the main protagonist, not the European lapdogs nor the Kiev regime. Preliminary talks are all very well. But they are just that. Preliminary. If the talks have any chance of succeeding, the American side must take responsibility for the war it started and fueled.

Read more …

Lavrov: “In April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached agreement in Istanbul. If that agreement had been observed, Ukraine would have preserved part of Donbass. But every time another agreement, always accepted by Russia, is broken, Ukraine shrinks in size.”

• The Istanbul Kabuki – Decoded (Pepe Escobar)

Did President Putin really change the game by proposing the resumption of negotiations on the proxy war in Ukraine in Istanbul – over three years after the first ones were scotched by NATO? It’s complicated. And depends on which “game” we’re talking about. What the Russian move instantly accomplished was to throw into total disarray the European warmongering Three Stooges (Starmer, BlackRock chancellor, Le Petit Roi) Cocaine Express. Irrelevant Europe was not even at the table in Istanbul – except via extensive previous briefing of the low-rent, shabby-dressed Ukrainian delegation. That was compounded by the noisy barking threat in the sidelines advocating “more sanctions” to “pressure Russia”. In March 2022 in Istanbul, Kiev could have stopped the war. Every one of us who were in Istanbul at the time could foresee that Kiev would eventually have to be forced to the table all over again.

So in essence we are back to the same negotiation – with the same top Russian negotiator, competent historian Vladimir Medinsky, heading a delegation composed by pros, but with Ukraine now facing over a million dead; deprived of at least four regions – more on the way; what’s left of its mineral wealth de facto controlled by the US; and a horrendous black hole that passes for an “economy”. We are talking about country 404 territory. During the negotiations on Friday, Medinsky went straight to the point:“We don’t want war, but we are ready to fight for a year, two, three – as long as it takes. We fought with Sweden for 21 years [the Great Northern War, 1700-1721, as it is known in Russia]. How long are you ready to fight?” That’s the geopolitical/military state of things for Kiev and their “to the last Ukrainian” warmongering backers: either you capitulate, or we’re going to hurt you even more.

What’s the point of these negotiations? Turkiye under uber-opportunist Sultan Erdogan in fact hosted a P.R. meeting between Moscow, Kiev and itself – with the Ukrainians unleashing a blitzkrieg of infantile tantrums only designed to influence global public opinion. In sharp contrast, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, did his best to put a positive spin on the proceedings. Istanbul 2.0, Dmitriev asserted, achieved a large exchange of prisoners (1,000 on each side); ceasefire options to be presented by both sides; and a continuation of dialogue. That’s not much. Well, at least they discussed in the same language: Russian. Nothing was lost in translation. A serious case can be made that to propose the resumption of these negotiations, under this format, was meaningless.

There’s no evidence in the horizon both parties might touch the fundamental issue anytime soon: the whole geopolitical strategic equation in Eastern Europe, from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea and beyond – leading to an “indivisibility of security” new deal with global repercussions. That implies that whatever track these negotiations may follow further on down the road, they are an objective impossibility. Meanwhile, the proxy war in Ukraine – and the SMO – will go on. That would also suggest that the Moscow security establishment considers the neo-nazi instrumentalized goons in Kiev at best as a re-enactment of the 6th Army of Paulus, with which you negotiate the end of a battle, but not the end of the war. Even NATO semi-realists as retired Commodore Steven Jermy have been forced to admit that “Russia is in the driving seat” and clueless Europeans “appear to believe that the losers should dictate the terms of ceasefire or surrender.”

All the barking by the – European – chihuahuas of war cannot disguise the fundamental geopolitical/military fact: a massive NATO humiliation. Trump’s humongous problem is that he has to manage it – and sell it to domestic public opinion and the global public opinion as some sort of “deal” he struck with Putin. It’s enlightening once again to go back to Grandmaster Lavrov, always the uber-realist, back in September 2024: “In April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached agreement in Istanbul. If that agreement had been observed, Ukraine would have preserved part of Donbass. But every time another agreement, always accepted by Russia, is broken, Ukraine shrinks in size.”

Now back to the (Great) Game. Kiev negotiators eventually admitting Ukrainian capitulation means a NATO capitulation and an Empire of Chaos capitulation. That’s the ultimate anathema for the US ruling classes. Even an ultra-negotiated, carefully managed Ukrainian surrender will be an impossible sell – not to mention Washington under Narcissus Drowned Trump acknowledging a strategic defeat.

Because that will mean the Empire of Chaos losing Eurasia for good: the ultimate Mackinder/Brzezinski nightmare. Coupled with the consequential solidification of the multi-nodal, multipolar world. The Russia-China stategic partnership is very much aware of every nook and cranny in this larger-than-life process. Beyond the current Turkish kabuki, they clearly understand the Big Eurasia Equation. Beijing is fully aware NATO’s real goal was always to confront it via Russia. Ukraine was NATO’s pawn to take down Russia then get to China from the West. The goal of the US ruling elites as they configured their thalassocratic empire remains to blockade China from the West by land and sea, using Russia; then use Taiwan as a staging area to blockade China from the East by sea. No wonder control of Taiwan is a Chinese strategic imperative.

Enter Mackinder panic – all over again: the China-Russia strategic partnership can beat NATO hands down – and Russia, by itself, is already doing it. Xi and Putin once again discussed the chessboard in detail, in person, prior to the Victory Day parade last week in Moscow. The endgame, once again, is clear: the US losing the entire Eurasian land mass. Ukraine, under these immense geopolitical imperatives, is only a sovereign-deprived pawn in the (Great) Game. As for the tantrum-addicted clown in Kiev, he is merely an actor with no authority whatsoever, negotiations included. He is completely dominated by Ukrainian neo-Nazis who will kill him if and when the war is over. He merely fronts for them and gets paid off. And that’s why – enthusiastically supported by inconsequential London, Paris and Berlin – he’s obsessed to continue a Forever War destroying the very nation he claims to represent.

Read more …

“This Istanbul meeting has taken place because of Moscow’s initiative, not that of the West or Ukraine. It was Putin who, on May 11, suggested, in essence, two things: First to start direct talks without preconditions. And second – this is the part everyone in the West pretends to miss – to do so by re-starting talks where “they were held earlier and where they were interrupted.” That was, of course, a clear reference to the Istanbul negotiations in the spring of 2022.”

“Putin’s offer of re-starting the Istanbul talks amounted to a second chance for a Kiev regime that – judging by its atrocious record of sacrificing Ukraine to brutal Western geopolitics – it certainly does not deserve. But ordinary Ukrainians do.”

• Istanbul Talks 2.0 Are A Great Chance For Zelensky To Accept Reality (Amar)

Despite Ukraine’s and the EU’s worst efforts at underhanded sabotage, the Istanbul talks – the first direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in three years – have now taken place. They may be over for now, they may continue soon. They may still turn into a dead end or they may help get somewhere better than war. What is clear already is that they are not meaningless. The question is what that meaning will be once we look back on them from the near future of either peace or continuing war. The leader of the Russian team in Istanbul, Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, cautiously praised the two-hour talks as satisfying “overall.” A substantial prisoner exchange has been agreed (but not in the “all-for-all” format Ukraine unrealistically called for). Ukraine’s request for a meeting between its superannuated leader Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been made – this time apparently in a serious and diplomatic manner – and the Russian side has taken cognizance of it. Both sides have agreed to detail their vision of a potential future ceasefire and then to meet again.

This is much better than nothing. It’s also not a miracle breakthrough. But those expecting or even demanding the latter only have themselves to blame. That sort of thing was never in the cards. And that’s normal. For diplomacy, especially to end a war, is a complex activity for patient adults, by definition. It is also historically normal that such negotiations take place while fighting is still ongoing. It is silly and simply dishonest to pretend – as do Ukraine, its obstinate European backers, and sometimes (now depending on the mood on any given day) the US – that negotiations can only happen with a ceasefire in place. Medinsky has pointed out this basic fact in an important interview on Russia’s most watched political talk show. Westerners should pay attention. Because he’s right and, perhaps even more importantly, it’s yet another clear signal from Moscow that it will not walk into the simple-minded Western-Ukrainian trap of a ceasefire without at least a very clear path to a full peace.

Indeed, Medinsky referenced the Great Northern War of 1700-1721 to illustrate that Russia will fight as long as it takes. And that it’s a very bad idea not to take a comparatively good deal from Moscow when you are offered one, because the next one will be worse. Zelensky has already done this to his own country once or even twice (depending on how you count). During these second-chance Istanbul talks, an unnamed Russian representative warned Ukraine that if it misses this opportunity again, then the next one will involve additional territorial losses, again, as Russian TV reported. But let’s zoom out for a moment: There is a very simple thing about the current talks between Russia and Ukraine that virtually everyone in Western mainstream media and politics apparently cannot process. So let’s clarify the obvious: This Istanbul meeting has taken place because of Moscow’s initiative, not that of the West or Ukraine.

It was Putin who, on May 11, suggested, in essence, two things: First to start direct talks without preconditions. And second – this is the part everyone in the West pretends to miss – to do so by re-starting talks where “they were held earlier and where they were interrupted.” That was, of course, a clear reference to the Istanbul negotiations in the spring of 2022.As intelligent observers suspected immediately, these first Istanbul talks ended without results because the West instructed the Kiev regime to keep fighting. This is not a matter of opinion anymore. The evidence is in and unambiguous. Even the head of Ukraine’s 2022 negotiating team, David Arakhamia, has long publicly admitted two things: First, that Russia was offering Kiev a very advantageous deal back then, demanding no more than neutrality and an end to unrealistic NATO ambitions; everything else, to quote Arakhamia, was merely “cosmetic political seasoning.”

And second, that it was indeed the West that told Zelensky to bet on more war instead. And to his eternal shame, Zelensky chose to betray his country by obeying the West. That means – like it or not – that Putin’s offer of re-starting the Istanbul talks amounted to a second chance for a Kiev regime that – judging by its atrocious record of sacrificing Ukraine to brutal Western geopolitics – it certainly does not deserve. But ordinary Ukrainians do. Regarding Zelensky, he should have been elated and grateful to get a chance to, if not make up for his horrific decision in 2022 (that’s impossible), at least to finally correct it. But Zelensky has remained Zelensky. His response to the Russian offer was – as so often – stunningly narcissistic, megalomanic, and dishonest. Instead of seizing the chance for his country and himself, Zelensky started a transparent maneuver to put Russia in the wrong so as to impress, above all, US president Donald Trump.

Western politicians and mainstream media, meanwhile, spent tankerloads of venom on denouncing Moscow and Putin, accusing them of sabotaging the talks – which, again, Russia actually initiated – in, allegedly, two ways: by Putin not attending in person and by, as they claim, sending only a “low-level” team instead. These Western information war talking points have been so ubiquitous that it feels – once again – as if everyone is copying from the same, daft memo. Take the Bloomberg version, for instance. It can stand for all the others. Bloomberg is right about one thing: The composition of the Russian delegation – while by no means “low-ranking,” actually – was bound to “fall far short” of Kiev’s expectations. But that was the result not of Moscow’s decisions, but of Kiev’s inflated expectations and the way Zelensky tried to realize them. Once Zelensky had, in essence, made a public ultimatum out of his baseless demand that Putin attend in person, it was, obviously, extremely unlikely to happen.

Read more …

Not much left to gain. Europe is Swiss cheese.

• What Does Russia Have To Gain From The EU Now? (Bordachev)

When Russian President Vladimir Putin recently remarked that Russia and Western Europe would “sooner or later” restore constructive relations, it was less a statement of policy than a reminder of historical inevitability. For now, there are no signs of readiness on the part of the EU. But history is full of unexpected reversals, and diplomacy has always required patience. Still, when that moment comes, Russia will have to ask a hard question: what, exactly, does it have to gain from Western Europe? At present, the answer appears to be very little. EU leaders behave as though Russia remains the same country they remember from the 1990s – isolated, weakened, and desperate to be heard. That world is gone. Today’s Russia neither needs Western European approval nor fears its condemnation.

And yet EU officials continue speaking in tones of paternalism and ultimatums, as if they still believe they represent something decisive on the world stage. A recent display of this detachment came in Kiev, where the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, and Poland gathered to issue what can only be described as a performative ultimatum to Moscow. The content was irrelevant; it was the posture that was telling. One could only wonder: who, exactly, do they believe is listening? Certainly not Russia, and increasingly, not the rest of the world either. Western Europe today poses no independent threat to Russia. It lacks both military capability and economic leverage. Its real danger lies not in strength but in weakness: the possibility that its provocations could drag others into crises it cannot control. Its influence has diminished, and it has largely burned the bridges that once made cooperation costly for Russia.

The West’s cold war fantasies are now detached from the material realities of global power. The EU elite’s fundamental miscalculation is assuming that Russia still views the western part of the continent as a model to emulate. But today’s Russia has little reason to aspire to European institutions, politics, or economic design. Indeed, in areas such as digital governance and public administration, Russia is ahead. Western European efforts to “modernize” Russia through consulting and institutional outreach have long since lost relevance. EU stagnation is not just political but also technological. Strict regulations and cautious legislation have stifled innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation. In fields where other European nations could once have partnered with Russia, different global actors have already stepped in.

The reality is that Western Europe has little to offer that Russia cannot obtain elsewhere. In education, too, Western Europe’s attraction has faded. Its academic institutions increasingly serve as conduits for intellectual siphoning, rather than genuine exchange. What was once a strength is now perceived as an instrument of cultural dilution. To be clear, Russia is not rejecting diplomacy with other European powers. But such diplomacy must be grounded in mutual benefit – and right now, Western Europe offers little. The real tragedy is that many European leaders were raised in a post-Cold War world that taught them they would never face consequences. That arrogance has calcified into a kind of strategic illiteracy. Figures like Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, exemplify this reality: performative, insulated, and disconnected from the costs of their decisions.

Read more …

“We can see now though that this idea of the tail wagging the dog, even if once it might have been true to some extent, has now been dealt with head on by Trump.”

• Trump’s Middle East Theatricals Were All About Putting Bibi In His Place (Jay)

Was it Bill Clinton in the White House with Benjamin Netanyahu who, in a press conference, muttered those vulgar and certainly immortal words “who’s the f*** superpower around here?” The question was really about whether the U.S. is running Israel and its activities in the Middle East or it is in fact Israel which is running the U.S. In recent months in both the Biden administration and the Trump one which followed, many pundits have claimed that Israel is in control of U.S. foreign policy, with some even going as far as speculating that this control even goes beyond the Middle East itself. This cabal of online commentators made so much of how Trump adjusted Bibi’s seat when he sat down in the Oval Office. We can see now though that this idea of the tail wagging the dog, even if once it might have been true to some extent, has now been dealt with head on by Trump.

His visit to the Middle East and his impressive speech in Saudi Arabia which mocked the bellicose approach to bombing civilians was a direct message to Netanyahu in Israel: America is back. Trump is literally taking control of U.S. foreign policy in the region and pushing back Israel’s attempts to bomb its way to peace, whether this be in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or, of course, in Iran. The move comes at a tough time in the region where the country which seemed to bring about a revolution with the Arab Spring – Tunisia – is falling into an abys as it becomes a leading example of a dictatorship which knows no limits on its brutal suppression. For Netanyahu, a number of pundits now are pointing to the “clear light” between Trump and him with some claiming that these two leaders aren’t even talking anymore. Trump defied him by talking to Iran, negotiating with the Houthis and now scrapping sanctions in Syria.

Israel cannot even dream of attacking Iran with the U.S. help and so a big part of Netanyahu’s mojo has been removed. And now Trump is calling the shots on aid to Gaza, but stopped short of calling for the Palestinians to have their own state. Yet his move on Syria is telling. Israel’s plans were always to have head-chopping extremists running the show – which they backed in the Syria civil war – with a constant mayhem present so that they can always take advantage of the chaos while ensuring that the path which once stood between Tehran and Beirut is always blocked. Trump’s announcement that all sanctions will be lifted will not be welcomed by Bibi who will see the move as a stunt by the Donald to demonstrate who is running the show, although the announcement itself might prove to be premature.

Senator Lindsey Graham states only Congress can change the country’s designation as a “state sponsor of terror” and that Trump must make his case to Congress for that to happen. “That report has not been received, and Congress has the opportunity to review this action if it chooses. The designation of Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism has tremendous ramifications apart from the sanctions,” Graham stated. The senator stated that he is sure that Congress must be informed before sanctions are lifted, and the legislative body would then “make an informed decision on whether or not it should approve the change in designation.” But he also stated that Israel’s opinion matters and that Congress would consult Netanyahu so it’s fair to say that Syria’s fate is still yet to be decided regardless of whatever Trump has said at the podium in Riyadh.

It would appear that Bibi and Trump are set to clash now and we shouldn’t be surprised at what resources Trump will deploy to show Israel’s leader that Trump is both serious about peace in the region but also that Israel must put aside its warmongering – which may well include even supporting a two-state solution, pushed more recently by France and the UK. And then we will see who is the f*** super power and who is the client state. Almost certainly the fate of Syria and Gaza will be used as a rod for Bibi’s back until he succumbs to Trump’s rule.

Read more …

There’s not enough time to do the negotiations with 100+ nations properly.

• Trump Just Made a Huge Move on Tariffs (Margolis)

President Donald Trump demonstrated once again why he’s the master of the art of the deal. During his trip to the Middle East, Trump made it clear that countries dragging their feet on trade negotiations are about to face the music. So far, the trade negotiations are going well, and the economic apocalypse that Democrats claimed was going to happen hasn’t. It’s nothing new for Democrats to be wrong, and while they’re still harboring delusions that Trump is going to kill the economy, his latest move is likely to send them into a tailspin. Trump isn’t playing around. With over 150 countries clamoring to make deals with the United States, the president announced that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will be sending letters to these nations in the coming weeks, essentially telling them that tariffs might rise again soon.

“We have, at the same time, 150 countries that want to make a deal, but you’re not able to see that many countries,” Trump said in Abu Dhabi on Friday. “So at a certain point, over the next two to three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out, essentially telling people — we’ll be very fair — but we’ll be telling people what they’ll be paying to do business in the United States.” CNN has more. “Trump on April 9 paused his massive so-called reciprocal tariffs, which he announced on what he called “Liberation Day” on April 2. The reprieve was supposed to be for 90 days, to allow countries to negotiate with the administration. Trump officials have said around 100 countries have offered to negotiate deals, setting a tremendously difficult task before US trade negotiators to race against the clock to make new commitments.

Without those negotiated deals, Trump could impose reciprocal tariffs – some of which are as high as 50%. The tariffs aren’t technically reciprocal, and many smaller countries with large trade gaps with the United States would end up with significant tariff burdens. “I guess you could say they could appeal it, but for the most part I think we’re going to be very fair, but it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us,” Trump said.” And the results are already rolling in. The United Kingdom, showing remarkable foresight, quickly secured a deal that limits its tariffs to just 10%, the first formal agreement since Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement in early April. That’s what happens when you negotiate in good faith with the Trump administration. But perhaps the most significant development is happening with China. The communist regime, which initially tried to play hardball, is now singing a different tune.

According to Trump, they “wanted to make that deal very badly.” Both nations have temporarily suspended tariffs that had reached a staggering 100%, with a 90-day window to hammer out a permanent agreement. This is exactly why the American people elected Trump to a second term. He understands that the only way to fix decades of terrible trade deals is to negotiate from a position of strength. The administration’s approach is that countries should either come to the table ready to deal fairly or face the consequences. The liberal media might wring its hands about trade wars, but Trump is proving once again that his approach works. With 150 countries practically begging to negotiate, it’s obvious who holds the cards. As these next few weeks unfold, we’re about to see which nations understand the new reality of trading with America and which ones need to learn the hard way. That’s what real leadership looks like.

Read more …

“..[that] [the Republicans] had always been “war and peace,” that Trump had changed it to “peace and war.”

• Scott Jennings, Bill Maher Light It Up on Trump’s Powerful Speech (Arama)

President Donald Trump gave a stirring speech in Saudi Arabia this week of what might be termed an outline of the “Trump Doctrine,” a revival of peace through strength, but recognizing that you don’t always have to be interventionist.

“Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos,” the president said, “where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence — we don’t want that.” He skewered those who failed, saying that, “in the end, the so-called ‘nation builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. They told you how to do it, but they had no idea how to do it themselves.”

In that, you can see how ridiculous the “dictator” talk about Trump is. He’s the man of the Abraham Accords, who brought more peace in the Middle East, who’s trying even now to bring peace to Ukraine. But he’s also the guy who will act with strength and take out people who attack us; he will put America first. How unique was that speech? Even Bill Maher thought it was a radically different take, on HBO’s “Real Time” show on Friday, which included guest Scott Jennings.

Jennings then went on to say how we [the Republicans] had always been “war and peace,” that Trump had changed it to “peace and war.” “He talks about peace more than he talks about war. He’s still hawkish enough to bomb people who need to be bombed like the Houthi rebels,” Jennings said. He’s “Peace through Strength,” like Reagan. Jennings continued, “Putting peace ahead of war is pretty popular with the American people.” That got big applause from Maher’s audience, which Jennings termed a seismic shift. It’s not just foreign policy where Trump is bringing transformative change in policy, bringing the government back to reality and more in touch. You can also see it by moving the FBI out of its ivory tower in D.C. and to middle America. Jennings spoke about breaking up that D.C. concentration to put the workers into the middle of the country, so they would have a “better understanding”:

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1923626513221537931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1923626513221537931%7Ctwgr%5E6c720826bbbde35fc82cd8b4a40e023c7f52a9ce%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredstate.com%2Fnick-arama%2F2025%2F05%2F17%2Fscott-jennings-and-bill-maher-talk-trumps-powerful-speech-transformative-change-hes-bringing-n2189210

That also got a lot of cheers. Peace through strength, and getting more in touch with what Americans want. It’s hard to argue with that as a doctrine. Team Trump has been thinking outside the box, and it’s refreshing after four years of Biden malaise.

Read more …

“..Moody’s “would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded” if the agency “had any credibility.”

The timing is curious. Is this the worst situation in 108 years?! Or has Moody’s gone TDS woke?

• Moody’s Delivers First US Credit Rating Downgrade Since 1917 (RT)

Moody’s has stripped the US of its perfect triple-A credit rating, citing increasing concerns over debt affordability. The rating agency had held the country’s sovereign credit rating at the highest possible level since 1917. The move brings the 116-year-old agency into line with its global rivals. Fitch Ratings downgraded the US rating to AA+ from AAA in August 2023, and Standard & Poor’s cut it to AA+ from AAA in August 2011. The reduction to Aa1 “reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns,” Moody’s said in a statement released on Friday.The agency noted that successive US administrations and Congress have failed to reach an agreement on measures to reverse the pattern of large annual fiscal deficits and rising interest costs.

Moody’s stated, however, that the US retains exceptional credit strengths, citing its size, resilience, dynamism, and the role of the dollar as the global reserve currency. Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned about the possibility of a default as soon as August, calling for either raising or suspending the debt ceiling – a statutory limit on how much the federal government can borrow – to avoid running out of money to cover federal expenses. The US reached its ceiling of $36.1 trillion in January. Once the limit is hit, the government is legally barred from borrowing further to meet its obligations. The total federal debt has climbed to $36.2 trillion, according to official figures.

The Treasury has avoided default by using so-called “extraordinary measures” – mainly accounting maneuvers such as suspending contributions to federal employee retirement funds – to keep up with its financial commitments. Under former President Joe Biden, the debt ceiling was raised three times. The current president, Donald Trump, has argued that the cap should be eliminated entirely, calling it pointless if it’s routinely lifted. He has argued that the concept of a debt ceiling “doesn’t mean anything, except psychologically.” Commenting on the rating downgrade, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said on Friday that Moody’s “would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded” if the agency “had any credibility.” He also claimed that the Trump administration is currently dealing with the “mess” left by the previous administration.

Read more …

‘sundance’ deep dive.

• Biden’s DOJ – Merrick Garland was AG In Name Only for a Specific Reason (CTH)

There has been a lot of discussion about who was running the Biden administration against the backdrop of numerous revelations about his cognitive incapacity while in office. However, one key point keeps being overlooked about the DOJ during his tenure. Merrick Garland was not selected to be Joe Biden’s Attorney General because the crew in control of the events wanted Merrick Garland as Attorney General. Garland was removed from his position as DC Circuit Court Justice in order to make room for Ketanji Brown-Jackson to take Garland’s place, get Senate confirmed and then await the resignation of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bryer. {GO DEEP} As a standalone Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson would have been a radical pick.

Judge Brown-Jackson was a known activist in the DC District Court; however, by removing Garland as chief circuit justice and replacing him with KBJ, who needed Senate confirmation as chief circuit justice, she could get through a later Senate confirmation easier and then sit on the Supreme Court for thirty years. Garland was removed to make room for KBJ. It was a strategy. Garland was a U.S. Attorney General in name only. The actual lead of the DOJ was from Obama’s crew, Deputy AG Lisa Monaco. WHY? Back in 2009 President Obama selected Eric Holder to be Attorney General. AG Holder’s role was to lead the Lawfare ‘fundamental transformation’ we have seen in the 16 years since. In the 2010 midterms, Obama was “shellacked,” that triggered AG Holder to ask the Treasury Department to participate in a “special research project.” {Go Deep}

The IRS was asked for the Schedule-B’s of groups who were registered as “patriot” groups (Tea Party Patriots) and other names associated with the political uprising against Barack Obama and the takeover of federal healthcare, ie Obamacare. The Cincinnati field office of the IRS then sent the DOJ a batch of CD-ROM’s containing the names of the individual donors listed on the IRS 501-c (3)(4) forms. That list was then compiled and used by the federal government to target the donors and supporters. A whistleblower came forward; the IRS controversy swirled in 2012. On September 25, 2014, the Justice Department said Attorney General Eric Holder would resign as soon as his successor is confirmed. Holder was succeeded by Loretta Lynch on April 27, 2015. Lynch was selected because she was the bridge to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. Remember the Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch tarmac meeting? It’s all connected. [Sidebar – the reporter who broke the story of the Arizona Clinton/Lynch tarmac meeting later died from “suicide.”]

Summary so far: Obama appointed Holder to lead and create the weaponized Lawfare transition within Main Justice. Eric Holder did just that, and also created the DOJ-National Security Division (to use FARA investigations against DC operatives as leverage). Holder then left the DOJ, took the special research project data, and went to work in California. Loretta Lynch was then appointed as the transitional AG between Obama and Hillary Clinton. That was the plan. The DOJ/FBI would protect Clinton’s interests, and that’s exactly what they did in 2015 and 2016. Eric Holder was then hired by the State of California right after the surprising and unexpected election result of 2016. Eric Holder then began constructing the BETA test for what was to come later. Eric Holder organized the motor-voter rolls in California to auto-register illegal alien voters. The California legislature passed a law permitting illegal aliens to get drivers licenses.

Eric Holder’s program linked those drivers licenses automatically to voter registration. Do you remember the 2018 mid-term election in California? For weeks after 2018 election day in California, the new process of mail-in ballots changed the entire election day outcome. California was the BETA test for the national 2020 mail-in ballot fraud system. It all links back to the California ballot and illegal alien voter registration operation carried out by Eric Holder. Eric Holder was Obama’s weaponized Attorney General (2009-2015). Loretta Lynch was the Attorney General in place to facilitate the transition to Hillary Clinton (2015-2016). Merrick Garland was Biden’s Attorney General (2021) to pave the way for Ketanji Brown-Jackson to be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice (2022). Lisa Monaco was the person running the day-to-day DOJ operations (2021-2025). KBJ was put into the planning book back in February 2020, yes, 2020!

It was February 25th, 2020, to be precise, just four days before the South Carolina Democrat primary. South Carolina Representative James Clyburn went backstage at the presidential debate and told Biden, “You’ve had a couple of opportunities to mention naming a Black woman to the Supreme Court,” Clyburn lectured his friend of nearly half a century, like a schoolteacher scolding a child. “I’m telling you, don’t you leave the stage tonight without making it known that you will do that.” {link} Unbeknownst to Biden at the time, just two days earlier Barack Obama and James Clyburn came to an agreement and created the most consequential alliance of the 2020 Democrat campaign. Barack Obama the figurative and ideological leader of the movement known as “Black Lives Matter”, and James Clyburn the figurative and ideological leader of the political construct within the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, had struck a deal.

Obama and Clyburn really had no choice but to come to an agreement and form the alliance. If they did not act fast, Bernie Sanders was gaining momentum, and they could not have Sanders at the top of the 2020 ticket, because he was too outside the club system which was now almost exclusively focused on racial identity as a tool for political power. A Bernie Sanders -vs- Donald Trump general election would have been a disaster; and it would be almost impossible for the racial operatives in the key precincts [Atlanta (GA), Philly (PA), Clark County (NV), Wayne County (Mich), Madison (WI)] to feel inspired enough to risk themselves and commit fraud to help Bernie win.To get rid of Sanders, BLM and AME aligned. This was the actual moment when Hillary Clinton was cast into the pit of irrelevance in Democrat politics. Within the agreement, Obama and Clyburn selected Biden as the tool they could easily control to deliver on their larger, progressive, leftist intentions.

A few days later, James Clyburn then endorsed Biden while Barack Obama began making phone calls telling each of the other candidates to drop out in sequence and support Biden or else the club would destroy them. The only one told not to drop out yet was Elizabeth Warren, as she would be needed as the insurance policy, the splitter against Bernie Sanders. Each of the candidates was promised the traditional indulgences for toeing the party line, and the rest is history. Joe Biden wandered around doing what everyone told him to do, which was mostly stay in his basement and let the club work on his behalf, until the club delivered the nomination. Inside that process, the strategic map was modified to ensure Ketanji Brown-Jackson would advance to the Supreme Court.

With Biden installed, he would select Merrick Garland as his Attorney General. Judge Garland was an important judge on the important DC Circuit Court. Garland’s replacement would need to be a Senate confirmed seat for that Circuit Court assignment. Brown-Jackson would be put into Garland’s open spot, and the Senate could not deny her the SCOTUS confirmation, having just confirmed her months before. {Go Deep} It was always the team around -and including- Barack Obama operating in the background of Biden.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Schneider

Cole

Yeadon

Lipstick
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1923699988049072173

Paint

Elk

Hammer

Rap1946

Cliff

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle April 6 2025

Apr 062025
 
 April 6, 2025  Posted by at 10:36 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  29 Responses »


Salvador Dali Remorse, or Sphinx Embedded In Sand 1931

 

• The First of Many – Vietnam Negotiates Zero Tariff Policy (CTH)
• Cambodian PM Offers To Reduce Tariffs, Negotiate With Trump (JTN)
• Here’s When Canada Will Cave on Trump’s Tariffs (Margolis)
• Mr. Wonderful Destroys CNN With Masterful Defense of Trump Tariffs (Margolis)
• China Delays Approval of TikTok’s US Asset Spin-Off Due to New Tariffs (Sp.)
• Vance Warns Of ‘Greatest Threat To Europe’ (RT)
• Marine Le Pen and Her Party Refuse to Back Down (Sp.)
• Clarity About Ukraine Peace ‘A Matter Of Weeks’ – Rubio (RT)
• Washington Calls Kiev: The Plan Has Changed (Pacini)
• IRS To Sack 25% Of Its Employees – WaPo (RT)
• Hundreds of Law Firms Oppose Trump Order Against Perkins Coie (DS)
• Judge Orders Trump Admin to Return Alleged MS-13 Gang Member to the US (Heine)
• The Clash Between Trump and Activist Judges Is About to Go Nuclear (Margolis)
• Obama Lashes Out At Trump (RT)
• Obama’s Masterclass in Gaslighting (Margolis)
• US Research Highlights RT’s Role In Media Landscape (RT)

 

 

 

 

Interesting talk with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Who, also interesting, is a hedge fund man, not a central banker.


https://twitter.com/MJTruthUltra/status/1908369961715704240

 

 

Full interview

 

 

Miller
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1908234227474104648
https://twitter.com/DerrickEvans4WV/status/1908322429358788785

Obama Tesla

Ursula
https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1908431783000993956

VDH
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1908535796438610335

EU

 

 

 

 

“..poorer nations will be faster to lower import tariffs on USA goods because they have lower lobbying (bribe) income from corporations to govt. That’s what we should expect to see.”

• The First of Many – Vietnam Negotiates Zero Tariff Policy (CTH)

On March 27th, CTH shared the following: “Wealthy nations will attempt to maintain exports against President Trump tariffs by subsidizing their industries. Corporations have deeper pockets, and the politicians are used to the bribes, we call it “lobbying.” Therefore, the government responds by subsidizing the corporations [ie. the WEF business model]. How does the politics of opposition surface? …”Canada will subsidize their export industries, Germany will subsidize their auto industry, the EU will provide subsidies to their manufacturing powerhouses, and China will once again start subsidizing their manufacturing industry. Each of these nations will in turn, eventually, devalue their currency. However, poorer nations will be faster to lower import tariffs on USA goods because they have lower lobbying (bribe) income from corporations to govt. That’s what we should expect to see.” With the tariffs now triggered, it begins exactly as anticipated:

The economics of the thing is now colliding with the politics and the ideology, of the thing. Globalists are being confronted. The proverbial West will cleave according to their financial self-interest.The World Economic Forum (Build Back Better) model no longer views the USA as an ally. The MAGAnomic “Big Ugly” is underway. Countries will thrash and gnash their teeth; then surge in opposition, fail, then attempt to refoot and realign, then surge again and fail again. And so it will go… In 2019 Asia (ASEAN) was aligned as China was being confronted. The EU was the intended target for President Trump’s trade reset in term two as scheduled (2021-2025). However, COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting 2020 election threw a wrench in the plan. In 2025 the EU focus is now a priority. ASEAN nations quickly reassemble on the original terms of Trump T-1. For Trump T-2, China is quickly moved back into adversarial position and focus returns to the previously scheduled look at Europe.

Yes, the EU understand the agenda; they know what was planned then and put aside. In Trump T-2 there is no avoidance mechanism that can be deployed. The only play the EU has is defense. Europe is currently trying to arrange and coordinate a group of ideological allies to assist them. Those allies include Canada and to a lesser extent, Mexico. President Trump has shown a keen awareness of their best defense. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will not battle Donald J Trump. Factually, they all aligned their economic investment policy to gain from Trump confronting China. ASEAN countries will not battle President Trump; they will comply. Africa will try to walk a fine line between China and the USA. However, Africa will not confront President Trump directly and, if push comes to shove, they will likely not support China using their belt-and-road leverage to attempt transnational shipping as a tool for U.S tariff avoidance. [Insert a Trump-favorable Russia into this regional dynamic.]

It is the EU and the workaround relationships they created within Mexico and Canada who will fight the global trade reset with ferocity. Everything in the geopolitical world of economic opposition to President Trump will center around Europe. PARIS, April 3 (Reuters) – “French President Emmanuel Macron called on Thursday for European companies to suspend planned investment in the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on American imports. “Investments to come or investments announced in recent weeks should be suspended until things are clarified with the United States,” Macron said during a meeting with French industry representatives. The comments come weeks after French shipping firm CMA CGM announced plans to invest $20 billion in the U.S. to build shipping logistics and terminals, a plan that was hailed by President Trump at the time and mentioned again in his Wednesday speech unveiling the tariffs. French electrical equipment supplier Schneider Electric (SCHN.PA) said late last month it would invest $700 million in the country to support U.S. energy infrastructure to power AI growth.”

The EU judicial and intelligence services hit Marine Le Pen for a reason. Canada – Mark Carney, France – Macron, Ukraine – Zelenskyy, the EU Commission and Ursula Von der Leyen, all the way through NATO and into the German/Romanian elections and beyond, it’s all connected to the geopolitical dynamics of money, power and globalist economics. Stay elevated. Keep watching. President Donald Trump is a master at the big picture stuff. [ps. President Trump assigned every single one of those country specific tariff rates personally. Few understand why.]

Zero tariff
https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1908212617036128400

Read more …

“Cambodia proposes to negotiate with Your Honorable’s administration at the earliest convenient time..”

• Cambodian PM Offers To Reduce Tariffs, Negotiate With Trump (JTN)

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to President Donald Trump offering to drop tariff levels certain U.S. imports and negotiate. “Cambodia proposes to negotiate with Your Honorable’s administration at the earliest convenient time and wishes to request that your esteemed government consider postponing the above-mentioned tariff implementation,” he wrote on Friday. “I would like to inform Your Honorable President that the existing practice of Cambodia’s maximum tariff rate tops at 35%. In expression of our good faith and in spirit of strengthening our bilateral trade relations, Cambodia is committed to promote U.S. based product imports with an immediate reduction of 19 product categories from our maximum 35% tariff bound rate to 5% applied tariff rate,” he added.

He wrote that Cambodia “remains fully committed to engaging in constructive and productive dialogue with the U.S. government to further deepen our bilateral trade, so that both nations and peoples can enjoy the tangible benefits from these significant trade relations.” Many shoe manufacturers have located in Cambodia.

Read more …

When the elections are over. That an unelected candidate will likely win.

• Here’s When Canada Will Cave on Trump’s Tariffs (Margolis)

I have no doubt that Canada will cave to Trump on tariffs. The question is: when? “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary expressed confidence that the ongoing trade tension between Canada and the U.S. would eventually lead to a resolution, and he even predicted when. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, O’Leary said he believes that while the current rhetoric surrounding tariffs might appear grim, there is a strong economic incentive for both nations to come to the negotiating table and reduce the barriers that have caused friction in recent years.

O’Leary emphasized the importance of distinguishing between the “noise” of political rhetoric and the underlying “signal” that points toward economic cooperation. While current tensions have made it seem nearly impossible for the two nations to agree on trade policies, O’Leary argued that a combined economic effort between the U.S. and Canada could pose a significant challenge to China. “If you combine those economies… it would be much stronger against China if there were no tariffs between Canada and the United States,” he said.

The logic behind this argument lies in the historical and economic interdependence of the two countries. According to O’Leary, Canada’s economy has been deeply tied to the U.S. for over a century, with 75% of Canada’s output sold to the U.S. for more than 120 years. Furthermore, 17 U.S. states consider Canada their top trading partner, while 28 states rank Canada as their second-largest partner. “It would be economic suicide not to work this out,” O’Leary stated, underscoring the critical importance of a favorable trade agreement for both nations. O’Leary predicted that Canada will wait until after Canada’s upcoming election, which is set to take place in about five weeks, before caving to Trump on tariffs. Until then, he sees no substantive progress taking place.

