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Debt Rattle May 8 2025

May 082025
 
 May 8, 2025  Posted by at 8:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  54 Responses »


Edouard Vuillard The two sisters 1899

 

• Russia’s 72-hour ‘Victory Day’ Truce Begins (RT)
• Trump Warns of ‘Decisions’ on Russia-Ukraine Talks (RT)
• Von der Leyen Calls On EU To Speed Up Ukrainian Entry (RT)
• EU Parliament Head Threatens To Sue von der Leyen (Sp.)
• ‘Absolute Insanity’ – Hungary Slams EU Plan To Halt Russian Energy Imports (RT)
• Slovakia’s Fico Calls EU’s Refusal of Russian Fuel ‘Economic Suicide’ (Sp.)
• New German Chancellor Tells US To ‘Stay Out’ of Berlin’s Affairs (RT)
• Who der Leyen: EU’s Major, Unfixable Problem With Its Foreign Policy (Marsden)
• Proof That Polls Showing Trump Underwater Are Bogus (Margolis)
• President Trump’s Most Loyal Supporters: Hispanics (Victor Davis Hanson)
• Yemen – US Concedes Maritime Defeat (MoA)
• Canadian PM Asks Trump To Rein In His Taunts (RT)
• Trump Administration Asks for Help in Uncovering Big Tech Censorship (Stepman)
• Confirming Trump’s Court Nominees ‘Priority’ for Judiciary Committee (DS)
• Pete Hegseth: Today’s Decisions and Tomorrow’s Military (Zito)
• Pakistan Closes Airspace For 48 Hours, Authorizes Response To Indian Attack (ZH)
• The Russia-Ukraine Lesson India Must Learn From Its Pakistan Standoff (Suchkov)
• ‘Prince Andrew Was F*ing Underage Girls’ – James O’ Keefe (ZH)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1920144368599552162

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1919787566317908125

https://twitter.com/BRICSinfo/status/1919770832135491818
https://twitter.com/BellaVLiberman/status/1919896141505737188
https://twitter.com/SMO_VZ/status/1919902855655293265

https://twitter.com/SMO_VZ/status/1920032150537056657

Ritter

Bondi

 

 

 

 

Predictable: Putin declares a truce. Zelensky refuses. Ukraine violates the truce terms. Ukraine and the entire western press claim Russia itself broke the truce.

• Russia’s 72-hour ‘Victory Day’ Truce Begins (RT)

A 72-hour ceasefire proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially come into effect, with Russian forces halting offensive operations from midnight on Thursday, despite a surge in Ukrainian drone attacks in the hours before the truce. The pause in fighting, set to last until midnight on May 10–11, is described as a humanitarian gesture marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The Kremlin says the ceasefire also aims to create space for direct peace talks with Ukraine, without preconditions. ”Yes, this is an initiative by the Russian side, by President Putin. It remains in force,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Wednesday, stressing that Moscow is committed to honoring the truce despite Ukraine’s record-breaking drone assault ahead of its start.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has refused to back the ceasefire, denouncing it as an “attempt at manipulation” and accusing Russia of using humanitarian overtures for tactical advantage. Instead of pausing hostilities, Kiev intensified its drone campaign, with high-ranking Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik stating that Ukrainian UAV strikes over the past week caused a record number of civilian casualties — 15 killed and 142 injured. Earlier in the week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Zelensky of engaging in “classic terrorist behavior” by threatening civilians in Russia while soliciting additional funding from Western donors.

Peskov condemned the continued attacks, accusing the “Kiev regime” of revealing “its essence and inclination toward terrorist actions.” He noted that Russian special services and the military are taking all necessary measures to ensure Victory Day events proceed safely across the country. Despite calls from some lawmakers for an “asymmetrical” response to the drone strikes, the Kremlin has reiterated its position: “All instructions have been given, there are no new elements here,” Peskov said when asked about potential retaliation during the ceasefire window. Victory Day, celebrated on May 9, commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and remains one of the most significant public holidays in Russia.

Read more …

Vance and Trump may claim that Russia asks for too much, but this didn’t start today. The situation is the culmination of three years of fighting. Which itself was the culmination of over 10 years of mostly violent ‘provocations’. Now, Russia wants to stop these provocations once and for all. Incorporating Crimea and the 4 regions into Russia is part of that. In the first peace talks 3 years ago Russia never talked about land. Only when it became clear the talks were fake, did it become an issue. And now there’s no going back. Russia can’t give away parts of its own territory.

Vance should do his homework.

• Trump Warns of ‘Decisions’ on Russia-Ukraine Talks (RT)

President Donald Trump has expressed displeasure over the pace of the US-brokered negotiations with Russia and Ukraine regarding the current conflict, stating that decisions need to be reached soon. According to US Vice President J.D. Vance, Washington currently considers Russia’s demands for ending the conflict unacceptable. “The Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions, in order to end the conflict. We think they’re asking for too much,” he said at a Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Trump was asked to comment on Vance’s statement in a press briefing in the White House later in the day. “It’s possible that he’s right,” the US president replied. “I’m not happy about it,” Trump said.

Senior figures in the current US administration, including the president himself, have stated that Washington may have to step back from trying to mediate talks over the Ukraine conflict if sufficient progress is not made. “At some point in time, it either has to be something that can happen or we all need to move on. That’ll be a decision the president will have to make,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News last week. Washington has reportedly prepared a fresh set of economic sanctions targeting Russia’s energy and banking sectors, as potential leverage in the talks.

Moscow has repeatedly declared that it remains open to peace talks with Kiev. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a 72-hour ceasefire around the upcoming Victory Day celebrations. Ukraine rejected the initiative, demanded an unconditional 30-day truce and increased UAV and missile attacks on Russia. Despite this, the ceasefire offer is still on the table, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Russia’s demands for ending the conflict have remained stable: Ukraine must demilitarize, denazify, abandon ambitions to join NATO, stay neutral and remain free of nuclear weapons. In addition, Kiev needs to recognize the Russian regions of Crimea, Kherson and Zaporozhye as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Moscow has stated.

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Either she goes, or the EU is finished. And she won’t go voluntarily.

• Von der Leyen Calls On EU To Speed Up Ukrainian Entry (RT)

Ukraine EU accession talks should be launched in 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed on Wednesday. She argued that such a step would enhance Kiev’s negotiating position against Moscow while also opening the door for more investments in the country’s military industry. Kiev has repeatedly expressed its desire to join the EU. However, Ukraine’s “immediate” accession has been consistently opposed by several member states. Hungary has voiced concerns over corruption, the treatment of ethnic minorities, and economic competition, particularly in agriculture. Other EU nations, including Slovakia, France, and Germany, have also expressed reservations, emphasizing that Kiev must meet existing reform benchmarks before talks proceed. Speaking at a Europe Day event on May 7, von der Leyen said that the EU’s current task is to “help Ukraine stand strong, defy Putin’s intimidations.”

“Today, I would like to focus on how we can do so, and on three priorities for our action. First, support Ukraine’s defense. Second, complete the phase-out of Russian fossil fuels. And third, accelerate Ukraine’s accession path to our Union.” She added that Brussels is “working hard with Ukraine to open the first cluster of accession talks, and to open all clusters in 2025.” While Russia has consistently rejected the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, its position on EU accession has been more restrained. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that the country has a “sovereign right” to join the bloc, provided that it remains a matter of economic integration and not military alignment.

At the same time, Russian officials have increasingly warned that the EU is losing its purely civilian character. Peskov has accused the bloc of actively working to prolong the Ukraine conflict by repeatedly expressing its intention to keep supporting Kiev in its desire to “continue the war.” He has also criticized Brussels for undermining peace efforts by consistently portraying Russia as the bloc’s primary adversary. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had previously also stated that the EU was “becoming militarized at a record pace,” and claimed there was now “very little difference” between the EU and NATO.

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“..adoption of the Commission’s plan without a proper legal basis would end up “putting at risk democratic legitimacy by undermining Parliament’s legislative and scrutiny functions..”

• EU Parliament Head Threatens To Sue von der Leyen (Sp.)

The European Parliament has warned the European Commission (EC) that it could take it to court if it bypasses EU lawmakers to create a €150 billion ($170 billion) loan program to boost defense spending across the bloc. In March, EC head Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a plan to raise €800 billion to expand military potential across the EU in response to what she described as “a threat coming from Russia” – a claim rejected by Moscow. To raise the money, the Commission used Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which allows member states in emergencies to approve proposals from the executive branch in Brussels without going through the usual process.

On Monday, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola sent a letter to von der Leyen, urging her to change the legal basis for the initiative, threatening to sue the EC if it fails to comply. The adoption of the Commission’s plan without a proper legal basis would end up “putting at risk democratic legitimacy by undermining Parliament’s legislative and scrutiny functions,” the letter read. The EC “will always be available to explain why Article 122 has been chosen as the appropriate legal basis,” its spokesman Thomas Regnier told Euronews. “[Western] Europe faces an unprecedented security threat.

As stated by President von der Leyen in her Political Guidelines, Article 122 will only be used in exceptional circumstances, as the ones we are currently living in,” Regnier stated. The €150 billion loan program is seen by the Commission as a cornerstone of its ‘Readiness 2030’ proposal to invest over €800 billion into defense across the bloc by the end of the decade when – as Brussels claims – Russia would be in a position to attack an EU-member country. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rejected allegations that Moscow harbors aggressive intentions toward EU countries, calling it “nonsense” designed to alarm Western Europeans and legitimize major increases in defense budgets.

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“..uphold the right to source energy from where it reliably arrives and where it arrives at a low cost.”

• ‘Absolute Insanity’ – Hungary Slams EU Plan To Halt Russian Energy Imports (RT)

The European Commission’s plan to completely phase out Russian fuel imports violates the sovereignty of EU member states by depriving them of the right to choose their energy sources, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. Brussels has outlined plans to end the bloc’s energy reliance on Moscow by completely eliminating imports of oil, gas, and nuclear fuel in the coming years. Hungary obtains over 80% of its gas from Russia via pipeline, with LNG playing a supplementary role. Budapest has continued to strengthen its energy ties with Moscow despite the sanctions introduced by the EU in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

“The forced, artificially ideological-based exclusion of natural gas, crude oil, and nuclear fuel originating from Russia will lead to severe price increases in Europe, seriously harming the sovereignty of European countries, and cause major difficulties for European companies,” Szijjarto said in a video he shared on his Facebook page on Tuesday, adding that “what was announced is absolute insanity.” “Everyone in Brussels has lost their common sense,” the foreign minister exclaimed, emphasizing that Budapest would not allow the European Commission (EC) to violate Hungary’s sovereignty and would “uphold the right to source energy from where it reliably arrives and where it arrives at a low cost.” Earlier in the day, the EC published a “roadmap” outlining its ambitious strategy to end reliance on Russian energy by the end of 2027.

The bloc’s executive branch said it would propose legislation in June requiring all member states to draft “national plans” to terminate their imports of Russian gas, nuclear fuel, and oil. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico also criticized the plan, calling the proposal “economic suicide.” He added that Slovakia would push for changes in the legislative process. Brussels announced its intention to wean EU members off Russian energy shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Supplies of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) have since replaced much of the cheaper pipeline gas previously delivered by Russia. Although Russian pipeline gas supplies to the EU have plummeted, the bloc has been increasing its imports of LNG from the sanction-hit nation. Last year, Russia still accounted for around 19% of the EU’s total gas and LNG supply, according to the EC.

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“This is an economic suicide: to come to the point where [there is] no gas, no oil, no nuclear fuel, nothing [from Russia] just because some new iron curtain is being set up..”

Several EU countries denied Orban and Fico permission to use their airspace to go to Moscow tomorrow. EU countries!

• Slovakia’s Fico Calls EU’s Refusal of Russian Fuel ‘Economic Suicide’ (Sp.)

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that the European Union’s desire to completely abandon Russian energy resources was economic suicide. On Tuesday, the European Commission presented the REPowerEU roadmap for ending Russian energy imports. It proposed a halt to all remaining Russian gas contracts by the end of 2027, as well as restrictions on imports of enriched uranium from Russia. “This is an economic suicide: to come to the point where [there is] no gas, no oil, no nuclear fuel, nothing [from Russia] just because some new iron curtain is being set up between the Western world and perhaps Russia and other countries,” Fico told a news conference.