He speculated that the next leader of Canada will quickly prioritize resolving trade issues with the U.S. “That person will fly to Washington immediately and start negotiations, which I would call NAFTA III,” O’Leary remarked, referring to the possibility of a new trade deal similar to the USMCA (formerly NAFTA) that would replace the existing tariff policies. The potential resolution is also tied to Canada’s political dynamics. O’Leary pointed out that the current Canadian leadership has been distracted by the trade dispute and other domestic issues. He specifically criticized Mark Carney, the interim prime minister, for attempting to use the Trump trade issue as a means of deflecting attention away from Canada’s internal economic struggles. O’Leary implied that Carney’s leadership has only exacerbated Canada’s difficulties. “Maybe he’ll get elected; maybe he won’t. Nobody knows right now,” he said, adding that no meaningful changes will occur until after the election.

In conclusion, O’Leary’s outlook suggests that, while the current trade situation between Canada and the U.S. is fraught with challenges, both countries stand to benefit immensely from removing tariffs and working together. The next Canadian leader, O’Leary believes, will be compelled to seek a deal with the U.S. once the political dust settles, which means that a breakthrough will likely occur soon after the election.

Read more …

“Carney is basically saying, ‘I know I wiped out the economy… but don’t worry about that. Let’s just stay focused on the evil Trump south of the border.’”

• Mr. Wonderful Destroys CNN With Masterful Defense of Trump Tariffs (Margolis)

Businessman and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary — also known as Mr. Wonderful — delivered a pointed and unapologetic defense of President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on CNN Friday night, brushing aside media hysteria and market hand-wringing with characteristic bluntness. “You know, I try and focus on the signal, not the noise,” O’Leary said, cutting through the typical cable news panic. “Harris is not president. Trump is. And if you didn’t like him 12 years ago and don’t like him now, I get it. But that’s not the issue.” What is the issue, according to O’Leary, is trade fairness — something that has been ignored for far too long in favor of politically correct diplomacy that left the U.S. at a disadvantage. “Reciprocal tariffs… we’ve got 60 countries on the list,” he explained. “Already, you’ve heard from Thailand, Cambodia, the EU, and Sen. Kennedy in Louisiana calling for zero tariffs between Canada and the United States. The whole point is it’s a negotiation.”

The investor made it clear that Trump’s hard-nosed approach is how you get to free trade—by making it costly not to come to the table. “If you can get the zero tariffs, that’s the best outcome. That’s called free trade. That’s 50% of why these tariffs are put on.” Even when host Laura Coates challenged him over the economic pain some Americans feel from market instability, O’Leary didn’t flinch. “Yeah, I hate volatility,” he admitted. “But the market corrects all the time. It generally goes down 15 to 20%. It has proven over a hundred years plus — it’s a great buying opportunity.” Former White House official Anthony Scaramucci, now a regular Trump critic, tried to refute O’Leary’s stance by claiming that the tariffs weren’t actually reciprocal and calling the policy “arbitrary nonsense.” He argued that global trust in the Trump administration had eroded.

“The risk premium in the global markets has now gone up,” Scaramucci warned, adding that “they have no idea what they’re doing.” But O’Leary wasn’t buying it. Pressed on reports that big-name CEOs are preparing to freeze hiring or lay off workers due to tariff uncertainty, O’Leary said their concerns are overblown. “They shouldn’t be worried. At the end of the day, the opportunity is immense.” He also dismantled the idea that Trump’s trade stance is alienating allies, turning the focus back on Canada’s struggling leadership. “Carney in Canada… is not an elected official. He is a stop-gap measure. He has no mandate from the Canadian people,” O’Leary said. “His party wiped out the Canadian economy. It’s highly likely he won’t win the election.”

Calling Carney’s anti-Trump rhetoric a diversion tactic, O’Leary argued that Canadians are waking up. “Carney is basically saying, ‘I know I wiped out the economy… but don’t worry about that. Let’s just stay focused on the evil Trump south of the border.’” “Canadians aren’t that stupid,” O’Leary added. “They figured out that their biggest trading partner is the United States… this will, too, just like a marriage — sometimes there’s a tiff. And you kiss and make up.” While others hyperventilate over style, O’Leary focused on substance and came out swinging with a calm, reasoned, and deeply pragmatic case for Trump’s trade agenda.

Read more …

Once it’s banned: no value. Before that: a very valuable negotiating tool.

• China Delays Approval of TikTok’s US Asset Spin-Off Due to New Tariffs (Sp.)

Chinese authorities have not approved a deal to spin off TikTok’s US assets due to recently announced US tariffs on Chinese goods, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The report said the deal was largely finalized by April 2, and would have involved spinning off the social media’s US operations into a new US-based company with a majority stake in it held by US investors. ByteDance’s stake in the deal would have been 20%.
The report said the deal has already been approved by TikTok’s existing and new investors, ByteDance and the US authorities. On Friday, US President Donald Trump revealed that he would sign an executive order allowing TikTok to continue operating in the United States for another 75 days as negotiations regarding its acquisition progress.

Later in the day, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, said that it has been in discussions with the US government on a potential way forward to resolve the ongoing issue concerning the video app company operation in the United States. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 10% base tariff on all imports to the United States starting April 5, while higher, reciprocal tariffs on countries and territories with which the US has the largest trade deficits will take effect on April 9. NBC News reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the talks, that Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs disrupted a deal for TikTok’s US division that had already been approved by the Chinese government.

Read more …

“The rhetoric in Europe just doesn’t match the reality,” Vance said. “And they start trying to throw presidential candidates and political leaders off the ballot.”

““[She’s] leading in some polls and [this is] over an incredibly minor charge that implicates, by the way, her staff not even Marine Le Pen herself.”

• Vance Warns Of ‘Greatest Threat To Europe’ (RT)

US Vice President J.D. Vance has taken aim at the EU’s leadership, warning that the bloc faces its greatest threat not from external powers like Russia or China, but from internal policy failures. Speaking in an interview with Rob Schmitt of Newsmax on Thursday, Vance voiced concerns about Europe’s approaches to migration, defense spending, and treatment of political opposition. “We have to appreciate that the greatest threat to Europe is not China or Russia,” Vance said. “The greatest threat to Europe is from within. It’s migration policies that destroy the fundamental cultural bedrock of Europe. It’s economic policies that make them less competitive.” Vance criticized what he described as a contradiction between European rhetoric and action, particularly in relation to Russia.

“These guys on the one hand, their leadership I’m talking about, say that Russia is the biggest threat in the entire world,” he said. “Meanwhile, they buy billions and billions of dollars of Russian gas, and they spend 1% of their GDP on defense, while we’re spending three or four percent of our GDP.” He further argued that Europe’s political direction was straying from democratic norms, especially in how opposition figures are treated. “The rhetoric in Europe just doesn’t match the reality,” Vance said. “And they start trying to throw presidential candidates and political leaders off the ballot.” Referencing French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, Vance suggested the EU establishment was targeting her unfairly.

“[She’s] leading in some polls and [this is] over an incredibly minor charge that implicates, by the way, her staff not even Marine Le Pen herself. They’re trying to throw her in prison and throw her off the ballot. Look, that’s not democracy.” While reaffirming the US alliance with Europe, Vance expressed concern that ongoing internal issues could undermine the transatlantic relationship. “We want our friends to share our values. And the Europeans, they are absolutely 100% our friends. But that relationship, we’re just saying it’s gonna get stressed and it’s gonna get tested if they keep on trying to throw opposition leaders in jail and they stop respecting their own borders.” Vance made similar remarks in February when he told the Munich Security Conference that while Washington would make every effort to achieve a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, Europe has bigger problems.

Read more …

“The real battle is one of mobilization. Eleven million voters chose the National Rally in the last election. Their voices must be heard..”

• Marine Le Pen and Her Party Refuse to Back Down (Sp.)

The National Rally (RN) party will continue serving as the voice of millions of French citizens who support RN parliamentary faction leader Marine Le Pen by fighting for her return to the presidential race in 2027 despite her recent conviction, Thierry Mariani, an RN party member, told Sputnik. On Monday, a Parisian court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzling European Parliament funds by employing fictitious assistants for party members. She was sentenced to a five-year ban from running for public office, effective immediately, as well as to four years in prison, including two years suspended and the other two to be served with an electronic bracelet outside of jail.

“We will keep running and defending the voice of millions of French citizens. Right now, the fight is to ensure Marine Le Pen’s right to run in the presidential election. She remains our candidate as long as there is even a glimmer of hope. She is a fighter, and she’s confident she will win this battle,” Mariani said. He argued that the ruling raised questions about the motivations behind the legal proceedings and the broader implications for democracy in France. “If Marine is barred from running, it will mean that France has crossed into an anti-democratic regime,” the lawmaker stressed. Mariani insisted that Le Pen’s case was weaponized by her political opponents to undermine her candidacy.

“This is a politically motivated conviction! Originating from an administrative disagreement with the European Parliament, this case has been weaponized by our political opponents, who accuse Marine Le Pen of employing parliamentary assistants to do political work… which is precisely what they are supposed to do!” Mariani said. According to him, the timing of the ruling could be seen as an effort to sideline Le Pen and her party at the next presidential election. “And after ten years of waiting to be judged, the conviction conveniently comes just ahead of a crucial presidential election for France in 2027,” he pointed out.

According to the RN lawmaker, Le Pen remains resolute in her commitment to “fight to the end” as legal avenues are still open, with an appeal expected in spring 2026. The National Rally recognizes that the battle has extended beyond the courtroom, Mariani said. He said the party needed to continue mobilizing its voter base and ensuring that their voices are heard. “The real battle is one of mobilization. Eleven million voters chose the National Rally in the last election. Their voices must be heard,” Mariani concluded. Le Pen said she would appeal the ban on public office with France’s Constitutional Council and the European Court of Human Rights. She said she hoped the sentence would be overturned in time for the election.

Read more …

Rubio need to talk to Lavrov.

• Clarity About Ukraine Peace ‘A Matter Of Weeks’ – Rubio (RT)

Russia’s stance regarding the potential peace settlement of the Ukraine conflict will be known in the near future, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed. During a March 18 phone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to his US counterpart Donald Trump’s suggestion that both sides implement a 30-day halt on attacks on energy facilities. Since then, Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev of violating the terms of the agreement. Speaking to journalists on Friday, Rubio reiterated that Trump wants to put an end to the Ukraine conflict. However, “you can’t end a war unless both sides agree,” Rubio stated. “We will know soon enough – in a matter of weeks, not months – whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are. It would be good for the world if that war ended, but obviously we have to test that proposition,” he said.

Rubio also claimed that the Ukrainian side had shown “a willingness to enter, for example, into a complete ceasefire to create space for negotiation.”However, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated on Saturday that starting from the morning of Friday, April 4, “the Kiev regime, contrary to all statements and commitments made by Zelensky to the American side regarding a 30-day cessation of strikes on Russian energy facilities, significantly increased the number of unilateral attacks using drones and artillery munitions against the energy infrastructure of Russian regions.”

Rubio stated that if Russia isn’t ready for peace, “we’ll have to re-evaluate where we stand and what we do moving forward about it, but we’ll be in no different a position than we are today or we were when he took office.” This week, Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev visited Washington for talks with White House officials. Commenting on the results of the negotiations, he said that some progress was made and highlighted the parties’ understanding of how they can move towards finalizing the conflict. Still, Dmitriev warned that third parties were trying to derail normalization efforts initiated by Trump in February.

Read more …

“..Trump is in no hurry to conclude what we will call “The Ukrainian Problem”, a sort of “quantum politics” puzzle, to add a touch of irony. The problem is simple to solve, but he keeps it complex because it suits him..”

• Washington Calls Kiev: The Plan Has Changed (Pacini)

Washington’s evolving position on Ukraine reflects a broader shift in U.S. foreign policy, particularly in its approach to security commitments. Trump’s story that he would end the conflict in 24 hours was fine for saying goodnight to the children, but for adults it never worked. However, the Kremlin has not underestimated this argument, and for some time now has been conducting parallel negotiations to agree on the resolution of some very delicate international issues (to which I will dedicate at least two of my next articles). Ukraine has been a thorn in the side of all of Europe, a move that was clear from the start, a move by the U.S. administration to destabilize the old continent, in particular to undermine the dominance of the United Kingdom and try to redefine the thalassocratic maps. But first things first.

Initially, after the 2014 Maidan revolution and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the United States framed its support for Ukraine as a principled stand against so-called “Russian aggression”, supporting Kiev with military aid, specific training and diplomatic support. Even then, it resembled NATO’s broader deterrence framework, in which U.S. commitments, while not formal security guarantees, were seen as a demonstration of American resolve. This was later confirmed by the facts. Over time, and especially under the Trump and Biden administrations, Washington’s position has increasingly aligned with a model of transactional delegation: allies and partners are expected to bear a greater financial burden in exchange for protection. This echoes a neo-feudal logic in which the hegemon offers selective security assistance, subordinated to its own interests and to the contributions of the “vassal”. After all, NATO was born for this very reason… at the behest of London, but with delegation to Washington.

Aid as an investment, not as a guarantee Problems arose when Russia – and the truly free world in general – decided not to fall into the classic input/output trap. Although Washington has provided Ukraine with significant military and financial aid, this support lacks the binding security guarantees that NATO membership would entail. This is a condition that is always requested by European leaders, whose interests are certainly more direct and immediate than those of a power that is several thousand kilometers away. The United States carefully avoids direct military intervention en masse, emphasizing that its assistance is conditional rather than absolute. This is a fact. If the presence of American soldiers in Ukraine since the beginning of the year 2000 is a known fact and confirmed by several sources, it is equally true that America has not cleared its own soldiers from the front line, leaving this burden and honor to its European cousins.

A sort of protection mechanism was therefore set in motion, based on the balance of costs and benefits, as is normal in a low-profile international war. The Biden administration, despite public rhetoric of “standing with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” has not moved without prolonged and exhausting negotiations, reflecting an evolving strategy in which security assistance is designed not to guarantee victory, but to sustain a controlled conflict without overextending U.S. commitments. In fact, the interest in this extension is mainly European: In short, it allows Germany to save itself from banking collapse and to save the Euro, which is now worthless, it allows France to save its own banks, which without the income from the colonies no longer function as before, and it allows the UK to keep the pound high in the skies of Europe, even if Anglo-Saxon realpolitik is no longer as old fashioned as it once was.

In recent debates on aid packages, U.S. lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have pushed for assistance to be conditional on Europe sharing the burden or Ukraine self-financing through assets held abroad. This suggests that Washington does not see Ukraine as a dependent client, but as a party that should “pay” for protection, similar to the U.S. position towards NATO allies under Trump. Unlike Cold War-era alliances, in which Washington’s security commitments were relatively clear, the Ukrainian situation demonstrates a more fluid model in which support is subject to political calculations. The United States deliberately avoids clarifying the final scope of its support, using ambiguity as a tool both to dissuade Russia and to put pressure on Kiev to accept Washington’s conditions. It is therefore logical that Trump is in no hurry to conclude what we will call “The Ukrainian Problem”, a sort of “quantum politics” puzzle, to add a touch of irony. The problem is simple to solve, but he keeps it complex because it suits him. Elementary, my dear Watson.

Read more …

“..7,000 probationary workers were laid off in February but are being reinstated due to court orders..”

• IRS To Sack 25% Of Its Employees – WaPo (RT)

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to eliminate around 20,000 jobs, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing internal records and people familiar with the matter. The downsizing of nearly a quarter of the agency’s workforce comes as part of a broader White House cost-cutting campaign. Shortly after assuming office on January 20, US President Donald Trump launched a program to eliminate “wasteful spending” and bureaucracy across federal agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established by Trump and led by Elon Musk, has been pressing ahead with efforts to streamline federal operations in an attempt to cut $2 trillion in spending by 2026.

The IRS will reportedly eliminate its Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, dismissing around 130 employees from a division responsible for protecting taxpayers from discrimination in the tax code, audits, and investigations. The remaining staff of the office is expected to be transferred to other departments. “This action is being taken to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the IRS,” an email sent to employees cited by the newspaper reads. Over 4,000 employees reportedly accepted deferred resignation offers earlier this year, while an additional 7,000 probationary workers were laid off in February but are being reinstated due to court orders. At least some of those employees have been told they could return to work on April 14, according to the Post.

It remains unclear if the current downsizing includes the staff already targeted earlier this year, the outlet noted, adding that the IRS employed around 100,000 people as of January. In March, employees at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) told the Post that the Department of State had fired up to half of the institute’s 600-person staff. Some employees were reportedly offered severance packages or extended health insurance in exchange for signing waivers of their right to sue. USIP was founded by Congress in the mid-1980s with the declared goal of promoting conflict resolution worldwide. At the same time, Reuters reported, citing an internal memo, that all remaining jobs at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) would be eliminated in July and September. USAID missions worldwide would reportedly be closed, and the agency’s remaining functions would be folded into the State Department.

Read more …

Do they have a legal right to conspire against politicians?

• Hundreds of Law Firms Oppose Trump Order Against Perkins Coie (DS)

More than 500 law firms led by former Barack Obama solicitor general Donald Beaton Verrilli Jr. came out on Friday against an executive order targeting the firm that represented Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. President Donald Trump issued an order targeting Perkins Coie’s access to government contracts, buildings and security clearances in early March, prompting the firm to sue the administration. “The Executive Order at issue in this case, and the others like it, take direct aim at several of the Nation’s leading law firms and seek to cow every other firm, large and small, into submission,” over 500 law firms argued in an amicus brief supporting Perkins Coie. Trump has issued several orders against major law firms with ties to Democrats that limited their ability to do business with the government.

Some, like Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, the firm that hired former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, have struck deals to provide pro bono services to the administration in exchange for Trump dropping the orders. Others like Perkins Coie have challenged the orders in court. “On the basis of almost-decade-old allegations, the Executive Order subjects an entire firm, as well as its clients and personnel, to draconian punishment—including the revocation of its attorneys’ security clearances, the potential loss of clients that contract with the United States, and denial of access to federal buildings and facilities,” the law firms’ brief continues. “Such disabilities would threaten the survival of any law firm.”

District Court Judge Beryl Howell temporarily blocked parts of the order involving the firm’s government contracts and access to government buildings in March. She denied the Trump administration’s effort to disqualify her from the case due to “partiality” against the president on March 26, writing their strategy was “designed to impugn the integrity of the federal judicial system.” Several legal advocacy groups with different ideological leanings, including left-wing groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and others like the Foundation For Individual Rights and Expression, also joined a brief in support of Perkins Coie on Thursday.

“If allowed to stand, these pressure tactics will have broad and lasting impacts on Americans’ ability to retain legal counsel in important matters, to arrange their business and personal affairs as they like, and to speak their minds,” the organizations wrote. The Department of Justice argued Wednesday that the order is “within the bounds of established executive authority.” “The Executive Order directs agencies to do what they should already be doing, declines to contract with entities who act inconsistently with valid social policies regarding discrimination, and calls for the lawful examination of security clearances and government access of employees of Plaintiff’s firm,” the DOJ stated in a filing.

Read more …

? You tell me.

• Judge Orders Trump Admin to Return Alleged MS-13 Gang Member to the US (Heine)

A federal judge ruled Friday the U.S. government acted illegally when it deported an MS-13 gang member to El Salvador and ordered that he must be returned to the United States.“This was an illegal act,” said U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland, an Obama appointee. She gave the administration until 11:59 p.m. Monday to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador, from the El Salvadoran prison where he is being held, and return him to the United States where he is not a citizen. Abrego Garcia, 29, was among the hundreds of illegal immigrants—a large percentage of them MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang members —expelled from the U.S. to El Salvador last month.

Although the Trump administration acknowledged in court records earlier this week it made an “administrative error” when it deported Garcia without an interview, the fact remains that he has no legal status in the United States. Garcia crossed the border illegally in 2012 by his own admission, and claimed he had to flee El Salvador as a teenager to escape gang violence when he was detained in 2019. Both the original immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals found there was sufficient evidence that Garcia was a member of MS-13 and, as such, a danger to the public. According to USA Today, “Garcia was pulled over by federal immigration agents near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, on March 12 and arrested.” Three days later, he was expelled and sent back to El Salvador even though he had won a court order six years earlier barring his removal.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and their 5-year-old son, who are both U.S. citizens, sued the government demanding his return. During a hearing on Friday, Xinis ripped into Justice Department lawyers over Abrego Garcia’s arrest and questioned the government’s claim it could not get him back. If federal authorities were able to strike terms and conditions for his placement in El Salvador, “then certainly they have the functional control to unwind the decision – the wrong decision,” she said. The judge questioned the government’s claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13. “In a court of law, when someone is accused in such a violent and predatory organization, it comes in the form of an indictment, complaint, a criminal proceeding that has then a robust process so that we can assess the facts,” she said. “I haven’t heard that from the government.”

In response to the ruling, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested on X that the judge take it up with the president of El Salvador. “We suggest the Judge contact President @nayibbukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” she wrote. Bukele, meanwhile, responded to the judge’s order on X with a gif of a confused bunny.

Department of Homeland Security Spokeswoman Tricia Ohio told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum Friday that Garcia was “involved in human trafficking.” “He’s actually a member of MS-13 and was involved in human trafficking,” Ohio insisted, arguing that he needed to be “locked up” either in the U.S. or in El Salvador. She added that MS-13 “is a gang that rapes, maims, and kills Americans for sport” who “should not be on U.S. soil.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also told Newsmax Friday that Garcia was a “gang member and violent criminal” who didn’t belong in the United States.

Read more …

“..radical judges” will “soon learn that denying” President Trump his “constitutionally granted authorities is a gross infringement of the law and will not stand on appeal.”

• The Clash Between Trump and Activist Judges Is About to Go Nuclear (Margolis)

As President Donald Trump attempts to enact the agenda that Americans elected him to do, a serious showdown is brewing with federal judges who have taken it upon themselves to challenge his directives. Officials close to the administration are signaling that activist judges who oppose Trump’s orders may soon face accountability for their rogue decisions after yet another activist judge blocked its efforts to remove intelligence agency employees connected to DEI programs. The administration warned that “radical judges” will “soon learn that denying” President Trump his “constitutionally granted authorities is a gross infringement of the law and will not stand on appeal.”

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga, a President George W. Bush appointee in Virginia, issued the preliminary injunction on Monday ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline issued by CIA Director John Ratcliffe for the agents to resign or be fired, allowing them to appeal and stay on the federal payroll. The injunction was part of a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen intelligence agents from the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who were found to be involved in, or working on, DEI programs in the department. “The plaintiffs face termination without any suggestion of wrongdoing or poor performance,” Trenga said after the ruling, according to Politico. “Simply requiring the government to follow its regulations is a minimal burden.”

The employees, who were abruptly placed on administrative leave in January, were facing termination as part of the Trump administration’s effort, supported by Elon Musk, to eliminate DEI-related programs and initiate a large-scale government overhaul. Musk also visited the CIA headquarters on Tuesday to discuss his government efficiency program. The 19 unnamed employees behind the lawsuit claimed last month that their involvement in DEI programs was part of “temporary assignments” and that they also carried out other duties as intelligence officers. They also insisted that “poor performance” had nothing to do with their termination. The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that federal district judges have overstepped their authority by issuing nationwide injunctions. These instances of judicial activism have sparked outrage among administration officials, who argue that the courts are abusing their power.

“These radical judges will soon learn that denying the Chief Executive his constitutionally granted authorities is a gross infringement of the law and will not stand on appeal,” Trump administration spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital. Several U.S. District Court judges have issued nationwide injunctions against key Trump policies that were well within the authority of the president. More nationwide injunctions have been issued against the Trump administration than any other in history due to left-wing organizations forum-shopping for judges whom they know will rule how they want without any regard to the U.S. Constitution. “Ending the bigotry of DEI and ensuring the federal government runs efficiently might be a crime to Democrats, but it’s in line with the law,” Fields added.

Read more …

“..history zigs and zags and there are times of conflict and there are times of stupidity and there are times of danger.”

• Obama Lashes Out At Trump (RT)

Former US President Barack Obama has said that he is “deeply concerned” by the policies that the country’s current leader, Donald Trump, has pursued since the start of his second term in office. During his speech at Hamilton College in New York State on Thursday, Obama criticized the Trump administration’s protectionist economic policies, attempts to tackle federal spending, clampdown on immigration, and treatment of the media. He denounced the sweeping tariffs imposed by Trump earlier this week on the majority of US trading partners, saying: “I do not think what we just witnessed… is going to be good for America.”

However, the 63-year-old Democrat stressed that the tariffs are just one policy, and that he is “more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech,” referring to actions taken against pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The Trump administration’s pressure on law firms and its decision to bar AP journalists from accessing the Oval Office reflect “a kind of behavior [that] is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans,” the former president said.

“Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps. It is unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a whole bunch of my predecessors,” he argued. The former president concluded his message by saying that “history zigs and zags and there are times of conflict and there are times of stupidity and there are times of danger.” Trump slammed Obama at the height of the race for the White House last year, calling the former president “a jerk” and saying that he “divides this country” by campaigning for then-Democratic contender Kamala Harris.

Read more …

“..how dare Obama imply that he was somehow held to a high standard that Trump is not..”

• Obama’s Masterclass in Gaslighting (Margolis)

Allegedly, Barack Obama was going to take a step back from meddling in politics after the 2024 election, but he spoke at Hamilton College this week, and, of course, he had to weigh in on the new Trump administration. His stunning display of historical revisionism and self-righteous indignation would be comedic if it weren’t so dangerous to our republic. “Uh, let… Imagine if I had done any of this,” Obama pontificated to his adoring audience, playing his favorite game of hypotheticals while conveniently ignoring his own track record. “Let, let, let me just… I, I, I just wanna be clear about this. I- i- i- ima- imagine that… Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps.”

His lack of comfort talking about this is obvious from his stammering. “Ima- i- i- i- i- imagine if I had, had said to law firms that were representing parties that were upset with policies my administration had initiated, that you will not be allowed into government buildings. We will punish you economically for dissenting from the Affordable Care Act or the Iran deal. We will ferret out students who protest against my policies. It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a… whole bunch of my predecessors.” Just watch how uncomfortable Obama is pushing this nonsense. It’s like he knows he’s full of it:

Seriously, how dare Obama imply that he was somehow held to a high standard that Trump is not. We all remember his presidency, the scandals and corruption that the mainstream media ignored and his own party pretended didn’t happen. Let’s talk about what’s really “unimaginable.” The Obama administration was under a dark cloud of scandal from even before he took office. Obama was implicated in trying to sell his Senate seat. He had wanted Valerie Jarrett to take his place in the Senate and would have given Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich a cabinet position for doing so, but she ultimately declined the Senate seat to become Obama’s top White House advisor. Blagojevich went to prison for his role in the scandal. Obama did not.

And then there’s Obama’s Justice Department labeling Fox News reporter James Rosen as a criminal conspirator and potential spy. Or when it secretly seized phone records from Associated Press journalists. Apparently, those memories have conveniently slipped from the former president’s mind. The breathtaking hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. Obama’s sudden concern for press freedom and government overreach would be more convincing if his administration hadn’t been the most hostile to press freedom in modern history, weaponizing the Espionage Act against journalists and their sources with unprecedented aggression. Let’s not forget the IRS targeting scandal, where conservative groups were systematically harassed and delayed in their nonprofit applications. Or Operation Fast and Furious, which resulted in the death of a border patrol agent and was subsequently covered up. And who can overlook the massive NSA surveillance program that spied on countless American citizens?

But perhaps Obama’s most egregious abuse of power was his administration’s orchestration of the Russia collusion hoax against Donald Trump — a campaign of political persecution that makes Watergate look like a parking ticket. Secret meetings in the dying days of his presidency laid the groundwork for the DOJ’s continued harassment of Trump, all based on charges that have been thoroughly debunked. The cherry on top? When 47 inspectors general wrote to Congress about the Obama administration’s systematic obstruction of justice, in which the administration blocked their access to information needed for proper investigations. That’s not speculation or partisan rhetoric; that’s documented fact. So while Obama plays “what if” games at cushy college speaking engagements, the rest of us remember what actually happened during his eight years in office. His performance at Hamilton College wasn’t just tone-deaf; it was a masterclass in gaslighting the American public. The next time Obama wants to lecture anyone about governmental overreach or abuse of power, he should first take a long, hard look in the mirror. His administration wrote the book on it.

Read more …

“Since 2014, the New York Times has published more than five-hundred articles about RT alone..”

• US Research Highlights RT’s Role In Media Landscape (RT)

The New York Times published over 500 RT-related articles over the course of a decade, research published by Johns Hopkins University this week has claimed. The Russian multimedia organization RT has faced unparalleled levels of scrutiny and limitations imposed by Western nations in recent years. Actions directed against the broadcaster escalated between 2022 and 2024. According to the review, RT, as well as Chinese national broadcaster CCTV, “tend to dominate both popular and scholarly discourse about propaganda.” “Since 2014, the New York Times has published more than five-hundred articles about RT alone, while the vast majority of articles about propaganda published in top political science journals explore the effects of media run directly by the state,” the review stated.

Washington imposed new sanctions against RT in September, with then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accusing it of engaging in “covert influence activities” and “functioning as a de facto arm of Russian intelligence.” The head of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), James Rubin, told reporters that the “broad scope and reach” of RT was one of the reasons many countries around the world did not support Ukraine. The GEC itself was closed in December 2024. Also in September 2024, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and three other senior RT employees were sanctioned by the US over alleged attempts to influence the 2024 presidential election. Moscow branded the crackdown on Russian media, including RT, “a declaration of war on free speech.”

In March, the former head of RT America, Ben Swann, called on US President Donald Trump to drop restrictions that his predecessor Joe Biden imposed against several Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/Lauria1960/status/1908501373420777902

 

 

1996

 

 

Indivisible

 

 

CORLEO

 

 

TRee
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1908475436113314274

 

 

Dragonfly

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle November 19 2024

Nov 192024
 
 November 19, 2024  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  82 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn A woman bathing in a stream (Hendrickje) 1654

 

• Biden Wants To Take World With Him – Russian State Duma Chair (RT)
• Trump’s Security Chief Nominee Blasts Biden’s Ukraine Missile ‘Escalation’ (RT)
• Has Biden Just Destroyed the World? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Biden Walks Off Into Jungle (RT)
• ‘Freezing’ Ukraine Conflict Unacceptable – Kremlin (RT)
• The Great Trump Exhale (QTR)
• Gabbard Could Help Change US Foreign Policy (John Kiriakou)
• Ramaswamy Says Some Government Agencies Will Be ‘Deleted Outright’ (ET)
• Trump Expands Search For Treasury Secretary (ZH)
• CNN Mole People Can’t Deal With MAGA Posse At UFC (MN)
• Beyond Consequence (James Howard Kunstler)
• WSJ Issues Scathing Indictment Of How Democrats Blew It On Inflation (ZH)
• Mad at the Election? Blame Obama (AmG)
• Germany Has Become Europe’s Political Wasteland (Bordachev)
• Gardening Against Evil Days (Helmer)

 

 

 

 

Trump

Gaetz

Vivek

Tucker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858320988867350576

Speaker

Skripal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858271372020990012

60 min

 

 

 

 

“..it appears that the elderly Biden, nearing the end of his life, is “dreaming of eternity” and wants to “pull America under with him, and maybe the entire world as well.”

• Biden Wants To Take World With Him – Russian State Duma Chair (RT)

The outgoing President Joe Biden is taking the US and the rest of the world down with him by escalating the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, stated on Monday. Biden has reportedly removed US restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles, according to a New York Times report on Sunday, which described the move as “a significant escalation” that might “provoke a direct response from Moscow.” The White House has made no official statements on the matter. Volodin said it appears that the elderly Biden, nearing the end of his life, is “dreaming of eternity” and wants to “pull America under with him, and maybe the entire world as well.”

“If this happens, Russia will be forced to respond. The manner of the response will be up to the Ministry of Defense, but there will be one,” he said, adding that this might even include the use of “new weapons systems” that Russia has not previously deployed on Ukrainian territory. As for the Western weapons in question, they have already been used against Russia, Volodin noted. Their expanded use might cause some additional damage, but “it will not change the situation on the battlefield.” “It will only worsen the fate and future of Ukraine. And it will finally destroy Russian-American relations,” Volodin predicted. While Washington has made no official policy announcements, a number of European NATO members and public figures across the West hailed the Times report. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said on Monday that long-range strikes against Russia were part of his “victory plan” and that “missiles will speak” very soon.

The US and its allies have put in some restrictions on the use of the weapons they supplied to Kiev since 2022, in order to maintain plausible deniability of their involvement in the conflict with Russia. Ukraine has demanded the removal of these limitations since this spring. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in September that any use of Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia would “significantly change the nature of the conflict.” He noted that Ukraine does not have the capability to use such weapons itself, and would require foreign personnel to create targeting and firing solutions. This, Putin said, would mean that “NATO countries are directly involved in the military conflict” with Russia.

Putin

Read more …

“..It was not a matter of the US “giving permission” to Ukraine, but crossing the threshold of direct involvement, Putin told reporters in September..”

• Trump’s Security Chief Nominee Blasts Biden’s Ukraine Missile ‘Escalation’ (RT)

Allowing Kiev to use US-supplied long-range weapons against Russia will only escalate the conflict that President-elect Donald Trump is trying to end, the incoming White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has said. The New York Times reported on Sunday that US President Joe Biden had given Ukraine permission to use ATACMS missiles against Russian territory. Washington has neither confirmed nor denied the anonymously sourced claim. Waltz, a former Green Beret and Florida congressman tapped by Trump to serve as his top aide, told Fox News on Monday that he was not briefed on the move by the outgoing administration, as he normally would be by tradition. “It’s another step up the escalation ladder,” Waltz told Fox host Brian Kilmeade.

“And nobody knows where this is going. North Korea is unleashing ballistic missiles, artillery, now tens of thousands of soldiers. “The administration responds by lifting this restriction. North Korea sends more soldiers. South Korea is now saying it may get engaged…” Ukraine has accused the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of sending weapons and thousands of troops to aid Russia. Washington has accepted this claim at face value. “So this is a development, but it’s a tactical one,” Waltz added. “President Trump is talking grand strategy here. How do we get both sides to the table to end this war? What’s the framework for a deal, and who’s sitting at that table?” Trump is putting together an “all-star team” that will consider the broader strategic issues and the ways to “we drive this war to an end,” Waltz said.

The Republican president-elect campaigned on ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying he would try to do so even before his January 20 inauguration. Many of his prominent backers have denounced Sunday’s rumored move by the outgoing President Joe Biden as an attempt to make any peace deal more difficult. Under Biden, the US has provided over $64 billion worth of weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine to support Vladimir Zelensky’s war effort against Russia. Washington placed certain restrictions on the use of such weapons, and Zelensky has spent months demanding the lifting of the limitations, as part of his “victory plan.”

Moscow has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that any such move would amount to their open involvement in the hostilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that Kiev lacks the capability to use long-range missiles without NATO satellites and military personnel to develop targeting and firing solutions. It was not a matter of the US “giving permission” to Ukraine, but crossing the threshold of direct involvement, Putin told reporters in September. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova acknowledged on Monday that reports of Biden’s decision were still unconfirmed, but added that if Kiev actually used US missiles in such a way, Moscow’s response would be “adequate and tangible.”

Read more …

“Trump cannot lose the war in Ukraine unless he can present peace as an accomplishment.”

• Has Biden Just Destroyed the World? (Paul Craig Roberts)

To make it impossible for Trump to enter office with good relations with Russia, in addition to “Russiagate,” as Gilbert Doctorow reminds us, the corrupt Obama regime unlawfully seized Russian consular properties in San Francisco, and I think elsewhere, in order to bring Trump into office with poisoned relations with Moscow. This time in November, 2024, the totally corrupt Biden Regime, has blocked any peaceful settlement negotiated by Trump of the Russian/Ukrainian conflict by reversing Biden’s decision and giving go ahead for the US/NATO to launch missiles from Ukrainian territory into Russia. The senile idiot, manipulated by his warmonger advisors, has possibly started WWIII. Recently in an interview with Russian television I expressed my opinion that such a trap was desired by the neoconservatives for Trump, but that I thought the Pentagon would block the approval.

There are so many reports that the Biden regime has given a green light to NATO launching missiles from Ukraine into Russia that the information must be correct. We hear it from Russian state television “news of the week.” We hear it from The Washington Post. We hear it from AP News. And so on. Here we have a classic example of how an outgoing administration can commit an incoming one and thereby forestall its electoral agenda. It is now happening before our eyes, although the whore American media will do everything possible to hide the truth. The question is: What will Putin do now if the red line that Putin says is the fatal one is actually crossed and Western missiles begin hitting targets inside Russia? Will it prove to be, like all other red lines Putin has declared, not to be real?

In light of Putin’s non-confrontational behavior, if the missile attacks begin prior to Trump’s inauguration, possibly Putin will wait and see what Trump does to reverse the decision before Putin releases death and destruction on the Western World. The crazed neoconservatives and Deep State have pressured Biden into a decision that places the entire world in a situation where destruction of all life possibly awaits. Why did a single American vote for such a cruel, inhuman, morally vacant, anti-American political Democrat party that is willing to risk life on earth for Washington’s hegemony and the profits of the military/security complex? Why did the European Union regret Trump’s election? Why does the Western media support actions that result in the end of the world? The final question and the most important one is: What can President-elect Trump do about it?

He can, prior to his inauguration, call Putin and tell him to hold off, that once inaugurated as President, he will reverse the policy and permit no missile attacks on Russia. Will Putin believe that Trump can deliver? Considering the war cabinet Trump has appointed, can Trump make a decision independently of his government? The situation is complicated by the fact that Trump’s appointees are aligned against Iran and for Israel. Neither Russia nor China can stand aside from an US/Israeli attack on Iran. Putin probably wonders if “Making America Great Again” also implies military dominance. Trump’s supporters are tired of losing wars. They want to win one. Trump cannot lose the war in Ukraine unless he can present peace as an accomplishment.

Read more …

Before okaying long range missiles in Ukraine, they sent Biden deep into the Amazon.

• Biden Walks Off Into Jungle (RT)

Outgoing US President Joe Biden appears to have once again aimlessly wandered off stage after delivering a speech on climate change in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil on Sunday. A clip of the 81-year-old’s latest gaffe has gone viral on social media. Speaking at a press conference near Manaus, the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon, Biden wore a loose-fitting button-down shirt and his trademark aviator sunglasses. Throughout the address, the president talked about the dangers of climate change, the importance of rainforest conservation as well as the investments his administration has made into clean energy.