The European Union’s desire to reject Russian energy resources is an “extremely dangerous game,” the prime minister said, adding that Slovakia would work to draw the European Commission’s attention to the risks associated with the decision. Earlier in the week, Fico said that by insisting on cutting off energy supplies from the east, the EU was creating conditions for further gas price hikes for political reasons. Slovak National Council Deputy Speaker Tibor Gaspar had previously told RIA Novosti that Bratislava was interested in further purchases of Russian energy resources, and this was due, among other things, to the orientation of capacities towards Russian raw materials.

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Double tongue: “Ten million AfD voters, you cannot ban them..” And then do it anyway…

• New German Chancellor Tells US To ‘Stay Out’ of Berlin’s Affairs (RT)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has told the US government to “stay out” of his nation’s domestic politics. It comes after Trump administration officials slammed the designation of Germany’s second-largest party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), as an “extremist” organization. Following the move last week by Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, US Vice President J.D. Vance said the “German establishment” had “rebuilt” the Berlin Wall. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in turn, declared that the EU’s largest economy has become “a tyranny in disguise” and called upon the German authorities to change course. Merz, who was elected chancellor only after failing his first confirmation vote in parliament, told the broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday that “absurd observations” were emanating from Washington regarding the treatment of the right-wing party AfD by German authorities.

The chancellor stressed he “would like to encourage the American government… to largely stay out of” German domestic politics. The 69-year-old politician noted that he “did not interfere in the American election campaign” last year, which ended with Trump winning a second term in the White House. He also expressed his belief that US politicians should not support AfD because they “can clearly distinguish between extremist parties and parties of the political center.” Merz said he is planning a phone call with Trump on Thursday, with their first face-to-face meeting set for the NATO summit in the Hague on June 24 and 25.

When asked about the possibility of AfD being outlawed in Germany altogether, the chancellor said the German government needed to show restraint on the issue. “Ten million AfD voters, you cannot ban them,” Merz argued. He said the ruling CDU/CSU alliance should instead focus on addressing the causes pushing people to vote for the right-wing party. AfD demands tighter immigration and asylum laws and opposes the “woke agenda.” It achieved its best ever result in February’s election, clinching 20.8% of the vote and finishing second after CDU/CSU, which got 28.5%. The party filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging the BfV’s decision to classify it an “extremist” organization.

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“Her unity-at-any-cost talk really just means that dissent from countries that disagree is quashed. And those dissenters are typically those with ideological views and approaches similar to Trump’s..”

• Who der Leyen: EU’s Major, Unfixable Problem With Its Foreign Policy (Marsden)

This one stings. When asked how the EU might dodge US President Donald Trump’s tariff hammer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent replied, “My observation… goes all the way back to [former US Secretary of State] Henry Kissinger’s statement: ‘When I call Europe, who do I call?’ So, we’re negotiating with a lot of different interests.” Translation: You can’t sit with us until you stop fighting at your own lunch table. Sure, the continent is tripping over its own policies and tumbling down an economic staircase, but at least everyone’s falling in sync. Brussels tightens the “unity” straitjacket, and they all cheer, or risk getting whacked back into line. Unity is the brand. Unity is the product. Unity is the hashtag. “Only together can we address the grave challenges we face,” unelected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in January 2024.

“It is thanks to all this that in the last five years, Europe has weathered the fiercest storm in our economic history. And we overcame an unprecedented energy crisis. We did this together, and we can do it again. And we have the political will. Because when Europe is united, it gets things done,” she said in an address earlier this year at the Davos World Economic Forum, explaining how solidarity will help the EU weather the problems created by its own policies. “The EU’s strength lies in its unity, including when confronted with major health crises. European solidarity, in sharing medical supplies, treating patients or helping repatriate citizens, and in the reconstruction of our economies, helped us to protect our citizens together and overcome the most difficult phases of the pandemic,” she said in 2023 about the Covid fiasco, during which she brokered a non-transparent deal for jabs with her pal, the CEO of Pfizer, via text messages that have since vanished.

Contracts which ultimately left EU member states on the hook even after they had no use for the jabs. “This 4th Ukraine meeting was another demonstration of European unity,” Queen Ursula posted a month ago on social media. Of course it was. What isn’t? Even just this week, in evoking fires in Israel and EU assistance, she wrote on social media that it was “EU solidarity in action.” Unity and solidarity are important to the EU in the same way that the concept of family is important to evoke every time two toddlers want to poke each other’s eyes out with crayons. As in, “you’re supposed to be brothers, so play nice!” All that helps to paper over the unfortunate history of family infighting and battlefield beatdowns. Enter Scott Bessent, politely suggesting that he’s not impressed by the EU’s unity thirst traps.

And that hits deep. It’s like telling someone that what they think is their very best feature is really their worst. Say, for example, you really love your own butt, have been spending years in the gym doing every kind of squat, lunges, hip thrusts, and you’re so proud of your butt – and then one day, someone you’re interested in is like, “You know, you should really work on those glutes more.” That’s exactly what Bessent’s comment is when he says that the problem with the EU is their lack of unity.

Nothing the US can do about it, he implies – just a little friendly feedback. Back to the gym, Brussels. And Queen Ursula must be fuming since she talks like it’s her best feature and she already spends all day and night obsessing over it. How is she possibly supposed to do more when she’s already maxed out on her unity obsession? Which is all superficial by the way. Her unity-at-any-cost talk really just means that dissent from countries that disagree is quashed. And those dissenters are typically those with ideological views and approaches similar to Trump’s that place their own country’s interests above those dictated by a supranational institution of global governance.

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“..while Trump’s critics continue to spin, exaggerate, or dismiss his rhetoric, voters are seeing something entirely different: results.”

• Proof That Polls Showing Trump Underwater Are Bogus (Margolis)

While the corporate media keeps pushing the narrative that Donald Trump’s approval ratings are sinking, we’ve seen this act before. Remember 2024? Pollsters swore up and down that Kamala Harris was going to win in a landslide. But anyone who scrutinized the data knew those numbers were bogus. Now that Trump is back in office, the same game is playing out. The media’s obsession with tearing him down hasn’t faded one bit. So we’re flooded with polls from the same discredited pollsters who got 2024 so wrong — polls that claim Trump is “underwater” while simultaneously showing broad public approval of how he’s handling the issues that matter. Case in point: even CNN’s Harry Enten was forced to admit on Wednesday that Trump’s law-and-order message is hitting home with voters in a way Joe Biden never could, and the numbers back it up.

“It speaks to one of Trump’s best issues, right? The idea of Alcatraz — you think law and order, you think Donald Trump,” Enten said, driving home a point that’s almost too obvious to require analysis. On CNN, of all places, Enten presented data showing Trump with a positive net approval rating on crime, something that eluded Biden for his entire presidency. “Look at that,” Enten said. “At plus two points, far better than Joe Biden who was so far underwater. My goodness, he was setting records at minus 26 points. You rarely ever see it.” Yes, you read that correctly — while Biden sank to historic lows, Trump is now in positive territory. Not only that, but Trump’s crime approval is stronger now in his second term than it was during his first.

“We compared Donald Trump’s first term to now his second term,” Enten explained. “We see that Donald Trump’s net approval rating on handling crime is far better now at plus two points… than back in March of 2024 in which he was underwater at minus 13 points.” That’s a stunning 15-point improvement. In typical fashion, Trump’s messaging — often mocked by the media as outlandish or theatrical — is connecting with voters. Enten referenced Trump’s remarks about Alcatraz, saying, “Yes, I know it’s late-night fodder for a lot of different folks, but what it actually speaks to is Donald Trump focusing the American people’s attention on an issue in which they actually do like what he’s doing.”

Even more telling? The American public’s concern about crime is decreasing under Trump’s leadership. “It was 53% last year and look at where we are now. We’re at 47%,” Enten noted. “It’s the first time in about five years in which the percentage of Americans who worry a great deal about crime has actually dropped under the 50% mark.” That kind of drop isn’t just statistically significant; it’s politically potent. Enten emphasized that crime is one of just two issues where public concern declined by five points or more from 2024 to 2025, and it happened among both Democrats and Republicans.

So while Trump’s critics continue to spin, exaggerate, or dismiss his rhetoric, voters are seeing something entirely different: results. “I think Donald Trump is gonna continue on this law and order issue,” Enten concluded, “because the bottom line is, it is working for him.”Just as it was obvious during the campaign that Trump’s support far exceeded what the polls claimed, it’s clear now that his approval ratings are higher than what those same discredited pollsters were pushing last year.

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“Gulf of Arabia” and “Arabian Gulf” are predominately used in Middle Eastern countries.”

• Trump To Announce US Will Call The Persian Gulf The Arabian Gulf (JTN)

President Trump is reportedly planning to announce the U.S. will refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia during his trip to Saudi Arabia next week. Two U.S. officials told the Associated Press of Trump’s plan on condition of anonymity, according to a report Wednesday. The White House and the National Security Council didn’t immediately respond to the wire service’s requests for comment. Iran has claimed it has historic ties to the gulf that is off its southern coast, while Arab nations have pushed for a change to the geographic name of the body of water. The U.S. military has unilaterally referred to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf in statements and images it releases for years. The Persian Gulf name has been widely used since the 16th century, but “Gulf of Arabia” and “Arabian Gulf” are predominately used in Middle Eastern countries.

The government of Iran, previously called Persia, in 2012 threatened to file a lawsuit against Google for its decision to not label the body of water at all on its maps. In the U.S., Google Maps labels the body of water as the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf), while Apple Maps only says the Persian Gulf. Iran’s foreign minister took issue with the possible renaming of the gulf. “[P]olitically motivated attempts to alter the historically established name of the Persian Gulf are indicative of hostile intent toward Iran and its people, and are firmly condemned,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “Such biased actions are an affront to all Iranians, regardless of their background or place of residence.

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“..they have a more realistic, as all immigrant communities do, a realistic appraisal of what’s important and what’s peripheral. And right now, the Democratic Party is peripheral to the Hispanic community in general.”

• President Trump’s Most Loyal Supporters: Hispanics (Victor Davis Hanson)

At the end of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days, there were a number of polls that came out. Most of them were liberal and most of them were negative. And as we have mentioned in the past, some of them who have a much more reliable history—such as the Rasmussen poll, the Insider Advantage poll, the Trafalgar poll—they all had Donald Trump, at the end of 100 days, with either roughly 50-50 approval ratings or even slightly above that, 48-46, 50-49. But my point is, in one of the daily Rasmussen polls, they had an astonishing figure, that they broke down Donald Trump’s support by ethnic category. And there were 39% of black Americans that expressed support for Donald Trump. That’s an astonishing number. Given that 95% of the news coverage, according to the Media Research Center, has been negative.

And yet here is a traditional Democratic constituency where 4 out of 10 people like what’s been going on. But even more astonishing is the ethnic constituency that expressed the highest approval of Donald Trump’s first 100 days was the Hispanic community. In fact, far above the so-called white community. How can that be possible? The Democratic Party had told us that closing the border and stopping the illegal entry of 10 to 12 million illegal aliens during the Biden administration—that was deeply unpopular to the Hispanic community. And then, the deportations of illegal aliens like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, for example, or Eduardo Flores-Ruiz that was in Judge Hannah Dugan’s courtroom, whom she tried to hide. He was the assaulter of three people, including women. This was supposed to be deeply unpopular. But it actually has the opposite effect.

And why would that be? The reason is that when 12 million people come in illegally and they gravitate to certain constituencies or enclaves, they usually feel more at home with fellow Spanish-speaking Americans. And where is that? That is along the Rio Grande Valley. That is in Texas. That is in parts of New Mexico. That is in the San Joaquin Valley. What am I getting at? What I’m getting at is that a group of elites in the Biden administration, for particular political purposes—and I’ll be frank here—I think they did want people to come in, both to serve as future constituents under the lax rules and protocols of early and mail-in voting, and also to grow the government and have more constituencies on welfare. But in any case, the price, the cost, the toll fell most heavily on Hispanic communities. These were the ones that were trying to get competitive Advanced Placement programs in their schools.

And suddenly they have English as a Second Language programs again. They were the ones at dialysis clinics, at emergency rooms that were swarmed with people who in some cases had never been to a doctor. And so, they bore the greatest brunt of it. They were in cities where the Biden administration flew people in at night from Mexico and then dispersed them in Hispanic communities. And so they were very angry. And why would so-called white people poll much more negatively against Trump’s first 100 days than Hispanics? It’s because the white elite had created an agenda under the Biden and Obama administration that was elitist. By that I mean—let’s face it—Sen. Bernie Sanders had to take out the word “millionaires” from his usual castigation of millionaires and billionaires. And it wasn’t just because he’s a millionaire now.

That is the trademark of the professional bicoastal classes. And they’re interested in issues that are not existential—at least not everyday existential. By that I mean global warming, the Green New Deal, transgendered men in women’s sports, international organizations—the U.N. But they’re not interested in what the Hispanic working classes are interested in. And that’s affordable gasoline, affordable power bills, good-paying jobs, schools that allow their children to be competitively educated, safety in their neighborhoods. And the idea that they should have some natural antipathy for illegal aliens just because they share the same language and maybe ethnic background—they don’t.

They’re just like anybody else that’s trying to make a living and has been ignored and shunned by the grandees of the Democratic Party. And so, they’re expressing support for an administration that is trying to get affordable energy prices, that is damning the high rise in crime, that is seeking to close the border and secure it, that is calling to account the elite universities that gouge the federal government. All of that appeals to people who have to work with their muscles. And many of the Hispanic community, they’re contractors or small business people. Many of them are professionals. But they have a more realistic, as all immigrant communities do, a realistic appraisal of what’s important and what’s peripheral. And right now, the Democratic Party is peripheral to the Hispanic community in general.

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“Houthi officials and supporters swiftly portrayed the deal as a major victory for the militia and a failure for Mr. Trump, spreading a social media hashtag that read “Yemen defeats America.”

• Yemen – US Concedes Maritime Defeat (MoA)

Just two days ago I stated that the U.S. had lost its war against Ansar Allah in Yemen: The Houthi can not be defeated. Soon a U.S. ship will get hit. From there the war could easily escalate into a war against Iran. There is a good chance that the U.S. would lose it. It is high time for the Trump administration to pull back from its Yemen campaign. Last night Trump conceded that the campaign was lost. He order the U.S. fleet to retreat:
“Trump Says the U.S. Will Cease Strikes on Houthi Militants (archived) – NY Times, May 6 2025″. It was unclear whether the Houthis were going to stop impeding international shipping, which was the objective of the American bombing campaign. The United States and Houthis in Yemen reached a deal to halt American airstrikes against the group after the Iranian-backed militants agreed to cease attacks against American vessels in the Red Sea, President Trump and Omani mediators said Tuesday.
…
“They just don’t want to fight,” Mr. Trump said. “And we will honor that and we will stop the bombings. They have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore.” But despite his claim of success, it remained unclear whether the United States had achieved its objective of stopping the Houthis from impeding international shipping after a costly seven-week bombing campaign.” There is nothing ‘unclear’ about the objective which the U.S. has obviously not achieved. The Houthi will continue to attack Israel related shipping as well as the Zionist entity itself: “The Houthis themselves stopped short of declaring a full cease-fire, saying that they would continue to fight Israel. And Houthi officials and supporters swiftly portrayed the deal as a major victory for the militia and a failure for Mr. Trump, spreading a social media hashtag that read “Yemen defeats America.”

The U.S. Navy has long run out of military targets in Yemen. Its ships have emptied their magazines. They can not replenish at sea and need to go to a friendly harbor that has the appropriate equipment (Crete, Bahrain).
“Three F-18 Fighter Jets And Some 20+ Reaper Drones Were Lost During Fighting The Houthi:“
“A Navy fighter jet failed to land on an aircraft carrier and plummeted into the Red Sea on Tuesday, marking the fourth major mishap involving the vessel and the third loss of a fighter jet deployed with it since the warship left home last year … The latest incident, reported earlier by CNN, followed the loss of another jet, an F/A-18E, in an accident aboard the Truman last week in which the aircraft tumbled overboard after sailors aboard lost control of it while towing it in the ship’s hangar bay. A third fighter jet from the Truman was shot down accidentally over the Red Sea in December by another Navy warship, the USS Gettysburg, in an incident that triggered concerns about communication among warships and fighter jets in the region.

The Truman also was involved in a collision in the Mediterranean Sea in February, prompting the service to fire its commanding officer, Navy Capt. Dave Snowden. The U.S. Navy has spent over a billion dollar on ammunition on Yemen. It lost more than half a billion in flying equipment and managed to achieve nil. Others will take note of that record. The U.S. could have made this deal a month ago:

“A senior leader of Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, told Drop Site News that if the U.S. ends its campaign of air strikes against Yemen, Houthi forces will commit to halting all attacks on U.S. ships in the region. “We do not consider ourselves at war with the American people,” said Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau and a longtime spokesperson for the Houthis. “If the U.S. stops targeting Yemen, we will cease our military operations against it.” Oman was, as usual, moderating talks between the U.S. and the Houthi. Iran was helpful in that it pressed for a deal. Trump claims that Ansar Allah will stop shooting at U.S. shipping. There was no civilian U.S. shipping in the Red Sea in the first place:

There are fewer than 200 U.S. commercial vessels. Only about 80 are engaged in global trade. The small U.S. commercial fleet compares to 5,500 active Chinese-flagged vessels. U.S. military shipping in the area is of no interests for the Houthi unless it is used to attack them. How much other shipping in the area will revive to its previous levels remains to be seen: Shipping volumes in the Red Sea continue to be depressed, currently around 50% lower than 2023 figures, according to data from SEB, a Swedish bank.

“The prospect of a ceasefire agreement and enhanced security suggests a likely resurgence in commercial shipping operations in the region,” shipping analysts at SEB suggested in a note to clients this morning, arguing that car carrier and container markets are projected to experience the most significant rebalancing. There is a lot of ambiguity as the Houthi will continue to target Israel related ships. Some might be owned by Israeli entities but are sailing under some other countries flag. Other ships may be held up or fired at because they carry goods designated for Israel. Until the war on Gaza ends, and the Houthi campaign stops, international insurance companies are likely to ask for higher premiums for any ship that wants to sail through the Red Sea. It will take months of quietness before insurance premiums and traffic through the Red Sea will come back to a normal level. Egyptian income losses from a lack of Suez Canal crossings will continue.

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“When you get rid of that artificially drawn line… when you look at that beautiful formation when it’s together, I’m a very artistic person,” Trump said, recalling his real estate developer background.”

• Canadian PM Asks Trump To Rein In His Taunts (RT)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has claimed he asked US President Donald Trump to stop taunting his country as the 51st state during their first meeting at the White House on Tuesday. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of acquiring Canada and described its border with the US as “artificial.” During the meeting with Carney in the Oval Office, Trump reiterated that sentiment and said that a union between Canada and the US would be a “wonderful marriage” and could bring “tremendous” benefits. “When you get rid of that artificially drawn line… when you look at that beautiful formation when it’s together, I’m a very artistic person,” Trump said, recalling his real estate developer background.

Carney interjected by stating that “there are some places that are never for sale,” likening Canada to the Oval Office and Buckingham Palace. “Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign the last several months, it’s not for sale, it won’t be for sale, ever,” the PM said, adding that the two nations could nevertheless work toward building a strong partnership together. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Carney said he had asked Trump to stop using the term 51st state and described the comments as “not useful.” At the same time, he acknowledged that Trump is the US president and “he’ll say what he wants to say.” The meeting came days after Carney’s election victory, in which his Liberal Party secured a fourth consecutive term. Carney centered his campaign on attacking Trump over tariffs and his insistence on acquiring Canada.

At the beginning of their meeting, Trump congratulated the new prime minister and joked, “I think I was probably the greatest thing that happened to him.” Despite ongoing tensions over tariffs, which Trump said would stay in place regardless of what Carney said, both sides ultimately described the talks as positive. “Regardless of anything, we’re going to be friends with Canada,” the US president told reporters. Meanwhile, Carney called the discussions “wide-ranging” and “very constructive” and stated that trade negotiations would continue, including during the upcoming G7 summit in Canada’s Alberta province.

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Google runs an ad monopoly. A judge has confirmed as much. So yes, demonetized and shadow banned Right here, right this site.

Start there. Stop writing reports, do something. Then take it from there.

• Trump Administration Asks for Help in Uncovering Big Tech Censorship (Stepman)

The Trump administration has vowed to root out Big Tech censorship that was openly practiced under former President Joe Biden. In 2021, Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki—now a host for MSNBC—admitted that the government coordinated with Big Tech to weed out “misinformation” on social media platforms. “We are in regular touch with these social media platforms, and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff, but also members of our COVID-19 team,” Psaki said at a 2021 press conference. “We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since said that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans.

“Basically, these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse,” Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan in January. “It just got to this point where we were like, ‘No, we’re not gonna, we’re not gonna take down things that are true. That’s ridiculous.’” While government coordination with Big Tech companies to censor Americans may be gone under President Donald Trump, the censorship problem remains. In early February, the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into Big Tech. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson announced that the agency would be looking into attempts by tech companies to censor on their platforms. “Big Tech censorship is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal. The FTC wants your help to investigate these potential violations of the law,” he wrote.

Big Tech companies should not be “bullying their users,” Ferguson said, “this inquiry will help the FTC better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.” Ferguson asked for public cooperation “from anyone who has been a victim of tech censorship (banning, demonetization, shadow banning, etc.), from employees of tech platforms, or from anyone else who can shed light on these practices and the ways in which they may violate the law.” The FTC said in a statement that the agency is interested in “understanding how consumers—including by potentially unfair or deceptive acts or practices, or potentially unfair methods of competition—have been harmed by the policies of tech firms.”

The FTC directed Americans with a complaint about Big Tech censorship to submit a comment to the agency by May 21. Heritage Action for America created a portal to direct a comment to the agency that can be accessed here. Once the comment period is over the comments will be posted at Regulations.gov. Heritage Action included some helpful tips for what to include in a comment to the FTC.
What platform censored you?
• How were you censored? (E.g., Labeled as misinformation? Content removed? Shadow banned? Demonetized? etc…)
• What was the impact on you, your family, employees, friends, or followers/clients?
• Did the platform tell you about their action to censor you? And did they provide a reasonable and specific explanation?
• Did the platform give you the option to appeal the censorship? What was the result?

Last week, Trump made an additional move to quash the censorship of Americans. He proposed in his budget request eliminating the disinformation offices and programs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “CISA was more focused on cooperating with Big Tech to target free speech than our nation’s critical systems,” the White House said in an “Ending Weaponization of the Federal Government” fact sheet, adding the agency’s disinformation offices “functioned as a hub in the Censorship Industrial Complex.”

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“..it’s important to move to fill those vacancies while there’s a Senate that is still going to be cooperative and not trying to put up the roadblocks..”

• Confirming Trump’s Court Nominees ‘Priority’ for Judiciary Committee (DS)

Confirming President Donald Trump’s federal court nominees will be a “priority” for the Senate Judiciary Committee, says Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a member of that panel. “It’s certainly going to be a big priority for the Judiciary Committee,” Lee told The Daily Signal in a phone interview, “particularly once we get … a number of sub-Cabinet-level nominees processed.” “I do see that occupying more of the Judiciary Committee’s time over the next little while, and once those get through the pipeline, it will start occupying more time than it has on the Senate floor,” Lee continued. “This part of the process is just starting.” On Sunday night, Trump told The Daily Signal he would nominate federal judges “rapidly” and “try to get very good ones.” He subsequently nominated five judges Tuesday night, in addition to the one he nominated Thursday night.

Because Republicans were unable to retake control of the Senate in 2022, Trump will have less ability to reshape the federal judiciary than he did in his first term. Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pushed through 139 judges nominated by President Joe Biden, the third-highest total in U.S. history. That leaves Trump with just 46 current court vacancies, compared with 123 at the start of his first term. Still, Lee says, judicial appointments will be an ongoing effort over the next four years, “as it is with any administration where the president’s party is the same party that is the majority of the Senate.” The Utah senator praised Trump’s first-term judicial nominations and said he expects to see high-caliber judges nominated again.