Biden stated that he is officially the first sitting US President to personally visit the Amazon rainforest and announced that his government would be launching a special financing coalition to mobilize at least $10 billion by 2030 in order to protect 20,000 square miles of land in the Amazon. However, after finishing his speech, Biden waved to the cameras, turned away from the podium and started walking away, heading straight into what appeared to be some dense greenery. The video of the aging president’s exit has since gone viral on social media, with one clip posted by the Pop Base account gaining over 26 million views by Monday morning. In the comments, many users expressed confusion over where Biden was going, with some claiming he had “wandered off into the Amazon.”

“Bruh did he just wave bye and disappear into the jungle?” one user wrote, with another asking why the president was in the Amazon at all. “He’s really doing all the side quests now that he can retire,” one person suggested. According to Newsweek, however, a full version of the video supposedly shows that Biden was not actually lost and had walked down a path that was not clearly visible in the clip. The outlet noted that several other members of the press later also walked out along the same path. While Biden’s team has not commented on the incident yet, if the US president was indeed lost, it wouldn’t be his first public mishap. The White House, however, had previously insisted that most of the videos of the aging leader getting confused or ‘frozen’ at public events had been manipulated, with Biden’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissing them as “cheap fakes.”

Read more …

First: no nukes, no NATO, no nazis. Only then can we talk freeze.

• ‘Freezing’ Ukraine Conflict Unacceptable – Kremlin (RT)

Moscow vehemently rejects the possibility of freezing the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday. He was responding to reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to suggest the move during the G20 summit in Brazil. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with Erdogan’s plans, claimed that the Turkish leader would suggest freezing the conflict “on current lines” and encourage Kiev to delay discussions about joining NATO for at least ten years as a “concession” to Moscow. He also reportedly plans to propose the creation of a demilitarized zone in Donbass, where international troops would be deployed to provide security guarantees for Ukraine. Asked to comment on the report, Peskov stated that Moscow had no information about any proposals being prepared by Erdogan. However, he said “any kind of freezing along the line of military conflict is unacceptable for the Russian side.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously outlined conditions for ending the hostilities, and those steps are “what needs to be done to stop the fighting,” the spokesperson added. In June, Putin set out conditions for peace negotiations with Kiev, which involved the complete removal of Ukrainian troops from all Russian territories, including the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions. They also involved Ukraine legally committing to never joining NATO or any other Western military blocs. Last week, during his first direct phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in two years, Putin also reiterated that Moscow remains open to finding a political and diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine conflict, and said it was Kiev that was refusing to negotiate.

According to the Kremlin, the Russian president also emphasized that the crisis was the “direct result of NATO’s long-standing aggressive policy aimed at creating an anti-Russian bridgehead on Ukrainian territory, while ignoring our country’s interests in the field of security and trampling on the rights of Russian-speaking residents.” During the call, Putin emphasized that any potential settlement between Moscow and Kiev would inevitably have to take into account Russia’s security interests, recognize the new territorial realities, and “eliminate the root cause of the conflict.”

Read more …

“…the man that the media told us was Hitler nonstop has morphed into the people’s president.”

• The Great Trump Exhale (QTR)

I think this election cycle President Trump won so handily, not only because his competition was grossly incompetent, but because it was far less taboo this time around to be a Trump supporter. In 2016, before President Trump had a chance to establish a four-year record for himself in office, it wasn’t popular to openly support him. His “Make America Great Again” hats were ridiculed as a cheap branding trick and the mainstream media was unrelenting in its quest to crucify not only Trump, but those who supported him. Throughout the last four years of political lunacy, which included wide-open borders, rising inflation, squandering of taxpayer cash, and multiple geopolitical dust-ups, it became far less of a faux pas to support Trump publicly. This period culminated in an internal coup that subverted the primary process, further reinforcing this shift.

Today, there are still scores of Democrats who believe Trump is irredeemable and repugnant, just as there are still plenty of news organizations that spend 24 hours a day attempting to make him look bad. But this election go-round, there were just too many Americans on the center-left, center, and center-right who decided that the humiliation they would need to endure by supporting Trump publicly paled in comparison to how insulted they felt by the current administration’s assumption that they would buy an entire campaign based on flip-flopping, outright lies, race hustling, and identity politics. For every one person that still found it inconceivable to support Trump publicly, there were two more, myself included, who simply could no longer endure having their character and intelligence insulted strictly because they backed a set of political ideals that, at any other point in recent history, would’ve been considered center-left, moderate or barely right-leaning.

With that sea change among the most crucial part of the voter base, inclusive of independents and many around the center of the political aisle, Trump won this election in a landslide. And Democrats, who had been told many times over that their political strategies were wearing thin, were forced to face undeniable, quantitative proof of just how much of the American public agreed with this assessment. As such, it’s undeniable that the nation has issued a collective exhale in response to the election results. Many people who voted for Trump, and who may have still been wondering whether it’s OK to express their political beliefs publicly without being called “garbage,” now know that they can: they are in the company of more than 70 million other voters and form the majority of the country. For years, Trump campaigned on the saying that his voters were the “silent majority.” This election proved him right.

It was risky for many high-profile people to come out and publicly endorse Donald Trump prior to this election, and is a testament to just how much the left has lost its way. Had Trump not won, many of these people would have been lambasted as “far-right wingers,” “purveyors of misinformation,” and people whose moral and ethical integrity should be called into question heading into another Democratic administration. But instead, with a Trump mandate, millions of Americans can exhale publicly and, like Joe Rogan said last week, finally just admit that no matter what everybody says, they just like President Trump. Rogan said on his podcast a couple of days ago: “…you’re getting what you get. That’s who the guy is and I like him. I’ve gone I’ve grown to like him. I had a much more negative opinion of him back in the day because it was There’s only so much you can pay attention to and do deep dives on right before you lose your f*cking mind and with him I was like It’s probably not good for the country.”

And what we saw last night at the UFC fight, where Trump had a great interaction with fighter Jon Jones, who handed him his belt after winning his fight, is that whether people like it or not, the man that the media told us was Hitler nonstop has morphed into the people’s president. This will be like a snowball rolling down a hill: the more people that come out and embrace Trump publicly, the more who will follow. Put simply, Trump is just winning people over. I wrote last week about how this election doesn’t just feel like the beginning of four years of change; it feels like it could be spearheading a populist/libertarian renaissance in the country that could last multiple election cycles. You could tell from his entrance to the fights last night that the nation is starting to feel the excitement for this potential, too. Seeing Trump at the fights last night was like the flyover before an NFL game. It was one of many moments over the last year while he was campaigning that people muttered: “We’re back. America is back.”

Read more …

“Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin.”

• Gabbard Could Help Change US Foreign Policy (John Kiriakou)

President-elect Donald Trump this week stirred up the intelligence community with his picks of former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence (DNI) and former DNI and Texas Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe as C.I.A. director. Ratcliffe, a fierce partisan, is nonetheless the more traditional pick of the two. Gabbard spent her life as a Democrat, including eight years in the House before running for president in 2020, dropping out, changing her affiliation to “Independent,” and then changing it to Republican and endorsing Trump. She is the more controversial pick, not necessarily because of her politics, but because she is far more isolationist than most Democrats and she supports an immediate end to the war in Ukraine and engagement with North Korea, China and Syria.

Both Ratcliffe and Gabbard are likely to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, according to The Washington Post. Neither is as controversial as, say, attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, who was investigated a year ago for sex trafficking, or defense secretary nominee Peter Hegseth, a former Army captain who is currently a Fox News host and who has literally no experience running anything larger than his own household. While Democrats will likely oppose both Ratcliffe and Gabbard, if only because the two are MAGA Republicans who want to end U.S. financial and military support for Ukraine, Republicans now control 53 Senate seats, more than enough for confirmation, with room to lose a few. Publicly, Democrats aren’t saying much about Ratcliffe. He’s mostly a known quantity in Washington, having been DNI for a few months at the end of the first Trump administration. He’s a former member of the House Armed Services Committee and was also a member of Trump’s impeachment defense team.

Ratcliffe was initially dismissed as unqualified for the DNI job in 2019. He withdrew from consideration, but Trump renamed him a year later and he was finally approved by a sharply-divided Senate. His tenure was short, and he didn’t do anything either controversial or innovative in his few months in the job. Gabbard’s nomination has drawn far more ire, especially from Democrats. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), a former C.I.A. officer, said she was “appalled” by Gabbard’s nomination and added, “Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin.” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) called Gabbard’s nomination “incredibly reckless,” and added that “Putting someone with known sympathies for foreign adversaries (in the position) is not putting America’s interests first — it’s putting our security at risk.”

And Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) said, “Tulsi Gabbard’s deep ties to some of our nation’s most dangerous adversaries, including Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Vladimir Putin of Russia, make her an untrustworthy guardian of our nation’s most closely held secrets.” All of this is, in my own humble opinion, absurd. Democrats don’t like Gabbard because she never bought into the party’s anti-Russia hysteria, because she was never supportive of putting the U.S. and NATO on the brink of war with Russia in Ukraine, and because she doubted the Democratic Party’s assertion that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people, an allegation refuted by United Nations whistleblowers. That’s exactly what we need in a healthy democracy — somebody in a position of authority who makes decisions based on facts, not on what happens to be politically expedient.

We need a person willing to rein in the neoconservative/neoliberal intelligence and foreign policy establishment when they urge the president to double down on military action based on phony or incomplete intelligence. Gabbard may face one substantive challenge when she finally becomes DNI. That challenge will be in dealing with Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio, currently a Republican senator from Florida. Rubio is a longtime mainstream neoconservative hawk, especially on China, although he has kowtowed to Trump successfully over the past eight years. Rubio and Gabbard have some clashing views, but Gabbard is as much a seasoned bureaucratic fighter as Rubio is. The question, then, will be who can more successfully get Trump’s ear.

Read more …

“Most of the people making these decisions from health care to the Department of Defense are failing on effectiveness because they have no accountability..”

• Ramaswamy Says Some Government Agencies Will Be ‘Deleted Outright’ (ET)

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on Sunday that some federal agencies will be “deleted outright” and that contractors may see “massive cuts” in what they can charge when the incoming administration takes office next year. Last week, Trump named former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead the presidential advisory commission, DOGE. Their work must be completed no later than July 4, 2026, Trump said in his statement. Ramaswamy told Fox Business on Sunday that “there is massive waste, fraud, and abuse right now.” “Federal contractors are really exploiting the federal government,” he said. When Fox host Maria Bartiromo asked him whether entire government agencies will be closed, he responded in the affirmative.

“We expect mass reductions. We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright,“ Ramaswamy said. ”We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts of all federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government. So, yes, we expect all of the above.” As a presidential candidate, Ramaswamy had called for totally eliminating or restructuring of several agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Elaborating on Fox, Ramaswamy said that “failures of the executive branch need to be addressed.” “Unelected bureaucrats in the administrative state that was created through executive action” are running the government, he said, which needs to be fixed by the executive branch.

“This is about restoring self-governance and accountability in America as well. Elected leaders, if they make the wrong decisions, voters have a great choice. You can vote them out and remove them,” Ramaswamy said. “Most of the people making these decisions from health care to the Department of Defense are failing on effectiveness because they have no accountability. Historically, it’s been the view of many scholars to say that those people could not even be fired. Now, we take a different view with the environment the Supreme Court has given us in recent years, and we’re going to use that in a pretty extensive way to move quickly.” DOGE will not be an official government agency, meaning that both Ramaswamy and Musk are not considered Cabinet members in the incoming Trump administration and therefore not subject to the Senate confirmation.

Both Ramaswamy and Musk, as well as Tulsi Gabbard, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined the president-elect at a UFC event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Gabbard is Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, while Trump nominated Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Read more …

It looked like Bessent had it, but apparently there was too much opposition to him.

• Trump Expands Search For Treasury Secretary (ZH)

The group of prospective Trump Treasury Secretary picks has expanded from two (Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent – as we detailed here) to four (now including former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and Apollo Globla chief Marc Rowan). While we noted earlier that Elon Musk and RFK Jr. are pushing for Howard Lutnick, with Musk praising the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO as a disruptor compared to Key Square Group (and George Soros protégé) Scott Bessent – the latter of whom met with Trump on Friday, and has the backing of many including noted investor Kyle Bass; The FT reports that people close to the process said Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, Marc Rowan, chief executive of Apollo Global Management, and Bill Hagerty, the Tennessee senator, are also now in the running, along with Robert Lighthizer, the former US trade representative under Trump.

The FT continues to note that since Trump was elected, Bessent has been on the defensive about his commitment to enacting the president’s economic vision. In an opinion piece for Fox News last week, he described tariffs as “a means to finally stand up for Americans”. But his critics have seized on comments to the Financial Times that the president-elect’s agenda represented “maximalist” positions that were negotiating tools, as a sign he would be soft on the issue. Trump’s aides are reluctant to repeat the tensions over trade in Trump’s first administration, when Steven Mnuchin, then-Treasury secretary, frequently sought to moderate tariff plans for fear of disrupting markets. Several people familiar with the discussions inside Trump’s team said Lighthizer, who served as US trade representative in the first administration, had previously expressed interest in becoming Treasury secretary.

On Sunday the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a pro-tariff think-tank, backed Lighthizer publicly for Treasury secretary. “The next Treasury secretary must be 100 per cent aligned with President-elect Trump’s policy on tariffs,” it said in a post on X. “Former USTR Robert Lighthizer is a steadfast champion for the US economy and the best choice to carry out President Trump’s trade agenda.”

Marc Rowan
Rowan, 62, is a billionaire investor who leads Apollo Global Management, which he cofounded in the 1990s. It now has nearly $700 billion in assets under management. Apollo recently announced that it plans to double its assets under management to $1.5 trillion by 2029. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that while the billionaire’s aides are in touch with Trump, Rowan isn’t actively trying to secure the Treasury Secretary role and hasn’t spoken to Trump personally about such a position. But the Times also wrote that Trump has been telling his staff that he’s impressed with Rowan, who Bloomberg estimates to be worth $10.9 billion. Rowan has said that US economic concerns must be fixed by what he called “wholesale change,” which he said Trump and his new administration would bring.

Kevin Warsh
Warsh, 54, is a former Morgan Stanley banker and one of the newer contenders. He was an economic advisor to President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2006 and a governor of the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 to 2011. During the latter period, Warsh was a central figure in shaping the nation’s response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, working to rescue major ailing banks. Trump had been floating Warsh that year as a frontrunner for Fed chair. He eventually picked Jerome Powell for the role. More recently, he’s been working on Trump’s transition team, helping with economic policy and personnel, according to The Journal. Most recently, Warsh was outspoken in questioning The Fed’s independence with regard the 50bps rate-cut right before the election. “if that’s all true, maybe they’re not data-dependent.” “I do not want to be the person accusing them of politics … but when you don’t have a theory of the case and you don’t follow it, it is easy to get that accusation and it is harder … to defend them.”

Read more …

“They’re deathly afraid of ‘masculinity’ and strong personalities.”

• CNN Mole People Can’t Deal With MAGA Posse At UFC (MN)

The MAGA crew took over UFC 309 in Madison Square Garden over the weekend, triggering demon energy woke seethery into action. Behold their media leaders, the CNN mole guys. Why do they all wear those thick heavy black rimmed glasses? Anyway, these guys, it doesn’t matter what their names are, lets call them Howard and Greg, couldn’t cope with president Trump leading out his transition team to uproariously loud cheering at the event. Howard said Trump was “giving supporter based permission structure,” by bringing his crew with him, while Greg said it was like ancient Rome with Caesar bringing his gladiators into the Colosseum. “It really looks like ancient Rome here. This is the conquering Republican Caesar who’s going into the Colosseum, and everyone’s cheering, and he’s got his political gladiators with him,” Howard excitedly whined, ignoring the fact that Julius Caesar was long dead when construction on the Colosseum began.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1858161714476286345

“That appearance isn’t just about him enjoying the applause. He’s sending a message to the Senate. For sure,” Greg continued blathering. “Not only are you entertained, but these are my people, and are you willing to fight?”Because here’s who I have,” Greg clamoured. It’s hilarious watching these people having a meltdown analysing Trump’s team and the UFC crowd having fun. They were having a well deserved day off, celebrating, watching the event and dancing to YMCA by the Village people, but the mole people want you to believe it’s some kind of scary authoritarian display of power. CBS News also couldn’t cope. The article states “Trump is a longtime UFC enthusiast and frequent attendee of major fights. He made promoting hypermasculine tones a signature of his campaign — as he looked to further widen the gap among male voters between himself and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.”

“Trump and his top supporters embraced alpha-male terms and often accentuated them with vulgar and demeaning language.” It gets even more hilarious… “While campaigning, Trump appeared frequently on podcasts, gaming platforms, and with key supporters who described a vote for Trump as a way to demonstrate true manliness. While Trump taped a podcast with Rogan, who himself has spoken about hypermasculinity, Harris failed to do a similar appearance, citing scheduling conflicts.” They’re deathly afraid of ‘masculinity’ and strong personalities.

Read more …

“I don’t know why the Democrats lost. I don’t understand … Prices have come down, the economy is good. I don’t know why they voted against her, against the party.” — William Shatner (Captain Kirk)”

• Beyond Consequence (James Howard Kunstler)

If you boil down everything the woked-up, psychopathic Democratic Party did the past eight years as it drove the country into a ditch, it all amounted to a Great Pretending. Whatever the party said, they knew it was not so. Whatever they did, they pretended the other side was doing. They lied lavishly, knowingly, and incessantly and now they are pretending to soul-search in a great public display of pretend humility as they await the dreaded reckoning. Case in point: the interview on PBS between the Aspen Institute’s former chief Walter Isaacson and Harvard civics philosophy prof Michael Sandel, “to make sense of Donald Trump’s Presidency.” Listen to them prattle about “the dignity of work,” “credentialist condescension,” and “income disparities.”

You know it was way worse than that: censorship, witch hunts, the gestapo FBI, a stupid money-pit war, medical fascism, the wide-open border, race-and gender hustles, state-sponsored riots, lawfare programmatically destroying lives, careers, reputations, and misuse of the news media (including PBS) to lie about all of it. These two pusillanimous pricks, pretending to be genteel, are the poster boys for a diseased polity. And behind the scenes now, in the C-suites of the big agencies, the faculty lounges of Higher Ed, the Zoom meet-ups of so many crypto-government NGOs, and especially in the Big Media board-rooms, the cries of anxiety and desperation signal a momentous end of something: the punking of America by a gang of vicious, criminal snobs. The aggregate insult alone deserves a world-class beat-down. They know it, and they know they are going to get it, and it will be satisfying to watch them rat each other out as judgment nears.

But even as all that plays out, and justice returns to the scene, Mr. Trump and Company face the enormous task of getting our nation’s house in order. The balance sheet is a catastrophe, we are functionally bankrupt, and “Joe Biden” has been busy destroying the value of our money in the futile attempt to work around all that. All the economic statistics rolled out to benefit Ms. Harris in the election are false. Something is underway that is too big to stop and it will express itself as ruinous inflation and economic depression in some wicked combo of the two. It will surely lead to epic rearrangements in everyday life. I will suggest a few examples. The people of this land have been deprived of purpose and meaning in an economy organized among giant enterprises and vast distances from wherever you live. To call ourselves “consumers” degrades us. We are citizens who have duties, responsibilities, and obligations to each other.

We are economic actors who can make choices and take risks, not passive units to be exploited. The people need an economic role in their locality: employer of neighbors, producer of useful goods and services, all the way down to faithful servants of something and someone. Monopolies and chain stores killed American towns and all the complex relations in them that furnished purpose, meaning, and livelihoods for the people in a rich ecosystem of production and services. Now it’s the monopolies and chain store’s turn to decline and die off — and they will in the course of things, but it would be foolish to try to prop them up. Let them go and let the people rebuild their networks of making-and-doing locally. It’s already happening.

The giant shopping malls that came along in the 1970s have already died, and there was no official campaign to rescue them, nor any official funeral. It just happened quietly in the background. The malls were a pure product of the combo of Boomer household formation and Happy Motoring. That’s ending now. What replaced the malls, strangely, is the new model of Garage Sale Nation. That will continue to evolve and elaborate itself, and integrate into what happens next — which will not be the A-I robot nirvana of endless leisure, but rather an era of tribulation. You can see it coming on all around you. So many things don’t work anymore. Medicine. School. The task of reorganizing them is monumental. It will generate plenty of friction and hardship.

The people also need a social role in their community: head of household, mother, mentor, public servant, caretaker, local hero. You need a place in this world to enact those roles, a location in it, at the proper scale, and it must be a place that is worthy of your affection. Too many places in the USA do not meet these requirements. They are ugly, sprawling, chaotic, and grotesque. The suburban template for development is a long-running fiasco, the anti-community, and MAGA’s psychological investment in it is, sadly, a mistake — though it is consistent with the psychology of previous investment (sunk costs).

Read more …

“..they overcorrected, flooding an already fragile economy with cash and setting the stage for soaring inflation that has burdened millions of Americans ever since.”

• WSJ Issues Scathing Indictment Of How Democrats Blew It On Inflation (ZH)

The Wall Street Journal has issued a scathing postmortem analysis of how the Biden administration completely botched the economy and supercharged inflation. President Biden hadn’t even been inaugurated when he and his senior advisers made a monumental gamble in January 2021 that would reverberate through his presidency. Fresh on the heels of a $900 billion Covid-relief bill that Congress had approved weeks earlier, Biden proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. Biden and his team, many of whom had served in the Obama administration, claimed they were correcting their mistakes from 2009: spending too little to combat a major economic crisis. Instead, they overcorrected, flooding an already fragile economy with cash and setting the stage for soaring inflation that has burdened millions of Americans ever since.

Key among their policies was the American Rescue Plan (ARP) – a package which boosted the child tax credit, showered Americans with $1,400 per person, and directed $350 billion to state and local governments. The plan was passed against a backdrop of already unprecedented government spending. Americans were awash in federal aid from bipartisan measures under Trump, supply chains were breaking down, and businesses were struggling to rehire workers. The administration dismissed these concerns, prioritizing speed over prudence. The plan, of course, totally backfired. “If inflation had been less severe in that first year, if it had peaked at a lower level, could Vice President Harris have survived that? My intuition is yes,” said Michael Strain, head of economic-policy studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

On election day, approximately 40% of voters polled said the economy was their top issue – with those voters backing Donald Trump by a 22% margin. The White House is unrepentant, of course. “Any scenario that envisions less inflation from a reduced ARP also has to wrestle with slower growth, higher unemployment and more child poverty,” said White House Council of Economic Advisors chair, Jared Bernstein. “White House and Democratic officials have argued that overall U.S. economic outcomes were better than those achieved in nearly every other advanced economy. But politically, those arguments fell flat and gave Trump his opening. “It comes off as cold comfort to say that people have it worse in Germany, the U.K., France,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.). “People naturally compare their experiences today to what things were like prepandemic.” -WSJ”

Read more …

“When he failed, they decided to send their message in a language that no one could misunderstand. They sent Trump.”

• Mad at the Election? Blame Obama (AmG)

Liberals who are in the throes of capitulation and despair after Donald Trump’s crushing electoral and popular vote win can lay blame for their disastrous loss at the feet of one man: Barack Hussein Obama. Obama built the Trump wave. His failure to live up to the promises of his populist 2008 run has cursed the Democratic Party, probably for a generation. The Washington DC establishment in just two short months is going to get “scholonged” by an angry and vengeful Trump, ready to rain executive hellfire on the bureaucrats and institutions that have spent the last nine years fighting him tooth and nail. All of this could have been prevented. In 2008, Obama swept into power with a crushing electoral college and popular vote majority. He won Iowa, Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina. He even won Indiana. Democrats swept into power in Congress with a 74-seat lead in the House, nearly 59% of seats, and were gifted with a magical 60-seat filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate.

This was a generational victory, a sign that voters were fed up with politics as usual and the failures of the GOP and the Washington and Wall Street establishment as such. This victory wasn’t just about electing the first Black president, though that was important: The policies and platform at stake appealed deeply to voters. It is worth remembering what exactly those policies were. Obama promised to end the war in Iraq, end the Afghanistan war with honor, help the economy by reducing health care costs (prioritizing “Main Street” over Wall Street), and bring about a new era of racial harmony. Moreover, Obama explicitly eschewed radical leftist politics. He explicitly defended traditional marriage. In his DNC nomination speech, he condemned employers who “undercut American wages by hiring illegal workers.” Obama ran a campaign on bringing “change” to DC. He made much of his status as a newcomer who lacked the “typical pedigree” of a candidate for the nation’s highest office.

Put another way, Obama won a decisive victory in 2008 by campaigning as a Washington outsider bent on ending foreign wars, boosting the economy by helping ordinary people, and being a moderate on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. Does this message sound familiar? It should. In broad measure, it is the same formula that brought Donald Trump to power in 2016 and has given him, like Obama, unified control over the executive and legislative branches after a crushing electoral and popular vote win. Obama’s hubris is the reason the Democratic Party stands here today—powerless in the face of “Orange Hitler.” Obama did not close Guantanamo Bay, he ended the Iraq War only to get sucked back in, killed Osama Bin Laden but kept troops in Afghanistan, started wars in Libya and Syria, and, most damningly, inflamed racial tensions when he had a chance to calm them.

Far from being a moderate on social issues, Obama was the president whose picks for the Supreme Court rammed gay marriage down Americans throats after it had suffered numerous state-level electoral setbacks, including in California of all places in the very election that brought Obama to power! Obama’s pledge to reduce health care costs in 2008 did not come with an individual mandate to purchase health insurance. The final bill that snaked its way through Congress and was signed into law did contain such a penalty. Instead of lowering health care costs, Americans watched as their premiums went up.

Instead of fewer foreign wars, we got more. Instead of declaring victory after the death of the mastermind behind 9/11, we got eight more years of war. On every front, Obama didn’t just fail to follow through on his mandate, he actively worked for the opposite outcome. Obama lacked the strength of character and will to follow through on his promises and to deliver the shake-up in Washington that he promised. He was more concerned with hanging out with celebrities and being cool than facing down his own Party’s bosses to deliver on the promises he made to the American people. Nancy Pelosi, 16 years later, still remains one of the most powerful figures in the Party. Americans sent a refined, urbane, grassroots college professor to do their bidding in DC. When he failed, they decided to send their message in a language that no one could misunderstand. They sent Trump.

Read more …

“..a natural product of the loss of any possibility of determining their own destiny.”

• Germany Has Become Europe’s Political Wasteland (Bordachev)

Germany is a political void in the center of Europe, even though it contributes significantly to the global economy and is influential in trade. It’s also the Western country with which Russia has had the most historical, cultural and, until recently, economic contacts. A week ago the government in Berlin collapsed, and so far the leading German parties have agreed that early parliamentary elections will be in February 2025. It’s very likely that the next government will be led by the main opposition force, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). At the start of the election campaign, CDU leader Friedrich Merz publicly announced that – if he wins – he’ll issue an ultimatum to Moscow over Ukraine. He’s promised that if this ultimatum is not accepted within 24 hours, his government will provide the Kiev regime with cruise missiles to attack Russian territory.

The consequences of such a decision for Russian-Western relations are obvious. It is not surprising, therefore, that our main reaction was astonishment at the irresponsibility of such a high-ranking member of the German elite. There are even fears that Merz and those behind him intend to drag Germany into a destructive military conflict with Europe’s largest country. But all this German talk means nothing in practice. Without US authorisation, or direct orders from Washington, the leaders in Berlin are not only incapable of starting a major war in Europe, they are incapable even of adjusting their shoelaces. Any statements by German politicians, the fall and rise of governing coalitions there, should only be seen in the context of how the Berlin establishment is trying to find a role in the shadow of total American dominance.

It’s deeply symbolic that Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a decisive step towards the collapse of the governing coalition on 6 November, the day on which the domestic political balance of power in the United States changed radically. In the context of significant changes at the center, the peripheral political systems must react as sensitively as possible: at the level of how a branch of a large corporation reacts to a change in its general management. Berlin’s international position is defined by its crushing defeat in the Second World War, which ended any hope of determining its own future. Germany, like Japan and South Korea, is a country with a foreign occupying force on its territory, albeit under the NATO flag. The German elite, both political and economic, is, with few exceptions, even more integrated with the US than the British elite. To say nothing of those running France, Italy or other European countries.

Germany has no autonomy in determining its foreign policy, nor does it aspire to have any. It’s no coincidence that over the past two and a half years of the Ukraine crisis, it’s been Berlin that has provided the largest amount of military and financial aid to the Kiev regime. Almost ten times more than, say, France, whose president likes to make bellicose speeches. Naturally, the representatives of the German establishment look like pale copies of what we used to consider real politicians. And this is a natural product of the loss of any possibility of determining their own destiny. Of course, Berlin can still set the parameters of economic policy for the weak countries of the European Mediterranean. States such as Greece, Italy or Spain are given to Germany to ‘feed’ within the framework of the European Union and its single currency.

But even Poland, which has a special relationship with the US, has managed to avoid tying itself to Germany’s industrial grip. France is resisting slightly. But it is gradually sinking to the level of southern Europe. The UK has left the EU, but retains its position as the main representative of the US in Europe. It should be noted that such a state of affairs for Germany did not come about overnight. Even during the Cold War, the Federal Republic (FRG) was led by bright personalities. Under chancellors such as Willy Brandt (1969-1974), the Moscow Treaty was signed between the FRG and the USSR on the recognition of post-war borders in Europe. In the early 1970s, German politicians and business were able to persuade the US to allow Germany to establish energy cooperation with the Soviets. In our time, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (1998-2005) pushed for European energy security based on German-Russian cooperation.

But all this came to an end with the global economic crisis of 2008-2013, after which the US began to tighten the screws on its allies. In the spring of 2022, Olaf Scholz, who had previously been committed to dialogue with Russia, fully supported the military-political confrontation created by the Americans over Ukraine. Now German politicians are not free to choose their own future. For most of them, with the exception of the non-systemic opposition, this is quite obvious. Why appoint bright personalities to the highest positions if nothing depends on their decisions? Gradually, the entire political system and the mood of the electorate are adapting to these conditions. The differences in the parties’ platforms are becoming blurred. Observers are already talking about the likelihood that the government will be formed by the Social Democrats and their main opponents from the CDU. This means that disagreements on fundamental issues are a thing of the past.

Only the technical aspects of forming a government need to be agreed upon, and the main goal of all efforts is to hold on to power as such. The united and sovereign German state existed for 74 years (1871-1945). Its revival as such is not possible: even if Russia and China would look favourably on it, the Anglo-Saxon world will not allow it for several reasons at once. Firstly, both German attempts – in the First and Second World Wars – to play a leading role in the West came close to succeeding. So nobody will give them a third chance. Just to be on the safe side. It should be borne in mind that the West takes order within its own community even more seriously than it does the defence of its privileges against the rest of humanity. Second, Germany’s position at the center of Europe, its huge industrial base and its industrious population make it an ideal partner for the US and Britain, the maritime trading powers. Politically insignificant, Germany can economically control much of the rest of Europe, but cannot dictate the substance.

Third, the revival of visible German independence is in the interests of Moscow and Beijing because it would split the ranks of the consolidated West. A small front of countries like Hungary, Slovakia or even one a little larger cannot create such a split. And the unity of the West under the leadership of the US is a fundamental obstacle to the implementation of the plans for a multipolar world order promoted by Russia and China. Germany is now a political wasteland in the heart of Europe. Tiny shoots of reason are, of course, breaking through the decades-old system based on pandering to the interests of American patrons. With some very obvious exceptions, the representatives of the non-systemic German opposition are talented people. But their prospects are still very dim because of the way things are manage. In the future, we can expect to re-establish some economic ties with Germany but we must treat it as a political colony of the US, rather than thinking about try to establish full inter-state relations with Berlin.

Read more …

An unknown side of Stalin.

• Gardening Against Evil Days (Helmer)

In politics — the Kremlin is no exception — politicians don’t mean what they say. In gardening, the plants always mean what they say. Gardeners, obliged to record what that is, are more likely than politicians to tell the truth. In the records of Russian politicians since the Bolshevik Revolution, only one leading figure stands out as having the eye, ear, and nose for what plants have to tell. Not the present nor the founding one. The only gardener among them was, and remains, Joseph Stalin. Nothing has been found that he wrote himself on his gardening except perhaps for marginal comments in books he read. There is no mention of books on gardens or gardening in the classification system Stalin’s personal library adopted from 1925. He kept no garden diary. Without a diary recording the cycle of time and seasons, the planting map, colour scheme, productivity of bloom and fruit, infestation, life and death, he must have committed his observations – “he possessed unbelievably acute powers of observation” (US Ambassador George Kennan) – to memory, as peasants do.

Unlike the tsars who employed English, Scots, and French architects and plantsmen to create gardens in St. Petersburg and Moscow in the royal fashions of Europe, defying the Russian winter to display their power and affluence without shovelling for themselves, Stalin dug his gardens himself in the warm weather of his dacha at Gagra, on the Black Sea. There he was photographed with his spade tending parallel, raised beds of lemon trees. There is no sign of him wielding trowel and fork in the garden at Kuntsevo, his dacha near Moscow, where the photographs show him strolling in a semi-wild young forest or seated on a terrace in front of a hedge of viburnum. No record of Stalin digging at Kuntsevo has been found.

There is just one reminiscence of Stalin speaking to a visitor about his gardening. “Stalin is very fond of fruit trees. We came to a lemon bush. Joseph Vissarionovich carefully adjusted the bamboo stick to make it easier for the branches to hold large yellow fruits. ‘But many people thought that lemons would not grow here!’ [He said] Stalin planted the first bushes himself, took care of them himself. And now he has convinced many gardeners by his example. He talks about it in an enthusiastic voice and often makes fun of would-be gardeners. We came to a large tree. I don’t know it at all. ‘What is the name of this tree?’ I asked Stalin. ‘Oh, this is a wonderful plant! It’s called eucalyptus,’ Joseph Vissarionovich said, plucking leaves from the tree. He rubs the leaves on his hand and gives everyone a sniff. ‘Do you feel how strong the smell is? This is the smell that the malaria mosquito does not tolerate.’ Joseph Vissarionovich tells how, with the help of eucalyptus, the Americans got rid of the mosquito during the construction of the Panama Canal, how the same eucalyptus helped with the work in swampy Australia. I felt very embarrassed that I did not know this wonderful tree.”

Stalin read a great deal of philosophy, Roman and Russian history, art, and agronomy, and so he is bound to have reflected on the way in which the ideas of the classics he read took physical form in the gardens of the time. Especially so on the ancient idea of the paradise garden. It is this transference between thinking and digging, between the idea of paradise and the cultivation of it, which a new book, just published in London, explores in a radical way. Olivia Laing, author of The Garden Against Time, In Search of a Common Paradise, knows nothing whatever about Russia or its gardens or its politics – except for propaganda on the Ukraine war she has absorbed unquestioningly and briefly repeats from the London newspapers. That’s a personal fault; it’s not a dissuasion from the book of reflections she has written out from her garden diary to an end which Russians understand to aim at, not less than the English.

In this wartime it’s necessary to keep reflecting on this end, on the aesthetic and philosophical purpose of the paradise garden. Laing begins her book and her garden with John Milton’s lament for gardening in wartime – in his case, the English Civil War of 1642-46 and the counter-revolution of 1660. “More safe I Sing with mortal voice, unchang’d”, Milton observed at the beginning of Book 7 of his Paradise Lost, “to hoarce or mute, though fall’n on evil dayes/ On evil dayes though fall’n, and evil tongues;/in darkness and with dangers compast round,/And solitude.” At the same time, Laing records for herself and Stalin certainly knew, “what I loved, aside from the work of making [the paradise garden], was the self-forgetfulness of the labour, the immersion in a kind of trance of attention that was as unlike daily thinking as dream logic is to waking.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Grandma
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858271312025682171

 

 

Plane tech

 

 

Foal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858438984684146947

 

 

Orangutan

 

 

Guilty

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 19 2024

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


René Magritte Youth 1924

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

RFK

Delaware

AIPAC

Apple

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

• The Collapse of Kamala Harris (Hammer)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

• The Three Layers of Culpability (Kunstler)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

Too late.

• Obamas To Hit Campaign Trail With Harris (RT)

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

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

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

Read more …

“1,900 pages of documents..”

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

• EU Looking To Expand Fines Against Musk (RT)

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

Snoop

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 7 2024

Oct 072024
 
 October 7, 2024  Posted by at 8:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  77 Responses »


Francisco Goya Fire at night 1793-94

 

• Trump Promises To Reach Mars (RT)
• Harris Calls for Backup: Obama Joins Struggle to Keep Campaign Afloat (Sp.)
• Milton Strengthens to Hurricane, DeSantis Preps Gulf Coast (ET)
• “We Lose Total Control”: Clinton Continues Her Censorship Campaign (Turley)
• RFK Jr. Focused on America’s Chronic Disease Problem (ET)
• Biden Urges Congress to Replenish Disaster Relief Funding (ET)
• Slovak PM Fico Pledges To Block Ukrainian NATO Membership (RT)
• Zelensky Rules Out ‘Bargaining’ With Russia (RT)
• Khamenei’s Lebanese Red Line (Rizk)
• Israel Won’t Last Long – Khamenei (RT)
• 4 in 5 Gaza Mosques, All 3 Churches Devastated in Israel Bombing Campaign (Sp.)
• ‘America is Partner and Financier of Israel’s Crimes’ – Houthi Leader (Sp.)
• Medvedev Calls for ‘Sinking’ of Great Britain (RT)
• Julian Assange’s Oct. 1 Address with Comment by Paul Craig Roberts (PCR)

 

 

 

 

Trump Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1842701203630690680

 

 

Grace of God

 

 

Rally

 

 

Star Spangled

 

 

Discover

 

 

Tulsi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1842674700323021299

 

 

Walz

 

 

Biden immigrants

 

 

US child trafficking

 

 

Shah
https://twitter.com/i/status/1842829985754521677

 

 

 

 

 

 

“We’re gonna win, and he’s gonna reach Mars by the end of our term, which is a big thing, before China, before anybody. My money’s on that guy [Musk].”

• Trump Promises To Reach Mars (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has pledged to “reach Mars” before the end of his term in office, should he defeat Vice President Kamala Harris next month. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will lead the mission, Trump declared. Musk joined Trump for a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening. During the event, which took place at the site of Trump’s attempted assassination in July, the 45th president issued a series of familiar campaign promises – vowing to close the US southern border, end the Ukraine conflict, and lower energy prices and inflation – as well as a pledge to reach the Red Planet before 2028. ”We will lead the world in space exploration,” he told the audience. “We will reach Mars before the end of my term.” “Elon promised me that he was going to do that,” Trump continued, before turning to Musk and asking “I don’t know, can you do that?”