“We will be very fortunate if the same standards for judicial nominees are followed during this second Trump administration,” Lee said. “I know of no reason to believe that they won’t be. If that’s the case, we’ll be in really good shape.” Trump had historically high court vacancies to fill in his first term and has historically low vacancies in his second, but each of those vacancies is still critical, said Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network. “Every one of those is crucially important, and it’s important to move to fill those vacancies while there’s a Senate that is still going to be cooperative and not trying to put up the roadblocks,” Severino told The Daily Signal. “If the Senate ever switched hands, that would certainly be the case.” Confirming Trump’s Court Nominees Will Be ‘Priority’ for Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lee Says.

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“When President Trump called me to take this job, he told me first—he told me two things. The first was, ‘Pete, you’re going to have to be tough as s— —tough.’ Boy, he was not kidding on that one.”

• Pete Hegseth: Today’s Decisions and Tomorrow’s Military (Zito)

Maj. Gen. David Hill was standing a few feet from where the Black Hawk helicopter en route from the Defense Department would soon be landing, at the lush green fields of the Army War College. Hill is the commandant of the prestigious military institution and had been preparing for days for something rare around here: a visit from the secretary of defense. “I’ve been here for four years as the commandant of the Army War College. This is the first opportunity we’ve had to host the secretary of defense,” Hill said with a broad smile, adding, “It is pretty cool.” Hill said that having Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth come to rural Pennsylvania is important because of the history of the Carlisle Barracks, where the campus is located. “This is a really special place,” he said. “It’s a 268-year-old military encampment that predates our nation, and it’s been an integral part of our Army and our nation’s history since 1757. And since 1951, the United States Army War College has been housed here.”

Its mission is to preserve peace through intelligent preparation to repel aggression. At peak load, the student body is about 2,000. Its signature is a 10-month resident graduate degree program that certifies students in the highest level of joint professional military education. This year’s officer class drew not just U.S. military leaders from all branches and intelligence services—Hill said there are also military leaders attending from 77 different countries. “There are 31 European nations represented here, as well as most of the Indo-Pacific nations represented, such as India, Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia. There’s a half-dozen from the African continent and a similar number from South America and Central America. Ukraine is here, and we have an officer from Israel and Lebanon here,” Hill explained.

When Hegseth was minutes away, Hill left to greet the defense secretary and his team. As Hill walked away, he said, “Today is going to be a big day.” The handshake between Hill and Hegseth was warm. They motorcaded through the Claremont Gate and toward the Wheelock Bandstand, where 800 seats were set up outside for the defense secretary’s speech. The overflow crowd exceeded 1,000, leaving several hundred standing in the grass as Hegseth took to the podium just in front of the old bandstand. Whoever was running the sound turned up the volume for AC/DC entrance music. The senior military officers in attendance approved. “Who dialed up ‘Thunderstruck’? I didn’t choose it, but I like it. Please take your seats. It might have to become SOP,” Hegseth said as everyone in attendance, a sea of camouflage and uniforms, laughed. Hegseth was in his element: confident, assured, and far from Washington, D.C.

Hegseth was there to mark the first 100 days of the Trump administration and share what he has accomplished at the Department of Defense. He bluntly acknowledged it had been bumpy in the wake of a series of leaks that have resulted in resignations and firings, not to mention unsubstantiated rumors that President Donald Trump is about to fire him. “When President Trump called me to take this job, he told me first—he told me two things. The first was, ‘Pete, you’re going to have to be tough as s— —tough.’ Boy, he was not kidding on that one. This job requires a steel spine, and that’s fine,” he said. For the next 28 minutes, he discussed a policy blueprint and vision that this White House sees for the military. Afterward, in the same room where Army War College graduate and former five-star Gen. and President Dwight D. Eisenhower once gave a talk, Hegseth sat down with the Washington Examiner.

He spoke about his recent controversies, his mission to reshape the military, the robust growth each service branch has seen since Trump took office, and how faith has kept him grounded. Dressed in a navy-blue suit, with a crisp red, white, and blue pocket square, and dark socks with green Army warriors, Hegseth said coming here and being able to articulate the department’s focus at a hundred days while looking out at a group of men and women who are the future leaders of our formations meant a lot to him. Hegseth said he spoke to those in attendance about restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military, and reestablishing deterrence. He said that these men and women were on board despite having come up in a military filled with a woke quota mindset.

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Someone stop this. It has to be Xi, right?

• Pakistan Closes Airspace For 48 Hours, Authorizes Response To Indian Attack (ZH)

Though aerial fighting between the nuclear-armed rivals does not appear to be sustained and ongoing at this point, Pakistan has closed its airspace for nearly all flights on Wednesday, in the aftermath of the Indian cross-border strikes which killed at least 26 people – including a 3-year-old girl – and wounded at least 46 other people, Pakistani authorities say based on the latest revised death toll. International carriers have also canceled flights to the region, and access to social media, including X, was temporarily blocked in Pakistan amid the assault. Heavy shelling is being reported along the Line of Control (LOC) separating the historic enemy nations.

The true casualty toll could be higher, as a Pakistani militant chief targeted in the attacks on ‘terror camps’ said 10 of his relatives, including five children, were killed. The Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) was one of the groups targeted, and its leader Masood Azhar said his older sister, brother-in-law, his nephew and niece are among the dead. Pakistan says that civilians were harmed and targeted that mosques were hit across six locations in its territory, and so has the right to respond to aggression. Indian has said it attack nine terror sites, but has been careful to stipulate these were non-military locations, and is now seeking de-escalation. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered his armed forces to prepare a plan for “self-defense” with “corresponding actions” in order “avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives”.

The order was issued after an emergency National Security Commitee (NSC) meeting on Wednesday. “Pakistan reserves the right to respond, in self-defense, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing to avenge the loss of innocent Pakistani lives and blatant violation of its sovereignty,” the NSC readout said. “The Armed Forces of Pakistan have duly been authorized to undertake corresponding actions in this regard.” Pakistan’s Government Security Committee has charged that India has “ignited an inferno in the region”. These do indeed seem to be fighting words.What India has dubbed ‘Operation Sindoor’ is intended to be limited, Indian leaders have said, but it’s highly questionable whether it was a ‘success’ – given that India lost at least one or possibly up to five fighter jets.

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“Why do you keep shooting? Business is done differently now.”

• The Russia-Ukraine Lesson India Must Learn From Its Pakistan Standoff (Suchkov)

There is plenty to say about the chaos unfolding in Washington these days, but the sudden military escalation between India and Pakistan shifts our attention elsewhere – and provides some useful lessons. Since the start of Russia’s military operation against Ukraine, India’s official stance has generally aligned with Moscow’s interests. Yet it has consistently stressed the importance of peace. While many in India’s political and media elite – especially the pro-Western crowd – have criticized Russia, their views have been shaped by alignment with the West, not by deeper national principles. India’s official line, however, has always been dressed in polished diplomatic language, designed to project wisdom and balance. Early in the conflict, India’s Ambassador to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj, said: “India has consistently called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to violence.”

Fast forward to 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi added: “The conflict in Ukraine is a matter of deep concern for all of us. India firmly believes that no problem can be solved on the battlefield. We support dialogue and diplomacy for early restoration of peace and stability.” And of course, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar offered a soundbite which was repeated endlessly in international forums: “Wars are not the way to settle disputes.” The consistent refrain at countless conferences about “peace in Europe” boiled down to this: Russia was old-fashioned, clinging to outdated great power logic. The world had moved on, they insisted. And inevitably, some “public intellectual” would spice things up with a quote from Chanakya, Confucius, or even the Pope – advising Russia on how real diplomacy should look today.

It was all reminiscent of a famous scene in Aleksei Balabanov’s 2005 movie Dead Man’s Bluff, where a bandit from the polished 2000s lectures his 1990s Russian counterparts: “Why do you keep shooting? Business is done differently now.” It wasn’t just the Indians who pushed this line. The Chinese, Brazilians, Turks (yes, them too), and other so-called “rising powers” repeated similar mantras. Now, let’s be clear: no one should gloat. War is a terrifying and extreme manifestation of unresolved contradictions. However, to pontificate about “wisdom” and peace as if it’s a fresh insight is banal – and, frankly, vulgar.

Because when real danger arrives – when an enemy or existential threat targets your home – there is no high-minded choice left. States, like individuals, take up arms and fight for victory in order to restore peace. That’s not bloodlust; it’s the basic logic of international relations, from ancient kingdoms to today’s global order. You can deny it, but you can’t make it disappear. Western propaganda’s greatest success over the past three years was convincing much of the world that Russia’s offensive was a “war of choice” rather than a “war of necessity” – which it was. Many in the so-called rising powers naively believed that every conflict offers a choice, and that they themselves would never resort to arms. But history teaches otherwise.

When survival and national security are truly at stake, even the most idealistic states will – without even realizing it – abandon their slogans and do whatever is necessary. That, too, is a timeless law of international life. As the Bible reminds us: “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). What should Russia do now? Stay the course – finish what we started. And be prepared for new challenges on other fronts. At the same time, we should follow diplomatic protocol and call on India and Pakistan to resolve their crisis peacefully. We can even offer to host peace talks, if needed. Because while the reality of conflict remains unchanged, so too must our commitment: Victory first. Peace second.

Happy World War Two Victory Day – to us, and to peace.

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O’Keefe said a few days ago he was scared and would go dark ahead of this report. It’s clear why.

John Bryan, the unwilling “witnesss”, is the worst douche I’ve seen in a while.

• ‘Prince Andrew Was F*ing Underage Girls’ – James O’ Keefe (ZH)

An American businessman close to the royal family (not for long) was caught on undercover footage with damning claims about Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. John Bryan, a trusted advisor to the Duke of York, claims that Prince Andrew lied to him about his involvement with minors, according to the footage, obtained by O’Keefe Media Group (OMG). “I knew he [Prince Andrew] saw him [Jeffrey Epstein],” said Bryan, “But he lied to me that he was such a close friend,” revealed Bryan, referring to Prince Andrew’s personal relationship with Epstein. More via OMG;

After Prince Andrew’s 2019 BBC interview, where he denied knowing Virginia Giuffre and famously claimed he was physically incapable of sweating, Bryan says he was quietly brought into “Royal Lodge,” Andrew’s private residence, to provide “crisis” management advice. In a previous interview with the New York Post, Bryan revealed “They [the British Royal Family] brought me in to help him [Andrew].” Bryan told the publication, “Andrew was so distressed, he wasn’t able to focus for more than 40 minutes.”

According to previous reporting by The Daily Mail, Bryan also admitted to crafting a five-page PR strategy titled the “House of Kroy,” advising Andrew to publicly express sympathy for victims of Jeffrey Epstein while maintaining his own innocence. At the time, Bryan publicly supported the Prince, stating, “I believe Prince Andrew is innocent.” “I did a big thing in The Daily Mail saying that I believed Andrew,” Bryan recounted to our undercover OMG journalist, adding, “And then I found out he was lying. I was so pissed.” When asked what Andrew had lied about, Bryan didn’t mince words: “That he was fucking underage girls. That’s not cool.” O’Keefe Media Group has reached out to both the Royal Family and John Bryan for comment regarding Bryan’s admissions.”

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Butler

Happy

Opera

Alpaca

Robot

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle April 4 2025

Apr 042025
 
 April 4, 2025  Posted by at 9:14 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Portrait of woman in wheelchair 1936

 

• This Is Good. Very, Very Good. (CTH)
• Beijing Slams Trump’s “Unilateral Bullying” Tariffs, Signals Retaliation (ZH)
• President Trump Ends Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Chinese Goods (CTH)
• World Leaders React To Trump’s Tariff Onslaught (RT)
• Here’s Why Trump Will Win the Tariff Standoff (Margolis)
• Kevin O’Leary Slams Canada’s ‘Sheer Stupidity’ in Trade Standoff With Trump (Margolis)
• How Could Trump Tackle Trap Set Up by Europe? (Sp.)
• Trump Teases Bombshell DOGE Finding: ‘What They Found Is Incredible’ (ZH)
• Trump Tariffs Breach NATO Rules – Norway (RT)
• Putin, Zelensky Ready To Make A Deal – Trump (RT)
• Putin Envoy Visits Washington (RT)
• Third Parties Attempting To Derail US-Russia Talks – Putin Envoy (RT)
• House Panels Press Probe of ActBlue Campaign Fundraising Operations (Adams)
• Dr. Oz Will Save Medicare, Strengthen Medicaid, Secure a Healthier America (DS)
• War With Iran ‘Almost Inevitable’ – France (RT)
• Hungary to Abandon ICC Over Concerns of Political Bias – Orban (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

WH tariffs

Batya Ungar-Sargon
https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status/1907606593509769654

Lutnick

https://twitter.com/TONYxTWO/status/1907779787730378838

BeckBoasberg

KUHN

Vance

Bernie
https://twitter.com/mazemoore/status/1907883583228051964

Beck

 

 

 

 

What Marine Le Pen and Trump’s tariffs have in common is they are both anti-globalist. The world is changing and everyone will have to adapt.