“We’re gonna win, and he’s gonna reach Mars by the end of our term, which is a big thing, before China, before anybody. My money’s on that guy [Musk].” During his first term in office, Trump issued a series of space-related executive orders and policy directives. He tasked NASA in 2017 with leading “the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations,” and in 2019 established the US Space Force as the sixth branch of the country’s military, leading opponents to accuse him of militarizing space. Musk, who endorsed Trump’s campaign earlier this summer, has promised for years to make humanity a “multiplanetary” civilization. However, he blames excessive government regulation for delaying his planned colonization of Mars.

Last month, Musk claimed that his SpaceX reusable ‘Starship’ rocket would be ready for uncrewed flights to Mars within two years, and crewed flights two years later. After the Federal Aviation Administration denied SpaceX permission to test the rocket before November due to environmental concerns, Musk took to his X platform to complain that “we will never get humanity to Mars if this continues.” “Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware,” SpaceX wrote in a statement at the time. “This should never happen and directly threatens America’s position as the leader in space.” During his first term, Trump pushed the idea of cutting two government regulations for every new one enacted. If elected again, he has promised to go further, telling the New York Economic Club last month that he would “eliminate a minimum of 10 old regulations for every one regulation” imposed.

Read more …

“..some Democrats, including a few of Harris’ staff, were concerned that the vice president was not holding enough campaign events..”

• Harris Calls for Backup: Obama Joins Struggle to Keep Campaign Afloat (Sp.)

Former President Barack Obama is stepping in to save the day, as he’ll start hitting the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris starting October 10, according to ABC News. Obama will help Harris in her campaign through election day, his speeches are planned in key swing states, the first of which will be Pennsylvania, a senior member of Harris’ campaign told the broadcaster. Earlier, NBC News reported that some Democrats, including a few of Harris’ staff, were concerned that the vice president was not holding enough campaign events, which could cost her the election. The US presidential election will take place on November 5. The Democratic Party will be represented by Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Republican Party by former President Donald Trump.

Read more …

“Milton has intensified into a category 1 hurricane. [..] ..expected to make landfall on Wednesday on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 3 major hurricane..”

• Milton Strengthens to Hurricane, DeSantis Preps Gulf Coast (ET)

Milton has intensified into a category 1 hurricane. According to the 2 p.m. ET advisory from the National Hurricane Center on Sunday, Milton was about 815 miles west-southwest of Tampa, Florida. It is expected to make landfall on Wednesday on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 3 major hurricane. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier on Sunday that the state is preparing for the storm and that the top priority is round-the-clock debris cleanup from Hurricane Helene, which hit only 10 days ago. “This is all hands on deck to get that debris where it needs to be,” he said during a press conference at the state’s emergency operations center on Oct. 6. A tropical storm warning has been issued for Mexico’s Celestún to the Caribbean’s Cabo Catoche, while a tropical storm watch is in effect for east of Cabo Catoche to Cancún. Hurricane and storm surge watches could be required for for portions of Florida later Sunday.

When DeSantis gave his briefing, the tracks predicted landfall on Madeira Beach in Pinellas County, and he warned that along with the intense winds, storm surge damage could exceed that of Helene. “Most of the Big Bend is uninhabited,” he said. “When you’re talking about Tampa Bay, and you talk about what even 10 feet of storm surge would do in an area that has, I mean, the Greater Tampa Bay Area has millions of people. “That is just a level of damage, I think, that would far exceed the damage that was done in the Big Bend.” DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, executive director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, announced plans underway to stage resources in the Tampa Bay area. They said they are prepared for the possibility of Tampa Bay landfall and a storm track that runs along the I-4 corridor across the state, causing debris, significant power outages, and infrastructure damage.

“The State Emergency Response Team planning section has been working this particular scenario, as well as other scenarios, for at least two weeks now,” Guthrie said. “So that’s what’s making us very effective in the response before hurricane season ever began. Our team knew to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” High-water vehicles have been sent to Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. A Hillsborough County fire station received 400 feet of flood protection systems, and another 1,800 feet will be distributed to wastewater facilities, pump stations, and a hospital in Hillsborough and Manatee counties. DeSantis also recalled members of Florida’s State Guard, National Guard, Fish and Wildlife, Highway Patrol, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who were deployed to help North Carolina and Tennessee recover from Helene, along with all necessary equipment to respond to Milton.

“I have the State Emergency Response Team preparing for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017 hurricane Irma,” Guthrie said, urging Floridians to finalize their hurricane plans as soon as possible. Guthrie added that the Florida Department of Emergency Management has “thought through a lot of contingencies,” including providing emergency fuel and EV charging along evacuation routes, as well as identifying every potential housing location, which his division calls “a refuge of last resort.” Meanwhile, debris cleanup remains a top priority across the Gulf Coast before tropical storm conditions return. In his Oct. 5 executive order declaring a state of emergency for 35 counties—now amended to 51—the governor ordered all disaster debris management sites and landfills in all Helene-impacted counties to remain open for 24-hour operations.

Gulf

Read more …

“..Clinton will hopefully continue to face “a long and difficult road to getting anything done” in limiting the free speech of her fellow citizens.”

• “We Lose Total Control”: Clinton Continues Her Censorship Campaign (Turley)

Hillary Clinton is continuing her global efforts to get countries, including the United States, to crackdown on opposing views. Clinton went on CNN to lament the continued resistance to censorship and to call upon Congress to limit free speech. In pushing her latest book, “Something Lost and Something Gained,” Clinton amplified on her warnings about the dangers of free speech. What is clear is that the gain of greater power for leaders like Clinton would be the loss of free speech for ordinary citizens. Clinton heralded the growing anti-free speech movement and noted that “there are people who are championing it, but it’s been a long and difficult road to getting anything done.” She is right, of course. As I discuss in my book, the challenge for anti-free speech champions like Clinton is that it is not easy to convince a free peope to give up their freedom.

That is why figures like Clinton are going “old school” and turning to government or corporations to simply crackdown on citizens. One of the lowest moments came after Elon Musk bought Twitter on a pledge to restore free speech protections, Clinton called upon European officials to force Elon Musk to censor American citizens under the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA). This is a former democratic presidential nominee calling upon Europeans to force the censorship of Americans. She was joined recently by another former democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, who called for government crackdowns on free speech. Other democrats have praised Brazil for banning X. For her part, Clinton praised the anti-free speech efforts in California and New York and called for the rest of the country to replicate the approach of those states.

Clinton added a particularly illuminating line that said the quiet part out loud. This is all about power and the fear that she and others will “lose control” over speech: “Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content we lose total control and it’s not just the social and psychological effects it’s real harm, it’s child porn and threats of violence, things that are terribly dangerous.” Clinton continues to offer a textbook example of the anti-free speech narrative. While seeking sweeping censorship for anything deemed disinformation, Clinton cites specific examples that are already barred under federal law like child porn.

Despite the amplified message on sites like CNN, most citizens may not be as aggrieved as Clinton that she and her allies could “lose total control” over the Internet. The greater fear is that she and her allies could regain control of social media. The Internet is the single greatest invention for free speech since the printing press. That is precisely why figures like Clinton are panicked over the inability to control it. If citizens remain true to their values and this indispensable right, Clinton will hopefully continue to face “a long and difficult road to getting anything done” in limiting the free speech of her fellow citizens.

Read more …

“I prayed to God every day for the past 19 years that America’s health crisis would be solved for the next generation..“

• RFK Jr. Focused on America’s Chronic Disease Problem (ET)


Rescue the Republic rally in Washington on Sept. 29, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu.

As the dust settles on his White House bid, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is focusing on his initiative, Make America Healthy Again, with the goal to turn around what he calls a chronic disease epidemic in the United States. Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign on Aug. 23 and threw his support behind former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee. Trump has promised to appoint Kennedy to a health-related role in a potential second term. Kennedy told The Epoch Times in September that ending his presidential campaign was a difficult decision, but it was a “necessary step” to achieving his mission. “I prayed to God every day for the past 19 years that America’s health crisis would be solved for the next generation,“ he said. ”That is a major reason why I ran for president.” Kennedy’s campaign platform focused on fighting “corporate capture of government agencies” and ending the chronic disease epidemic.

An environmental lawyer and founder of Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy believes one issue impacts the other. U.S. corporations, Kennedy said, have made America the sickest country in the world. “We enriched these corporations and their captive agencies. And now they want to go and commoditize all of the things we value in our lives,” he said on a soggy afternoon on Sept. 30. Kennedy was among the keynote speakers at Rescue the Republic, a day-long rally that brought 6,500 supporters of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement to the National Mall in Washington. Little will change until the corporate capture of government agencies is removed, he said. “The FDA, USDA, and CDC are all controlled by giant or private corporations. Their function is no longer to improve and protect the health of Americans. Their function is to advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry that has transformed them and the food industry that has transformed them into sock puppets,” he said at the event.

At an earlier address in Washington, Kennedy said the state of health care should be measured by patient outcomes, including chronic illness, childhood obesity, and life expectancy. He pointed out that the United States is significantly behind other countries with smaller economies, such as Italy, which has a higher life expectancy and spends less on health care. “Today, we are an average of six years behind our European neighbors. Are we lazier and more suicidal than Italians or is there a problem with our system? Are there problems with our incentives? Are there problems with our food?” Kennedy said. He said the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, has contributed to the nation’s health care crisis by driving up insurance premiums and “making health care the largest driver of inflation while American life expectancy plummets.” Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy has been an outspoken critic of how elected officials and public health leaders managed the crisis.

The United States had one of the worst COVID outcomes in the world with deaths, he said. “Our health leaders said that COVID was a pharmaceutical deficiency. This was a lie. We have the highest chronic disease rate on earth.” Two-thirds of U.S. adults suffer from chronic health issues, Kennedy noted, and 74 percent are overweight or obese. “When my uncle was president [1961-63], about 1 percent of the children in this country had a chronic disease. That number may be as high as 60 percent in America today,” he said. He sees the chronic disease epidemic among American children as a form of abuse. “Children are the most precious assets that we have in this country. How can we let this happen to them? How can we call ourselves a moral nation, the most exemplary democracy in the world, if we are treating our children like this?” He said diseases that once mostly impacted the elderly are now increasingly common among children.

“About 18 percent of American teens now have fatty liver disease,” Kennedy stated. “When I was a boy, this only affected late-stage alcoholics who were elderly. Cancer rates are skyrocketing in the young and old. Young adult cancers are up 79 percent, and 1 in 4 American women is on antidepressant medication. Forty percent of teens have a mental health diagnosis; 15 percent of high schoolers are on Adderall. No other country has anything like this.” Ultra-processed foods are a primary culprit in the medical crisis impacting the young, he said. “Seventy percent of American children’s diet is now ultra-processed, which means industrial, manufactured in a factory.” He said these ultra-processed foods have chemicals that didn’t exist a century ago and are partly responsible for the rise in diseases in all ages.

Read more …

Now when the money runs out Congress is to blame. That was easy…

• Biden Urges Congress to Replenish Disaster Relief Funding (ET)

President Joe Biden urged Congress on Friday to expedite funding for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) disaster loan program, warning that it will run out of money within weeks amid ongoing recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. In a letter to Congress on Oct. 4, Biden warned that the SBA’s disaster loan program will run out of funding “in a matter of weeks and well before the Congress is planning to reconvene.” “I warned the Congress of this potential shortfall even before Hurricane Helene landed on America’s shores,” the president stated, adding that he had requested more funding for SBA “multiple times” in the past months. “Small businesses and individuals in affected areas depend on disaster loans as a critical lifeline during difficult times,” he said. “The Congress must act to restore this funding.” The president did not specify the amount needed to replenish the disaster loan program.

The SBA offers low-interest loans to businesses, homeowners, and renters affected by declared disasters. Its loan program provides affected homeowners with up to $500,000 to repair their primary residence, and up to $2 million for businesses to cover disaster-related losses. In his letter, Biden stated that while the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster relief fund has sufficient resources to meet its immediate needs for Hurricane Helene response efforts, it could face a shortfall by the end of the year. FEMA and the Department of Defense have been carrying out “critical life-saving and life-sustaining missions” due to impacts from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. 26. Biden said that FEMA will continue to perform its missions “within present funding levels” but urged Congress to provide additional resources. “Without additional funding, FEMA would be required to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs,” the president stated.

Biden traveled to North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia this week to tour areas severely impacted by the storm, which caused heavy flooding and widespread power outages. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Oct. 2 that FEMA does not have enough money to make it through the hurricane season. “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One on Oct. 2. Hurricane Helene barreled through the Southeast last week, making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region. The storm hammered Florida’s Gulf Coast with record storm surges and brutal winds before pommeling the rest of the region with historic flooding, wiping out entire towns. More than 150,000 households have registered for FEMA assistance, according to Frank Matranga, an agency representative. That number is expected to climb as rescue and recovery efforts continue.

Read more …

“Ukraine’s entry into NATO would serve as a good basis for a third world war.”

• Slovak PM Fico Pledges To Block Ukrainian NATO Membership (RT)

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has said that his country would not allow Ukraine to join NATO as long as he stays in power. Admitting Kiev into the US-led military alliance would trigger a new world war, he warned in an interview with the broadcaster STVR on Sunday. “As long as I am the prime minister of the Slovak Republic, I will lead the legislators, whom I have control over as a party chairman, to never agree to Ukraine’s membership in NATO,” Fico said. “Ukraine’s entry into NATO would serve as a good basis for a third world war.” Fico, a longtime critic of Western military and financial aid to Ukraine, has insisted that the conflict must be resolved through diplomatic means. He repeatedly warned against further escalation with Moscow. The accession of new countries must be approved by all of NATO’s 32 existing members, with national parliaments voting in favor or against new candidates.

Kiev formally applied to join NATO in September 2022, citing the ongoing conflict with Russia. While many Western states publicly backed Ukraine’s aspirations, they have refused to provide a concrete roadmap or a timetable for accession. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zenesky acknowledged in July that “we will not be in NATO until the war is over in Ukraine.” Russia views NATO’s expansion eastward as a security threat and has cited Ukraine’s cooperation with the alliance as one of the main reasons behind the conflict. President Vladimir Putin warned last month that using Western-supplied longer-range weapons for strikes deep inside Russia would be tantamount to “direct involvement” of NATO in the fighting.

Read more …

Russia has no intention of bargaining.

• Zelensky Rules Out ‘Bargaining’ With Russia (RT)

Kiev has no plans to cede any territories to achieve peace in the conflict with Russia, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said, following media reports that the West is considering a settlement with Moscow in which it retains “de-facto” control over some areas formerly controlled by Kiev. In a video address on Saturday, the Zelensky announced that Ukrainian officials would discuss Kiev’s so-called ‘victory plan’ with Western backers next week, claiming it would help strengthen the country, especially in the military sphere. Kiev has yet to release the much-hyped roadmap to the public, though it has promised to do so, at least with regard to the essential points. Several media reports, however, claim that the plan includes NATO-like Western security guarantees for Ukraine, the continuation of Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region to serve as a territorial bargaining chip, deliveries of “specific” Western-made advanced weapons, and international financial aid for Ukraine.

The plan was presented by Zelensky in the US last month, and was reportedly met with skepticism by officials who suggested that it contains no “real surprises” and largely amounts to a “wish list,” according to Bloomberg. Discussions with Kiev’s Western backers will enable it to move closer to ending the conflict in line with Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’, the Ukrainian leader said, referring to his plan which demands that Russia withdraw troops from territories claimed by Ukraine. This has been rejected by Moscow as a non-starter for talks. “This is our goal – to guarantee Ukraine reliable peace and security. This is possible only based on international law and without any bargaining over sovereignty or trading territories,” he stated.

His remarks come after the Financial Times reported that Western diplomats and some Ukrainian officials “have come round to the view that meaningful security guarantees could form the basis of a negotiated settlement in which Russia retains de facto, but not de jure, control of all or part of the Ukrainian territory.” The outlet noted that this approach implies “tacit acceptance that those lands should be regained through diplomatic means in the future,” adding, however, that this remains a “taboo” for Kiev, at least in public. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow is ready to immediately declare a ceasefire and start peace negotiations as soon as Ukraine starts withdrawing troops from the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye. In August, however, he ruled out any engagement with Kiev as long as Ukrainian troops are occupying parts of Kursk Region.

Read more …

“..his first public sermon in nearly five years..”

• Khamenei’s Lebanese Red Line (Rizk)

Friday’s commemoration of Hezbollah’s late leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in Iran was no ordinary event and provides an indication of how far Tehran is willing to go to preserve the Axis of Resistance in the face of Israeli escalation. Thousands reportedly turned out for the commemoration ceremony, in which Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei led Friday prayers before addressing the gathered masses. Khamenei’s public appearance can itself be seen as both an act of defiance directed at the Axis’ enemies and a message of reassurance to its supporters, who are no doubt looking to Iran for leadership following Nasrallah’s assassination. The Iranian leader’s public appearance comes after foreign media reports that he had been moved to an undisclosed location for safety reasons in the immediate aftermath of Nasrallah’s assassination.

Perhaps more importantly, it comes on the heels of Operation True Promise 2, in which Iran launched a heavy barrage of missiles on Israel, which, according to the Iranians, hit 90 percent of their intended targets. That operation was notably heavier-handed than the first True Promise, which came in response to Israel’s attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus last April and marked the first direct military action by Tehran on Israel. In an article for Foreign Policy, Vali Nasr notes how Iran’s second direct attack on Israel was carried out with far less advanced warning compared to the April operation. Nasr – considered an authoritative voice in Washington on issues related to West Asia – also explained how the latest missile salvo “signaled Iran’s will and ability to attack Israel – and penetrate its defense systems in potentially damaging ways.”

True Promise 2 came in response to the assassination of Nasrallah, Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismael Haniyeh, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Abbas Nilforushan, conveying a clear message that Iran, contrary to many assessments, was ready to escalate. This message was reinforced by Khamenei on Friday, as he delivered some fiery remarks with a rifle by his side. “What our armed forces did was the minimum punishment for the crimes of the usurping Zionist regime,” said Khamenei in reference to Iran’s latest offensive, while warning that Tehran was ready to conduct more direct military action against Israel should the need arise.

These warnings come amid much speculation on Israel’s likely response to True Promise 2, as senior officials in Tel Aviv have pledged that Iran’s attack will not go unanswered, and the Israeli military appears to be readying a large-scale operation against Iran, with US support. In turn, senior Iranian military officials have warned that any Israeli operations targeting Iranian soil would be met with devastating blows, far exceeding the strikes Tehran has conducted in both its previous operations. As IRGC Deputy Commander Ali Fadavi said in a statement published by Iranian state-affiliated media: “If the occupiers make such a mistake [attack Iran], we will target all their energy sources, installations, and all refineries and gas fields.”

That Iran has upped the ante dramatically in the aftermath of Nasrallah’s assassination speaks to how determined it is to demonstrate that this setback will not weaken the Axis of Resistance. Perhaps even more importantly, these latest developments speak to the special relationship between the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah. This is reflected in the fact that Khamenei’s speech was the first time in which Iran’s supreme leader publicly addressed a mass crowd since the US assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani in early 2020, further highlighting the special status of Nasrallah throughout Iran, and with Khamenei, at a personal level.

Read more …

“..those who help” the Palestinians and support them are merely “doing their duty.”

• Israel Won’t Last Long – Khamenei (RT)

The surprise attack on Israel launched by Hamas last year was a “logical and legal” step towards defeating the “malicious and cowardly” Zionist regime, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said. On Friday, in his first public sermon in nearly five years, Khamenei defended the actions against Israel by the ‘axis of resistance’, which includes the Lebanese-based Hezbollah and Palestinian group Hamas. Monday marks one year since the start of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which came in response to Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,100 people were killed and more than 200 people were taken hostage. Israel’s campaign in the enclave, following years of a de-facto blockade of Gaza, has resulted in the deaths of over 41,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s Health Ministry said earlier this week.

Tensions between Israel and neighboring Muslim countries have soared during the Gaza operation, with both Iran and Hezbollah supporting Hamas and Palestine. Earlier this month, the conflict entered a new stage as Israel launched a ground operation in Lebanon. In retaliation, Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israel this week. Khamenei said in his sermon that the Palestinians, like “every people,” have “the right to defend their land, their home, their country, and their interests against aggressors,” and this “logic is supported by international law.” He added that “those who help” the Palestinians and support them are merely “doing their duty.” “This is the rule of Islam, the rule of reason, and international and global logic. The Palestinians are defending their land; their defense is legitimate, and helping them is also logical and legal,” he stated. He defended Iran’s recent missile attack on Israel, saying it was “the minimum punishment for the usurping and bloodthirsty Zionist regime… whose only achievement has been to bomb homes, schools, hospitals and civilian gathering centers” in Gaza.

Khamenei went on to say that Iran “will perform any duty required” to see Israel defeated, claiming that West Jerusalem has only managed to “survive” for so long due to the assistance of its allies in the West. “This regime acts like rabid wolves and raging dogs of America in the region. This malicious and cowardly entity has barely kept itself afloat thanks to America’s support, and it will not last long,” he said. Khamenei stressed that the main problem in the Middle East is foreign interference, as “the countries of the region are capable of establishing security and peace” if left alone. He criticized America’s involvement and support for West Jerusalem, saying the US has never wanted peace in the Middle East, but has instead been pursuing the goal “of turning Israel into a tool to seize all the natural resources of the region and invest them in major global conflicts.”

Read more …

“..the use of AI-assisted “kill-lists” known as Lavender – allowing 15, 20, or 100 or more civilians to be killed to eliminate one suspected Hamas operative..”

• 4 in 5 Gaza Mosques, All 3 Churches Devastated in Israel Bombing Campaign (Sp.)

At least two dozen people were killed and nearly 100 injured in an airstrike on a mosque sheltering displaced persons in the city of Deir al Balah, central Gaza early Sunday. The IDF confirmed responsibility for the strike, alleging that the mosque and a nearby school were used by Hamas as a command post. Some 814 of 1,245 mosques in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, another 148 partially damaged, and all three of the strip’s churches ravaged. Those are the stark conclusions reached by Gaza’s Ministry of Religious Affairs on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war, which has become the deadliest chapter in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since 1948. According to the ministry, 19 of 60 cemeteries in its care have been targeted, eight destroyed, and 11 damaged, and grave sites and remains have been exhumed, desecrated, plundered, and mutilated in areas where Israeli troops have operated.

The campaign of Israeli airstrikes is estimated to have destroyed some 79% of all religious sites in the enclave, causing some $350 million in damage. Eleven of 14 administrative and educational facilities under the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ care have also been targeted, with nine of them razed, the ministry said. Targeted sites included the ministry’s headquarters, the Holy Quran Radio building, the Khan Yunis Endowments Directorate, the Antiquities and Manuscripts Center, the Endowments Sharia School for Boys and the College of Islamic Propagation’s northern branch. Nine of the ministry’s vehicles have also been destroyed. Over the past year, 238 Religious Affairs Ministry employees have been killed and 19 others detained by Israeli forces, according to the figures. The ministry called on the international community and Islamic organizations to intervene to stop what it characterized as an “ongoing war of extermination.”

The Gaza conflict has now claimed the lives of over 43,000 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, and maimed nearly 97,000 others – collectively accounting for over 6% of the strip’s prewar population of 2.1-2.3 million people. An estimated 99% of Gaza’s population is Sunni Muslim, with Christians, Shia, and Ahmadi Muslim communities making up less than 1% of residents. Before the war, Christians were tightly packed into Gaza City, worshiping at the Gaza Baptist Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, and the Catholic Holy Family Church. All three have been targeted by Israeli aerial bombardments. The severity of Israel’s operations in Gaza, which have reportedly included the use of AI-assisted “kill-lists” known as Lavender – allowing 15, 20, or 100 or more civilians to be killed to eliminate one suspected Hamas operative – has sparked international outrage and condemnation. Over a dozen countries have signed onto South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel accusing the nation of “genocide” in Gaza. Israeli officials have rejected the allegations.

Read more …

“..a “curse” would “fall on the Zionist enemy,” and the “global conscience” sure to remember its “crimes.”

• ‘America is Partner and Financier of Israel’s Crimes’ – Houthi Leader (Sp.)

The Houthis’ escalating conflict with Israel is nearing its one-year anniversary, having started on October 19, 2023 with the launch of missiles and drones toward Tel Aviv, and expanding in November of that year into a partial blockade of the Red and Arabian Seas which the US and its allies have proven unable to effectively challenge. “America is a partner and financier of all the crimes of the Zionist enemy. It is killing the Palestinian nation and has brought suffering and misery to this nation,” Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised address Sunday on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Gaza War. Pointing to the US provision of large amounts of armaments to Israel in decades past, al-Houthi said Washington had delivered the “devil of wars” in Tel Aviv “the deadliest weapons” over the past year, including hundreds of transport planeloads and over 100 shiploads, (among this 240 planes and 20 ships worth in the first three months of the conflict alone).

“The Israeli enemy has used about 100,000 tons of explosives, including bombs, missiles and rockets, which were provided by the United States,” the militia leader asserted, adding that this includes an estimated 10,000 tons of unexploded ordonnance currently littering the Gaza Strip today, and US-made bombs prohibited under international law. “The enemy has mobilized all its resources to attack Gaza, and America, Britain and the West have supported this regime through the Gaza War. The Israeli enemy attacked Gaza with an army of over 350,000 soldiers and reserve forces…sending five formations under the cover of fire from the land, sea and air. This has been the most violent and brutal attack in the history of wars,” al-Houthi said. Listing off a series of “murders and massacres” he said had targeted Gaza’s residents over the past year, al-Houthi warned that a “curse” would “fall on the Zionist enemy,” and the “global conscience” sure to remember its “crimes.”

Al-Houthi went on to blast the US over what he characterized as Washington’s “obstruction” of efforts at the United Nations to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, including the blocking of five ceasefire resolutions, while its officials visited Israel. Characterizing ‘Al-Aqsa Storm’ – the Hamas surprise attack into southern Israel on October 7, 2023 which kicked off the present war, as a “very big and very hard blow to the Israeli enemy,” al-Houthi asserted that “no matter how much the Israeli enemy continues with its genocide, killing and terrorism, it will not achieve the result it wants.

No matter how many genocidal crimes it commits, it will not bring about any result other than the downfall and destruction of this regime.” “The [Axis of Resistance] fronts of support in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen are one of the most important features of this round of the conflict with the Israeli enemy…and this situation is unprecedented and has never been seen before in the past 75 years,” al-Houthi said. As for the Houthis, “one of the most important results of the Yemen operation has been preventing the movement of the Israeli enemy in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea,” al-Houthi said.

Read more …

“..we need to solve the problem radically and just sink the damned island of Anglo-Saxon dogs..”

• Medvedev Calls for ‘Sinking’ of Great Britain (RT)

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and former president, has suggested ‘sinking Great Britain’ as a way to solve the country’s problems with London. The former president was responding to a statement made late last month by renowned Russian skiing champion Elena Vyalbe. In an exclusive interview with NEWS.ru outlet, the three-time Olympic champion and head of Russia’s Cross-Country Skiing Federation slammed the West for banning the country’s athletes from most international sports tournaments in response to the Ukraine conflict. Vyalbe claimed that “if we had dropped a serious bomb in the center of London, it would have all been over by now and we would have been allowed everywhere.”

Medvedev, who has become known for his sharp language in social media posts, argued that there are more effective ways to deal with the problem than bombing. “Our famous skier Elena Vyalbe suggested dropping a bomb on London. She’s right, of course, but we need to solve the problem radically and just sink the damned island of Anglo-Saxon dogs,” Medvedev said. He did not elaborate on whether ‘the problem’ refers to sports or the state of Russia’s relations with the UK in general. The UK and its NATO partners have sided with Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, providing Kiev with financial and military aid and placing sanctions on Moscow. London was among 30 nations that urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to uphold a ban it had placed on Russian and Belarusian athletes when it proposed allowing them to compete in the Summer Olympics this year.

Most Western-based sports bodies banned Russia and Belarus from taking part in international sports tournaments shortly after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, including the IOC, FIFA, FIDE, and others. Moscow has repeatedly criticized the restrictions. In her interview, Vyalbe slammed the IOC, calling it a “trash heap” that is “engaged in who knows what, but certainly not honest sport.” She added that while “sports has always been tied with politics,” the sweeping bans on athletes for political reasons “no longer resemble sport at all.”

Read more …

Julian Assange’s Address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on October 1, 2024, with Comment by Paul Craig Roberts.
(Assange address is under the link, this is PCR’s commenst)

• Julian Assange’s Oct. 1 Address with Comment by Paul Craig Roberts (PCR)

After reading Assange’s address I realized that all of this was just the tip of the iceberg. What the United States government did to Assange is worse than can be found in any dystopian novel. Read Assange’s speech, and then ask yourself how you can possibly believe you are a free person living in a free democratic country with accountable government where there is justice, mercy, integrity, morality, and the rule of law. Also notice that it was the Obama Justice Department that dropped all attempts to indict Assange as there are no legal grounds for his indictment, and that it was the Trump Justice Department that reopened the case under CIA pressure. If memory serves, the whores who comprise Western journalism came out against Assange, that is, the dumbshits came out against their own profession, and conservative pundits accused Assange of being a Russian spy. Get the traitor, get the traitor, screamed the presstitutes and conservative pundits.

It was pressure from the Council of Europe and funding of Assange’s lawyers by donations from individuals that caused the CIA to settle for Assange’s plea that he was “guilty of practicing journalism.” We might laugh, but what the CIA has accomplished is a possible precedent for the criminalization of truthful, objective journalism, and its replacement with enforcement of official narratives. Assange himself says he “pled guilty to being a journalist.” The guilty plea implies that journalism is a crime. How many people will be bothered to understand Assange’s treatment by the “great free democracy, the light of the world”? Hardly any, just as hardly any understand that Washington has provoked Russia to the point of nuclear war, and a majority of Americans, it seems, support Israel’s relentless slaughter of Palestinians redefined by Israel as “Muslim terrorists.” Suppose people were able to free themselves from insouciance and gain access to truth and understanding, what can they do without political leaders?

Where are their leaders? I can only think of two who have recognizable names: Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen. How have the ruling establishments reacted to these two representatives of the people? Trump has been served by the “freedom and democracy” US government with four criminal indictments for which he is on trial. Le Pen is on trial for representing French ethnicity. The official charge is embezzlement of funds, but her defense of a French ethnic nation makes her a racist under the ruling DEI ideology, and that is the real charge against her. How good are these two leaders? Le Pen must be pretty good. She has stood the heat for many years, and the party has grown. Possibly it is the largest of the French political parties, but the Establishment has been successful keeping it out of office. It seems Le Pen is on trial on an annual basis.

Trump is a neophyte, He defeated himself in his first term by stupidly surrounding himself with the representatives of the ruling establishment that he thought he was going to overthrow. Instead they overthrew him. Trump claims he has learned Washington since appointing Gestapo operatives such as Pompano and Barr and refusing to defend General Flynn, his only sensible appointment. But what has he learned? Did he learn that the Establishment is more powerful than the President and that second time around he had best get along with the Establishment? Leaders are rare. Even if one appears, he cannot count on the people’s support. Cicero, Quaestor, Procounsel, and Counsel of Rome, tried to rally the Roman people from their self-destruction and paid for it with his life. Trump tried to give power back to the American people and was punished for it with four criminal indictments. Le Pen tries to represent French ethnicity and is constantly legally harassed.

When the people themselves lose interest in their rights and cannot bring themselves to fight to regain them, they lose their freedom. In the United States today, and I think throughout the Western world, law has been weaponized against all who openly dissent from the Ruling Establishment’s narratives and agendas. As law is now a weapon in the hands of the state, why would Democrats, whose hand is on this weapon, permit an election to take it away from them? A sinking ship cannot change its course. If the Democrats steal a third national election, and the American people again accept it, there will not be another election. Americans will have crossed the Rubicon into tyranny. Older Americans will be slow to realize it, and new generations, having been born into tyranny will not know what has been lost, having never experienced freedom. This is the way liberty dies.

Read more …

 

 



 

 

RFK Covid

 

 

Maher Dr. Phil

 

 

Helper

 

 

Penguin

 

 

Ukame

 

 

Barcelona
https://twitter.com/i/status/1842963176545235161

 

 

Locks
https://twitter.com/i/status/1842837698890932241

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 29 2024

Jul 292024
 
 July 29, 2024  Posted by at 9:02 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  71 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Courtyard of the hospital in Arles 1889

 

• Kamala Harris Is A “Low IQ Individual.” – Trump (RT)
• It All Tracks – Hersch Reports Obama Threatened Biden with 25th Amendment (CTH)
• For 25 Minutes, Secret Service Command Center Didn’t Notify Trump Detail (ZH)
• Will RFK Jr be Trump’s Vaccine Czar? (AT)
• Bitcoin Breaks Through (Quoth The Raven)
• Olympics Opening Ceremony Shows ‘Absence of Public Morality’ – Orban (Sp.)
• French Bishops Condemn Olympic ‘Mockery of Christianity’ (RT)
• German Publisher Stops All Printing of JD Vance’s Book Hillbilly Elegy (Turley)
• Erdogan Says Turkiye Could ‘Enter’ Israel To Help Gazans (Sp.)
• Erdogan ‘Going Down The Path of Saddam Hussein’ – Israeli FM (RT)
• Netanyahu Granted Powers To Devise Retaliation Against Hezbollah (RT)
• Houthis Announce ‘New Stage’ of Conflict With Israel, Urge Arabs to Unite (Sp.)
• T-Rex May Have Been 70% Bigger Than Previously Believed (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

K..a..m..a..l..a

 

 

Grassroots
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817429727100952993

 

 

Kamala 68
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817375226570633526

 

 

Eva
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817208920579916261

 

 

 

 

“..dumb as a rock.”

• Kamala Harris Is A “Low IQ Individual.” – Trump (RT)

Former US president and current Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has claimed that his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, is a “low-IQ individual.” Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday, Trump called the cryptocurrency a “marvel of technology” and a “miracle of cooperation and human achievements.” The former president went on to praise the Bitcoin community as “very smart people,” and used the opportunity to disparage his election rival. “This room is amazing. The people in this room are high-IQ individuals. I’m running against a low IQ individual,” Trump told the audience. He had insulted Harris in the past, having described her as “dumb as a rock.” Harris became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee last week after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

High-ranking Democrats and major party donors urged Biden to withdraw in the wake of his disastrous June debate with Trump, when more concerns were raised over his declining health and the ability to win the election in November. Harris has since secured enough commitments to be officially nominated as her party’s candidate at a convention next month, according to an Associate Press survey. During a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Tuesday, she launched a scathing attack against her rival, claiming that she knows “Donald Trump’s type” and listed “all kinds of predators” she dealt with when serving as a prosecutor. She repeatedly called Trump a “convicted felon” and accused him of “restoring to some wild lies.” The campaign was shaken up by an attempt to assassinate Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Trump narrowly escaped death as the gunman’s bullet grazed his ear. The incident prompted the resignation of Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle, who admitted that the agency had failed to properly protect the former president.

Read more …

“2007 through 2017, that decade is filled with unlawful action by Barack Obama and the people behind him. This is the core of their ongoing need for control, likely for a generation or more..”

• It All Tracks – Hersch Reports Obama Threatened Biden with 25th Amendment (CTH)

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersch writes on his substack, an article outlying how his sources in Washington DC and the White House have confirmed to him that former President Barack Obama was the impetus to push Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race. Seymour Hersh says President Obama was “deeply involved” with the alleged coup and called Joe Biden after his “incident” in Las Vegas, which, from all outward appearances, looks like a major slip and fall – with a significant hit to the head. “I went over [reports] this week with a senior official in Washington who helped me fashion an account of a White House in complete disarray,” Hersh said. “Obama called Biden after breakfast [on July 20] and said, ‘Here’s the deal. We have Kamala’s approval to invoke the 25th Amendment,’” a senior Washington official told Hersh. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries were reportedly directly involved.

Obama’s plan was to not to immediately endorse Kamala, but it was clear that she would “get the nod.” “[Obama] had an agenda and he wanted to seek it through to the end, and he wanted to have control over who would be elected.” (Hersch article encapsulated) Not only does this outline track with every datapoint known about events leading up to the Biden announcement, it also aligns with the entire background of the Obama team operating inside the Biden administration. Team Obama have always been in control. Heck, the Obamas never even left Washington DC after their term in office. The bigger understanding is in the final quote cited. “[Team Obama] had an agenda and he wanted to seek it through to the end, and he wanted to have control over who would be elected.” This is the part where people forget the risk to Team Obama that has never gone away.

The Obama “fundamental change” was a construct of malicious intent. Much of it fraught with unlawful activity only possible by weaponizing the various agencies and bureaus of the U.S. government. Going all the way back to 2007 through 2017, that decade is filled with unlawful action by Barack Obama and the people behind him. This is the core of their ongoing need for control, likely for a generation or more. President Obama and his likeminded ideological foot-soldiers weaponized the federal system of government. In every action from the moment he left office, Obama’s team have been working one long continuum of control in order to keep all of their prior activity hidden. The need for Kamala ‘brat’ Harris is simply another step in this long process to hide the activity.

• The NSA Database was weaponized to conduct political surveillance.
• The Dept of Justice was weaponized to target their political opposition.
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation was weaponized to act as the police investigative units for those targets.
• The Dept of Homeland Security was weaponized to control the evidence and information about their political targeting and surveillance.
• The IRS was weaponized against Obama’s political opposition.
• The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was weaponized to allow the targeting radar to sweep internally against American citizens under the guise of national security and domestic terror threats.
• The Central Intelligence Agency was weaponized allowing and permitting their “foreign surveillance” mandate to merge with the DHS internal surveillance mandate, while simultaneously the CIA conducted overseas political operations against the interests of sovereign countries. All of their activity in ideological alignment.
• The Defense Department was purged of patriotism, intentionally weakened through diversity equity and inclusion, and then boiled down to a flag corps of general willing to go along with the policy of Obama.
• Main Justice through the National Security Division used FARA violations to target anyone who was determined a threat to the fundamental change, and Main Justice began wholesale Lawfare operations against Donald Trump and any entity who would dare align with him.
• Hundreds of millions, likely billions, were funneled through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, The Green New Deal, The Inflation Reduction Act, and various legislative expenditures to foreign governments; those funds went directly into the bank accounts of Democrat donors and political activist groups.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, the part the awakened American public can look into and see for themselves. Underneath the waterline, there’s tens of thousands of vested interests, inside and outside of Washington DC, operating to maintain the fundamental change that Obama created. However, their defenses are weak and shallow, fraught with vulnerability and the endless need to avoid sunlight. All of that scheming, rot, corruption and unlawful activity makes them vulnerable. The need for control is a reaction to fear. The ‘fundamental change’ group are fraught with fear. That is why they consider the current political landscape as a zero-sum contest.

Read more …

You missed.

• For 25 Minutes, Secret Service Command Center Didn’t Notify Trump Detail (ZH)

While members of the Secret Service in a Butler, Pennsylvania command center were notified that an individual later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks was acting suspiciously before he tried to assassinate Donald Trump, members of the former president’s secret service detail were not informed of the threat, according to the Washington Post. Members of former president Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail and his top advisers have privately questioned why they were not informed that local police were tracking a suspicious person before that person opened fire on Trump at his July 13 rally in western Pennsylvania, according to people with direct knowledge of the concerns. Approximately 20 to 25 minutes before Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at the former president, local countersnipers noticed him behaving strangely and sent his photograph to a command center staffed by state troopers and Secret Service agents, the head of Pennsylvania State Police told a congressional committee Tuesday.

According to three sources, members of Trump’s Secret Service detail have complained to confidants and others inside the agency that they were never made aware of the warning, and they had no idea that local countersnipers eventually lost track of Crooks – or that a local police officer who was hoisted onto the roof of the building saw Crooks perched there with a gun. Trump was on stage a full eight minutes – roughly 20 minutes after Crooks was spotted and reported – before shots rang out, wounding Trump, critically wounding two others, and killing one rallygoer. “Nobody mentioned it. Nobody said there was a problem,” Trump told Fox News in an interview last Monday. “They could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, something. Nobody said — I think that was a mistake.” Meanwhile, the Secret Service, which initially lied about denying Trump additional security requests, is not talking.

“As it relates to communications at the rally, the Secret Service is committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure that never happens again,” said spox Anthony Guglielmi, the guy who lied about the denied security. Trump’s team has been at odds with Secret Service headquarters over various requests that the agency denied, including more magnetometers at events, more countersnipers at some events and other specialty teams at other events, The Post has reported. The Secret Service and Trump’s team also repeatedly clashed over security and logistics at the Republican National Convention earlier this month. The Butler, Pa., shooting is also emblematic of what some Secret Service critics say are chronic communication problems that have dogged the agency and contributed to serious security lapses. -WaPo.

Yes, just a breakdown in communication. Nothing nefarious. Also on Monday, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle deflected when asked by House lawmakers why the Secret Service didn’t immediately delay Trump’s speech when local police reported a suspicious person – telling the committee that such reports are commonplace. “At a number of our protected sites, there are suspicious individuals that are identified all the time,” she said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they constitute a threat.” Cheatle – who resigned last week, admitted that the Secret Service was notified of a suspicious person at the Butler, PA rally “somewhere between two and five times,” and she didn’t know when Trump’s security detail was notified. Turns out, they weren’t.

Read more …

“The appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, with his decades-long record investigating vaccines and with his bestselling exposé of Fauci and the corruption of the public-health establishment, would loom large in Trump’s legacy as well as RFK Jr’s.”

• Will RFK Jr be Trump’s Vaccine Czar? (AT)

In 2017, shortly before assuming the presidency, president-Elect Donald Trump asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if he would be willing to investigate one of Trump’s top-of-mind concerns — the safety of vaccines. Trump’s goal, to have Kennedy chair a “Vaccine Safety and Scientific Integrity Commission,” was soon sidetracked by the Russiagate accusation and then Covid. But it was not forgotten. In a recent leaked videotaped discussion between Trump and Kennedy, Trump reminded Kennedy about their 2017 discussion and urged him to take on the vaccine issue again. “I would love you to do so,” Trump urged. Trump’s preoccupation with vaccines — coming the very day after the assasination attempt on his life and shortly before his formal acceptance as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee — demonstrates that the government bureaucracies overseeing the vaccine industry remain top-of-mind to him.

“Something is wrong with that whole system,” he stated. “When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a 10-pound or a 20-pound baby… do you ever see the size of it, its massive, then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically. I’ve seen it too many times.” In an attempt to clinch the deal, Trump pointedly referred to Kennedy’s long commitment to reforming the CDC and the vaccine industry, highlighting the personal satisfaction such an accomplishment would bring, and its importance to Kennedy’s legacy. “And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you.” In their recent discussion, Trump and Kennedy didn’t discuss the specifics of what a renewed investigation of the vaccine industry would look like, but their 2017 discussion – an hour-long meeting held at Trump’s initiation that also included Kellyanne Conway and Mike Pence — raised the same issues that continue to preoccupy him today.

“He is troubled by questions of the links between certain vaccines and the epidemic of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism,” Kennedy told Science in a telephone interview at the time. “And he has a number — he told me five — friends, he talked about each one of them, who has the same story of a child, a perfectly healthy child who went into a wellness visit around age 2, got a battery of vaccines, spiked a fever, and then developed a suite of deficits in the 3 months following the vaccine. “He said that he understood that anecdote was not science, but said that if there’s enough anecdotal evidence… that we’d be arrogant to dismiss it. Those were his words.” In their recent discussion, Kennedy didn’t agree to take Trump up on his offer. No formal, detailed offer was even made, the call was merely the beginning of a process that Trump hoped would lead Kennedy to join the future Trump administration in a vaccine-related capacity.

The call wasn’t even supposed to be made public – Kennedy’s son, Bobby Kennedy III, leaked it on his own. “When President Trump called me, I was taping with an in-house videographer. I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president,” Kennedy explained. Following the leak, Kennedy told the press that he was continuing with his candidacy for president. Should his candidacy fail and Trump’s succeeds, as appears likely, look to negotiations between them to proceed for a vaccine-related role in Trump’s administration. If Trump has a regret about his first term, it’s likely over his promotion of Covid vaccines — a policy that his base overwhelming opposes, so much so that it drew boos at his rallies. The appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, with his decades-long record investigating vaccines and with his bestselling exposé of Fauci and the corruption of the public-health establishment, would loom large in Trump’s legacy as well as RFK Jr’s.

Read more …

“..two major presidential candidates in the United States, both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, have now publicly come out and supported Bitcoin. That, in and of itself, is enormous.”

• Bitcoin Breaks Through (Quoth The Raven)

Almost everybody in the Bitcoin world is already going to be aware of the headlines former President Donald Trump made last night at the Bitcoin 2024 conference. At Bitcoin 2024, Trump pledged that if re-elected, his administration would retain all federal Bitcoin holdings, establishing a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile.” He highlighted that the federal government currently possesses nearly 210,000 bitcoins, about 1% of the total supply, mostly seized from cybercriminals. Trump promised that his administration would never sell this Bitcoin, adhering to the fundamental Bitcoin principle of holding. Additionally, he vowed to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office, criticizing Gensler’s stringent regulations that many believe have hindered innovation in the crypto industry. Anyway you slice it, last night was a flurry of positive Bitcoin-related headlines hitting the wire as soon as Trump took the stage and began speaking to the crowd of crypto enthusiasts.

The idea of bitcoin as a reserve asset has always been the holy grail for maximalists and Trump’s speech sent the idea of a bitcoin “standard” to supersonic speeds. And while there’s been plenty of speculation online about Trump’s motives, with some saying he’s simply fishing for votes from wherever he can get them, it doesn’t matter at this point: the game theory snowball of a Bitcoin “standard” has officially started rolling down the hill. This pro-Bitcoin psychology and reserve asset game theory, and what it could do for the world of Bitcoin regardless of whether or not Trump is elected, cannot be understated. The Bitcoin community has now, for the first time, seen a former and potential US president endorse the cryptocurrency as a strategic reserve asset for the country. This is multiple times more consequential than Wall Street listing Bitcoin ETFs, in my opinion, because it accelerates Bitcoin’s adoption regardless of whether or not Trump is elected our next president.

The idea that the United States could potentially make Bitcoin part of a monetary standard has officially been launched into the orbit of the country’s economic zeitgeist. For comparison, when I started to warm up to the idea of Bitcoin about 6 months ago, I speculated that Middle Eastern money would be the next, after El Salvador, to put Bitcoin on a sovereign balance sheet. From there, I speculated such a move could unleash a tsunami of game theory, with multiple other countries scrambling to catch up across the world, not unlike the way Democrats — the party of Elizabeth “Ban Crypto” Warren — are now scrambling to play catch-up and modify their position stance on crypto. Too late, losers. If you would have told me months ago that one of the two major United States presidential candidates and a former president would be the first to assure the world they would place Bitcoin on the sovereign balance sheet of the most powerful nation in the world, I would have been assured the rest of the world would follow.

That is exactly the case that is unfolding. And, by removing the red tape in the world of Bitcoin, not only would the Trump administration send adoption of the asset to stratospheric levels, it would also be the first tacit public acknowledgment that the fiscal crisis unfolding in the United States is not sustainable and must be dealt with via means other than printing dollars. In other words, holding a bitcoin reserve would represent an attempt at a strategic move to sound money, regardless of whether or not Bitcoin itself stands the test of time.

Yesterday not only marked a momentous occasion for Bitcoin, it marked a momentous occasion for everybody on the Austrian side of the economic aisle who has been waiting for a politician to begin to make serious concessions that the fiscal trajectory the country and the dollar are on is not sustainable. It was a limited hangout of sorts – a passive admission that eventually, the country is going to need a solution to its monetary problem that is outside the Keynesian pattern of simply printing more fiat. And so even if you are first and foremost an advocate for gold or silver, like I am, it’s easy to see last night’s comments by President Trump as not just a victory for Bitcoin but a victory for economic common sense. Just think about this: two major presidential candidates in the United States, both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, have now publicly come out and supported Bitcoin. That, in and of itself, is enormous.

Read more …

“They have gradually shed metaphysical ties, with God, country and family..”

• Olympics Opening Ceremony Shows ‘Absence of Public Morality’ – Orban (Sp.)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban described the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as “the weakness and disintegration of the West”, La Depeche reported. The politician believes that the event that sparked a fierce public backlash was the embodiment of the Western void. “They have gradually shed metaphysical ties, with God, country and family,” Orban said, adding that it has led to “the absence of public morality, as you could see if you watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics yesterday.” Orban also pointed out that the collective West denies the existence of nation states, resulting in the absence of a common culture and a common morality based on it. “Western values, long considered universal, are increasingly considered unacceptable and rejected by many countries in the world,” he concluded.

Read more …

Never again.

• French Bishops Condemn Olympic ‘Mockery of Christianity’ (RT)

The Bishops’ Conference of France has denounced the organizers of the Olympic Games over an LGBTQ-themed parody of the Last Supper during the event’s opening ceremony. The organizers have claimed that the performance reflected their “values and principles.” The ceremony, which took place in central Paris on Friday night, concluded with a troupe of drag queens, homosexuals, and transsexuals posing at a table, as Jesus Christ and his apostles appeared in Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’. A giant serving dish was then wheeled out in front of the table, from which emerged a mostly naked man made up to resemble Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and festivity. Throughout the performance, a male dancer’s exposed testicles could be seen behind the table. “This ceremony unfortunately included scenes in which Christianity was mocked and ridiculed, which we deeply regret,” the Bishops’ Conference said in a statement on Saturday.

“We thank the members of other religious denominations who have expressed their solidarity with us,” the statement continued. “This morning we think of all Christians on all continents who have been hurt by the exaggeration and provocation of some scenes.” The ceremony was condemned by Christians and conservatives around the world. Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota called the performance a “gross mockery of the Last Supper,” while Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini declared that “opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians across the world was a really bad start” for France. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk described the spectacle as “extremely disrespectful to Christians,” while tech entrepreneur Dr. Eli David wrote that “even as a Jew,” he was “infuriated by this outrageous insult to Jesus and Christianity.”

Olympic organizers have defended the opening show. “We imagined a ceremony to show our values and our principles so we gave a very committed message,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet told reporters on Saturday. “The idea was to really trigger a reflection. We wanted to have a message as strong as possible.” “Our idea was inclusion,” added Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s artistic director. “We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everybody.”

Read more …

“German readers want to read the book, which Ullstein acknowledged is one of the most influential works of this generation..”

• German Publisher Stops All Printing of JD Vance’s Book Hillbilly Elegy (Turley)

JD Vance is a marked man. After accepting the nomination for vice president, Vance has been the subject of endless media attacks. Recently, Vice President Kamala Harris even questioned his “loyalty” to the country despite his serving as a Marine in the Iraq War. Yet, one of the most chilling attacks came from Germany where the publishing house Ullstein Buchverlage has stopped printing the sold-out German translation of Hillbilly Elegy, his 2016 autobiography. As we have discussed previously in this country, it is the modern left’s equivalent of book burning. After all, why burn books when you can simply prevent their being printed under blacklisting campaigns? In this country, we have seen the left successfully force book bans for writers and even justices who espouse opposing viewpoints. We have seen actual calls for book burning recently (here and here).

Ullstein is facing a high demand for Vance’s best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy, but has refused to print more copies due to his political viewpoints (unrelated to the book). First published in 2016 and made into a movie in 2020, the book returned to the top position on The New York Times‘ bestseller list after Trump chose Vance as his running mate. HarperCollins is rushing to print more books to meet the demand. Some in the United States are already balking at the selling of any book by Vance. Seven Stories Press wrote, “Seven Stories Press is extremely thrilled to have never published JD Vance.” Ullstein published the German translation of Hillbilly Elegy in 2017 and held the rights to reprints. The company cited Vance’s allegiance with Trump and his politics as the reason in a statement to German media:

“At the time of its publication, the book made a valuable contribution to understanding the drifting apart of US society…In the meantime, he is officially acting alongside him and advocating an aggressively demagogic, exclusionary policy.” German author Gerd Buurmann posted a mocking response that we should be happy that Ullstein had just thrown Vance’s book out of its catalogue and not into the fire – a reference to the notorious Nazi book burnings of the 1930s. Other Germans have raised the same objections and referenced the painful history of book bans and burnings in Germany under the Nazis. German readers want to read the book, which Ullstein acknowledged is one of the most influential works of this generation. However, because the company disagrees with his political viewpoints, it moved to block others from reading the book.

We have seen similar campaigns leading to the banning or burning of books by figures like JK Rowling because of her opposition to some transgender policies. The left now protests any programs on Rowling’s work and opposes the selling of her enormously popular Harry Potter series or even video games based on the series. When authors have defended her right to be published, they have also been subjected to cancel campaigns. Yet, Ullstein’s decision is particularly chilling as a publishing house. Again, we have seen editors at publishing houses sign petitions to bar books by conservative figures like Justice Amy Coney Barrett from being published.

In 1933, thousands of books by Jewish and leftist writers were burned throughout Germany. Publishing houses further banned the printing of these books. The books were announced as corrupting the minds of German citizens. Many books were banned or burned on the basis of the authors being Jewish or known socialists or anarchists. Now the left has developed a taste for censorship and blacklisting. Editors and publishing houses are blacklisting those with conservative or libertarian views as forms of dangerous viewpoints or disinformation. Ullstein will, of course, not stop people from reading the work of JD Vance. While it may make it more difficult for Germans to find copies, ideas like water have a way of finding their way out. Blacklisting and censorship have not succeeded in killing a single idea. What it does is reveal the true character and values of those who want to prevent others from hearing opposing viewpoints.

Read more …

He looks alone for now.

• Erdogan Says Turkiye Could ‘Enter’ Israel To Help Gazans (Sp.)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkiye could “enter” Israel just as it once did in Libya and Karabakh. Speaking at a meeting of the ruling party branch in the president’s native province of Rize, Erdogan noted the success of the country’s defense industry, but urged not to be deceived by them. According to the president, if the successes had been even greater, Israel “would not have done to Palestine what it did.” “We must be strong. As we entered Karabakh, as we entered Libya, so we will do to them [Israel]. There is nothing we cannot do. We must be strong to take such steps,” Erdogan said in a speech broadcast by the national television. Erdogan also once again recalled the refusal of the leader of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to speak in the Turkish parliament. Earlier, the Turkish president urged Abbas to apologize.

The Turkish parliament approved the extension of the mandate for the deployment of the Turkish military contingent in Libya for two years from January 2024. Turkiye supported Azerbaijan during the Second Karabakh War in the fall of 2020, and Turkish drones actively participated in the operations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in the US Congress on Wednesday, sparking protests by anti-war activists at the Capitol. Turkish politicians, including Erdogan, harshly criticized the speech of “war criminal” Netanyahu in the Congress and those senators who gave him a standing ovation. On October 7, 2023, Israel was subjected to an unprecedented rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. After that, fighters of Palestinian movement Hamas penetrated the border areas, opened fire on the military and civilians, and took more than 200 hostages.

According to the authorities, about 1,200 people were killed. The Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords in the Gaza Strip, which included strikes on civilian targets. Israel announced a complete blockade of the enclave: supplies of water, electricity, fuel, food and medicine were stopped. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the death toll from Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7 has exceeded 39,000, with more than 89,800 people injured. The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the parties to cease hostilities. According to Moscow’s position, a settlement is only possible on the basis of the UN Security Council-approved formula with the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.

Read more …

Sounds like a personal threat.

• Erdogan ‘Going Down The Path of Saddam Hussein’ – Israeli FM (RT)

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has warned that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could end up like the toppled and executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if he attempts to intervene in the Gaza war. Erdogan traded threats with Israeli officials on Sunday amid the IDF’s operation against Hamas in Gaza, as well as the rapidly escalating tensions between Israel and the Lebanese-based armed group Hezbollah. Speaking at a rally in his hometown of Rize, Erdogan suggested that Türkiye could “enter” Israel in order to help the Palestinians. “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,” Erdogan said. In the past he has condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany – and likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

Katz responded with a warning of his own on X (formerly Twitter). “Erdogan is going down the path of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel,” he wrote, adding that the Turkish leader “should just remember what happened there and how that ended.” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also blasted Erdogan, calling him a “danger to the Middle East” and a “wannabe dictator.” “The world, and especially NATO members, must strongly condemn his outrageous threats against Israel and force him to end his support for Hamas,” Lapid wrote on X. Saddam Hussein was overthrown during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. He went into hiding, but was eventually caught by US troops, convicted by an Iraqi court of crimes against humanity, and executed by hanging in 2006.

The US under President George W. Bush claimed at the time that the Iraqi leader had connections to Al-Qaeda – a group behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks – and had weapons of mass destruction. Both claims later turned out to be false, but Washington used them as rationale for attacking Iraq, despite having failed to secure the approval of the UN Security Council.

Read more …

“Iran has warned that Israel would face an “obliterating war” in case of a “full-scale military aggression” against Lebanon..”

• Netanyahu Granted Powers To Devise Retaliation Against Hezbollah (RT)

Israel’s security cabinet has authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to determine the scope of a potential military operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. During the meeting on Sunday evening, the cabinet agreed to let Netanyahu and Gallant “decide on the manner and timing of the response” to Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks. Tensions flared up on Saturday after a rocket hit a football pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing 12 children. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) blamed Hezbollah for the strike and later showed photos of shrapnel that it said matched an Iranian-made Falaq-1 rocket, which is used by the pro-Palestinian militant group. According to the IDF, the rocket was launched from the Chebaa area in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah, however, denied any involvement in the strike on Majdal Shams. The group has been firing rockets and mortar shells at Israeli positions after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7. The IDF carried out further airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Sunday. However, there is an expectation of a stronger response from Israel, including a potential ground invasion, given the warnings made by leading politicians over the weekend, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz saying that Hezbollah has “crossed all red lines.” Iran has warned that Israel would face an “obliterating war” in case of a “full-scale military aggression” against Lebanon. The US, meanwhile, has backed Israel and condemned Hezbollah. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said through her national security adviser that her “support for Israel is ironclad.”

Read more …

“..Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi vowed that Yemen’s response was “inevitable.”

• Houthis Announce ‘New Stage’ of Conflict With Israel, Urge Arabs to Unite (Sp.)

Yemen is entering a “new stage” of its war with Israel, and is asking Arab and Muslim countries to unite to help wage it, Houthi political bureau member Ali al-Qahoum has told Sputnik. “Yemen and its leader are entering a new stage of conflict, new alliances are being created that do not have red lines,” Al-Qahoum said. “As long as Israel exists, there will be no peace – this is an existential battle. It is time to unite Arabs and Muslims, use their opportunities and stand together in this battle to preserve the identity of Islam and Arabism in the face of the challenges, dangers and projects of the Great Satan represented by America and Israel,” the official said, using the derogatory epithet originating from the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and typically referring to the United States. Al-Qahoum’s language signals a marked escalation in the militia’s position, which at the beginning of its Red Sea semi-blockade and missile attacks on Israel last October and November was aimed at “standing in solidarity” with Palestinians with a view to stopping the now more than nine-month old war in Gaza.

The Houthi political bureau member has not shied away from using increasingly sharp rhetoric in interviews in recent months, warning Washington in January that Yemen would become America’s “graveyard” and that the US would be forced to “leave the region in humiliation” after the US and British navies launched a campaign of air and missile strikes inside Yemen. In March, al-Qahoum said the Houthis were “cooperating” with the rising powers in the world to “drown America and the West in the mire around the Red Sea, to get them bogged down, weaken[ed] and unable to maintain unipolarity.” Tensions between the Houthis and Israel escalated dramatically over the past week after the militia flew a long-range airplane-style combat drone into Tel Aviv on July 19, evading Israel’s powerful air defenses in an incident the IDF attributed to “human error.” One person was killed in the attack, and seven were injured.

Israel reacted by launching F-35I jets to target the western Yemeni Red Sea port city of al-Hudaydah on July 20, targeting the port’s oil facilities and a power plant. The attacks were meant to make “it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of Israel will not reach,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. At least nine people were killed and 87 others injured in the Israeli attack, according to local authorities. The Houthis have vowed to respond to the tit-for-tat escalation, with Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam, saying last week that Israel’s “brutal aggression will only increase the determination and steadfastness of the Yemeni people and their brave armed forces, continuing and escalating their support for Gaza.” In a televised speech on Thursday, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi vowed that Yemen’s response was “inevitable.”

Read more …

“..2.5 billion T-Rex once lived on Earth. But just 32 adult fossils have ever been found..”

• T-Rex May Have Been 70% Bigger Than Previously Believed (Sp.)

According to a new study, the king of dinosaurs may have been 70% heavier and 25% longer than previously thought. Paleontologists from the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Ontario, said the carnivorous T-Rex could have weighed up to 33,000 pounds (15,000 kilograms), which would make it 35% heavier than an average school bus. In an effort to determine how big the dinosaur could get, scientists first examined the fossil record, which shows that a total of about 2.5 billion T-Rex once lived on Earth. But just 32 adult fossils have ever been found. The largest T-Rex on record is a specimen named “Scotty”, which weighed an estimated 19,555 lbs (8,870 kg) when it was alive.

But the largest T-Rex “would have been about 70% bigger” than Scotty, said study co-author Jordan Mallon, a research scientist and head of palaeobiology at the Canadian Museum of Nature. “Our study suggests that, for big fossil animals like T-Rex, we really have no idea from the fossil record about the absolute sizes they might have reached,” said Mallon, whose team also took into consideration other factors including population size, growth rate, lifespan, and the incomplete nature of the fossil record. “It’s fun to think about a 15 tonne T-Rex, but the implications are also interesting from a bio-mechanical or ecological perspective,” he said.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

High Jump

 

 

Turnings

 

 

Dog n puppy

 

 

Smile
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817551970716033046

 

 

Pet dad

 

 

Clingy

 

 

Water

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 28 2024

Jul 282024
 
 July 28, 2024  Posted by at 8:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh The yellow house (The Street), Arles 1888

• USA As I Knew It Has Passed Into The Trash Bin Of History (Paul Craig Roberts)
• ‘Democracy’ Saved (Manley)
• Obama Threatened Biden with 25th Amendment – Seymour Hersh (Sp.)
• Trump: Biden Was Ousted In A “Fascist Coup” (MN)
• Harris Win Will Lead To WW3 – Trump (RT)
• ‘Queen Kamala,’ Election Cheating & Money Grab (Sp.)
• Trump To Return To Scene Of Shooting, Hold Rally (RT)
• Manhattan DA Argues Trump Case Not Affected By SCOTUS Immunity Ruling (ZH)
• US Treasury Should Buy, Hold Bitcoin as Strategic Asset – RFK Jr (Sp.)
• Trump Promises To Make USA The “Bitcoin Super-Power Of The World” (ZH)
• ‘Bitcoin Fort Knox’ (ZH)
• Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump and Bitcoin (ZH)
• Europe’s Path to War and Self-Destruction (Scheidler)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puppet
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816974609637417112

 

 

5 Joe Bidens

 

 

RFK jr
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817266039937548313

 

 

Trump ad 2016
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816979043977482461

 

 

 

 

“Men’s testosterone levels have dropped so much that you can’t even get into a fight in a redneck bar..”

• USA As I Knew It Has Passed Into The Trash Bin Of History (Paul Craig Roberts)

Kamala Harris says she has raised $230,000,000 in campaign funds from rich American liberals. Why are rich American liberals so determined to have Kamala as President of the United States? One reason could be because she, unlike Trump, is easily controlled, so the explanation is the rich are electing their own self-interests. But are they? The Democrats’ have two agendas: One is to normalize and legitimize sexual perversity. The other is open borders. To put it in different words, the Democrats are devoted to transforming traditional America into a Sodom & Gomorrah Tower of Babel. Does this serve rich liberals’ interests beyond providing them with a servant class? The main benefactors are sexual perverts and immigrant-invaders. Do rich liberals prefer their genes not to be passed on because their transgendered kids are unable to procreate and are made infertile by Covid vaccines and a variety of testosterone-inhibitors that leave even young men unable to have a natural erection?

Their politics suggest that the interests of the rich liberals diverge from their heirs, the future of their country, and their self-respect. Everything with which the rich liberals are involved–Diversity, equity, and inclusion, global warming, globalism, the WEA’s Great Reset–undermines their commitment to their country. Rich liberals see America as a resource to be used in behalf of “larger agendas.” So where does America’s leadership class come from?It comes from the Jews. The Secretary of the Treasury is a Jew. The Secretary of State is a Jew. The Secretary of Homeland Security is a Jew. Finance, media, Hollywood and entertainment are in the hands of Jews. As Netanyahu told Congress yesterday, every Jew is a Zionist, a defender of Israel. And every American who is not a defender of Israel is an anti-semite. John V. Whitbeck describes the total humiliation of “Proud America” on its knees kissing Netanyahu’s feet. A totally conquered country whose obeisance is shown with 58 standing ovations.

In America today the remaining patriots are “Trump deplorables.” They are despised by the elite and the left-wing and regarded as white supremacists, threats to democracy, and insurrectionists. The FBI puts their names on watch lists and brings false charges against those who attended the January 6 Trump rally. The Democrats having moved Biden out of the picture are set to steal the November election. Democrats in the swing states have legalized and institutionalized the theft mechanisms they used to steal the 2020 and 2022 national elections. For example, the Democrat state Supreme Court in Wisconsin overturned the ban on drop boxes, thus making it possible for invalid ballots to become part of the vote count. A large number of such practices that enable electoral fraud are now legal in the swing states. Democrats could not steal the election with Biden as candidate as no one would believe he won. Biden was moved out of the way. Now polls are being rigged showing Kamala leading Trump by 3 points. The rigged polls create public believability of a Kamala win.

If the Democrats did not intend to steal the election, they would not have legalized the theft mechanisms in the swing states. The public accepted the last two stolen national elections and will accept a third. A people this insouciant have no chance of preserving their liberty and the accountability of government. Considering American insouciance, one wonders if the voting public and the Republican Party realize that if the Democrats take the election with so much going for Trump, the result will be to solidify the Uni-Party. The Republican establishment will conclude that the only way the party can compete with Democrats is to better represent the interests of the ruling elite. Henceforth there would be no more Trumps. “Representative Democracy” would only represent the ruling elite. If Trump is elected despite the Democrats’ intent to steal the election, what can he do? Can he find people willing to accept the risks of helping him to reconstruct America? Can such people get confirmed in office by the Senate?

Can Trump survive another four years of media, FBI, CIA attacks, and can his appointees? Can Trump survive assassination? Most certainly Trump cannot rely on Secret Service protection. It is clear that America is split more decisively than it was by tariffs that led to the so-called “Civil War.” All relations in American society have been damaged by the liberal-left. Feminism has made women unsupportive and even hostile to men. Consequently, men cannot trust women. Families, the basis of society, are weakened. Men’s testosterone levels have dropped so much that you can’t even get into a fight in a redneck bar. The Republicans point to Kamala’s warchest provided by rich American liberals and ask their working class supporters to help fund Trump’s election. The mismatch of resources between Democrat billionaires and Republican working class “deplorables” is extraordinary. But note that for both parties the election is a matter of who has the most money. This is the sign of a country that is finished, over and done with.

Read more …

“She’s already rallying all the potential candidates behind her,” the source said. “You’re going to see everyone fall into place.”

• ‘Democracy’ Saved (Manley)

This weekend, US President Joe Biden formally bowed out of the 2024 US presidential race. The development came after months of assertions Biden would continue on as the Democratic Party nominee. Biden endorsed his vice president, former Senator Kamala Harris, to take his place and his campaign funds are reportedly being transferred to her nascent campaign. Harris accepted, and announced she will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination. “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead,” Harris said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”

Biden moved to transfer his campaign’s financial war chest to Harris, which former President Trump’s campaign has challenged by filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. The campaign’s general counsel David Warrington argued that transferring the funds is little more than a “thinly veiled $91.5 million excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another.” Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA, told CNN he doesn’t think “most campaign finance lawyers believe that this is a best reading of the law,” but said the move could be tied up in FEC proceedings for years and won’t be resolved before the election. According to campaign experts who spoke to the website Verify, Harris is allowed to use the campaign funds because she and Biden shared the same campaign account, which has ballooned to $91 million. The FEC has “long permitted candidates for president and vice president to share a campaign account,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program.

Democrats reportedly plan to hold a virtual roll call vote to confirm their nominee in the first week of August, although the Democratic National Convention will not begin until August 19. Only 300 signatures will be required to qualify for a virtual ballot and an AP survey found Harris has the backing of more than 1,900 delegates as of Monday night. Although Harris is not yet the party’s official nominee, many Democratic lawmakers and elites have endorsed her candidacy and a majority of delegates to the party’s convention have said they will back her. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who many expected to take Biden’s place, quickly endorsed Harris on X, claiming no one is “better to prosecute the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision” than Harris. A source from Harris’ campaign said she is working hard to win support from any challengers. “She’s already rallying all the potential candidates behind her,” the source said. “You’re going to see everyone fall into place.”

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has also been viewed as a possible Democratic contender for the White House, shrugged off Republican criticism that Harris’ rise to the top of the ticket is undemocratic. The Michigan governor joined other Democratic Party leaders in throwing her support behind Harris. “It’s hard to take the Republican criticism seriously because one day it’s, ‘Joe Biden shouldn’t be running’ and the next day it’s, ‘well, he should be running,’” she said Thursday. “Give me a break.” “I think it’s the right decision and that’s why we have a vice president,” Whitmer argued. “Kamala Harris has been his No. 2 for four years. No one should be surprised that if he steps away that she’s the one to step into the breach.”

Read more …

“..by the time Obama called Biden, it was already clear Harris would receive Democratic leaders’ approval to run as the party’s candidate..”

• Obama Threatened Biden with 25th Amendment – Seymour Hersh (Sp.)

Former President Barack Obama threatened Joe Biden with removal from office under the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution if he did not withdraw from the presidential race, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed. Obama told Biden he had gotten the approval of Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the safeguard against presidential incapacity, Hersh wrote in a blog post on Substack. The journalist noted that, in accordance with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the US president may be removed from power in the event they are judged to no longer be able to carry out their duties, with the vice president stepping into the role.

Hersh claimed that by the time Obama called Biden, it was already clear Harris would receive Democratic leaders’ approval to run as the party’s candidate. Obama’s call to Biden came amid discontent among Democratic Party donors, who threatened to withhold funding over concerns about Biden’s health. The US presidential election will take place November 5. It was assumed Biden would again appear on the ballot, but figures within the party began to express concern after a widely-panned debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June. Biden announced his intention to drop out of the race July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee.

Read more …

“..You can’t beat him. Get out. Get out. We want you out…We want you out of the race. You’re going to lose. We want to put somebody else in.’”

• Trump: Biden Was Ousted In A “Fascist Coup” (MN)

During an address to the Turning Point Summit on Friday, President Trump asserted that Joe Biden was forced to quit the presidential race by “fascists” who carried out a “coup.” Trump told the Florida crowd “As you know, five days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of the United States, Crooked Joe Biden. You know, I thought a lot about it. We defeated him.” Trump continued, “He was badly beaten. And, you know, everybody who was going to him said, ‘You can’t beat him. You’re not going to beat this guy. You can’t beat him. Get out. Get out. We want you out…We want you out of the race. You’re going to lose. We want to put somebody else in.’” Trump compared the situation to “a prizefighter,” explaining “He’s losing badly, ready to be knocked out. And they say, well, wait, let’s stop the fight. Let’s put somebody else in.”

“It doesn’t work that way. And it’s not supposed to work that way. And this really was a coup by the Democrats. This was a coup. Nothing else,” Trump emphasised. “He got 14 million votes,” Trump noted, referring to the Democratic primary, adding “I hate to stick up for Biden, but, you know, he didn’t want to do what he did. He said, ‘I’ll never go out. I’ll never, ever go out.’ About two days later, ‘I’m proud to go out.’” Trump further declared “the fascists went after him. They threatened him with the 25th Amendment.” “They said, we can do it the nice way or we can do it the hard way, Joe. That’s what happened. I know,” Trump added, referring to reports of what Nancy Pelosi said to Biden. Trump continued, “I know as many people on that side as I know on our side, so to speak. But that’s what happened. They said, we can do it the hard way. We can do it the easy way. 25th Amendment, if you don’t go. And he said, ‘Oh, I’ll go.’”

“And now they’re trying to make him into a brave hero. He’s so brave,” Trump concluded. Elsewhere during the speech, Trump highlighted how some leftists are saying it is ‘hateful’ to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name incorrectly. Trump proclaimed “there are numerous ways of saying her name. They were explaining to me, you can say Kamala, you can say Kamala. I said, don’t worry about it.” “It doesn’t matter what I say. I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it or not. I couldn’t care less,” he urged. “Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose, but actually I’ve heard it said about seven different ways. There are a lot of ways. There are a lot of ways,” Trump told the audience.

Read more …

Or will blind support of Netanyahu lead to WWIII?

• Harris Win Will Lead To WW3 – Trump (RT)

Should Kamala Harris win the US presidential election, “major wars” in the Middle East and “maybe a third world war” will break out, former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump has claimed. Trump has repeatedly accused Harris and President Joe Biden of dragging the US toward a global conflict. Speaking ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, Trump vowed that the Israel/Hamas war would “work out and very quickly” if he were to return to the White House.“If we don’t, you’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East,” he continued. “And maybe a third world war. You are closer to a third world war right now than at any time since the Second World War. We’ve never been so close because we have incompetent people running the country.” Trump has leveled similar accusations at Biden and Harris since the Ukraine conflict began in 2022.

The former president has claimed that the conflict never would have started if he were in power, and promised to bring Moscow and Kiev to the negotiating table “in 24 hours” if elected in November. Netanyahu met with Trump at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, a day after meeting both Biden and Harris in Washington. Speaking to reporters after her face-to-face with the Israeli prime minister, Harris said that she “expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” Harris’ comments reportedly angered Netanyahu, with an aide to the Israeli leader telling Axios that the vice president was far less critical during the meeting. Trump was a staunch ally of Netanyahu during his time in the White House, imposing sanctions on Iran at Netanyahu’s request, moving the US Embassy in Israel to West Jerusalem, and brokering the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalize relations with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan.

However, this relationship soured after Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his electoral victory over Trump in 2020. “I haven’t spoken to [Netanyahu] since,” Trump told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid later that year. “F**k him.” Before Trump and Netanyahu embraced on the steps of Mar-a-Lago on Friday, Trump told Fox News that Israel must end its war in Gaza “fast,” as “they are getting decimated with this publicity, and you know Israel is not very good at public relations.” Earlier this week, the former president took to his Truth Social platform to share a letter he received from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who wished Trump “strength and safety” after the attempt on his life earlier this month. “Thank you. Everything will be good,” Trump replied to Abbas. Trump’s sharing of the letter was seen by some pundits as a move to gain leverage over Netanyahu.

Read more …

“..the Democracy Institute, an independent American pollster, found that Trump would secure 48 percent of the popular vote versus Harris, who enjoys 40 percent support.”

• ‘Queen Kamala,’ Election Cheating & Money Grab (Sp.)

Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama backed Harris after a conspicuous pause that had prompted speculation about an internal power struggle within the Democratic Party. The New York Post on July 25 quoted a source close to the Biden family as saying that Barack Obama doesn’t think Kamala can win. “The Obamas likely received substantial assurances from Harris that, in the event of victory, Barack would play important roles guiding and selecting key players in the federal government,” Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik. “In the event of a Trump victory, the Obamas may have bargained for blanket pardons especially concerning ‘organization’ and ‘operation’ of several tax-exempt entities. In exchange, the Obamas will bring money and voters, though I fail to see them closing Kamala’s yawning enthusiasm gap. In fact, whenever and should Kamala appear with either Obama, she will come off weaker and inauthentic by comparison,” he continued.

Prior to Obama’s belated endorsement of Harris, some US political commentators and lawmakers suggested that the real game behind Barack’s hesitation could be aimed at igniting a “Draft Michelle Obama” movement into the forthcoming Democrat convention. With a strong vice presidential pick, Michelle could have higher odds of defeating the Republican contenders than Harris, Ortel presumed. He believes “Obama certainly understands that Harris is an insincere, incompetent manager and unsympathetic contender.” While the corporate press is now insisting that Kamala Harris is narrowing the gap with Trump, her victory is not a done deal. The latest New York Times/Siena College and Wall Street Journal polls claim that after Joe Biden stepped aside, Harris almost erased Trump’s lead. However, the Democracy Institute, an independent American pollster, found that Trump would secure 48 percent of the popular vote versus Harris, who enjoys 40 percent support.