Here is “sundance” the lawyer:

• This Is Good. Very, Very Good. (CTH)

If it was weak, I would tell you it was weak. If it was a construct that contained dangerous consequences, I would warn you of them. If this trade/tariff regime was going to be harmful to the economy I would say so. This global trade reset (as outlined) doesn’t create doom – not even close, it creates discipline. What we’re seeing isn’t a reckless trade war. It’s a strategic recalibration targeting the structural imbalances that hollowed out American industry. The tariffs are reciprocal, calculated based on actual trade deficits. That’s not random or punitive—it’s mathematically fair. And they’re targeted: this isn’t a broad tax on everything. The focus is on finished goods, not the raw materials and components we need to build here. That protects domestic production and supply chains—not disrupts them.

Some worry this will destabilize capital markets. But this plan doesn’t touch interest rates, credit channels, or core financial plumbing. It doesn’t burden U.S. manufacturers or trigger input price spirals. Quite the opposite—it creates revenue and predictability; two things capital markets thrive on. It also closes loopholes like de minimis, reins in corporate arbitrage, and forces trading partners to play fair. If that creates discomfort for companies built on outsourcing and imbalance, that’s not doom. That’s a long-overdue correction. This isn’t the collapse of global trade. It’s the end of surrender and the beginning of mutual accountability.

This is good. Very, Very good.

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China had it good for a few decades. So of course they’re not rejoicing today.

“The era of Asia’s export manufacturing-led development has come to an end, and the region will need to develop markets closer to home.”

• Beijing Slams Trump’s “Unilateral Bullying” Tariffs, Signals Retaliation (ZH)

President Trump’s late afternoon announcement on Wednesday—”Liberation Day”—unveiled a far more aggressive tariff policy than top Wall Street analysts had anticipated, prompting panic dumping in global equities and futures markets overnight. Of particular concern is Trump’s stance toward China. The total effective tariff rate on Chinese imports surged to 54%, a dramatic increase of 34% from the previously imposed 20% in additional levies tied to fentanyl and earlier duties. Trump’s Liberation Day has drawn swift condemnation from Beijing, which has described the escalating tariff war as “unilateral bullying.” Nikkei Asia quoted China’s Ministry of Commerce, warning that it “firmly opposes” Trump’s tariffs and “will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.”

The Commerce Ministry noted that the US “ignored” the benefits of a global trading system, adding, “The so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs,’ which are based on subjective and unilateral assessments by the United States, are not in line with the rules of international trade, seriously jeopardize the legitimate rights and interests of the parties concerned, and are typical of unilateral bullying.” The ministry did not discuss specifics on the countermeasures. A ministry spokesperson told reporters that Beijing hopes to “resolve various issues through equal consultation.” In other words, it’s just a matter of time before Beijing mounts a countermeasure against the US, whether that’s targeted tariffs, export controls, or other measures (such as targeting US Big Tech). Or as we’ve recently seen: Beijing Derailing Panama Port Deal.

Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sang the same tune: China “firmly opposes” Trump’s trade war escalation, which “seriously undermines” the rules-based global trading system. He urged Washington to resolve trade differences through talks. However, President Trump tried that with the Chinese Communist Party in his first term with the so-called “Phase One” agreement. Beijing committed to purchasing $200 billion of additional US exports. Yet, the phase one deal with the CCP was derailed by Covid disruptions. The Trump administration’s goal with reciprocal tariffs against literally the entire world, including some cases of near triple-digit reciprocal tariffs that will lead to a historic emerging markets shock, is to reverse a half-century or more of de-industrialization policies in the US that have hollowed out the nation’s core and produced a national security threat as the world fractures into a bipolar state.

In financial markets, the People’s Bank of China set the daily reference rate for the yuan at 7.1889 per dollar, weakening the currency. This allows the yuan to depreciate and support export competitiveness. A move like this will only draw accusations of currency manipulation from Trump. “We maintain our view that the PBOC will not allow a sharp [yuan] depreciation given capital outflow risks and the government’s objective to restore confidence in the Chinese economy,” HK Mizuho Securities analyst Ken Cheung wrote in a note earlier. Goldman analysts Andrew Tilton and others told clients:

“On April 2, President Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs on trading partners with exclusion of products that are subject to sectoral tariffs, resulting in what we estimate to be an increase of 26pp in the average effective US tariff rate on China, which would bring the total effective tariff rate on Chinese goods to 58%. This is much higher than we and the market had expected. Similar to the experience when the previous two 10% tariff increases were imposed on China earlier this year, we think the Chinese government is likely to retaliate with some targeted tariffs on US products as well as non-tariff measures like export controls.

We expect policymakers to continue to resist significant CNY depreciation. We believe the government will step up easing measures to offset the additional growth drag from higher tariffs. We are not changing our 2025 full-year GDP growth forecast of 4.5% at this time due to better-than-expected Q1 data and increased policy easing expectations, as well as remaining uncertainties regarding whether some of the tariffs could be negotiated down in the coming months. That said, we acknowledge downside risk from slowing global growth after the large, across-the board US tariff increases.”

S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Ming Tan warned that Trump’s tariffs could exacerbate China’s weak economy: “The drag on China’s economy from higher tariffs will transmit to banks. We expect problem loans will rise over the next few years and could leap as high as 6.4% of total loans in a downside scenario.” Fred Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC, had a big-picture view for clients: “The era of Asia’s export manufacturing-led development has come to an end, and the region will need to develop markets closer to home.”

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No paper work for cheap trinkets picked up on a holiday. Makes sense. But when it becomes anything under $800, that sense changes profoundly. Now we’re talking laptops.

• President Trump Ends Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Chinese Goods (CTH)

The de minimis loophole comes from back in the 1930s. The idea back then was, say you went on a vacation to Paris, you shouldn’t have to file customs paperwork or pay taxes if you decided to ship some little Eiffel Tower statues to your friends back home. Congress in 2015 then raised the de minimis threshold from $200 to $800. However, the e-commerce world exploded, and Chinese companies began using the de minimis loophole to ship cheap goods (ex. Temu and Shein) into the USA direct to consumers without paying any customs duty. Yesterday as part of the global trade reset and tariff structure, President Trump revoked authorization for Chinese goods to transfer to the USA using the de minimis rule.

The de minimis exemption has been cancelled for all products coming out of China. The rule change only targets China and Chinese shippers. No one else. The minimum duty is $25, and the tariff rate is 30% for all products mailed from China into the USA that previously qualified under the de minimis rule. Beyond tariffs or sector specific countervailing duties, the removal of China to use the $800 de minimis exemption will destroy their economy. There is no way for manufacturers in China, marketed into the USA, to be able to survive if they are forced to collect and organize the requirements for U.S. custom and import duties. They will simply dissolve.

FACT SHEET – […] “Following the Secretary of Commerce’s notification that adequate systems are in place to collect tariff revenue, President Trump is ending duty-free de minimis treatment for covered goods from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong starting May 2, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. EDT. Imported goods sent through means other than the international postal network that are valued at or under $800 and that would otherwise qualify for the de minimis exemption will be subject to all applicable duties, which shall be paid in accordance with applicable entry and payment procedures. All relevant postal items containing goods that are sent through the international postal network that are valued at or under $800 and that would otherwise qualify for the de minimis exemption are subject to a duty rate of either 30% of their value or $25 per item (increasing to $50 per item after June 1, 2025).

This is in lieu of any other duties, including those imposed by prior Orders. Carriers transporting these postal items must report shipment details to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), maintain an international carrier bond to ensure duty payment, and remit duties to CBP on a set schedule. CBP may require formal entry for any postal package instead of the specified duties. The Secretary of Commerce will submit a report within 90 days assessing the Order’s impact and considering whether to extend these rules to packages from Macau.”

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They can all make the deal to abolish their own tariffs.

• World Leaders React To Trump’s Tariff Onslaught (RT)

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday rolled out a sweeping new wave of “reciprocal tariffs” as part of his so-called “Liberation Day” plan, sparking concerns over a potential global trade war. Trump announced that Washington would impose tariffs ranging from 10% to 49% on all countries based on the principle of reciprocity, declaring it a day of economic independence for the United States. Trump said the tariffs would be used to boost US manufacturing and that the measure would “make America wealthy again.” Many countries have reacted with dismay and have pledged retaliation. While a 10% base tariff was applied to all imports, many of the top US trading partners were hit with much steeper duties.

China China – branded one of the “worst offenders” by Trump – was hit with a new 34% tariff on its goods, in addition to an existing 20% levy, raising total duties to at least 54%. The US decision ignores the balance of interests established through years of multilateral trade negotiations and overlooks the fact that it has long reaped significant benefits from global trade, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. “China firmly opposes this and will take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests,” the ministry said. “There are no winners in trade wars, and there is no way out for protectionism. China urges the US to immediately lift unilateral tariffs and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through dialogue on an equal footing,” the ministry added.

Canada Canada, already subject to US tariffs, was spared the additional 10% baseline tariffs applied to many other countries due to its membership in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). It’s unclear how much last week’s “extremely productive” call between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney influenced the decision to grant Canada a reprieve. Last month, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian goods and 10% on energy products, citing concerns over drugs and migrants crossing the border. Exceptions were made for importers who can prove their products comply with USMCA. Carney stated that while Trump had preserved key aspects of the commercial relationship between Canada and the US, the tariffs on steel, aluminum, and automobiles were still coming into effect. “We are going to fight these tariffs with countermeasures, we are going to protect our workers, and we are going to build the strongest economy in the G7,” Carney said.

Mexico Another major US trade partner, Mexico, also avoided Trump’s global tariff. The US president had earlier slapped 25% tariffs on its southern neighbor, citing failures to address migration and fentanyl trafficking, but later carved out exemptions for USMCA-compliant goods. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the country has no plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on the US and will “announce a comprehensive program, not a tit-for-tat on tariffs.” “Let’s see what announcement they make, but we have a plan to strengthen the economy under any circumstance,” Sheinbaum added.

EU European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the universal duties as a “major blow to the global economy.” She claimed that a new 20% US tariff on the EU would see “uncertainty spiral,” causing “dire” consequences “for millions of people around the globe.” The move will “trigger the rise of further protectionism,” von der Leyen argued, warning that the bloc is prepared to respond. “If you take on one of us, you take on all of us,” she stated. Echoing her remarks, European Council President Antonio Costa said a trade war between the EU and the US would “affect everyone,” and called Trump’s decision a “major economic mistake.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a close ally of Trump, criticized the decision as “wrong” but expressed her commitment to negotiating a deal with the US to “prevent a trade war.”

In Germany, the EU’s major economic powerhouse, which has been grappling with a downturn over the past two years, Economy Minister Robert Habeck slammed the US “obsession” with tariffs, warning that it “could put a spiral in motion that can tear countries into recession.” In France, President Emmanuel Macron is set to convene representatives from all business sectors affected by the import tariffs as producers are already counting future losses. Sales of French wine and spirits are expected to drop by at least 20% in the US, spirits exporters group FEVS told Reuters.

“We are indeed going to see an adverse effect on production,” French government spokeswoman Sophie Primas told broadcaster RTL. Trump “thinks he is the master of the world” but the EU is “ready for this trade war” and has a “whole range of tools,” she insisted. The sweeping tariffs will put jobs at risk on both sides of the Atlantic, according to Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheal Martin, who believes there is “no justification for this.” Goods from Ireland will be hit with a 20% tariff as part of measures Trump has imposed on the EU. “More than €4.2 billion worth of goods and services are traded between the EU and the US daily. Tariffs drive inflation, hurt people on both sides of the Atlantic, and put jobs at risk,” Martin said.