[..] Biden’s campaign had spent $243 million through the end of June, according to FEC records, and continued to do so even after some liberal donors refused to continue funding in the wake of Joe’s deplorable performance in his debate against Trump. The setback did not stop Biden’s team from buying a whopping $35 million in ad time in July, according to Bloomberg. “National campaigns burn through enormous sums especially on advertising,” Ortel said. “Media corporations are key beneficiaries of this spending, so it seems that editors and ‘journalists’ are not driven to identify and explain such obvious conflicts of interest. Another factor is that very few candidates spend much of their own money on campaigns. So, the temptation to live large on the campaign trail (flying private and the like) is overwhelming.”

It appears that ailing Biden’s campaign was used by some as a source of financial bonanza, according to the analyst. What’s more, a large and fair question is when the Cabinet and White House staff first began to suspect Biden was suffering from diminished mental capacity, according to Ortel. “Who decided to shade the truth about Biden and then to treat him as a figurehead and who, actually, makes key decisions in the Biden administration?” the analyst asked. The Democracy Institute’s survey shows that 62 percent of American voters believe Harris knew about Joe Biden’s declining health for some time, but chose to cover it up, while only 31 percent believe she did not.

Read more …

“..Trump said that he will “continue to do outdoor rallies,” and claimed that the Secret Service had “agreed to substantially step up their operation.”

• Trump To Return To Scene Of Shooting, Hold Rally (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has announced that he will hold a “big and beautiful rally” in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was wounded in an assassination attempt earlier this month. Trump narrowly avoided death at a rally in Butler on July 13, when a would-be assassin’s bullet clipped his ear as it streaked past his head. Firing from a rooftop that the US Secret Service had inexplicably left unsecured, the 20-year-old gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. The rally ended with cheers and chants of “USA” as Trump rose from behind his lectern and pumped his fist in the air, before he was led to safety by his security detail.

“I will be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero, Corey, and those brave patriots injured two weeks ago,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday. Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former firefighter, was fatally shot in the head during the attempted assassination. “What a day it will be – fight, fight, fight!” Trump continued, using the phrase he mouthed to supporters as he climbed to his feet after the shooting. “Stay tuned for details.” Trump did not reveal a date or location for the rally. The July 13 rally was held at the Butler Farm Show, a fairground near the city’s regional airport.

Following the shooting, Secret Service officials cautioned Trump against holding large-scale outdoor rallies, the Washington Post reported earlier this week. According to a separate report in the New York Times, the agency refused repeated requests from the Trump campaign to provide extra resources at these large events. In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said that he will “continue to do outdoor rallies,” and claimed that the Secret Service had “agreed to substantially step up their operation.” “No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering,” the former president concluded.

Read more …

I really had to think, too many cases, but this is the Stormy Daniels case. 2006. I still prefer the idea that it was Michael Cohen who was boinking Stormy, and paying her for it with Trump’s money.

• Manhattan DA Argues Trump Case Not Affected By SCOTUS Immunity Ruling (ZH)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has argued in a new court filing that former President Trump’s criminal case and guilty verdict are not affected by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. “That decision has no bearing on this prosecution and would not support vacatur of the jury’s unanimous verdict (let alone dismissal of the indictment) even if its reasoning did apply here,” reads a July 24 brief from Bragg’s team. Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for core constitutional conduct, presumptive immunity for official acts, but no immunity for unofficial acts – which Bragg has seized on in his response to a Trump filing asking New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to toss Trump’s indictment, arguing that communications between Trump and his aides have been used as evidence before the grand jury which indicted Trump and a jury which returned a guilty verdict.

According to Bragg’s team, all of the criminal charges in Trump’s ‘hush money’ case “stem from the defendant’s ‘unofficial acts’ – conduct for which ‘there is no immunity.'” As the Epoch Times notes further, the affected evidence is only a “sliver” if the “mountains of testimony and documentary proof that the jury considered,” therefore not warranting dismissal. Prosecutors had relied on testimony of White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and Oval Office Director of Operations Madeleine Westerhout to establish that President Trump had signed Trump Organization checks at the White House. Defense attorneys had raised presidential immunity objections to Ms. Hicks’s testimony, and Justice Merchan had overruled the objections. The defense had also objected during Ms. Westerhout’s testimony, but not specifically citing presidential immunity.

Prosecutors had also shown several social media posts made by President Trump during his time in office, some directly addressing allegations after his former attorney Michael Cohen was charged for financial crimes. Defense attorneys had objected to the admission of these quotes, but not on the basis of presidential immunity. Prosecutors argue defendants failed to preserve a record of objections based on immunity for official acts, and this “precludes this Court from considering any claim to vacate his conviction.” Prior to the trial, attorneys for President Trump did file a presidential immunity motion. Justice Merchan had dismissed the motion, ruling that defense attorneys could make individual objections against the admission of specific evidence during the trial and that he did not believe the motion was filed in good faith.

The judge had faulted defendants for not raising presidential immunity earlier, including during an attempt to remove the case to federal court. Prosecutors now argue that the defense “waived reliance on presidential immunity as a defense” when they tried to remove the case to federal court. They cited a separate, civil case against former President Trump in which a federal judge had ruled that presidential immunity was a waivable defense. However, the U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion held presidential immunity to be necessary to the core principle of separation of powers. Former President Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, and prosecutors argued that even excluding the contested evidence, the grand jury evidence establishes these charges.

The 34 records are 11 checks to Mr. Cohen and their corresponding invoices and vouchers, including one repeated record after the initial one was lost. Prosecutors argue that the grand jury record establishes that these are business records, that they contain false entries, that former President Trump caused or made the entries, and that he “acted with intent to defraud.” “Even excluding all of the evidence defendant belatedly identifies as immune, the grand jury record is easily sufficient to support the indictment,” the brief reads. Justice Merchan has scheduled former President Trump’s sentencing in the case to Sept. 18. The judge is expected to issue a ruling on the presidential immunity arguments by then.

Read more …

Lots of bitcoin today. Things are shifting in a big way. First, RFK Jr:

• US Treasury Should Buy, Hold Bitcoin as Strategic Asset – RFK Jr (Sp.)

Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would make all US-held Bitcoin a strategic asset if elected, a Sputnik correspondent reports. “I intend as the President of the United States to sign an executive order on day one directing the Department of Justice and the US Marshals to transfer approximately 200,000 Bitcoin held by the US government to the United States Treasury … for the strategic assets,” Kennedy said speaking at the main stage of the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville Friday.

Kennedy added he would issue a second executive order instructing “the US Treasury to purchase 550 Bitcoin daily until the US holds in reserves of at least 4 million Bitcoins.” The candidate expressed support for Former President Donald Trump’s proposal to hold a portion of the United States’ reserves in Bitcoin and said he hopes Trump’s interest in the currency extends beyond politics. Trump is set to address the conference Saturday. Bitcoin’s price increased to nearly $68,000 Friday morning in anticipation of Trump’s speech.

Read more …

Then, a very long piece by Tyler et al, which they kept adding to while I was already formatting it for TAE. Ergo, cut into 3 pieces.

I’m still wondering to what extent Trump understands Bitcoin.

• Trump Promises To Make USA The “Bitcoin Super-Power Of The World” (ZH)

In a spirited keynote address, Former President Trump promised to make USA the “bitcoin super-power of the world,” ensuring that cryptocurrency is “mined, minted, and made in the USA.” “We have to talk about Bitcoin. Our country is blessed with the extraordinary talent and genius in this room. This spirit built America and will help us make it great again. I admire what the Bitcoin community has achieved. In just 15 years, Bitcoin has gone from an idea to the 9th most valuable asset in the world. It’s already bigger than ExxonMobil and soon it will surpass the market cap of silver. That’s a big deal.” He went on with some big promises: “I pledge the day I take office the weaponization against Bitcoin ends.” “On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and appoint a new SEC Chairman.” “I will immediately shutdown Operation Chokepoint 2.0”.

Trump also confirmed that he will appoint a crypto advisory council with “regulations written by industry-loving people within 100 days.” Trump also confirmed that “there will never be a CBDC” while he is president. “Those who say that bitcoin is a threat to the dollar have it exactly backwards, the danger to our financial future comes from Washington DC not crypto.” Additionally, the former president pointing out that “Bitcoiners understand inflation better than anyone. You all understood it first.” Promising to ‘drill, baby, drill’, Trump notes that with low energy costs the USA will become the undisputed bitcoin mining center of the world. Finally, Trump dropped the big guns: “The policy of the Trump administration will be to keep 100% of all that it currently holds as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” and confirmed his promise to commute the sentence of Russ Ulbricht to time-served.

Read more …

Trump could have been woken up by this from RFK Jr: “..[the US] Bitcoin reserve would eventually reach a value of “hundreds of trillions of dollars..”

• ‘Bitcoin Fort Knox’ (ZH)

Who could have seen this coming?

In the sixteen months since, we have seen a seismic shift in attitudes towards crypto from both Independents and Republicans; while Democrats continue to demonize the sovereign currency. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the role Bitcoin could play in improving the US economy and the American way of life as he spoke to an audience at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 26. He promised to sign a number of executive orders on his first day in office to begin the process. Kennedy would sign an order requiring the US Justice Department and US Marshalls to transfer the 204,000 Bitcoin held by the US to the Federal Reserve to be held as a “strategic asset,” he said. Furthermore, Kennedy said he would also order the Treasury Department to purchase 500 Bitcoin daily until the reserve reaches at least four million BTC. The United States would attain “a position of dominance no other country will be able to usurp” and its Bitcoin reserve would eventually reach a value of “hundreds of trillions of dollars,” he promised.

In addition, CoinTelegraph’s Derek Andersen reports that Kennedy would order the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat all transactions between Bitcoin and the US dollar as nonreportable and nontaxable. He would also order the IRS to treat Bitcoin as eligible for exchange into real property under the 1031 Exchange program, which provides incentives for real estate investment. “Transactional freedom [is] as important as freedom of expression in the 1st Amendment,” Kennedy said, and Bitcoin can provide that freedom and help restore the United States economy to its condition before President Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard to fund the Vietnam war. Kennedy added: “Fiat currency was invented to fund war. […] If the world was on a BTC standard, there would be no more war because you can’t print Bitcoin.”

“I understand that tomorrow President Trump may announce his plan to build a Bitcoin Fort Knox and authorize the US government to buy a million Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset,” Kennedy told the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Friday, a day before Trump was scheduled to speak at the same event. “And I applaud that announcement.” However, most notable is the shift seen by former President Trump from his initial comments in 2019.. “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated cryptoassets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

[..] Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee adopted an ambitious platform to promote innovation in the US’ digital assets industry and protect the rights of bitcoin holders. For one, the official platform pledges that the Republicans will “defend the right to mine bitcoin.” This represents a much-needed departure from the policies of the incumbent administration. In February this year, the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued an “emergency” survey to bitcoin mining companies, demanding highly sensitive information such as the specifications of the machines being used, the specific locations of their mining operations, and contractual information relating to their commercial energy partners. The EIA not only demanded all of this information but pledged to publish even the most commercially sensitive bits of it.

This initiative represented an unprecedented intrusion into the activities of Bitcoin miners and a massive assault on the crypto industry. It prompted organizations such as the Texas Blockchain Council to launch legal proceedings to try and protect the rights of the crypto industry against federal outreach. The Republicans’ pledge to “defend the right to mine bitcoin” is therefore very welcome. There are other encouraging pledges that the Republicans have made. The GOP has said they will “ensure every American has the right to self-custody their digital assets and transact free from government surveillance and control.” They have also come out strongly against the idea of a CBDC. “Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” the party has said. Of course, all of this is highly encouraging for digital asset industry advocates. But it still begs the question. What caused President Trump to change his mind and start embracing the massive potential of digital assets and decentralized finance?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1817294609070030945

Read more …

But Vivek will have been Trump’s no. 1 source (get him a big cabinet post). And then came JD Vance.

• Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump and Bitcoin (ZH)

What caused President Trump to change his mind and start embracing the massive potential of digital assets and decentralized finance? How has this pro-digital asset agenda vaulted into the limelight of Presidential politics? If there is one man who has contributed more than anybody else to changing Republicans’ mind on crypto, it is Vivek Ramaswamy. The former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur is clearly having increasing amounts of influence on the GOP inner circle. At the Republican Convention this month, Donald Trump Jr joked that he would like Ramaswamy to be his running mate in 2036. Indeed, ever since his presidential bid last year, it is clear that he has been one of the leading voices at the upper echelons of the Republicans guiding the party in a more pro-crypto direction.

Ramaswamy made waves in GOP circles when, at the North American Blockchain Summit in Texas last year, he released a detailed and comprehensive plan for the US crypto space. What did he pledge to do? Perhaps the most eye-catching measure was his promise to fire most of the employees at the bloated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and order the rest to stop trying to bully the crypto industry. Importantly, Ramaswamy defines many cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as commodities that are therefore not under the jurisdiction of the SEC.

“I think it’s nothing short of embarrassing that Gary Gensler, the current leader of the SEC, in front of Congress could not even say whether Ethereum counted as a regulated security or not,” Ramaswamy said during one of the Republican debates last year. “This is just another example of the administrative state gone too far.” Ramaswamy has been a vocal advocate for innovation in the crypto space and the use of decentralized digital currencies as a tool for financial freedom. He has argued that the right to code should be a right protected by the First Amendment, protecting developers from the overreaches of federal agencies. He has also said that consumers should have a right to possess self-hosted digital wallets beyond the grasp of the government. This has now been explicitly adopted by the Republicans for their 2024 election campaign, showing the practical influence Ramaswamy is having on Republican policy.

[..] arguably the most important impactful of Ramaswamy’s crypto activism is to persuade the broader Republican Party that supporting crypto innovation is in line with their political philosophy and natural instincts. He has powerfully argued that the current federal assault on the crypto industry is “an embodiment of our national decline” in the way it represents an attack on innovation and entrepreneurship, two values the Republicans have always claimed to hold dear. Ramaswamy has similarly noted that Bitcoin mining is “a frontier in American innovation” in the same tradition as American heroes such as Thomas Jefferson – who Ramaswamy thinks “would have been a Bitcoin miner.” This rhetoric seems to have worked in convincing President Trump and Republican leaders that they should indeed be the pro-bitcoin party.

Another key emerging figure in the Republican party who is of a similar mind on digital assets as Vivek is Trump’s recent VP pick, J.D. Vance. Senator Vance is vocal about his support for bitcoin and digital assets and has a background in tech venture capital. He is young and he understands the importance of courting younger votes. So, what will “four more years” of President Trump mean for the US digital asset industry? Let’s end as we started, with another quote from the President – one that shows, thanks to the efforts of Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Vance and others, just how much the Republican stance on crypto has changed over the last few years. “I will end Joe Biden’s war on crypto. We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America.” “If Trump is elected, the U.S. will have to add Bitcoin as a reserve, because it is digital gold,” said Arseniy Grusha, chief executive officer of data-center firm Dataprana, who attended the conference. “The earlier they do that, the better it will be for the United States.”

Read more …

This will be the fall of Europe.

“..with every day that the war rages on, Ukraine’s prospects of maintaining a sovereign and reasonably functional state diminish..”

• Europe’s Path to War and Self-Destruction (Scheidler)

Brussels is working hard to boycott Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s EU Council Presidency. The background: Orbán’s trips to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing, which were aimed at negotiating a ceasefire agreement, are infuriating EU leaders and the governments in Berlin, Paris and other capitals. There is certainly a lot that can be said against the right-wing Hungarian head of state and Trump friend, who is responsible for a whole series of rule of law deficits in his home country. But to accuse him of a diplomatic initiative that other member states have so far been unwilling or unable to take shows how far the EU has moved away from its former claim to be a force for peace. The fact that at the highest level of the Union, the bypassing of essential EU rules such as the rotation of the Council presidency is seriously considered in order to punish Orbán for his travels is a portent for the future of the Union.

It is remarkable that the EU, which could be completely devastated by a possible escalation of the war in Ukraine, is not only doing nothing to avert this danger and stop the killing, but is also undermining the diplomatic attempts of a member state. It has long been known that Ukraine cannot win the war and that it is – at best – a stalemate. This was already clearly stated in November 2022 by the then Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and a year later by the supreme commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zalushnyi. Since then, with every day that the war rages on, Ukraine’s prospects of maintaining a sovereign and reasonably functional state diminish. But the EU does not want to acknowledge this simple reality. As its first official act, the new EU Parliament passed a resolution on July 17 vowing to provide military support to Ukraine until all occupied territories are recaptured, regardless of how long this takes (i.e. how many people die in the process).

You don’t have to be a military expert to understand that the complete reconquest of the Donbass and Crimea is a completely unrealistic perspective, if only because of the massive recruitment problems of the Ukrainian military. However, the resolution goes even further: it “strongly advocates for the removal of restrictions on the use of Western weapons systems delivered to Ukraine against military targets on Russian territory”. The EU Parliament thus explicitly hazards a Europe-wide escalation, including the possibility of nuclear war. It also calls on all member states to permanently provide at least 0.25 of their economic output for the rearmament of Ukraine (in addition to increasing their own military budgets), to train more Ukrainian soldiers and to “boost” their arms industries. Furthermore, the resolution endorses the “irreversible path of Ukraine to NATO membership”, echoing the wording of the earlier NATO summit. It thus closes the door for any settlement based on future Ukrainian neutrality. Diplomatic initiatives are not mentioned at all.

The resolution is testimony to a highly dangerous mixture of escapism from reality and unbridled militarism, reminiscent of the time of the “sleepwalkers” before the outbreak of the First World War. And yet it’s all over town that only negotiations offer a way out. Even Volodimir Selensky himself said after the failed Swiss peace summit, to which the Russian Federation was not invited, that Russia should be involved in talks next time. The much-vaunted argument that it is impossible to negotiate with someone like Vladimir Putin has long been refuted. Intensive negotiations took place between the two sides from the end of February to the beginning of April 2022 under Turkish mediation, which resulted in a 10-point plan that provided for Ukraine to renounce its NATO membership and for Russia to withdraw to the lines of February 23, 2022. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also conducted secret negotiations at the time, in which the heads of state of Russia and Ukraine were involved. However, the negotiations were broken off after the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev on April 9. According to everything we know from (pro-Western) media reports, Johnson’s message at the time was that Ukraine should stop negotiating and continue fighting.

Still today, more than two years and many tens of thousands of deaths later, the EU states have committed themselves to a senseless program of rearmament and confrontation instead of diplomacy. Following the decisions taken at the NATO summit in Washington D.C., new medium-range missiles that can be equipped with nuclear warheads are to be stationed in Germany – for the first time since the 1980s. Instead of making Germany any safer, this will turn the country all the more into a potential target for attacks in the event of an escalation. There was no public debate or involvement of the German parliament on this momentous step. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose social-democratic party achieved just 13.9 percent in the EU elections and whose legitimacy has been massively weakened, has rubber-stamped another wave of armament with a wave of his hand. The possibility of reviving the INF Treaty on the dismantling and prohibition of medium-range missiles in Europe, which was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 and terminated by Donald Trump in 2019, has thus been abandoned.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowden
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816950008828272966

 

 

 

 

Tigermom

 

 

Giraffe

 

 

Smart friends
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816814461488861637

 

 

Frens
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817233571238617530

 

 

Jordan

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 25 2024

Jul 252024
 
 July 25, 2024  Posted by at 8:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  45 Responses »


Claude Monet Hollowed Cliff near Étretat 1883

 

• Obama ‘Dumped’ Biden – Trump (RT)
• Decision To Leave Race Was About ‘Saving Democracy’ – Biden (RT)
• Team Trump Files Complaint to Block Harris’ Use of Biden Campaign Funds (Sp.)
• ActBlue Accused Of “MASSIVE Money Laundering Operation” (ZH)
• Secret Service Tells Trump To Stop Having Outdoor Rallies (ZH)
• Trump Shooter Studied JFK Assassination – FBI (RT)
• Court Rejects Bid to Throw Out Trump Case Against Pulitzer Board (ET)
• Re-Electing von der Leyen Tragic For Western Europe -Zakharova (TASS)
• Ukraine Top General Acknowledges Russian Air Superiority, Questions F-16 (Sp.)
• Slovakia President Issues Threat To Ukraine (RT)
• Russia Responds To Zelensky’s Talks Proposal (RT)
• Zelensky Has No Legitimacy – Kremlin (RT)
• The Berlin Wall Falls Again (John Helmer)
• The Stunning Audacity Of Yemen’s Drone Strike On Tel Aviv (Cradle)
• China Has Achieved Escape Velocity: It Is Now Unstoppable (Pepe Escobar)

 

 

 

 

Tack
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815929451256979636

 

 

Cart

 

 

Wray


https://twitter.com/i/status/1816145592566833544

 

 

Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815768540097495385

 

 

Harris Obama

 

 

Biden letter

 

 

NKorea
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816196264935166412

 

 

MTG

 

 

 

 

“Obama can’t stand him, and he can’t stand Obama..”

• Obama ‘Dumped’ Biden – Trump (RT)

Former US President Barack Obama “can’t stand” President Joe Biden and was instrumental in killing his reelection campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump has alleged. Biden announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the race for the White House and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, to run in his stead. In the runup to the announcement, Obama was reportedly one of several top Democrats privately urging Biden to end his campaign, out of concern that the visibly infirm 81-year-old could not defeat former president Trump in November. “Obama can’t stand him, and he can’t stand Obama,” Trump told the New York Post on Tuesday. “Obama had a part because he said he wasn’t going to support him.” “Nancy Pelosi dumped him,” Trump continued, referring to the former House Speaker taking to cable news to cast doubts on Biden’s ability to serve.

“They all dumped him, and they said, ‘Either you get out nice or we’re going to go after you.’ And that’s what happened. And he had no choice. There’s no question about it.” Biden announced his departure from the race via a social media post, made while he was cloistered away at his Delaware home recovering from Covid-19. This reportedly shocked some of the president’s aides, who told Politico that they had no inkling he would leave the race until they saw the posts on X. Biden has not spoken to the public since the announcement, and slurred his words during a phoned-in message delivered to Harris’ campaign headquarters on Monday. “He was pushed out of power like a dog,” Trump said of Biden on Wednesday, in a post to his Truth Social platform. Prior to Biden’s announcement, most polls showed Trump leading the 81-year-old by between one and nine points. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday showed Harris beating Trump by 44% to 42%, although analysts have cautioned that this initial “bump” in support will likely subside in the coming weeks.

“She’s the same as Biden but much more radical,” Trump said of Harris. “She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants…so I think she should be easier than Biden, because he was slightly more mainstream, but not much.” Obama did not join Biden in endorsing Harris. In a statement on Sunday praising Biden for stepping aside, the former president did not mention Harris, and called on Democrats to “create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges” at the party’s convention in August. However, Harris has already won the support of enough Democratic delegates to secure the party’s nomination. Should she get the nod, she will be the first presidential candidate in 56 years to run for the White House without ever competing in a primary election. Harris dropped out of the race for the presidency in 2019 with her polling numbers between 1% and 2%.

Read more …

“If everyone acknowledges that he’s incapable of running a campaign, he’s clearly not capable of running the country..”

• Decision To Leave Race Was About ‘Saving Democracy’ – Biden (RT)

The election in November will be “an inflection point” for the country, US President Joe Biden has said in his first public speech after deciding not to seek a second term and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement. Speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, Biden said he is determined to unite the Democratic Party and “pass the torch to a new generation.” “I revere this office, but I love my country more,” Biden said. “I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merit a second term. But nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.” Biden went on to stress the importance of the election, in which Harris is set to compete against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump. “I ran for president four years ago because I believed and still do that the soul of America was at stake, the very nature of who we are was at stake. And that is still the case,” Biden said.

Initially defiant, Biden eventually succumbed to pressure from top Democrats and major party donors who argued that he is no longer capable of defeating Trump. Concerns over his age and deteriorating health increased rapidly after his disastrous performance during a televised debate with Trump last month, in which Biden appeared confused and struggled to finish his sentences. Biden announced the decision to withdraw his candidacy on Sunday, naming Harris as his successor. Harris is expected to officially become the nominee during the Democratic National Convention next month. The Republicans, meanwhile, have called on Biden to resign from the presidency. “If everyone acknowledges that he’s incapable of running a campaign, he’s clearly not capable of running the country,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters over the weekend.

Read more …

Interesting legal squabble.

• Team Trump Files Complaint to Block Harris’ Use of Biden Campaign Funds (Sp.)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission arguing that money raised for President Joe Biden’s reelection effort cannot be transferred to fund Vice President Kamala Harris’ election bid, CNN has reported. Legal experts had speculated an attempt to transfer funds raised by the Biden campaign to Harris could trigger a lawsuit. “Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash — a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” read the document as revealed by CNN Tuesday.

The complaint is leveled against Biden himself, his election campaign, Harris and campaign treasurer Keana Spencer, accusing them of “flagrantly violating the Act by making and receiving an excessive contribution of nearly one hundred million dollars, and for filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate,” the report said. An FEC spokesperson declined to comment, citing the FEC’s policy on not discussing enforcement matters as the reason, the broadcaster reported. Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, said the complaint represented “baseless legal claims.”

“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA [Make America Great Again] allies, but baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election,” said Lutvak in a statement released Tuesday. Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 US presidential race Sunday and endorsed Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee. Trump, for his part, has said more than once that it would be easier to defeat Harris, while his campaign has argued she would be worse than Biden as president.

Read more …

“Kamala Harris is in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history and she is using the Commission’s own forms to do it.”

“$20 million [..] broken down into over 1,600,000 donations across 400,000 donors..”

• ActBlue Accused Of “MASSIVE Money Laundering Operation” (ZH)

Democrat donation platform ActBlue has been accused of a engaging in a “MASSIVE money laundering operation,” by which contributions from large donors are being funneled through hundreds of thousands of small donations made in the name of people who have no clue they’ve donated.

The accusation comes as the platform says it had its best day of 2024, and possibly of all time, in the wake of President Biden abandoning his reelection campaign on Sunday. ActBlue has been previously been fined for facilitating nearly $44,000 in illegal contributions. Meanwhile, journalist James O’Keefe approached alleged donors with hundreds of thousands of contributions listed in their name, who knew nothing about them. In related news, the Trump campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Tuesday accusing President Biden and VP Kamala Harris of violating campaign finance laws with the transfer of $91 million in fundraising cash to her new campaign.

According to the complaint, Harris is “seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash.” Trump campaign general counsel David Warrington called the act a “brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” adding “Kamala Harris is in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history and she is using the Commission’s own forms to do it.””The Commission must not and cannot sit idly by while one candidate takes nearly one hundred million dollars from the authorized committee of another, in violation of the Act and the will of the donors who gave the money in the first place.” The complaint names Biden, Harris, “Biden for President (aka Harris for President) and Keana Spencer, as treasurer, for flagrantly violating the Act by making and receiving an excessive contribution of nearly one hundred million dollars, and for filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate.”

The complaint argues that if “Kamala Harris were a candidate for something in 2024, federal law requires her to have filed a Statement of Candidacy and for her name to have appeared in the name of her authorized committee. But Kamala Harris’s name does not appear in the name of her purported authorized committee, ‘Biden for President,’ and, until Sunday, no Statement of Candidacy existed for her. Then Sunday, rather than filing her own Statement of Candidacy, she merely altered Joe Biden’s to replace his name with hers. There is no mechanism under the Act for one individual to end another’s federal candidacy by simply amending the other’s Form 2. Moreover, in that purported amended Form 2 Harris designated ‘Biden for President’ as her principal campaign committee and then renamed it. Altering a document submitted to a federal agency is a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1519.3.” -Fox News.

According to the Harris campaign, the complaint is “baseless.”

Read more …

Coming after a botched murder orchestrated by … the same Secret Service. Convenient.

• Secret Service Tells Trump To Stop Having Outdoor Rallies (ZH)

The Secret Service is turning near-assassination lemons into Deep State lemonade. Following its catastrophic failure to secure Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service has come up with a “fix” that reeks of ulterior motives: the agency has advised the Trump campaign to stop holding large outdoor rallies altogether. Broken by the Washington Post, news of the agency’s pathetic prescription came hours after Secret Service Director Kimberley Cheatle resigned, following a marathon Monday grilling on Capitol Hill that saw her used as a punching bag by members of both major parties. Her agency’s multi-dimensional incompetence in Pennsylvania left a former president and two spectators wounded — and another dead.

The Secret Service’s recommendation undermines a cornerstone of Trump campaign culture. Trump fans have turned his sprawling outdoor rallies into daylong parties complete with tailgate barbecues, merchants selling Trump-branded gear, and vehicles decorated in tribute to the former president. Thousands who can’t get into the rally itself are content to soak up the festive atmosphere in the immediate vicinity. The rallies often provide stunning visual indicators of Trump’s support, serving as campaign ads in and of themselves. Given Trump came within an inch of a fatal head-shot thanks to the Secret Service’s inadequacy — which could take a long time to fix — his campaign is perhaps reasonably taking the agency’s recommendation to heart:

For upcoming events, Trump’s team is scouting indoor venues, such as basketball arenas and other large spaces where thousands of people can fit, people familiar with the request said. The campaign is not currently planning any large outdoor events, a person close to Trump said. — Washington Post. From a security perspective, indoor events have many obvious advantages, from a finite number of entrances to fewer opportunities for snipers — including those who might attempt a shot from much longer distances than the chip-shot, 400-foot opportunity Trump’s shooter was given. A source tells Axios that the change doesn’t necessarily mean Trump won’t have any outdoor rallies at all. Meanwhile, even indoors, the Trump campaign will still be able to put on some impressive displays of strength…

…however, nixing outdoor rallies will hit the Trump campaign squarely in the checkbook, since it’s much more expensive to rent a major indoor arena than an exurban fairground like the Butler Farm Show grounds. Smaller venues cost less, but give far fewer fans the opportunity to attend. According to his campaign’s event schedule, Trump’s next two venues are the 9,600-seat Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte tonight, and the 6,000-seat Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota on Saturday.

Read more …

He googled it. Studied?! The FBI wants to promote the lone wolf.

• Trump Shooter Studied JFK Assassination – FBI (RT)

Would-be assassin Thomas Michael Crooks researched the assassination of John F Kennedy before opening fire on former President Donald Trump earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Wednesday. Crooks shot Trump in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Firing from a rooftop that Trump’s Secret Service detail had inexplicably left unguarded, the 20-year-old gunman killed one person in the audience and injured two others before Secret Service snipers shot him dead. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Wray said that an FBI examination of Crooks’ computer revealed that he began researching the JFK assassination on July 6, the same day he registered to attend the Trump rally. “He did a Google search for – quote – ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy’,” Wray said, referring to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman accused of shooting Kennedy in 1963.

“That’s a search that’s obviously significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said, adding that Crooks had become “very focused on President Trump and his rally” at the time. Wray’s testimony shed little light on Crooks’ motivation. The FBI chief insisted that the shooter was not in contact with any accomplices or co-conspirators, and did not speculate about his political leanings. Before becoming fixated on Trump, Crooks did “a lot of searches of public figures in general,” Wray said, warning that “it is, quite frankly, a dangerous time to be a prominent public official.” Wray did not comment on how many Secret Service snipers were present at the rally, nor did he comment on allegations that the agency had pulled some staff from Trump’s detail before the event. Wray did, however, reveal that Crooks visited the site in Butler on three occasions, and on the day of the rally “was flying the drone around the area” just two hours before Trump took to the stage.

Republicans have fiercely criticized the Secret Service for failing to secure Crooks’ rooftop vantage point, despite it being around 150 meters from the stage, and for apparently disregarding reports of an armed Crooks crawling around on the roof minutes before opening fire. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after telling the Oversight Committee that she took responsibility for the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”

Read more …

They hand their -formerly- coveted Prize to a bunch of liars, and then try to defend that. An insult to anyone who deserved it. It’s worthless now.

• Court Rejects Bid to Throw Out Trump Case Against Pulitzer Board (ET)

A court in Florida has rejected a bid from members of the Pulitzer Prize Board to throw out a case brought against them by former President Donald Trump. The board’s statement in 2022 standing behind its awards to several news outlets for reporting on former President Trump’s purported links to Russia is actionable because it is not merely opinion, Florida Circuit Court Judge Robert Pegg ruled on July 20. Defendants withheld valuable information from readers, including the process by which complaints against the awards were evaluated, according to the judge. In the July 18, 2022, statement, the board said that it “carefully reviewed” complaints against the awards, which were given in 2018 to The New York Times and The Washington Post. “Both reviews were conducted by individuals with no connection to the institutions whose work was under examination, nor any connection to each other,” the board said at the time.

“The separate reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.” The brief statement, though, was not pure opinion because the board failed to identify any of the reviewers, reveal whether the reviewers had any connection to the board, and share the reviewers’ qualifications, Judge Pegg said. “If the defendants’ statement had included the foregoing facts, an ordinary reader might have been able to evaluate whether they agreed with defendants’ decision not to revoke the prizes, and whether the underlying reporting had actually survived the factual disclosures of several subsequent government investigations unscathed,” the judge wrote. “Instead, the alleged defamatory statement implies no fewer than seven undisclosed sets of foundational facts, making the defendants’ statement actionable mixed opinion.”

Under Florida law, people cannot sue over pure opinion. The board did not respond to a request for comment. Former President Trump cheered the ruling in a post on Truth Social, writing that the judge “did not allow Pulitzer to hide behind the deeply outdated Times v. Sullivan case.” The 1964 New York Times Company v. Sullivan ruling, handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, found that people who bring defamation cases must show that defendants knew the questioned statements were false or that the defendants were reckless in publishing the statements without looking into their accuracy. The case in Florida, being adjudicated in the 19th Judicial Circuit in Okeechobee County, concerns the board’s awarding of the 2018 Pulitzer for national reporting to The New York Times and The Washington Post for stories about purported links between President Trump and his campaign and Russia.

The stories, which largely relied on anonymous sources, included one article discussing the FBI’s willingness to pay the author of a dossier funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign that consisted of a series of memorandums compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and another about comments from an aide for the Trump campaign that spurred the FBI’s Russia investigation. Subsequent government findings have undercut the stories; the findings include a report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that found no evidence of collusion between former President Trump or his campaign and Russia.

The Washington Post later corrected multiple stories about an individual who it said was one of Mr. Steele’s sources, acknowledging that its reporting was wrong. Reporters with the news outlet were among those who worked closely with Fusion GPS, an operative firm paid by Ms. Clinton’s campaign, the disclosed emails showed. Complaints from former President Trump’s campaign and others prompted the board’s 2022 statement, which then triggered the legal case. In a second ruling released over the weekend, Judge Pegg rejected a motion from defendants in the defamation case requesting that they be dismissed because they reside outside of Florida. The judge said that the former president had successfully alleged conspiracy among the defendants and that at least one of the defendants may have committed tortious acts in Florida to further the conspiracy.

Read more …

“..von der Leyen is a “committed supporter of maximizing US control over the European continent.”

• Re-Electing von der Leyen Tragic For Western Europe -Zakharova (TASS)

Re-electing Ursula von der Leyen to the post of European Commission (EC) president has become a tragic episode in the history of Western Europe, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. The diplomat noted that the Russian mission at the EU has already commented on “this tragic page in the Western European history.” “To summarize, I can say that, unfortunately, indeed it is simply not possible to expect anything good for the stability and well-being of the residents of EU member states, moreover, for democracy and freedom, including the issue of security in that part of the world, as a result of Ursula von der Leyen’s confrontational attitude,” Zakharova stressed. According to the diplomat, von der Leyen is a “committed supporter of maximizing US control over the European continent.”

“She is also the main mouthpiece of Russophobic policy currently conducted by the European Union. This includes calls to invest increasingly more in the spheres of defense and security in the EU, in the creation of the so-called defense union which presumes its even deeper subjugation to NATO in the future and support for the Nazi regime on Bankovaya (Ukraine’s presidential administration – TASS). The resolution of all these problems, apparently, takes a toll on the EU with quite murky prospects at that,” she added. On April 18, the European Parliament elected von der Leyen as European Commission president for the second term. She garnered 401 out of 720 votes. During the session, both the right-and left-wing opposition criticized her for not fulfilling her obligations during the first term, destroying the European economy and not taking measures against poverty.

Read more …

The F-16s will all be shot down.

• Ukraine Top General Acknowledges Russian Air Superiority, Questions F-16 (Sp.)

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky has complained about the Russian air superiority and conceded that there were limits to what the long-promised F-16 fighter jets could achieve on the battlefield, British media reported Wednesday. Syrsky said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper that Russia had “superior aviation” and “very strong” air defenses. Because of this Ukraine was forced to rely more on unmanned aerial vehicles. The general explained that F-16 fighters could only be used 40 kilometers (25 miles) or further away from the front-line due to the risks of being downed. On July 10, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the first batch of F-16 fighter jets would be handed over to Ukraine in summer.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned the United States and its NATO allies that Moscow saw the presence of nuclear capable F-16s in Ukraine as a nuclear threat. Syrsky also said that mobilization was needed to create necessary reserves and demanded that those evading the mandatory draft joined the military to “fulfil their constitutional duty.” Martial law was introduced in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The next day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. The martial law and mobilization have been extended repeatedly since then. Under martial law, men aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving Ukraine.

Read more …

it’s the Druzhba pipeline again. The US and EU think they can get Hungary and Slovakia “in line” this way.

• Slovakia President Issues Threat To Ukraine (RT)

Slovakia could take retaliatory measures against Ukraine if Kiev continues to stop Russian oil transiting via the Druzhba pipeline, President Peter Pellegrini has warned. Kiev stopped the flow of crude through the Druzhba pipeline to its energy-dependent neighbors – Hungary and Slovakia – last week, citing sanctions against Russia’s second-largest oil company Lukoil, thus depriving the two EU member states of oil that meets up to 40% of their needs. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Pellegrini described Kiev’s actions as a “very unpleasant interference in our good relations.” “I firmly believe that Ukraine will be able to put this in order as soon as possible, because Slovakia, as a sovereign state, will eventually have to take some kind of countermeasures,” he said without specifying the nature of a possible response.

He added, however, that this “would not benefit either Ukraine or its citizens.” Pelligrini recalled that Slovakia had helped Ukraine with the reverse flow of gas and has also been sending electricity to the country. Slovakian Defense Minister Robert Kalinak echoed the president’s criticism and warned that Kiev was “risking a lot” with its “irresponsible” actions. While the EU banned seaborne oil imports from Russia in December 2022, pipeline deliveries have received exemptions from the embargo to allow land-locked EU countries, including Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to secure stable oil supplies.

Lukoil provides some 50% of the oil shipped via the southern branch of Druzhba, which is one of the world’s longest pipeline networks. Other suppliers include Russian state-owned Tatneft, Gazprom Neft, the private company Russneft, and several small producers. On Tuesday, Hungary also pledged to punish Kiev for its blockade of oil deliveries from Russia, with Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto saying Budapest would block €6.5 billion ($7 billion) in funds that the EU has earmarked for Ukraine until Kiev resumes transit. Hungary’s foreign minister said his country supplied 42% of Ukraine’s electricity in June.

Read more …

“Everyone knows perfectly well that this is a man who can twist anything, who can lie, who can deny everything..”

• Russia Responds To Zelensky’s Talks Proposal (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky’s signal that Ukraine is ready to resume peace talks with Moscow is not credible, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. In recent weeks, Zelensky has said that Kiev wants to end the conflict “as soon as possible,” preferably “by the end of this year.” He has also insisted on holding a second ‘peace summit’ to achieve that goal. The last such event, hosted by Switzerland, focused on Kiev’s ‘peace formula’ – which demands that Russia withdraw its troops from all territory claimed by Ukraine. Moscow has dismissed the plan as detached from reality. Commenting on the possibility of peace with Ukraine, Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday that “nobody trusts [Zelensky].” “Everyone knows perfectly well that this is a man who can twist anything, who can lie, who can deny everything,” she said.

She recalled that neither Ukraine nor its Western backers have done anything to rescind Zelensky’s presidential decree barring Kiev from any talks with the current leadership in Moscow. The Ukrainian leader approved the document in the fall of 2022 after four former Ukrainian regions voted overwhelmingly to join Russia. Last week, however, Zelensky suggested that he saw “no difference” in whether he had to engage with Russian President Vladimir Putin, or someone else, to end the conflict. “We hear a lot of words, but we don’t see actions at all,” Zakharova noted, suggesting that Zelensky’s statements are no more than another attempt to promote Kiev’s ‘peace formula’ and dupe countries around the world into supporting the initiative.

The spokeswoman added that Zelensky’s unexpected “flexibility” on peace talks could be linked to recent major shifts in the US political landscape, in reference to the shooting of Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race. The GOP candidate has repeatedly vowed to end the conflict within 24 hours if elected and has criticized open-ended US support for Kiev. Zakharova’s comments come after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that Kiev “is willing to engage in dialogue and negotiations with Russia,” which he said must be “rational” and aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Kuleba’s words as being “in unison” with Russia’s stance. “The Russian side has never refused negotiations, [but] the details that we do not know yet are important here,” he added.

Read more …

“..anyone who questions his legitimacy is “an enemy.”

• Zelensky Has No Legitimacy – Kremlin (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s status could pose a problem when Moscow and Kiev eventually agree to hold peace talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called into question Zelensky’s legitimacy, noting that his term in office has expired. “Our president has repeatedly said that President Zelensky definitely lost his legitimacy,” Peskov told journalists. Another issue that “could seriously hinder the peace process” is Zelensky’s 2022 decree that “banned any Ukrainian head of state from engaging in talks with President Putin,” Peskov said.

Zelensky’s presidential term formally expired on May 20. He refused to hold an election in March, citing martial law which was imposed due to the conflict with Russia. He argued that his term was de facto extended in accordance with Ukrainian law. Putin has stated several times in recent months that an analysis of the Ukrainian constitution and other legislation leaves no room for an interpretation that would allow Zelensky to remain in power. Citing Article 111 of the Ukrainian constitution, Putin argued in May that Zelensky’s powers should have been transferred to the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament.

Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, however, has insisted that Zelensky is the legitimate head of state and that anyone who questions his legitimacy is “an enemy.” Earlier on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told journalists that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba made it clear during a trip to Beijing that he is “ready and willing” to hold peace talks with Moscow. Russia responded by saying it would wait for details on the Ukrainian position. “We have not heard these statements from Kuleba himself,” Peskov said on Wednesday, adding that negotiations are preferable to continued hostilities. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine broke down in spring 2022, with each side accusing the other of making unrealistic demands.

Read more …

“Never again may we as Germans get involved in a war against Russia in any form. We need to unite and join to oppose this madness together.”

• The Berlin Wall Falls Again (John Helmer)

One of Germany’s most notorious prosecutions of free speech has collapsed, as the Berlin prosecutor’s office has dropped a case designed to stop Germans discussing the war against Russia in the Ukraine. Heinrich Buecher, owner of the COOP Anti-war Café on Rochstrasse, has been prosecuted in a Berlin district court and then in the higher regional court for statements he had made in a city park on June 22, 2022. On the anniversary of the German Army’s Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, Buecher had declared: “Never again may we as Germans get involved in a war against Russia in any form. We need to unite and join to oppose this madness together.” In the court proceedings which followed, the judges refused to allow Buecher to speak in his own defence. Instead, he published on the website of his café a re-statement of what he had been convicted of saying in June 2002.

“As an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist, I expressly oppose the policy of regime change, against wars of intervention and against any Interference in the internal affairs of independent states. I call on the German government to adopt a policy in the interest of International peace, in the interests of international security and peaceful coexistence of all peoples. The principles of the Charter of the United Nations must be respected and international law must be defended.” “I call for all arms deliveries and training programs for the Ukraine stop immediately. I demand diplomacy instead of weapons. I call for all efforts of our government to negotiate and allow opponents of war without preconditions. The sacrifice of the Ukraine for the geopolitical interests of the West, namely the strategic weakening of Russia, is a monstrous war crime and must have an end.”

The Buecher case has been followed by the Russian media but not the Anglo-American media. The mainstream German press has also avoided reporting the case. In January 2023, a Berlin district court judge named Tobias Pollman issued a summary judgement without hearing evidence or argument, ruling that Buecker’s crime came under Section 140 of the German Criminal Code, and had consisted of “publicly approving a crime of aggression (Section 138 of the International Criminal Code) in a manner likely to disturb the public peace at a meeting.” Pollman convicted Buecker of approving “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in violation of international law, the illegality of which you knew.” In German law, it wasn’t Buecher’s speech but the substance of what the judge said he meant which was judged illegal. He was sentenced to pay a €2,000 fine or 40 days in jail.

A radio interview of Buecher by John Helmer and George Eliason of April 15, 2023, was first published here, but subsequently erased by the broadcast company TNT. Buecher appealed, and on April 27, 2023, another Berlin judge named Marieluis Brinkmann ruled after a 90-minute proceeding in which she repeatedly stopped Buecher and his lawyer from testifying in defence. Brinkmann announced that the first judge had correctly applied the law in finding Buecher guilty of the crime of supporting Russia. But she dismissed the conviction and fine on the ground that Buecher’s speech had been a private one in front of his “fans”, not a public speech at all. The Berlin prosecutor, who refused to give her name in court or to allow photographs of herself, then appealed to the higher, Berlin region court. The higher court judges refused to reinstate Buecher’s conviction, and the prosecutors began new appeals. This month these appeals were dropped, and the prosecutors abandoned the case.

Read more …

2000 kilometers without being intercepted. What Iron Dome?

• The Stunning Audacity Of Yemen’s Drone Strike On Tel Aviv (Cradle)

On 19 July, a low-altitude drone breached Tel Aviv’s airspace from the sea and detonated, causing one fatality and injuring ten others. The incident sent shockwaves through the occupation state, with a panicked populace and bewildered policymakers grappling with the Israeli army’s “mega-failure” to intercept a single drone amid prolonged aggression against Gaza and the mounting tensions with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The attack’s impact was magnified by its direct hit on Tel Aviv, the heart of Israel’s governmental and economic power, starkly exposing inadequacies in its defense strategies and further alarming a population that has for months been questioning the effectiveness of its military preparedness. It wasn’t long before the de facto Yemeni authorities in Sanaa claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the strike a retaliation for Israeli massacres and threatening more to come. But how did a Yemeni drone reach the heart of Israel’s most fortified region and strike a blow to Israeli military pride?

Suicide drones, as they are known, are a relatively modern weapon, posing significant challenges even for technologically advanced states like the US and Israel. These drones vary in range, warhead size, speed, and guidance methods. Analysis of the wreckage revealed that the “Yaffa” drone, an enhanced version of Yemen’s Sammad drones, was employed in the operation. The name is deeply symbolic as it references the ancient port city of Jaffa, also known as Yaffa in Arabic, which now forms part of modern-day Tel Aviv. Its rectangular wing shape and V-shaped tail distinguish it, but it is notably the more powerful 275 cc (16 kW) engine that sets it apart. This engine enables the drone to cover distances exceeding 2000 kilometers – sufficient to reach Tel Aviv from Yemen. Unlike with ballistic missiles, the difficulty in tracking drones lies in their ability to take unconventional paths, maneuver through winding routes, and hide behind terrain features, making them hard to detect by radar systems. This detection challenge is a daily issue in northern occupied Palestine, where drones operated by Lebanese resistance groups often go unseen by the increasingly blinded occupation army.

Moreover, drones are typically constructed from lightweight materials such as fiberglass, carbon fiber, or various reinforced plastics that do not reflect radar waves effectively, which is crucial for detection and tracking. Their low speeds reduce the need for the metallic compositions necessary in constructing conventional military hardware like missiles and fighter jets. Consequently, drones can be mistaken for birds by radar systems. This confusion has occurred regularly in northern occupied Palestine since the war’s onset, with Israel’s Iron Dome defense system spotted expending its limited supply of $50,000 projectiles shooting at birds during this conflict. The suicide drone likely took an unconventional path to evade detection. Previous Yemeni attempts have been intercepted in Egyptian Sinai airspace, with Israeli-allied Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt contributing to these detection and interception efforts.

On the night of the attack, however, no US aircraft carrier groups were in the Red Sea, and the nearest carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was positioned in the Indian Ocean. Israel’s air force has suggested that the drone may have taken a non-traditional route via Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt, crossing near the Suez Canal before entering the Mediterranean and turning east toward Tel Aviv. Some aspects of that route seem unlikely: the Suez Canal area is heavily patrolled by Egyptian air defense, with its 8th Brigade stationed there, so the Israeli announcement may have been an attempt to pressure Egypt. On 20 July, Israeli aircraft launched punishing airstrikes on the besieged Yemeni port of Hodeidah, specifically targeting areas designated for fuel and oil storage, as well as destroying port cranes used for loading and unloading cargo and a power station.

But these were civilian targets in a country already suffering from the effects of the Saudi-led coalition blockade, which has caused severe shortages of fuel and essential resources needed for power generation and transportation. The strike at these particular target banks, which killed at least six and wounded dozens of others, appears to be primarily aimed at creating significant explosions and large fires to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu score points at home. But the Israeli response against civilian targets also reveals that Tel Aviv suffers from a dearth of intelligence on potential Yemeni military targets. It was also evident that the selected targets were ones that Saudi Arabia and the US have refrained from striking due to fears of Yemeni retaliation, which could strike Saudi commercial ports or oil exports in one of the world’s most vital energy passages.

Read more …

“Will China pull it off? Of course it will.”

• China Has Achieved Escape Velocity: It Is Now Unstoppable (Pepe Escobar)

The four-day, twice-a-decade plenum of the Communist Party of China that took place last week in Beijing, designing an economic road map all the way to 2029, was a stunning affair in more ways than one. Let’s start with continuity – and stability. There’s no question after the plenum that Xi Dada, or The Big Panda, will stay on the helm until 2029 – the end of the current five-year economic drive. And if Xi is healthy enough, he stays up to 2035: the fateful and uber game-changing target year for China to exhibit a GDP per capita of $30,000, with massive around-the-world reverberations. Here we see the confluence between the progression of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and the defining contours if not of a Pax Sinica, at least of the non-Hegemon-centric, multi-nodal world. The proverbial U.S. Think Tankland/Sinophobia axis has been hysterical on China not being able to sustain a 5% a year growth rate for the next few years – the target once again stressed at the plenum.

A Russian analysis by the Center for Geopolitical Forecasts makes a crucial point: “The Chinese themselves have not bothered about the growth rate for a long time, since in 2018 they switched to a strategy of so-called qualitative development, that is, not at the expense of traditional industries, but on the basis of high technologies and the creation of new areas, such as the production of new energy sources and artificial intelligence.” That’s the rationale behind Made in China 2025 – which is being implemented at breakneck speed: high-tech development leading the way towards a “high-level socialist market economy”, to be consolidated by 2025 and fully constructed by 2035. The next step will be to attain the status of “modernized socialist power” by 2049, at the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The plenum proved once more that “socialism with Chinese characteristics” – or, for the recalcitrant, Chinese-modified capitalism – is “people-centric”. The supreme values are national interest and the people’s interests – attested by the fact that large private corporations remain under the strategic control of the CPC. It’s idle to try to find in the final communique at the end of the plenum any restrictions on private capital on the path to “universal prosperity”. The key point is that the role of capital should always be subordinated to the concept of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. Everything is explained here in nearly didactic terms, chronicling the birth of the “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on further comprehensive deepening of reforms to promote Chinese modernization”. What is now already referred to colloquially all across China as “The Decision” spreads across 15 parts and 60 articles, divided into three main sections, proposing more than 300 important reforms.

“The Decision”, in full, has not yet been published; only the road map of how Beijing planners got there. Of course this is no mere policy paper: it’s a quintessentially CPC-style dissertation where the details of economic and political measures are obscured by clouds of images and metaphors. Take a look, for instance, at this passage: “To ensure that the reform ship sails forward steadily, the ‘Decision’ proposes that further comprehensive deepening of reform must implement the “six principles”: adhere to the party’s overall leadership, adhere to the people-centered approach, adhere to the principle of maintaining the integrity and promoting innovation, adhere to system building as the main line, adhere to the comprehensive rule of law, and adhere to a systematic approach.” Most of the “Decision” – 6 parts in a total of 13 – is about economic reform. Will China pull it off? Of course it will.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Gethsemani
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815905100084437033

 

 

Smart

 

 

Wolf

 

 

Side eye
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816191336003068174

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 19 2024

Jul 192024
 
 July 19, 2024  Posted by at 9:01 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  72 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh The red tree house 1890

 

• Trump Vows To Fight For Unity In First Speech Since Assassination Attempt (RT)
• ‘A Different Donald Trump’ Beams As Rivals Become ‘Converts’ (RCP)
• Providence And President Trump (Newt Gingrich)
• Secret Service Whistleblowers Emerge Following Trump Assassination Attempt (ZH)
• US Democrats Postpone Biden Nomination Process (RT)
• US Republicans Urge Harris To Announce VP Choice (RT)
• Marco Rubio Suggests Biden Resign as President if He Drops Out of Race (Sp.)
• Obama Privately Saying Biden Should ‘Seriously Consider’ Quitting – WaPo (RT)
• Pelosi Urges Biden to Pull Out From Presidential Race (Sp.)
• Biden Accuses Musk Of Trying To ‘Buy The Election’ (RT)
• Musk Trolls Biden Over Donations Plea (RT)
• Von der Leyen Secures Second Term At EU Helm (RT)
• Von der Leyen Commission Loses Covid Vaccine Case (RT)
• Von der Leyen Commission Loses Covid Vaccine Case (RT)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1814118673776316916
https://twitter.com/i/status/1814121692249067777

 

 

Gods hand

 

 

Rogan Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813655504344015132

 

 

Tucker Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1814101953774792982

Tucker RNC
https://twitter.com/i/status/1814098702245515725

 

 

 

 

Tucker Boot
https://twitter.com/i/status/1814067146047078436

 

 

 

 

“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said, recalling the details of the assassination attempt, as the audience began chanting, “Yes you are!”

• Trump Vows To Fight For Unity In First Speech Since Assassination Attempt (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump laid out the case to “Make America Great Once Again” in a speech accepting his nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.Thursday’s address was Trump’s first public appearance since last Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. The former president took the stage on the final day of the RNC to share his vision for the future of the United States, in a speech he completely rewrote following the shooting. “I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said, recalling the details of the assassination attempt, as the audience began chanting, “Yes you are!”

“I stand before you this evening with a message of confidence, strength and hope. Four months from now, we will have an incredible victory, and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country,” Trump told his supporters.We rise together, or we fall apart. I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.Trump had initially prepared “an extremely tough speech… all about the corrupt” administration of President Joe Biden, but “threw it away” after the assassination attempt. The former president indeed went more than 40 minutes before first referring to “the current administration” in his RNC speech, and has not mentioned his Democratic opponent by name. Trump concluded his lengthy speech with a vow to “very quickly make America great again.”

“We will save this country. We will restore the Republic, and we will usher in the rich and wonderful tomorrows that our people so truly deserve,” he stated. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, addressed the RNC the night before, officially accepting the vice-presidential nomination. During the half-hour speech, the lawmaker and Marine Corps veteran criticized Biden for backing trade deals that “destroyed” American manufacturing jobs and supporting the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, promising that a second Trump administration would only send American troops to war when absolutely necessary.

Read more …

“Remember the birdcage? Trump had one delivered to her hotel room the day after dubbing her “Birdbrain.”

• ‘A Different Donald Trump’ Beams As Rivals Become ‘Converts’ (RCP)

Republicans always seem to come home. Some sooner than others. Vivek Ramaswamy never really ran against him. Ron DeSantis threw his weight behind him within an hour of dropping out of the primary. But Nikki Haley, the last woman standing, she took her time. The endorsement took three full months to arrive. Donald Trump didn’t mind. The former president did not need her support to lock down a third consecutive nomination. He may not need it to return to the White House either. But as Haley walked onstage at the Republican National Convention Tuesday, Trump beamed. He listened with a bandaged ear from a box overlooking the arena to his last rival, the member of his cabinet who went astray, bending the knee in prime time. “If there is one thing Donald Trump loves more than a Day One supporter,” Hogan Gidley, who served as a Trump White House aide, told RealClearPolitics, “it is a convert.”

Yet, if there is one thing Trump has notably not done this week, it is gloat. He has said comparatively little since the attempt on his life Saturday, exuding a gracious silence – perhaps even a magnanimous stoicism. A source who spoke with the former president at length the day after he dodged an assassin’s bullet reported talking to “a different Donald Trump, but in the best way possible.” Granted anonymity to speak freely, this individual, who has worked closely with Trump for nearly a decade, described a “weirdly counterintuitive” phenomenon whereby “he almost dies, he miraculously survives, and it becomes even less about him.” Perhaps that explains the last-minute invitation to Nikki Haley. She was not originally slated to speak at the RNC, but after the assassination attempt, the Trump campaign asked her to come speak. It was simultaneously an attempt at party and national unity, an overture made more remarkable considering the sheer bitterness of their rivalry. Remember the birdcage? Trump had one delivered to her hotel room the day after dubbing her “Birdbrain.” It only got worse from that moment on.

Haley had been the rare member of the Trump administration to leave the White House on good terms with the former president – and with her reputation intact. Her decision to challenge him was, therefore, seen by Trump and his loyalists as nothing short of a betrayal. And Trump held nothing back. He ridiculed her looks, suggested that there was something awry in her marriage, and dispatched his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to repeatedly call her “a warmonger.” Haley countered by calling him “unhinged,” calling for cognitive tests for all candidates while suggesting he had lost a step, and characterized a third Trump nomination as “suicide for our country.” But all now seems forgiven, or at least forgotten. At this convention, things just feel altered, said Republican pollster Frank Luntz. “And it feels different, which means people are hearing something different,” he told RCP. “That hasn’t happened for years.” What changed among the Republican faithful? “Their hero was almost taken away from them,” he replied, an occurrence that “humanized Trump and humbled his supporters.”

Read more …

“The concepts of divine intervention and providence have a long record in American history.”

• Providence And President Trump (Newt Gingrich)

I have known President Donald Trump for 30 years. Callista and I consider him a dear friend. Watching him get shot at his rally in Butler, Pa. was stunning and horrifying. President Trump’s reaction to being shot was immediately iconic. He stood up with blood running down his face, raised his fist, and said “fight, fight, fight,” and then “USA.” It was a tremendous vision of courage and power. It struck home all around the world. Within minutes images began to circulate on the internet tying President Trump’s courage to the courage of other historic figures and moments. There is even a Japanese anime about President Trump’s heroic reaction. When it was clear the President was going to be alright, Callista and I were deeply relieved. For me, that emotion was then immediately replaced by fury.

This assassination attempt was the result of the left’s nine-year effort to demonize our friend, President Trump. I had to take some time to get my emotions under control before going on Fox with Sean Hannity to talk about the event. During that cooling off period, my old friend Ambassador Randy Evans called to say that his Pastor, Michael Youssef, had told him it was a providential event. President Trump had turned to look up at a big sign behind him. The shooter took aim at his head while he was looking to one side. When the President turned back to look at the audience the bullet missed his head by less than an inch and hit his ear. If President Trump had not turned at exactly the right moment, he would have almost certainly been killed. When I told Hannity that I really believed President Trump’s survival was providential, that term went around the world.

The concepts of divine intervention and providence have a long record in American history. When young George Washington went west with Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock’s British army in the French and Indian War, they were ambushed on July 9, 1755. Braddock was wounded when the battle began. The Army began to panic and fall apart. Washington, then-23 years old, took control and rallied the British troops saving them from annihilation. Washington wrote his brother, “by the All-powerful Dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four Bullets through my Coat, and two Horses shot under me; yet escaped unhurt, altho[ugh] Death was leveling my Companions on every side of me.”

Washington’s belief in providence was further expressed in his farewell address to the troops after the success of the Revolutionary War: “The singular interpositions of Providence in our feeble condition were such, as could scarcely escape the attention of the most unobserving.” When President Ronald Reagan met with Pope John Paul II to determine how to defeat the spread of communism, one of the unifying facts was that both had been shot in assassination attempts. Coming to grips with why God had spared them – and finding a common mission in defeating the Soviet Empire – were inextricably intertwined. Callista and I talked about this our documentaries “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny” and “Nine Days that Changed the World.” President Trump now joins the list of historic figures who have been saved from almost certain death. When President Trump came to the Republican National Convention, I could tell that he was already calmer, more deliberative, and grateful to be alive.

There was a humility and gratitude in his attitude that showed the act of having been spared had a deep impact. Virtually anyone who had been within a half-inch of being killed would have a deep and sobering reaction. “But for God, I would have been dead,” is a legitimate sentiment. President Trump’s courage and determination after having been shot has created new level of affection – and a new intensity of support – among those who believe in him. He was always the champion of a movement rather than a traditional candidate. Now he has become a symbol of courage, defiance, and determination. Neither America – nor President Trump – will ever be the same after Saturday’s nights assassination attempt. We are on the edge of a new stage in American history. The combined sense of gratitude, awe, and historic challenge make this convention different from any of the nine others I have attended. The next few days will be remarkable.

Read more …

“What actions did the USSS take to remove or cover President Trump after a threat was known or detected?”

• Secret Service Whistleblowers Emerge Following Trump Assassination Attempt (ZH)

US Secret Service whistleblowers have approached the House Judiciary Committee, claiming that there were limited resources to cover former President Donald Trump last weekend due to the North Atlantic Treato Organization (NATO) summit in Washington DC, as well as first lady Jill Biden’s campaign rally in Pittsburgh, PA. Chairman Jim Jordan has demanded answers FBI Director Christopher Wray, according to the Daily Caller. “Whistleblowers have disclosed to the Committee that the USSS led two briefings regarding the July 13 campaign rally on July 8, 2024, with the Western Pennsylvania Fusion Center (WPFC) and other stakeholders, to discuss the upcoming, unrelated visits by President Trump and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden,” reads a Thursday letter from Jordan to Wray.

“The USSS Special Agent in Charge Tim Burke reportedly told law enforcement partners that the USSS had limited resources that week because the agency was covering the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington, D.C. FBI personnel were present at those briefings. While the Committee recognizes that the FBI is one of many agencies represented in the WPFC, it is the lead federal investigative arm and a key source of intelligence on potential threats for special events in its area of responsibility,” he continued. “The Committee has several unanswered questions about the failures that led to the attempted assassination of a president—the first in over forty years—as well as the FBI’s ability to conduct a rapid, transparent, and thorough investigation in the wake of its recent scandals. Accordingly, to ensure that the Committee can effectively evaluate these matters during your testimony on July 24, 2024.”

Jordan seeks the following information from Wray:
• How many agents, analysts, and support personnel has the FBI dedicated to the investigation?
• Was there coordination between the FBI, USSS, and the WPFC prior to President Trump’s event on July 13?
• How many buildings had to be secured inside and outside of the security perimeter for President Trump’s event on July 13?
• Why was the roof of the AGR International building left unsecured?
• How much time elapsed between identifying the shooter as a potential threat and the attempted assassination?
• How much time elapsed between the local police officer encountering the shooter on the sloped roof and the attempted assassination?
• Has the FBI interviewed the local police officer who encountered the shooter?
• What does the FBI’s evaluation of the shooter’s phone and digital activity show about his actions and movements in the days and hours leading up to the attempted assassination?
• Was the security posture at President Trump’s event limited due to resource constraints with the NATO Summit and/or First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s event in Pittsburgh?
• Is the FBI’s investigation limited to the shooter and his motivations or does it include the security failures that led to the attempted assassination?
• How did communications breakdowns between various law enforcement entities affect the ability of local law enforcement and USSS to identify the shooter as a potential threat and mitigate the threat before he took action?
• What actions did the USSS take to remove or cover President Trump after a threat was known or detected?

Read more …

Indefinitely.

• US Democrats Postpone Biden Nomination Process (RT)

The US Democratic Party has significantly delayed its candidate nomination process for the 2024 presidential election. A virtual roll call to nominate President Joe Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 candidate which was scheduled for the coming week will now happen sometime in August, the party has announced. The Democratic National Committee was supposed to meet on Friday and finalize the rules for the procedure, first proposed in May to ensure ballot access. In recent days, however, some party members have objected to “rushing” the process before the convention. “None of this will be rushed,” said Leah Daughtry and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, leaders of the DNC rules committee, in a letter seen by CBS News. Sent to 186 members of the committee on Wednesday, the letter confirms that “no voting will begin before August 1,” but notes that the virtual roll call will still happen before the in-person Democratic National Convention starts on August 19.

Meeting state ballot deadlines and avoiding potential lawsuits “is the driving reason for conducting a virtual voting process,” the letter added. The roll call is a traditional procedure by which state delegations deliver primary votes to the nominee at the convention. The Republicans did so on Monday, arranging for former President Donald Trump’s children to announce the Florida votes that officially made him the party’s pick in November. Dozens of House Democrats had circulated a draft letter earlier this week opposing the virtual vote, arguing that it would stifle debate, undermine morale and party unity, and foreclose any changes to the ticket “at the worst possible time.” At least 21 congressional Democrats have publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race, citing his abysmal performance in the June 27 debate with Trump, advanced age, and possible neurological issues.

Senior party figures like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have urged Biden to step down in private, according to the New York Times. About 70% of Democrats in a recent poll backed Biden’s exit. After the president retreated to his Delaware home with a Covid diagnosis, Axios reported he might drop out as early as this weekend. Campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo sought to dismiss the rumors on Thursday, however. “Joe Biden is his party’s nominee. He’s the President of the United States. He’s running for reelection. Baseless conjecture from anonymous sources isn’t a scoop,” Ducklo said on X (formerly Twitter). Most polls currently show Trump winning the election against Biden, but also against Vice President Kamala Harris, should she get bumped to the top of the ticket.

Read more …

“a group of Democrat megadonors were “dangling money to members of Congress” willing to publicly call on Biden to step aside..”

• US Republicans Urge Harris To Announce VP Choice (RT)

There can be no vice presidential debate until the Democrats decide who will be on their ticket, the Republican campaign said on Wednesday, in a thinly veiled reference to calls for US President Joe Biden to step down. The Republican Party formally nominated former President Donald Trump on Monday, while he announced Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. Vice President Kamala Harris reached out to Vance with an offer to debate, to be hosted by CBS News. “We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement on Wednesday evening. “To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate.”

The governors of California, Illinois, and Michigan, respectively, have been floated as possible replacements for Harris should Biden withdraw from the ticket. Many Democrats have been clamoring for the 81-year-old to do so since his disastrous showing in the June 27 debate against Trump. California Congressman Adam Schiff, formerly a key player in the House Intelligence Committee, was the latest to urge Biden to “pass the torch.” While Biden has refused to drop out of the race – or resign from the presidency – in a recorded interview aired on Wednesday, he revealed the circumstances under which he might do so. “If I had some medical condition that emerged,” this might make him reconsider, Biden told BET. He insisted he is still fit for the job, however.

Speculation about ousting Biden from the ticket was temporarily relegated from the headlines by the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday. The Republican candidate narrowly escaped death at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The US Secret Service has yet to give a satisfactory explanation of how a shooter was able to get into position to open fire on the stage, killing one rallygoer and seriously injuring two more. However, efforts by some Democrats to oust the president have apparently continued, with the New York Times claiming on Wednesday that a group of Democrat megadonors were “dangling money to members of Congress” willing to publicly call on Biden to step aside. Harris has proposed three dates for the VP debates: July 23, August 12, and August 13. The Democrats are scheduled to hold their convention in Chicago on August 19, but want to nominate Biden via a ‘virtual roll call’ before then.

Read more …

“The question is, if he’s not going to be their nominee because he’s not up to it, how can he be our president for the next six months?”

• Marco Rubio Suggests Biden Resign as President if He Drops Out of Race (Sp.)

US Senator Marco Rubio suggested that President Joe Biden should resign if he drops out of the 2024 election race amid mounting pressure on him to step down, Politico reported on Thursday. Rubio made the comment while talking to reporters at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee following the news that Biden had been diagnosed with COVID-19, the report said. “The question is, if he’s not going to be their nominee because he’s not up to it, how can he be our president for the next six months?” the report quoted Rubio as saying. “If there’s something wrong with you that doesn’t allow you to run for president, how can you still be there as president? If they’re going to remove him as a nominee, they’ve got to remove him as president, and that’s really bad for our country.” Rubio also noted that he is worried about who is actually running the United States if the Democrats knew about Biden’s cognitive decline and deliberately hid this fact from the public.

“They knew Joe Biden — I don’t mean this to be cruel, but they knew the condition that he was in, and they deliberately hid it from the world. And it makes you wonder who’s running our country. That’s what I worry about,” the senator said. At the same time, Rubio said he does not see how the Democratic Party could bypass Vice President Kamala Harris if Biden withdraws from the race. Numerous Democrats have called on Biden to end his campaign and step aside for an alternative nominee, following a dismal debate performance against Republican nominee Donald Trump last month. The Biden campaign has said that they are not planning for a scenario in which Biden is not the Democratic presidential candidate.

Read more …

Biden is now toxic.

• Obama Privately Saying Biden Should ‘Seriously Consider’ Quitting – WaPo (RT)

Former US President Barack Obama is privately telling Democrats that President Joe Biden’s path to reelection has “greatly diminished,” and that the 81-year-old should “seriously consider” ending his campaign, the Washington Post has reported. Amid a party-wide effort to convince Biden to drop out of the race, Obama had largely stayed on the sidelines. Other than posting a message of support when the president flubbed his debate with Donald Trump last month, Obama has not weighed in on Biden’s apparent cognitive decline, even though he reportedly chose not to stop his friend, actor George Clooney, from penning an op-ed calling on Biden to quit earlier this month. In private, however, Obama “has been deeply engaged in conversations about the future of Biden’s campaign,” the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing “multiple people briefed on his thinking.”

These conversations have reportedly included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Biden this weekend that he cannot hope to beat Trump in November, according to CNN and ABC News. “In some conversations, Obama… has told people he is concerned that the polls are moving away from Biden, that former president Donald Trump’s electoral path is expanding and that donors are abandoning the president,” the Washington Post claimed. Obama spoke to Biden in the days after last month’s debate, as Biden insisted he was “not going anywhere.” However, Biden continued to fumble during subsequent appearances – at one point calling Vice President Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” – and “Obama’s concerns about Biden’s candidacy have only grown deeper,” the Post claimed.

While a spokesperson for Obama declined to comment on the report, the article is being treated by pundits as a de-facto public statement by the former president. “This does not show up by accident,” Fox News commentator and former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Thursday. “He has green-lighted, in my opinion as someone who has worked in press, his aides to share this with the Washington Post.” Biden is currently in quarantine in his Delaware home, after testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. With public events off the table for the coming days, Biden’s friends and allies believe that he will withdraw his candidacy as early as this weekend, Axios reported on Thursday.

Read more …

“..While she does not wish to call on Biden to resign, Pelosi will do everything she can to make this happen..”

• Pelosi Urges Biden to Pull Out From Presidential Race (Sp.)

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged US President Joe Biden to make a decision to give up his bid for reelection, the Politico website reported, citing sources. Media previously reported that US Democratic House representatives are hoping that Pelosi will convince US President Joe Biden to withdraw as the Democratic presidential nominee. Pelosi reportedly talked with Biden last week, saying that some Democrat lawmakers will only become louder in their complaints about the president’s alleged political weakness, according to Politico. The former speaker also asked Biden to make a decision about stepping down in the near future. Per one of Pelosi’s allies, she could potentially go public with the demands for Biden to resign his candidacy. While she does not wish to call on Biden to resign, Pelosi will do everything she can to make this happen, this person said.

On June 27, Biden, 81, appeared confused and incoherent throughout his first debate with Trump, 78, reinforcing rather than alleviating ongoing concerns about his cognitive abilities. His poor performance has led some Democratic politicians and donors to call for his removal as a candidate. There have been growing calls among Democrats to nominate another candidate to replace Biden after his failure in the debate. Theoretically, the party will have such an opportunity at its convention in August, but in practice, it will be difficult to remove the primaries-winning candidate from the race if he does not refuse to participate. So far, Biden is saying he intends to stay in the race.

Read more …

“Fake Gnus”.

• Biden Accuses Musk Of Trying To ‘Buy The Election’ (RT)

Joe Biden has accused Elon Musk “and his rich buddies” of trying to “buy” the US presidential election, following claims that the billionaire is planning to make major contributions to a group that supports Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. “I am sick,” a post on Biden’s personal social media account said on Wednesday, in an apparent reference to his positive Covid-19 test announced the same day. In a reply, the US president continued the sentence: “of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.” The post called on Americans to pitch in to Biden’s campaign through ActBlue, the Democratic donation platform. The fundraising platform has been in the spotlight because Thomas Crooks, the man who tried to assassinate Trump at a rally on Saturday, made a small donation to it when he was 17.

Reacting to Biden’s pitch, Musk said: “I’m living rent-free in his head.” Biden has faced allegations that he secured his Democratic nomination in 2020 thanks to an “elite conspiracy.” Critics have claimed that powerful party operators, wealthy donors, and the media coalesced around his candidacy to undercut progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, who was leading in the primary race. As broad sections of the Democratic establishment pressure Biden to drop out of this year’s race, citing his mental state and concerns that he will be unable to beat Trump again, the president is posing as an anti-elite crusader.

“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites – now I’m not talking about you guys – the elites in the party, ‘Oh, they know so much more.’ Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention,” Biden told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ program last week in an audio-only phone call. Biden came under increased scrutiny after a disastrous debate against Trump last month, in which he often appeared absent-minded and sounded incoherent, adding fuel to the perception that he is mentally incapable to hold office for four more years.

Musk is openly supportive of some conservative policies, such as increased border security and opposition to “wokism.” This week he declared that he would move his businesses from California to Texas, after a law prohibited teachers in the Golden State to inform parents if their children identify as transgender at schools. Media have reported that Musk plans to donate around $45 million a month to a new super political action committee (PAC) backing Trump. He reacted to the claim by posting a “fake gnus” meme on social media.

Read more …

Zuckerberg-funded group the Center for Tech and Civic Life gave out $420 million to election offices in 2020.

• Musk Trolls Biden Over Donations Plea (RT)

Elon Musk has ridiculed US President Joe Biden for appealing to supporters for donations by casting the billionaire as part of a ballot-fixing elite. The plea published on Wednesday on Biden’s personal X (formerly Twitter) account said the president was “sick of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.” When he was shown a screenshot of the post, the entrepreneur responded: “I’m living rent-free in his head,” adding some emojis. He also shared a meme praising him as a “f**king legend” for buying Twitter and backing Donald Trump “during the erosion of the republic.” Biden’s reelection bid was undermined in late July by his poor performance in a debate with Trump, the Republican nominee. The Democrat has blamed the debacle on tiredness and being “overprepared.” He has rejected calls from inside the party to drop out of the race.

”I’m getting so frustrated by the elites – now I’m not talking about you guys – the elites in the party, ‘Oh, they know so much more.’ Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention,” Biden told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ program last week via telephone. The president has described ‘Morning Joe’ as his favorite show on American television. Co-host Joe Scarborough was among the Biden backers who urged him to end his reelection bid following the disastrous debate. But the media heavyweight later made another U-turn and now supports Biden’s candidacy again. Earlier this week, the US media claimed that Musk was going to donate $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super political action committee (PAC). He declined to comment on the claim directly, but posted a “fake gnus” meme in response to the coverage.

Read more …

That will be expensive: “..turning the EU into a “defense union” with a “single defense market.”

• Von der Leyen Secures Second Term At EU Helm (RT)

Ursula von der Leyen has been reelected for a second term as European Commission president, following a vote at the European Parliament on Thursday. The German politician secured a majority of the vote, with 401 out of 707 MEPs in favor of appointing her for another five years at the helm of the bloc. A total of 284 MEPs voted against the move, while 15 abstained. In her nearly hour-long speech at a plenary session ahead of the vote, von der Leyen pledged to fight for a democratic and “strong” Europe, promising to make housing, competitiveness, and defense the priorities for her new term. She also focused on plans to boost bloc-wide defense capabilities and outlined her aim of turning the EU into a “defense union” with a “single defense market.”

The climate agenda and environmental protection, which were at the heart of von der Leyen’s bid for a first term in 2019, will also be among the focal points, she said. The newly-reelected commissioner has also vowed that the bloc will continue “to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” and signaled that Kiev’s bid to join the bloc may be realized during her tenure. Regarding domestic EU policy, von der Leyen has pledged to overhaul the bloc’s common budget and make it more efficient, as well as supporting small and medium-sized businesses and protecting farmers across the bloc. In addition, she has proposed the creation of a ‘European Democracy Shield,’ while aiming to increase cooperation between member-states on tackling cyber threats and foreign interference.