UK Britain was hit less hard than most other countries with a 10% duty imposed on its exports. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “nobody wins in a trade war” and vowed to “fight for the best deal for Britain.” He argued that there’s a “range of levers at our disposal” stressing, however, that the UK’s “intention remains to secure a deal” with the US. ‘Reciprocal’ duties, action against ‘pathetic’ EU: Key points from Trump’s global tariff announcementREAD MORE: ‘Reciprocal’ duties, action against ‘pathetic’ EU: Key points from Trump’s global tariff announcement

Japan Japan has “serious concerns” about the consistency of Trump’s tariffs with the WTO agreement and the Japan-US trade deal, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a statement. Japanese Trade Minister Yoji Muto described the measures as “extremely regrettable” and stated that all options were under consideration. When asked whether Japan would retaliate against the 24% tariff imposed by the US, he said: “We need to decide what is best for Japan, and most effective, in a careful but bold and speedy manner.”

Israel Economic officials in Israel, a key US ally, were reportedly in “complete shock” over the 17% tariff imposed by Trump, according to local media. The country had eliminated all tariffs on American imports ahead of the announcement to ensure that Israel was exempt from new levies. “We are working to understand the motivation behind this move,” Ron Tomer, president of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, said on Wednesday.

Ukraine The new 10% tariff announced by Trump on Ukrainian imports is “economic cynicism,” said Daniil Getmantsev, head of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Finance Committee. According to Getmantsev, the levy is unlikely to have a major negative impact on Ukraine, given the relatively small exports to the US. “But imposing such tariffs when our trade balance with the US shows a $2.6 billion deficit is, frankly, economic cynicism of the highest order,” he added.

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“Well, I would say they’ve been doing it to us for a long time. And, if they don’t like tariffs, then why do they have them?”

• Here’s Why Trump Will Win the Tariff Standoff (Margolis)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear in an interview with CNN that the era of trade imbalances is over, and under President Trump, the U.S. will no longer tolerate unfair treatment. During a discussion with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Bessent confidently explained the administration’s position on tariffs and trade policy, signaling that Trump’s economic strategy is deliberate and well thought out. When pressed on how the administration’s policies could impact the auto industry, particularly regarding vehicles made with foreign parts, Bessent was blunt. “If half the cars coming into the United States are foreign-made, that’s hard to turn around overnight, as you know,” Collins said. “So what would you say to people in the auto industry who are worried about that timeline and how quickly that could shift?”

“Buy American,” Bessent said bluntly. He also clarified that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) exempts certain vehicles and parts from the new tariffs. Collins attempted to raise concerns from U.S. allies, questioning what the administration would say to countries like South Korea and Japan, which are now facing increased tariffs. Bessent’s response was direct: “Well, I would say they’ve been doing it to us for a long time. And, if they don’t like tariffs, then why do they have them?” His answer underscored the administration’s stance that America has been on the losing end of trade deals for too long.

As for whether the tariffs should be considered permanent, Bessent took a wait-and-see approach. “I think we’re gonna wait and see how this plays out,” he explained, suggesting that adjustments could be made based on how the policy unfolds. Collins also asked about the possibility of retaliation from other countries. Some foreign leaders have hinted at potential countermeasures, while others have opted to observe before making a move. Bessent urged patience. “One of the messages that I’d like to get out tonight is everybody sit back, take a deep breath, don’t immediately retaliate, let’s see where this goes. Because if you retaliate, that’s how we get escalation.”

When Collins pressed him on whether such escalation could turn into a full-fledged trade war, Bessent dismissed the idea. “Not a trade war. Depends on the country,” he said, before explaining that history favors the United States in such disputes. “Remember that the history of trade is, we are the deficit country. The deficit country has an advantage,” he explained. “[The others] are the surplus countries. The surplus countries traditionally always lose any kind of a trade escalation.”

His message to foreign governments was clear: Acting hastily would be a mistake.“ As a student of economic history or a professor of economic history, I’d advise against it,” he said. When Collins sought further clarification, he reinforced the point: “I would say that doing anything rash would be unwise.” Bessent’s remarks leave no doubt that Trump’s trade policies are rooted in historical precedent and strategic calculation. While globalists may panic, the Trump administration remains confident that America is in a stronger position than its trade partners. And history is on our side. Bessent’s message is clear: Trump knows exactly what he’s doing.

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Carney has elections coming. And his party polls great on anti-Trump thetoric. But he’ll still have to walk it back.

• Kevin O’Leary Slams Canada’s ‘Sheer Stupidity’ in Trade Standoff With Trump (Margolis)

Famed entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary eviscerated Canada’s leadership for its defiant stance against U.S. trade policies, calling the rhetoric from Interim Prime Minister Mark Carney “sheer stupidity” and warning that the country is in no position to win a trade war with President Trump. Speaking on CNN, O’Leary, who is himself Canadian, reacted to Carney’s inflammatory remarks. The prime minister declared, “We are cutting off all ties to the United States. There’s no cooperation anymore.” O’Leary dismissed the statement as political posturing with no basis in economic reality. “That, of course, is sheer stupidity,” he said. “Seventy-five percent of the output of the Canadian market for over a hundred years has been sold to the U.S., and 17 states in the U.S. call Canada their number one trading partner.”

O’Leary pointed out that despite Carney’s tough talk, Canada is economically dependent on the United States and cannot afford to play a game of brinkmanship with its largest trading partner. He argued that Carney’s remarks were more about political theatrics than sound economic policy. “If you wanna be tough and you wanna sound important and you’re trying to get elected and you’re the only person that can save every Canadian from the evil Trump, that’s exactly what you say,” O’Leary said, accusing Carney of exploiting anti-Trump sentiment to bolster his own political image. He likened Carney’s rhetoric to that of Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro, who has declared that U.S. tariffs would remain in place indefinitely. O’Leary was equally dismissive of such claims, calling them nothing more than political noise meant to rally supporters rather than provide real solutions.

“Navarro’s saying the same thing. ‘These tariffs are in perpetuity. We will fix this. We will push back the world’. All of this rhetoric and noise, it’s not the signal.” O’Leary argued that the best path forward would be a trade framework in which tariffs are removed entirely. “It’s all noise. And in the end, I think everybody’s better off if we get to reciprocal tariffs of zero,” he said. I think we all know that this is Trump’s goal, too. He wants free trade to actually be free trade. O’Leary emphasized that serious investors like himself look at the long-term picture rather than get caught up in the short-term panic created by political leaders. “So the countries you care about, that you wanna do business with, you end up with zero tariffs and you support a free trade mandate. It’s very hard to see that outcome in the cloud we’re in right now and all the rhetoric and jawboning, but if you’re an investor like I am, you think long term.”

While some have expressed concerns about rising inflation and housing prices, O’Leary cautioned that such economic shifts take time to unfold. “Not two weeks, not two months,” he said, pushing back against the notion that immediate catastrophe was looming. O’Leary noted that similar political grandstanding is happening in other countries as well. “Britain’s doing the same thing right now,” he pointed out. “You should hear the rhetoric in London today.” Ultimately, O’Leary was confident that the current wave of economic fearmongering would subside. “It too will pass,” he concluded, reinforcing his belief that Canada’s leadership needs to drop the empty threats and focus on practical solutions.

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“..the US’s Cold War era-based foreign policy perfectly suits European elites, who want Trump back into “the fold of the historical West..”

• How Could Trump Tackle Trap Set Up by Europe? (Sp.)

The US president earlier said that “from the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly. The US’s European allies set up a trap for the Trump administration to contain its “drastic” foreign policy shift, Alexander Yakovenko, Deputy Head of Rossiya Segodnya International Media Group, told Sputnik. Trump could get out of the trap if he “masters enough political will” and doesn’t “put up with the US foreign policy strategy of the Cold War era”, Yakovenko, who is also head of the Russian Security Council’s Expert Advisory Committee on global problems and international security, stressed. The expert noted that the US’s Cold War era-based foreign policy perfectly suits European elites, who want Trump back into “the fold of the historical West, as we have known it over the past 80 years.” The European elites are unwilling to change “their mentality and their worldview, they’d rather live in the world of their own, which I think doesn’t exist any longer,” Yakovenko emphasized.

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“President Trump had the courage to allow us to go across databases. He signed an executive order. It’s never been done before, where agencies could talk to each other and databases could talk with each other.”

• Trump Teases Bombshell DOGE Finding: ‘What They Found Is Incredible’ (ZH)

President Donald Trump teased another explosive revelation from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as Democrats and legacy media escalate their ongoing campaign against the cost-cutting initiative and its leader, Tesla CEO Elon Musk. While speaking with the press aboard Air Force One en route to South Florida for the weekend, Trump said: “They found something today that’s horrible,” adding. “You’ll find out very soon. What they found is incredible.” Trump also gave Musk credit for his leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has so far achieved an estimated savings of $140 billion, amounting to roughly $869.57 per taxpayer.

“Elon is fantastic,” the president said. “He’s a patriot. He found millions of dollars of fraud.” “He loves the country that’s why he does it,” he added. Addressing speculation about Musk’s future, Trump responded to reporters, “I want him to stay as long as possible.” The president also commented on the recent wave of violent attacks targeting Tesla vehicles and dealerships, incidents he has previously labeled as “terrorism.” “It’s a shame what they are doing with his car company,” he said. “It’s a great car, great product.” According to a since debunked Politico report citing unnamed sources, Trump has privately indicated to close associates that Musk plans to scale back his involvement as an advisor in the near future. While Musk and the White House denied the report, Trump told reporters on AF1 that “Elon is fantastic,” but he has “a number of companies to run.”

“I want him to stay as long as possible,” said Trump. “There’s going to be a point where he’s going to have to leave.” Over the weekend, at a Wisconsin rally aimed at boosting voter turnout, Musk and DOGE volunteer Antonio Gracias disclosed that millions of noncitizens were granted Social Security numbers under former President Joe Biden’s administration. They presented a chart illustrating a consistent annual rise, peaking at over 2 million in FY 2024, which concluded on September 30. In both FY23 and FY25—the latter starting in October and running through September of this year—approximately 1 million noncitizens received Social Security numbers.

“None of this would have happened without President Trump,” Gracias told Fox News. “President Trump had the courage to allow us to go across databases. He signed an executive order. It’s never been done before, where agencies could talk to each other and databases could talk with each other.” “That allowed us to connect all this data, to find these people across the system, across the benefit system, all the way to the voting records. It really took a lot of courage,” he added. Now the question is; what’s this ‘horrible’ thing DOGE found? And is it just a ‘LOOK, SQUIRREL!’ to distract from all the ‘fun’ we’re having in response to new tariffs?

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US must make Norway rich because they’re both in Nato?!

• Trump Tariffs Breach NATO Rules – Norway (RT)

Recently imposed US tariffs could breach NATO’s founding principles by undermining economic cooperation among allies, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has said. He raised the issue during the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday, public broadcaster NRK has reported. The official reportedly pointed to Article 2 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which commits members to strengthen economic ties to foster peace and stability within the alliance. “If you want a strong NATO, you should ensure that there is as much economic growth as possible in the NATO countries,” NKR quoted him as saying. “That was the insight of those who established NATO, that economic cooperation would be good for the entire alliance,” the diplomat added.

According to the outlet, Eide raised the matter directly with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the meeting, saying “We must be clear that protectionist measures between allies are a serious problem.” On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariff increases on numerous trading partners, including NATO countries. Norway is among those affected, facing a 15% duty on selected exports to the United States. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told NKR on Thursday that Oslo would seek to negotiate with the US over the tariffs.

“This is bad news, it is very serious,” Store said. “There is an opening for negotiations here, the Americans say, and we will use that in every possible way that we can,” he added. Trump’s announcement has sparked concern across the EU, with several NATO allies voicing fears that the tariffs could harm both trade and alliance unity. French President Emmanuel Macron has called the tariffs “brutal and unfounded,” and warned that retaliation could include a digital tax on American tech companies.

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“Europe has not been successful in dealing with President Putin, but I think I will be successful.” Well, to be honest, Europe is not trying.