Analysts say her address aimed to appeal to MPs across the political spectrum, as they reflected the suggestions expressed by the main parliamentary groups. “We are in a period of deep anxiety and uncertainty for Europeans [but] I am convinced that Europe, a strong Europe, can rise to the challenge… I am convinced that this version of Europe since the end of World War II, with all its imperfections and inequalities, is still the best version of Europe in history,” von der Leyen stated.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1813887120081035311

Read more …

To reward her MIC sponsors.

• Von der Leyen Planning To Turn EU Into ‘Defense Union’ (RT)

Ursula von der Leyen has said she plans to turn the EU into a “defense union,” should she secure a second term as European Commission president. The German’s vision for the 27-nation bloc includes creating a single defense market. In a speech ahead of a vote on her position in the European Parliament on Thursday, von der Leyen stated that “Russia is still on the offensive in eastern Ukraine” and claimed that Moscow is “banking on Europe and the West going soft.” She pledged that “Europe will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” warning that “for the very first time our liberty is at stake.”

“We must do everything we can to protect our citizens, it is our duty. I do believe it is now time to build a veritable European union of defense,” von der Leyen added. Outlining her vision for the EU, the former German defense minister said the bloc must keep control of its security and armies within the hands of member states, while NATO will remain “the pillar of our collective defense architecture.” Her vision, however, entails a single market for defense, joint arms-related investment programs, and common defense projects such as an EU-wide air defense system. According to von der Leyen, the EU’s defense sector in its current form is too “dependent on foreign allies,” with “spending on defense too low and ineffective.”

Separately, she also pledged to boost cooperation on tackling cyber threats and foreign interference, and triple the number of European border and coast guards to 30,000. Von der Leyen further signaled that the EU under her leadership would welcome the addition of new members such as Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and countries in the West Balkans. Russia has accused the West of prolonging the Ukraine conflict by continuing to send weapons to Kiev. Moscow has also rejected allegations that it is planning to attack EU countries as “horror stories” and “nonsense.” The European Parliament will decide later on Thursday whether to appoint von der Leyen for another five years at the helm of the bloc. While she is the only candidate for the post, she must still win a majority, or 361 votes out of 720, to hold on to her seat.

Read more …

She very actively tried to hide it. Unforgivable.

• Von der Leyen Commission Loses Covid Vaccine Case (RT)

The EU Commission concealed details of multibillion-euro Covid vaccine deals with pharma giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca without legitimate reason to do, the European Union’s second highest judicial body has found. The ruling by the bloc’s General Court covers purchase agreements struck by the EU Commission in 2020 and 2021, at the height of the pandemic, and worth “approximately €2.7 billion” ($2.95 billion), according to the court’s statement published on Wednesday. In 2021, MEPs requested access to the documents detailing the terms of the deals to make sure that the public interest was protected and the members of the EU negotiating team had no personal conflict of interest.

Brussels bosses only provided them with partial access to redacted documents and refused to reveal the identities of the negotiating team’s members. The Commission argued that was necessary to protect commercial interests and the decision-making process. The MEPs then brought the issue to the court. “The Commission did not give the public sufficiently wide access to the purchase agreements for COVID-19 vaccines,” the court said in its statement. “The Commission did not demonstrate that wider access to those clauses would actually undermine the commercial interests of those undertakings.”

The court also ruled that “the Commission did not take sufficient account of all the relevant circumstances in order to weigh up correctly the interests at issue, related to the absence of a conflict of interests and a risk that the right of privacy of the persons concerned might be infringed.” The ruling partly upheld two cases against Brussels and annulled the Commission’s decisions to withhold the data from the public, arguing that such decisions “contain irregularities.” Brussels promptly reacted to the judgement, which came just two days before a European Parliament vote on Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term as the EU Commission head. She has controversially claimed she deleted key SMS messages between her and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, and will be the subject of a European Court of Justice ruling on the matter expected this year.

“In general, the Commission grants the widest possible public access to documents, in line with the principles of openness and transparency,” the court said in a statement, adding that it “only partially upheld the legal action on two points” and “confirmed that the Commission was entitled to provide only partial access.” Brussels also stated that it would “carefully study” the decision and that it “reserves its legal options.” The EU Commission can still appeal the decision to the European Court of Justice – the bloc’s highest judiciary body.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Kids

 

 

Serval Ice

 

 

Dog hole
https://twitter.com/i/status/1814031597957709884

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 2 2024

Jul 022024
 
 July 2, 2024  Posted by at 9:14 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  48 Responses »


René Magritte Man in a bowler hat 1964

 

• US Supreme Court Rules Trump Has Presidential Immunity (RT)
• Trump Says Immunity Ruling ‘Big Win For Democracy’ (ZH)
• Biden Reacts To Trump Immunity Ruling (RT)
• Biden ‘United Democrats And Republicans’ With Debate Performance – Musk (RT)
• Obama Telling People Biden Can’t Win – Tucker Carlson (RT)
• Biden’s Family Urges Him To Fight On (ZH)
• DNC Weighs Early Nomination For Biden To Quash Internal Party Dissent (ZH)
• Surprise, Surprise! (Kunstler)
• Too Clever By Half (Turley)
• The Resurrection of French Nationalism? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The West – Indubitably – Has Lost Russia, And Is Losing Eurasia Too (Crooke)
• ‘Unipolar US Dollar’ Mutated Into ‘Politically Weaponized’ Tool (Sp.)
• Charles Nenner Warns “Very Hard Times Are Coming” (USAW)

 

 

 

 


https://twitter.com/i/status/1807804054136856803
https://twitter.com/i/status/1807766810130796737

 

 

Tapper

 

 

Plan B
https://twitter.com/i/status/1807876540648047090

 

 

 

 

“The President is not above the law. But under our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers..”

• US Supreme Court Rules Trump Has Presidential Immunity (RT)

American presidents have “absolute immunity” for their official actions, the US Supreme Court ruled on Monday, addressing a series of charges against former President Donald Trump. Federal prosecutors have charged Trump with four criminal counts related to the 2020 presidential election, alleging that he “conspired” to overturn the results by spreading “knowingly false claims” of fraud to obstruct the collection, counting, and certification of the results. “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” the court said in a 6-3 decision. “And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which saw the six conservative-leaning justices opposed by the three liberal ones.

The decision favors the former president in terms of his tweets to the American public on January 6 and conversations with then-Vice President Mike Pence about his presiding over the certification of election results, as both of those clearly fell within the scope of official duties. However, the verdict allows lower courts to hold evidentiary hearings to determine which actions by Trump may have been unofficial, such as when he contacted state and local election officials about the 2020 vote. “In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives,” the court warned. “The President is not above the law. But under our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts,” said the ruling.

The Supreme Court saved the immunity case for the last day of its term. The long-awaited decision puts a dent in the plans for special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump in the federal court in Washington, DC before the November election. Trump challenged the 2020 election – marked by a series of unusual procedures, ostensibly adopted due to the Covid-19 pandemic – as irregular and possibly tainted by fraud, pointing to delays in counting mail-in votes that suddenly went in Democrat Joe Biden’s favor after the polls closed in a handful of states. Democrats have insisted that the election was the most secure and legitimate ever and that any questioning of the result is an attack on democracy.

Read more …

“.. ‘all but ensures’ that a trial won’t happen in Trump’s classified documents case before the November election..”

• Trump Says Immunity Ruling ‘Big Win For Democracy’ (ZH)

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in a 6-3 vote that former presidents, including Trump, enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct involving official acts during tenure in office, but he’s not immune from unofficial acts. As Bloomberg notes, the decision – which kicks the ball back to the lower court – ‘all but ensures’ that a trial won’t happen in Trump’s classified documents case before the November election.The justices, voting 6-3 along ideological lines, said a federal appeals court was too categorical in rejecting Trump’s immunity arguments, ruling for the first time that former presidents are shielded from prosecution for some official acts taken while in office. The majority ordered the lower courts to revisit the case to decide the extent of the allegations that are off limits to prosecution.

“Just as former presidents have immunity from civil liability for official acts, they have immunity from criminal prosecution unless they are impeached and removed from office for the crime alleged. This decision is supported by the writings of the framers of the Constitution, the text of the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent,” wrote X user Martin Harry. As constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley notes, now “the issue is whether what constitutes official acts,” adding that the ruling will “further delay the lower court proceedings, but Trump will have to argue that his actions fall within these navigational beacons.” “The lower court judge has been highly favorable for Jack Smith in the past. Yet the court is arguing that there is a presumption of immunity for their official acts beyond the absolute immunity on core constitutional powers.” Meanwhile, Justice Thomas called into question the legality of Smith’s office:

In a blistering dissent, Justice Sotomayor writes that the ruling “makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our constitution and system of government, that no man is above the law.” “Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom… the court gives former President trump all the immunity he asked for and more.” Special counsel Jack Smith is leading two federal probes against Trump, both of which led to criminal charges. In Washington, Trump has been targeted over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, while a Florida case revolves around the mishandling of classified documents – for which Trump has claimed presidential immunity. In response to the ruling, Trump said on Truth Social that it was a “”BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY.”

Read more …

No president should attack the Supreme Court.

• Biden Reacts To Trump Immunity Ruling (RT)

US President Joe Biden has attacked the Supreme Court, urging citizens to “dissent” against its ruling that American presidents have “absolute immunity” for their official actions. In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the highest US court ruled that under “our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts.” Biden criticized the decision in a brief statement, calling it “a fundamentally new principle” and a “dangerous precedent because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law.”

“There are no kings in America. Each, each of us is equal before the law. No one, no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Biden claimed – even as the Supreme Court ruling specifically stated that “the President is not above the law” and that “there is no immunity for unofficial acts.” Federal prosecutors have charged former President Donald Trump with four criminal counts related to the 2020 presidential election, alleging that he “conspired” to overturn the results. The Supreme Court verdict allows lower courts to hold evidentiary hearings to determine which actions by Trump may have been unofficial. Trump called the ruling – which puts a dent in the Democrats’ plans to prosecute him in the federal court in Washington, DC before the November election – a “big win for our constitution and democracy.”

Biden warned Americans about a possible presidential return for Trump, saying that “people must decide if they want to entrust … the presidency to Donald Trump, now knowing that he’ll be even more emboldened to do whatever he pleases whenever he wants to do it.” Biden went on to quote Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent, in which she wrote: “In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.” “So should the American people dissent, I dissent,” Biden added, concluding his prepared remarks and taking no questions from the press.

Read more …

Very presidential…

• Biden ‘United Democrats And Republicans’ With Debate Performance – Musk (RT)

US President Joe Biden has united Democrats and Republicans in a common recognition of his cognitive decline, following a debate with Donald Trump last week, businessman Elon Musk has argued. The billionaire, who is a vocal critic of some Biden administration policies, such as on border security, supported an assessment made on Sunday by vlogger Farzad Mesbahi on X (formerly Twitter). The Spanish-born YouTuber and self-proclaimed troll said: “America seeing Biden’s cognitive decline at the debate feels like one of the most uniting things this country has experienced in a long, long time.” “True, first time I’ve seen Republicans & Democrats agree on something in a long time,” Musk responded, adding an emoji of a face with tears of joy. The entrepreneur also weighed in immediately following the debate after former 2024 GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said that Biden’s presentation made him wonder who runs the US government. Musk replied: “Maybe nobody.”

This election cycle’s first faceoff between Trump and Biden took place last Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia. Political observers have widely agreed that the incumbent failed to counter the perception that he has neither the energy nor mental acuity to lead the country for four more years. Some Democrats, either publicly or in private communications with journalists, have said Biden should stop his campaign after his dismal performance. By contrast, former President Barack Obama maintained his support for Biden’s bid despite the flop, posting on Friday: “bad debate nights happen” and that “last night didn’t change,” the stakes in the November election. Former President Bill Clinton echoed that sentiment, stating that he will relegate “the debate rating to the pundits.” The US president’s family, who reportedly are among the few who could convince him to quit, urged him to stay in the race during a meeting on Sunday, CNN sources have claimed.

Read more …

“Carlson also claimed that relations between Obama and Biden – who served as vice president between 2009 and 2017 – have never been warm, and were at times even “hostile.”

• Obama Telling People Biden Can’t Win – Tucker Carlson (RT)

Former US President Barack Obama is telling Democrats that incumbent Joe Biden has no chance of being reelected after his recent debate against GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, American conservative journalist Tucker Carlson has claimed. According to Carlson, Obama’s recent public endorsement of Biden was not sincere. Biden and Trump faced off in an open debate on Thursday night, with the president’s performance widely seen as “incoherent” and “fumbling,” underscoring concerns about his age. Following the showdown, many Democrats and their donors reportedly scrambled to find a replacement for Biden as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Publicly, however, many Democratic heavyweights, including Obama, reaffirmed their support for Biden. While admitting that “bad debate nights happen,” the former president insisted that “this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”

Writing on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Carlson said, citing an “unusually good source,” that Obama’s post had been “disingenuous.” “In private, Obama is telling people Biden can’t win, and he is therefore in favor of an open convention,” the journalist claimed. He added Obama is not saying whom he supports, but recently met with Biden in person to deliver the message. Carlson also claimed that relations between Obama and Biden – who served as vice president between 2009 and 2017 – have never been warm, and were at times even “hostile.” According to the journalist, those ties “recently… deteriorated further,” mostly due to First Lady Jill Biden, who allegedly “kept her husband cloistered away from anyone who might convince him to drop out” of the race for the White House after the disastrous debate.

Carlson added that Biden’s wife remains “the driving force behind her husband’s reelection campaign,” echoing a recent NBC report naming her as the only person who could convince the president to “change course.” However, CNN reported on Monday that Biden’s family, including Jill, had urged him not to end his campaign, blaming his poor performance on his team. While the Biden-Obama relationship has often been described as a “bromance” to the point of becoming meme material, numerous media reports indicated that things have been much more complicated. An Axios report in March suggested that Biden “often measures himself” against his predecessor, with a rivalry dynamic present in their relations. According to Politico, Obama also shared serious concerns about Biden’s ability to win the 2020 election.

Read more …

“..not telling Biden which camera would be on him as he blankly stared a thousand miles into space with his mouth agape..”

• Biden’s Family Urges Him To Fight On (ZH)

At a Camp David gathering on Sunday, President Biden’s extended family urged him to ignore the growing number of voices asking him to quit the race — and many of his loved ones blamed his disastrous debate on his advisors. According to Politico, the two who most forcefully encouraged the 81-year-old Biden to continue were his wife Jill and his son Hunter — the two people whose opinion he reportedly values most. The reports will strengthen a growing sense that Jill Biden is putting her own interests above that of her humiliated and failing husband. As one Democratic advisor told the New York Post over the weekend, “Jill Biden likes being First Lady…she doesn’t want to give that up.”

Meanwhile, Hunter, who doesn’t exactly have strong reputation for sound judgment, is said to long for Americans to see a version of his father that — as paraphrased by the Times — is “scrappy and in command of the facts.” Much as he once was in denial about his drug problem, Hunter now seems incapable of admitting that that version of his father is gone forever: Biden family members are said to have blamed the debate debacle on three advisors: Anita Dunn, her husband Bob Bauer — who played the role of Trump in practice sessions — and Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain, who was in charge of the debate training. Aides to Biden denied these reports from multiple outlets.

With Biden having spent a full week at Camp David gearing up for the debate, his family members and others are claiming the team worked the 81-year-old too hard, and tried to pack him full of too many statistics. They even fault advisors for a debate-night makeup job that transformed his summer-tanned face to one that was pale and unhealthy-looking. Relatives also blamed debate-host CNN for not “fact-checking” Donald Trump and not telling Biden which camera would be on him as he blankly stared a thousand miles into space with his mouth agape.

Jill

Read more …

“Democrats had already planned to nominate Biden, 81, before the convention in order to ensure he appears on the ballot in Ohio..”

• DNC Weighs Early Nomination For Biden To Quash Internal Party Dissent (ZH)

Bloomberg reports that the Democratic National Committee is considering formally nominating Joe Biden as early as mid-July to ensure that the president is on November ballots, while helping to stamp out intra-party chatter of replacing him after last week’s poor debate performance. Democrats had already planned to nominate Biden, 81, before the convention in order to ensure he appears on the ballot in Ohio, which had an Aug. 7 deadline for candidates to be certified. A potential date for Biden’s nomination is July 21, when the Democratic convention’s credentials committee meets virtually, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.nThe panel is meeting to finalize procedures before the party’s convention in Chicago starts on Aug. 19.

Interestingly, former President Trump’s sentencing hearing is set for July 11th, so he may well be in prison by then given the amount of pressure we assume is being placed on Judge Merchan’s shoulders to “lock him up”. Additionally, July 21 is just three days after Trump is scheduled to accept his party’s nomination at the Republican convention in Milwaukee. The desperate attempted message from all this narrative-shaping is simple – …nothing to see here, move along. Except we all saw the fireworks factory exploding with our own eyes. [..] At a Camp David gathering on Sunday, President Biden’s extended family urged him to ignore the growing number of voices asking him to quit the race — and many of his loved ones blamed his disastrous debate on his advisors. According to Politico, the two who most forcefully encouraged the 81-year-old Biden to continue were his wife Jill and his son Hunter — the two people whose opinion he reportedly values most.

The reports will strengthen a growing sense that Jill Biden is putting her own interests above that of her humiliated and failing husband. As one Democratic advisor told the New York Post over the weekend, “Jill Biden likes being First Lady…she doesn’t want to give that up.” Meanwhile, Hunter, who doesn’t exactly have strong reputation for sound judgment, is said to long for Americans to see a version of his father that — as paraphrased by the Times — is “scrappy and in command of the facts.” Much as he once was in denial about his drug problem, Hunter now seems incapable of admitting that that version of his father is gone forever: Biden family members are said to have blamed the debate debacle on three advisors: Anita Dunn, her husband Bob Bauer — who played the role of Trump in practice sessions — and Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain, who was in charge of the debate training. Aides to Biden denied these reports from multiple outlets.

With Biden having spent a full week at Camp David gearing up for the debate, his family members and others are claiming the team worked the 81-year-old too hard, and tried to pack him full of too many statistics. They even fault advisors for a debate-night makeup job that transformed his summer-tanned face to one that was pale and unhealthy-looking. Relatives also blamed debate-host CNN for not “fact-checking” Donald Trump and not telling Biden which camera would be on him as he blankly stared a thousand miles into space with his mouth agape. John Morgan, a top donor and friend of Biden’s brother Frank, was not at the family meeting, but joined the delusional pile-up on Biden’s advisers, telling the Times that the week-long debate prep — which involved rehearsals at various times of the day — was excessive: “It would be like if you took a prizefighter who was going to have a title fight and put him in a sauna for 15 hours then said, ‘Go fight.’ I believe that the debate is solely on Ron Klain, Bob Bauer and Anita Dunn.”

Unlike his family, the president is said to still hold confidence in the trio. Klain assured the Times that Biden will see the race through, saying, “He is the choice of the Democratic voters…We had a bad debate night. But you win campaigns by fighting — not quitting — in the face of adversity.” Of course, Biden is “the choice of Democratic voters” largely because the Democratic National Committee made sure he was the only choice available. A post-debate CBS News poll found that just 54% of registered Democrats think Biden should be in the race. The poll found 41% of Democrats think Biden lacks has the requisite mental and cognitive health. More importantly, 72% of all voters give him a failing grade on mental health. The family gathering at Camp David was reportedly scheduled before the debate, with the expectation that it would be a celebration of his performance and an opportunity for the extended Biden family — including his children and grandchildren — to be photographed by famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Read more …

“The Bidens flew off to the Hamptons Saturday to milk the showbiz cows and hedge-funders for a campaign that might not still exist..”

• Surprise, Surprise! (Kunstler)

Since his hiding-in-the-basement campaign in 2020 “Joe Biden’s” Party of Chaos has pretended that he is fit and alert for the job and now all of sudden they pretend to be shocked to see how far gone in the head he really is. The bullshit shovelers of the mainstream news media were especially rocked, not by the truth of the situation per se, but at being unmasked as the contemptible, confabulating tools that they’ve become. The New York Times wheeled around on a dime from their servile lionizing of the presidential hologram they helped create to its editorial board abjectly yelling for him to drop out and get gone. They were joined instantly by a long list of other opinion-shapers, campaign donors, political celebs, and Beltway players.

Right after the debate, First lady Dr. Jill led a cheerleading session before a roomful of partisans that went beyond cringeworthy into uncharted territory of mortification. (“You were great, Joe! You answered all the questions!”). By the time the entourage moved to a pre-planned event at a nearby Atlanta Waffle House, “JB” had gone full-on zombie. If all that was intended to be reassuring, the effect was the opposite. Someone handed the blank-faced old grifter a milkshake and they beat it out of there. The Bidens flew off to the Hamptons Saturday to milk the showbiz cows and hedge-funders for a campaign that might not still exist. “Everyone paid in advance. . .so it could be an opportunity to encourage him to drop out,” an invited guest told a New York Post reporter. “I wanted to go and see the train wreck,” another donor said. “I’d rather choose someone from a phone book than have Biden.”

That was generally the tone among the woke-gay-communist echelons all over the land — surprisingly vehement, considering that just forty-eight hours before they were all in on re-election. Some could probably see their lucrative hustles whirling around the drain, and others might fret about just how far and wide prosecutions under a Trump Attorney General might loom. “JB” and his family circle attempted to regroup over the weekend at Camp David where first son, Hunter (“the smartest man I know,” the president often says), led the buoying-up session, perhaps mindful of the many bank accounts set up by his lawyers in the name of Biden family members (including little grandchildren) for receipt of influence-peddling revenue gathered sedulously from entities abroad during “Joe Biden’s” post-veep high-earning years. The family emerged from that meet-up triumphantly, ready to forget the one bad evening and jump back into the election game.

Read more …

“Smith has long tended to push the law to the breaking point to bag defendants..”

• Too Clever By Half (Turley)

The Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer v. United States rejecting the use of obstruction of legal proceedings against January 6th defendants will potentially impact hundreds of cases. For some, it may lead to dismissals or, in the cases with multiple charges, resentencings. One of those cases that will be impacted is the pending prosecution of former president Donald Trump who is facing four charges, including two obstruction counts. However, it is not clear if Special Counsel Jack Smith will yield to the decision or possibly take the dubious path laid out by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her concurrence. Smith has long tended to push the law to the breaking point to bag defendants. That was the case when his conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell was unanimously reversed as overextending another law.

It is doubtful that he will go quietly into the night after the Fischer decision. In most cases, a prosecutor would go back and secure a superseding indictment in light of the loss of the obstruction claims. Those claims were central to the narrative of the government under the current indictment. That is not Smith’s style. He may decide to push even harder for a trial before the election on the remaining counts. Smith has made the trial before the election an overriding priority throughout his appointment. He also has a very favorable and motivated judge in United States District Judge Tanya Chutkan. He could also take a not-so-subtle hint from Jackson in her concurrence. Jackson supported the majority in finding that the obstruction provision, Section 1512(c), was enacted after the Enron case to address the destruction of documents and records.

Section 1512(c)(1) prohibits corruptly obstructing an official proceeding by altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a record, document, or other object with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding. However, a second provision under subsection (c)(2) allowed for charges that would “otherwise” obstruct, influence, or impede an official proceeding. The Court held that the obstruction cases under Section 1512(c)(2) must be tied to impairing the integrity or availability of evidence. However, in a single justice concurrence, she added a way that Smith and other prosecutors might still be able to shoehorn January 6th into a Section 1512 offense:

“That official proceeding [Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote] plainly used certain records, documents, or objects—including, among others, those relating to the electoral votes themselves. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 65–67. And it might well be that Fischer’s conduct, as alleged here, involved the impairment (or the attempted impairment) of the availability or integrity of things used during the January 6 proceeding “in ways other than those specified in (c)(1).” Ante, at 8. If so, then Fischer’s prosecution under §1512(c)(2) can, and should, proceed. That issue remains available for the lower courts to determine on remand.” Notably, no other justice joined Jackson in the concurrence. However, Smith and Chutkan could reason that it was not expressly rejected and presumably, the three justices in dissent would support the broader reading since they were willing to sign off on the ultimate extension of the obstruction of justice statute. That includes Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

However, that still leaves less than a majority and an application that runs against the grain of the opinion. Just saying that a proceeding involves “certain records” is transparently artificial and forced. Even the submission of an alternative slate of electors is not the destruction of electors certified by the secretaries of state. The federal law allows for challenges in Congress, which Democrats previously utilized without claims of insurrections or attacks on democracy. J6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), voted to challenge the certification of the 2004 results of President George W. Bush’s reelection; committee member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sought to challenge Trump’s certification in 2016. Both did so under the very law that Trump’s congressional supporters used in 2020. And Pelosi and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) praised the challenge organized by then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in 2004.

Those challenges under the same loose theory could have been viewed as attempting to negate or destroy certifications from the states. It would likely, in my view, result in another reversal. It is, in my view, too clever by half. That may not concern Smith who may still want to use the obstruction counts to increase the likelihood of convictions on the other counts. In such a circumstance, the overturning of the two obstruction convictions might still leave the conviction for conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy against the rights of citizens. We will see in the coming weeks, but Smith is likely waiting for the other shoe to drop in the Trump immunity case. That could add additional complications if the case is remanded by the Court for further proceedings. There is little time for a trial before November if the district court must hold hearings on claims that statements or actions were taken by Trump as part of his office.

Read more …

“If Putin does not immediately use sufficient force to terminate the conflict, World War Three seems certain..”

• The Resurrection of French Nationalism? (Paul Craig Roberts)

France was the last European nation to lose its sovereignty, and France might be the first to recover its sovereignty. In the 1960s France was still a nation of ethnic French as contrasted with the tower of babel and a geographical entity that it is today. During the ten-year presidency of Charles De Gaulle (1959-69) France’s policy was one of national independence. DeGaulle refused to join NATO, and he opposed a supranational Europe in which nations would subordinate themselves to a European Union.French independence could be on the point of return judging from the success of Marine Le Pen’s party yesterday in the current French elections. Her nationalist party has in the first round of the parliamentary elections taken 34% of the votes with President Macron’s centrist coalition receiving only 21% support. If the second round produces similar results, a restoration of French independence is possible.

For many years European governments have worked consistently to overwhelm their ethnic populations with third world immigrant-invaders. It has reached the point where ethnic European women raped by immigrant-invaders fear to report the crime as it can result in a charge of racism or worse against the victim. For example, in response to a gang-rape of an ethnic German female, a 20-year old ethnic German female citizen called one of the gang rapists a “disgraceful rapist pig.” The German citizen was sentenced to jail for defaming an immigrant-invader, a protected species under German law, while the rapist was given a suspended sentence and served no jail time. For many years the European working class has experienced their living standards reduced in the name of economy. Not long ago the French were protesting the rise in the retirement age, which forces them to work longer for their pension.

The French have noticed that economy measures only apply to their living standards and not to the vast sums that Macron pours into the West’s war against Russia in Ukraine. Now all of Europe hears continually that they must prepare, and cough up money for, war with Russia. The French don’t want war with Russia. Nor do the Germans, or the Italians. Only “their” governments do, and war is what Washington’s puppets have put on the agenda. Europeans don’t want the high energy cost and lost profit and employment opportunities imposed on them by Washington’s “Russian sanctions.” It seems to Europeans that the purpose of Washington’s sanctions is to make Europe more dependent on Washington, essentially reducing them to serfs. Finally, after suffering decades of abuse, insult, and total disregard by their leaders, Europeans protested in the recent European Union parliamentary elections. The ruling parties were repudiated across the board.

The Belgian prime minister had to resign. The French president had to call national elections. I wrote that if the repudiation carries over into the national elections, we could see the unravelling of NATO, the European Union, and a return of sovereign European nations. World War II gave control of Europe to the US instead of to Germany. The Soviet collapse gave Washington control over the Warsaw Pact, placing NATO on Russia’s border. Washington’s policy was to de-Germanize Germany and to destroy a national awareness. Washington controlled German education and indoctrinated Germans that nationalism was racist, produced Hitler and the Holocaust. Legislation was passed essentially criminalizing a positive attitude toward German nationalism. It meant that you were a Nazi. It still does. It is unclear if a German state can ever be resurrected.

Rid of the Germans, Washington turned its efforts on France. De Gaulle’s departure weakened France. It took time, but eventually Washington controlled who the French president would be. With France, Germany, and the British in Washington’s pocket, the rest of Europe went along. Today European nations that shared the rule of the world are puppets of a criminal regime in Washington. The notion that there is any military power in these puppet states is laughable. The self-confidence that made the British the ruler of the world has long departed. It was destroyed at Oxford and Cambridge. No Western country has a positive opinion of itself. All are being keyed for war with Russia, China, Iran, while they themselves are being overrun by immigrant-invaders who are paid tribute for their support and permitted to rape European women as a form of restitution.

The Kremlin does not understand the hollowed out, empty, West where there is no support for any government. Western peoples are brainwashed into impotence and cannot even protect their constitutional rights. Why would anyone fight for these governments, and if forced, with what spirit? Putin sits there in his legalistic way accepting insult after insult, provocation after provocation, as his way of avoiding war with the West. It is not only Western provocations that are widening the Ukraine conflict into World War III. Putin has permitted the conflict to go on and on and on, and this has enabled Washington to get more and more and more involved, thus widening the conflict. If Putin does not immediately use sufficient force to terminate the conflict, World War Three seems certain. There is hope that if Le Pen wins France and does not sell out to Washington, the unravelling of NATO and resurrection of European independence will begin. But this can be a slow process, while the developments in Ukraine toward wider war are accelerating. The time is rapidly ending during which Putin can use sufficient force to end the conflict before it results in World War Three.

Read more …

“The West has ‘lost’ Russia much more profoundly than is understood..”

• The West – Indubitably – Has Lost Russia, And Is Losing Eurasia Too (Crooke)

There perhaps was a momentary shrugging-off of slumber in Washington this week as they read the account of Sergei Lavrov’s démarche to the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow: Russia was telling the U.S. – “We are no longer at peace”! Not just ‘no longer at peace’, Russia was holding the U.S. responsible for the ‘cluster strike’ on a Crimean beach on last Sunday’s Pentecost holiday, killing several (including children) and injuring many more. The U.S. thereby “became party” to the proxy war in Ukraine (it was an American-supplied ATACM; programmed by American specialists; and drawing on U.S. data), Russia’s statement read; “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow”. Evidently, somewhere an amber light flashed hues of pink and red. The Pentagon grasped that something had happened – ‘No going around it; This could escalate badly’. The U.S. Defence Secretary (after a pause since March 2023) reached for the phone to call his Russian counterpart: ‘The U.S. regretted civilian deaths; the Ukrainians had full targeting discretion’.

The Russian public however, is plain furious. The diplomatic argot of ‘there now being a state of betweenness; not war and not peace’ is but the ‘half of it’. The West has ‘lost’ Russia much more profoundly than is understood. President Putin – in his statement to the Foreign Ministry Board in wake of the G7 sword-rattling – detailed just how we had arrived at this pivotal juncture (of inevitable escalation). Putin indicated that the gravity of the situation demanded a ‘last chance’ offer to the West, one that Putin emphatically said was to be “No temporary ceasefire for Kiev to prepare a new offensive; nor a freezing the conflict – but rather, needed to be about the war’s final completion”. It has been widely understood that the only credible way to end the Ukraine war would be a ‘peace’ agreement emerging through negotiation between Russia and the U.S. This however is rooted in a familiar U.S.-centric vision – ‘Waiting on Washington …’.

Lavrov archly commented (in paraphrase) that if anyone imagines we are ‘waiting for Godot’, and ‘will run for it’, they are mistaken. Moscow has something much more radical in mind – something that will shock the West. Moscow (and China) are not simply waiting upon the whims of the West, but plan to invert completely the security architecture paradigm: To create an ‘Alt’ architecture for the ‘vast space’ of Eurasia, no less. It is intended to exit the existing bloc zero-sum confrontation. A new confrontation is not envisaged; however the new architecture nevertheless is intended to force ‘external actors’ to curtail their hegemony across the continent. In his Foreign Ministry address, Putin explicitly looked ahead to the collapse of the Euro-Atlantic security system and to a new architecture emerging: “The world will never be the same again”, he said.

What did he mean? Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s principal Foreign Policy adviser (at the Primakov Readings Forum), clarified Putin’s ‘sparse’ allusion: Ushakov reportedly said that Russia increasingly has come to the view there is not going to be any long-term re-shaping of the security system in Europe. And without any major re-shaping, there will be no ‘final completion’ (Putin’s words) to the conflict in Ukraine. Ushakov explained that this unified and indivisible security system in Eurasia must replace the Euro-Atlantic and Euro-centric models that are now receding into oblivion. “This speech [of Putin at the Russian Foreign Ministry], I would say, sets the vector of further activities of our country at the international stage, including the building of a single and indivisible security system in Eurasia,” Ushakov said.

Read more …

“.. the United States has massively over-extended itself and damaged its own reliability as a global trade partner.”

• ‘Unipolar US Dollar’ Mutated Into ‘Politically Weaponized’ Tool (Sp.)

“In essence, the more the United States prints and spends USD, the more the rest of the world is expected to invest in US government paper, and subsidize this debt-spending. The BRICS nations and their adherents are advocating for the use of national currencies for cross-border trade, eventually de-linking from the increasingly unipolar and visibly unreliable US Dollar,” Goncharoff explained. Furthermore, analysts at the Russia’s Pivot to Asia website wrote that two “main global financial evolutionary events” are unfolding right now. These involve changes to the role of the US dollar, and “technology and the digitization of financial transactions.” America has itself to blame for the loss of the greenback’s credibility as a global currency, mainly due to the mind-boggling US-dollar issued debt – a whopping $32.72 trillion.

“It has created a scenario where foreign governments are increasingly wary of investing in additional US dollar debt until a management system is put in place that will be able to support such a load,” Goncharoff noted. He forecasts that the US dollar “will become prone to increasing shocks, leading to uncertainty and mistrust on the global financial markets.” If the US were to default on its debt, American bondholders would carry losses on their investments, and the negative impacts on global trade would be huge, he warned. He underscored that the US treasury norm of printing of more dollars to cover up the fiscal debt “debases the actual value of the currency and encourages inflation.”

While Moscow has effectively “inoculated” itself from looming future problems with the US economy, other countries, like China, are doing the same. The trade focus is shifting away from the United States, fueling a geopolitical evolution of trade blocs like BRICS, the Eurasian Economic Union and Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with some like BRICS discussing alternative currency platforms. “One proposal for a unified BRICS trade unit is the “BRICS Bridge” allowing the ten current members to exchange units based 60% of their sovereign currencies and 40% backed by their gold reserves,” noted Goncharoff, and summed up:. “For Russia, and most other nations, there is a far bigger picture – where non-US dominated, global trade opportunities beckon.” Furthermore, the US has used the dollar as a trade and geopolitical weapon, said the pundit, seeking to abuse economies of Venezuela, Iran, Turkey and Russia amongst others.

“It has done this in two main areas, firstly by manipulating the US dollar currency exchange rates in order to damage other national currencies when the US wants to inflict fiscal punishments or seek trade advantages,” remarked the analyst, adding that Washington “has also used the global SWIFT payment network as a switch to turn US dollar trade on and off according to its policies.” “Other governments are becoming concerned that these punishments could in future be meted out to them, which also creates mistrust and fear of US dollar over-exposure. Any one of these problems are serious. It appears ultimately unlikely the United States will be able to fend off the repercussions of them all. In short – the United States has massively over-extended itself and damaged its own reliability as a global trade partner.”

Read more …

“The children here have not gone to school for a year, and we are under rocket fire day and night. It is a very strange situation.”

• Charles Nenner Warns “Very Hard Times Are Coming” (USAW)

This week, Nenner’s war cycle “turned straight up” and his economic cycle “turned straight down.” The next big conflict is not going to be in Ukraine or Taiwan–just yet. On Saturday, this headline: “Iran Threatens Israel With ‘Obliterating War’ If It Attacks Lebanon.” Nenner says all hell is about to break loose. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran and Turkey are key players in an escalating war with Israel. Nenner, who lives on the border with Lebanon in Northern Israel, interviewed with USAW just after a barrage of 100 rockets hit near his location. Nenner reports, “The children here have not gone to school for a year, and we are under rocket fire day and night. It is a very strange situation. What I don’t understand is the Arab resistance, led by Iran, did not see what happened in Gaza. If this really goes, Lebanon is going to disappear from the map…

How do I know these things? I know these things because I work with several governments in the world… In the 1960’s, there was a war, and half of Cypress ended up Turkish and half of Cypress is Greek. Turkey never accepted that. . . . Israel is using airfields in Cypress. . . . If this really gets going, Turkey is going to take over Cypress because they support Hamas (and Hezbollah). Turkey will invade Cypress, and this will lead to a war between Greece and Turkey. Of course, Iran is going to be involved also. Big boats are heading to Israel, so America is going to be involved. Russia has its ideas too… I don’t think Americans have any clue what is going on there, and they have no background. They are only busy with trying to win the Election, and it’s going to lead to catastrophe. If there is a war, Turkey is going to be involved, Cypress is going to be involved, NATO is going to be involved, and it is going to be much more serious than people think.”

Nenner says, “We are already in the next big war cycle.” Nenner still thinks China is going to be a big problem and says, “I would say if the world is busy with all this nonsense, then this is a time for China to take Taiwan over. The war cycle is extra up, so we have to be very careful. A lot of my wealthy clients are busy trying to get visas . . . to Caribbean islands. I know many wealthy people busy trying to get visas and trying to get out of America. This is what is going on below the surface, and most small investors don’t know what is going on… They are worried about a nuke strike or terrorists blowing stuff up left and right because they came through the border. This is a very dangerous situation. They are not leaving right now, but they are preparing now… The war cycle has turned up, and it is going to be extra dangerous from the 3rd of July on.”

Nenner says his big clients are also leaving the cities and buying houses in rural locations. Nenner told me this is a trend that has been going on for about 5 years, but it has picked up speed in the last year and a half. Nenner says his economic cycles have turned straight down. In NYC, Nenner points out, “I have very wealthy clients that just got out of commercial real estate with a 67% loss. I also know the banks, they are holding all these bad loans.” “The banks have US bonds coming to maturity that they have lost a fortune on. So, the banks, especially the regional banks, are going to be in big trouble… The regional banks are very weak. A lot is burning below the surface, which nobody tells you about.” Nenner still likes gold, but it’s going to consolidate here. Inflation is getting ready to take off again, and Nenner says, “Layoffs are coming soon. . . . Very hard times are coming.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Macgregor
https://twitter.com/i/status/1807746047541694893

 

 

Thomas

 

 

Issa

 

 

Silicone

 

 

Wave

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 Older Entries