• Putin, Zelensky Ready To Make A Deal – Trump (RT)

The leaders of Russia and Ukraine are ready to make a peace deal, US President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday. He has been trying to broker a ceasefire between the two neighbors since February. A reporter asked Trump on Air Force One about his communication with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. “I think he’s ready to make a deal. And I think that President [Vladimir] Putin is ready to make a deal,” Trump said. He declined to go into specifics but added that the US was having “a lot of good conversations about Ukraine and Russia.” “We like to see [the conflict] stopped as soon as possible because thousands of people have been killed in a week,” Trump said. “Europe has not been successful in dealing with President Putin, but I think I will be successful.”

Trump made his comments as Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, traveled to Washington, where he reportedly met with America’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. The sides mostly continued discussing steps to normalize bilateral relations frozen by the Biden administration in 2022, Dmitriev told reporters on Thursday evening. He noted the “positive dynamic” of the talks, adding that more meetings need to take place to resolve the differences. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox Business on Wednesday that Trump has been “frustrated” with both Putin and Zelensky. He remained optimistic about the negotiations, saying that the sides were “on the precipice” of a comprehensive ceasefire.

Moscow has accused Kiev of multiple violations of the energy truce brokered by Trump last month. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian troops struck fuel depots, gas facilities, and the electrical grid, despite promising to respect a 30-day pause on such attacks. Kiev, for its part, claimed that Russia was breaching the same agreement. Russia has maintained that any long-term settlement would be viable only if the US and Ukraine address the “root causes” of the conflict. Moscow demands that Kiev abandon its plans to join NATO and recognize Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions as Russian territory.

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Note that Putin didn’t send his political envoy, but his business man.

• Putin Envoy Visits Washington (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, visited Washington on Thursday. He is the highest Russian official who traveled to the US since diplomatic contacts were suspended in 2022. Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, previously participated in the Russian-US talks in Riyadh on February 18, where both sides agreed to start gradually normalizing the ties severed by the Biden administration. Speaking to reporters on Thursday evening, Dmitriev noted that President Donald Trump and his team have a better understanding of Russia’s terms than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. “We are seeing absolutely clearly that, unlike President Biden, the Trump administration is determined to resolve the whole spectrum of bilateral issues,” the diplomat said.

“They are very respectful. They are listening to Russia’s position, and are understanding Russia’s concerns. They are asking a lot of questions and finding compromises,” he added. “Naturally, there are differences. But there is dialogue, which we believe will help to overcome these differences,” Dmitriev said. The envoy said that he had discussions about restoring trade and normal business relations between the states. “Many American companies would like to replace European companies that have left Russia,” he said. Dmitriev stressed that Moscow is ready to work on business projects that would be beneficial to both countries. He added that the sides talked about potential cooperation in the Arctic and the development of rare-earth minerals. “We are actively working on the resumption of direct flights” between Russia and the US, he said. Dmitriev said that more rounds of talks will be needed to hammer out the deal.

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“We are seeing a coordinated campaign in the media, attempts by various politicians to undermine the relations between Russia and the US, and attempts to distort the statements made by Russia,” the diplomat said. “It happens on a daily basis.”

• Third Parties Attempting To Derail US-Russia Talks – Putin Envoy (RT)

Certain countries want to throw a wrench into the normalization of Russian-American relations, President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, has said. He made his comment during a rare trip to Washington, where he met with top US officials. “Different countries are trying to derail this dialogue, derail the restoration of the Russian-American relations,” Dmitriev told reporters on Thursday evening. He noted that the negotiations have been accompanied by “a lot of rumors, incorrect quotes, and incorrect interpretations.” “A lot of people are interested in preventing the development of our relations. We are seeing a coordinated campaign in the media, attempts by various politicians to undermine the relations between Russia and the US, and attempts to distort the statements made by Russia,” the diplomat said. “It happens on a daily basis.”

“The best way to overcome disinformation is direct dialogue,” he stressed. Dmitriev reportedly met with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has been one of the key US negotiators on Ukraine. According to NBC News, the Russian diplomat also met with Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Markwayne Mullin. According to Dmitriev, the sides mostly discussed steps to gradually amend the cooperation severed by the Biden administration in 2022. The agenda included possible partnership in the Arctic, the development of rare-earth minerals, and the resumption of direct flights between the countries, he said.

Some EU and Ukrainian politicians have attempted to dissuade Trump from restarting negotiations with Moscow. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, claimed last month that “Russia cannot really be trusted.” Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky suggested in February that Trump was trapped in a “disinformation bubble.” Trump has blamed Zelensky for the conflict, while his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, argued that the EU should be sidelined during negotiations.

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Cue DOGE.

• House Panels Press Probe of ActBlue Campaign Fundraising Operations (Adams)

Top Republican House leaders have formally requested that ActBlue, one of the Democratic Party’s largest political action committees, turn over documents related to its governance and operations. In a letter dated April 2 to ActBlue President and Chief Executive Officer Regina Wallace-Jones, the chairmen of the House committees on the Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, and Administration requested documents and testimony from two employees of the organization. The names of the employees whose testimony was requested were redacted in the version of the letter that was made public. A source familiar with the investigation told The Daily Signal, “We expect ActBlue employees to participate in the transcribed interviews and submit the required documents.” The source explained, “If they fail to comply, all options are on the table.”

An ActBlue spokesperson told The Daily Signal, “As we have historically done, ActBlue will continue to respond to requests from the House committees.” In their letter, the committee chairs said that they were seeking “to investigate ActBlue’s fraud-prevention policies and practices, which may allow bad actors to make fraudulent political donations, including from foreign sources.” ActBlue is one of the largest fundraisers for the Democratic Party, and claims to have raised more than $16.7 billion for Democrats since it was founded in 2004. Prior to the recent turmoil in leadership, it was a widely trusted source for liberal giving. ActBlue has come under increasing scrutiny since it announced a wave of departures of top staff in February. The resignations included the organization’s highest-ranking legal officer, the chief revenue officer, and the assistant research director.

ActBlue has received donations from some of the Democratic Party’s most important fundraisers, including thousands of dollars from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. The Daily Signal has previously reported that the group may have received millions of dollars through fraudulent donations, according to testimony from some elderly Americans. One such individual, a retired Yale University professor, testified in a signed affidavit that he believed the donations in his name did not reflect his actual donation frequency or dollar amount. ActBlue charges a 3.95% processing fee on donations to it.

The organization also reportedly locked out Zain Ahmad, the last remaining member of the group’s general counsel’s office as of Feb. 26, from his email and other internal platforms. The letter from the House chairmen highlighted the organization’s actions toward Ahmad, who has been put on leave, and noted that ActBlue’s union reportedly told the group’s board that “those of us who work with our legal team in our day-to-day do not have clear direction on how to proceed with our work in their absence.” The House letter noted that fraudulent political donations “could amount to interstate criminal conduct,” citing a legal case that resulted in a Chinese national’s criminal conviction for improper donations.

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By Senator Roger Marshall. The idea is that Oz will execute RFK’s MAHA vision.

• Dr. Oz Will Save Medicare, Strengthen Medicaid, Secure a Healthier America (DS)

Medicaid and Medicare are on a path that should concern all Americans, but with the right leadership, we can turn their trajectory around. On its current course, Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for seniors, will fall off a financial cliff in as little as a decade—maybe even sooner. Meanwhile, Medicaid, the program that pays for health care for the poor, now covers more people than Medicare, placing an enormous strain on both state and federal budgets. As a nation, we face a chronic disease epidemic, and along with it, a crisis of unsustainable rising costs, high demand, and worsening patient outcomes. Over the past five years, Medicaid spending has surged by some 50%—another unsustainable trend that diverts funds from schools, roads, bridges, and high-speed internet.

Together, Medicare and Medicaid will each spend roughly a trillion dollars this year. That’s why we urgently need a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator who can rescue Medicare and fortify Medicaid. As both programs fall under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we need a leader with a fresh perspective—one who prioritizes patient care while ensuring financial stability. This role demands someone who has experienced these programs at the grassroots level, where patients, doctors, and hospitals intersect. This person must be an exceptional communicator, capable of managing a $2 trillion budget and transforming an organization of 6,000 employees who oversee the health needs of 140 million Americans. This budget accounts for nearly a quarter of federal spending in a system that already overspends by $2 trillion annually.

Above all, we need someone who can help us in our mission to Make America Healthy Again. Thankfully, we have just the person for the job: Dr. Mehmet Oz. To America, he’s Dr. Oz: a world-renowned heart surgeon and the trusted star of a hit TV show. Some may also recognize him as an innovative inventor of lifesaving heart devices, holding both an M.D. and an MBA. But to me, Dr. Oz is a fellow physician and a good friend. He’s a devoted father of four and grandfather of four. He’s a person who cares deeply about finding solutions—a problem-solver ready to tackle the challenges of Medicaid and Medicare head-on, focusing on the health and safety of every American and ensuring those who rely on these programs continue to receive the care they deserve.

Dr. Oz is uniquely equipped to modernize health care. He will harness cutting-edge technology and responsibly integrate artificial intelligence to meet patients’ needs. He’ll champion transparency and prioritize quality outcomes over mere quantity of care or coverage. By empowering patients and providers with choices, he’ll drive higher-quality care. He’ll strengthen telehealth and address the distinct challenges of rural communities, along with those of the inner city. Thinking outside the box, he’ll uncover innovative solutions to our health care woes with full transparency.

Put simply, Dr. Oz is the right leader at the right time to execute President Donald Trump’s and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy’s vision to Make America Healthy Again. With his expertise, compassion, and bold leadership, he will transform the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services into a beacon of fiscal responsibility and patient-centered care. There’s no one better suited to save Medicare, strengthen Medicaid, and secure a healthier future for all Americans. I look forward to his swift confirmation and the work he will do to address our health crisis. With Dr. Oz, Secretary Kennedy, and President Trump at the helm, the best is truly yet to come for our health care system and its patients.

https://twitter.com/Holden_Culotta/status/1907927964131668210

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Only Israel wants it.

• War With Iran ‘Almost Inevitable’ – France (RT)

A military conflict with Iran would be highly likely if attempts to renegotiate a new nuclear deal fail, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has warned. US President Donald Trump has threatened Tehran with a bombing campaign if it does not concede on its nuclear program, which Washington alleges is aimed at developing atomic weapons. The Iranian government, which vehemently denies the claims, has vowed to retaliate against any attack. Addressing French MPs on Wednesday after an Iran-focused government meeting led by President Emmanuel Macron, Barrot stated that without a new agreement, “a military confrontation would appear almost inevitable,” warning that such a scenario could further destabilize the Middle East.

In 2015, Iran and major world powers signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) accord which restricted Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. However, in 2017 Trump unilaterally withdrew from the arrangement, which he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled “the worst deal ever,” opting instead for a campaign of “maximum pressure” through sanctions. The EU sought to provide Iran with means to bypass American pressure to preserve the JCPOA, but negotiations have since stalled. The standoff has bolstered a hardline foreign policy approach in Tehran, which refused to uphold its commitments in retaliation for Western failure to deliver on its part of the nuclear pact .

Since beginning his second presidential term in January, Trump has repeatedly issued threats of military action unless Tehran agrees to a new nuclear deal. In a recent interview, he stated, “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing. And it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defiantly responded to Trump on Monday, warning that the US and Israel “will definitely receive a strong, reciprocal blow” if they attack Iran. Amid the escalating tensions, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday it had deployed additional assets to the Middle East. According to Reuters sources, four B-2 bombers have been relocated to a base on Diego Garcia Island, positioning them for potential missions against Iran.

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“..the ICC is becoming a political entity rather than an impartial court upholding the rule of law..”

• Hungary to Abandon ICC Over Concerns of Political Bias – Orban (Sp.)

Hungary has decided to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), as it believes the institution has shifted from an independent judicial body to a politically motivated one in recent years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Thursday. “We are convinced that the ICC is becoming a political entity rather than an impartial court upholding the rule of law. This has been particularly evident in its recent decision regarding Israel,” Orban stated at a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Orban, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will present a bill to parliament on Thursday, officially initiating Hungary’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute.

Earlier in the day, Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, confirmed that the Hungarian government had made the decision to leave the ICC, with the formal withdrawal process set to begin later on Thursday. The ICC’s disregard for the immunities of heads of state from countries that are not parties to the Rome Statute violates international law and thus undermines the court’s own legitimacy as an independent party in disputes. Moreover, its actions destabilize global security, making it difficult to view the ICC as a body acting on behalf of the international community.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

CO2

 

 

Calley Means
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1907512164933320833

 

 

Bowden
https://twitter.com/McCulloughFund/status/1907511535078936726

 

 

autism

 

 

Canaia
https://twitter.com/ContrarianTribe/status/1907779479168016572

 

 

Pi
https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1907831288691614116

 

 

Car

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle March 16 2025

Mar 162025
 
 March 16, 2025  Posted by at 10:22 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  20 Responses »


Peter Paul Rubens Daniel in the lions’ den c1615

 

• Everybody Believes Ukraine Won – Zelensky (RT)
• Time Runs Out For Ukraine Forces In Kursk Region To Surrender – Kremlin (RT)
• Russia ‘Must’ Accept Ceasefire Deal – Macron (RT)
• Russia Needs Permanent End to Ukraine Crisis, Not Minsk 3.0-Style Pause (Sp.)
• Merkel Slams ‘Putinversteher’ Witch Hunts (RT)
• Trump Clarifies Ukraine Envoy’s Duties (RT)
• Putin Aide Compares EU Leaders To ‘Affectionate Puppies’ (RT)
• Viktor Orban vs. the Modern-Day Habsburgs in Brussels (Sp.)
• With Starlink, Musk Has Similar Effect On Europe As He Does In US (JTN)
• Moscow Invites Musk To Collaborate On Mars Exploration (RT)
• Trump’s Overtures Toward Greenland Are Paying Off (DS)
• The 4th Circuit Reverses Nationwide Injunction on Ending DEI Funding (Turley)
• Trump Has Something To Say About the Biden Autopen Scandal (Margolis)
• Trump Orders Cutbacks At State-Run Media (RT)
• The Swamp Can Scream But DOGE Is on a Lawful Path to Success (DS)
• Federal Judge Tells Trump He Can’t Use the Law to Deport Illegals (Margolis)
• Federal Judge Appoints Himself President (BBee)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/cb_doge/status/1900681542353236349


https://twitter.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1900669533935071519

Candace
https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/1900646060827062695

O’Leary

Macgregor
https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1900960935638167986

 

 

 

 

I got nothing.

• Everybody Believes Ukraine Won – Zelensky (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Kiev has received widespread applause from its Western backers over its handling of the recent talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. The diplomatic success, he stated, puts Russia in a difficult situation that could be hard to “wiggle out of.” During a meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, the Ukrainian delegation agreed to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire. “Everyone congratulated Ukraine on a real victory in Jeddah, the victory of diplomacy,” Zelensky stated on Saturday, without specifying who exactly reached out to Kiev. “Everyone believes that this is a serious progress,” he claimed. At the time of the meeting, the Ukrainian military was facing a sustained Russian offensive along the entire front line, while Kiev’s troops suffered a major defeat in Russia’s Kursk Region.

A surprise attack allowed the Russian military to reclaim hundreds of square kilometers of territory within days and liberate Sudzha, the largest town in the area previously occupied by Ukrainian forces. The head of the Russian General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, reported on Wednesday that the Ukrainian troops in the area were largely “isolated” or “encircled.” On Friday, US President Donald Trump called on Moscow to spare the lives of the “thousands” of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the area. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin has guaranteed merciful treatment to the surrounded fighters if they surrender. The Ukrainian General Staff swiftly branded all the reports about an encirclement a “manipulation” by Russia. Talking to journalists on Saturday, Zelensky denied that the Ukrainian troops had been surrounded in the Kursk Region.

The Ukrainian leader also demanded “unconditional” agreement from Moscow to the US-backed ceasefire proposal. “If Ukraine takes such a step, it has to be unconditional,” he stated. Putin welcomed the US ceasefire initiative by calling it “the right idea” and one that Moscow “certainly supports.” However, he maintained that certain issues, including the fate of the Ukrainian troops in Kursk Region, as well as mechanisms for monitoring the ceasefire, need to be addressed before any agreement could be reached. France and the UK have also demanded that Russia agree to an unconditional temporary truce, which prompted a sharp rebuke from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who said the UK can stick such ideas back where they came from.

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“If they lay down their arms and surrender, we will guarantee them their lives and dignified treatment..”

• Time Runs Out For Ukraine Forces In Kursk Region To Surrender – Kremlin (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to Ukrainian forces in Kursk Region to surrender is still valid, but time is running out, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. “It is still in effect,” he stated on Saturday in response to a question from TASS news agency. “Their time is shrinking like the Shagreen skin,” he added, in reference to Honoré de Balzac’s novel ‘The Magic Skin’. On Friday, Putin guaranteed merciful treatment to Ukrainian fighters encircled in Kursk Region if they surrender. “If they lay down their arms and surrender, we will guarantee them their lives and dignified treatment in accordance with international law and Russian legal norms,” the president said. He indicated, however, that Kiev should order them to do so.

Putin’s statement was a response to US President Donald Trump’s call to spare the lives of the “thousands of Ukrainian troops” who are “completely surrounded by the Russian military.” “This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II,” he commented on Truth Social. Kiev launched a major offensive into Kursk Region in August 2024, successfully capturing the town of Sudzha along with numerous villages. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky stated that the incursion across the internationally recognized border aimed to secure leverage for future peace negotiations.

However, the Russian military quickly halted the Ukrainian advance and has since been regaining territory. As of Wednesday, 86% of the land occupied by Ukraine was reclaimed, according to General Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff. He noted that the remaining Ukrainian units in the area are largely “encircled” and “isolated.”

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NATO and Kiev are stuck. Not Russia.

• Russia ‘Must’ Accept Ceasefire Deal – Macron (RT)

Moscow must accept the US-proposed 30-day ceasefire deal and stop making “delaying statements,” French President Emmanuel Macron has stated. Kiev agreed to a month-long truce in the Ukraine conflict following talks with the US in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Washington subsequently resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine and arms shipments to the country. No EU member states were represented at the negotiations. Speaking on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia is ready to discuss a ceasefire but that the terms need to be clarified to ensure it leads to a stable and permanent peace. On Friday, following talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, Macron demanded that Moscow accept the proposed deal.

“Russia must now accept the US-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day ceasefire,” he wrote on X, adding that he will continue working to drum up support for Kiev going forward. The UK has also demanded an unconditional armistice from Moscow. “Now is the time for a ceasefire with no conditions. Ukraine has set their position out. It is now for Russia to accept it,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a comment to the press on Friday. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed the demand. “Britain and its minister can shove their idea back up the sh*thole it came from, diplomatically speaking,” Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, wrote on X.

Russia has condemned the increasingly hostile statements coming from European leaders about boosting their militarization, as the tide on the battlefield turns increasingly in favor of Moscow. Western states’ continued provision of military supplies to Ukraine makes the conflict a NATO-led proxy war against Russia, according to Moscow. Replying to British and French initiatives to deploy peacekeeping contingents to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called such ideas “outright hostile” to Russia. Any troops of the US-led military bloc in the conflict, even under the guise of peacekeepers, will amount to the “direct, official, undisguised involvement of NATO countries in the war against Russia,” the top diplomat has said.

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“..issues ranging from the fate of Ukrainian troops trapped in Kursk, to Ukraine’s ongoing forced mobilization, to monitoring for violations, and arms supplies to Kiev must be dealt with before Russia agrees to a ceasefire..”

• Russia Needs Permanent End to Ukraine Crisis, Not Minsk 3.0-Style Pause (Sp.)

Shortly after the US rolled out its 30-day Ukraine ceasefire proposal, President Trump appealed to President Putin to spare the lives of “thousands” of Ukrainian troops trapped in Kursk region. Sputnik asked a pair of veteran international affairs analysts about the risks and opportunities hidden in the US proposals. Donald Trump’s call on Russia to spare Ukrainian troops trapped in Kursk reminds veteran geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic of the Minsk peace agreements, the second iteration of which was signed in February 2015, “when Ukrainian forces were encircled and facing capture or annihilation at the hands of Donbass fighters.”

Back then, “US and European leaders eagerly urged a temporary ceasefire and the creation of conditions under which Ukrainian forces could recover, reorganize, rearm, and restart hostilities at a future date with factors leaning better in their and their Western sponsors’ favor,” the former US Marine recalled. “Now, Russian forces have delivered a significant defeat to Ukraine and its Western backers – including the United States – and once again there are urgent attempts to pause the fighting to buy time for the Ukrainians and ultimately buy time for Washington’s proxy war,” the observer said. The US’s 30-day ceasefire proposal “sidesteps” the “root causes of this conflict (US-led NATO expansion),” with the alliance’s European members being called on to more than double their defense spending, Berletic pointed out.

Accordingly, rather than a mere “freeze” of the conflict, Russia, which has “expanded its own combat power faster than Ukraine with Western backing can negate it” to achieve victories in Kursk and the incremental collapse of Ukrainian positions along the rest of the front, needs a “permanent conclusion to this conflict,” not a temporary freeze which would ensure its continuation “well into the foreseeable future,” Berletic emphasized. President Putin confirmed as much in his press conference Thursday. “We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities, but proceed from the assumption that this cessation should lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” he said. Furthermore, issues ranging from the fate of Ukrainian troops trapped in Kursk, to Ukraine’s ongoing forced mobilization, to monitoring for violations, and arms supplies to Kiev must be dealt with before Russia agrees to a ceasefire, Putin added.

Veteran independent Argentine journalist Tadeo Castiglione argues that the US president’s appeal to Russia can be interpreted as a signal to speed up peace talks, and a message to Volodymyr Zelensky to call on his troops to surrender to avoid a massacre.“Throughout the three years of the Special Military Operation, Russia has respected international law, and ensured respect for all Ukrainian servicemen who surrendered,” something that could not be said about the other side, the veteran international affairs observer pointed out.

Kursk is outside the Special Operation Zone, Castiglione stressed, and for the Russian side, fighting on this front is considered an anti-terrorist operation, since Ukrainian forces invaded and attacked civilians beyond the NATO-Russia proxy war’s boundaries. “This is a crime on the part of the Ukrainian government. That is why Putin has emphasized that despite breaking the law on Russian territory, they will still be treated as prisoners of war,” Castiglione explained. Therefore, “if both sides really want peace, the first step must be the capitulation of Ukrainian units in Kursk,” the observer summed up.

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Her successors are far worse than she is, but she started the decline.

• Merkel Slams ‘Putinversteher’ Witch Hunts (RT)

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized the use of the term ‘Putinversteher’ (Putin understander) to silence those who discuss Russia’s perspective, arguing that it prevents meaningful dialogue and complicates diplomacy. In an interview with Berliner Zeitung on Friday, Merkel was asked how she felt about the term, which is often used to label people who address Russian President Vladimir Putin’s concerns over NATO expansion. “Not good, because there has to be a discussion about it. You have to plan ahead for diplomatic initiatives so that they are available at the right moment,” she said.

She also rejected the idea that seeking to understand Moscow’s position amounts to supporting it. “I find the accusation of being a Putinversteher inappropriate. It is used as a conversation-stopper, a way to shut down debate.” Asked if she has ever been called one, Merkel replied: “No one has ever called me that – it’s a strange word. Understanding what Putin does and putting oneself in his position is not wrong. It is a fundamental task of diplomacy and something entirely different from supporting him.” Her remarks come amid an ongoing debate in Germany over its policy toward Russia. The term ‘Putinversteher’ is frequently used to criticize those who advocate for diplomatic engagement with Moscow, portraying them as sympathetic to the Kremlin.

Speaking on European security concerns, Merkel warned that failing to address Russia’s interests could increase the risk of future conflicts. “There is no justification for him [Putin] invading another country, but the discussion about Russia’s interests must be allowed.” Merkel was a key mediator in the Minsk agreements, a 2015 road map negotiated along with then-French President Francois Hollande, which was officially intended to reintegrate the Donbass region into Ukraine. However, after the 2022 escalation, both Merkel and Hollande admitted that the accords were never meant to bring peace, but rather to buy time for Kiev to strengthen its military with NATO’s help.

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Kellogg speaks only to Zelensky. Trump doesn’t care what he says anyway. This way Zelensky thinks he still matters.

• Trump Clarifies Ukraine Envoy’s Duties (RT)

US President Donald Trump has appointed Keith Kellogg to lead talks with Kiev. Earlier, media reports suggested that the retired lieutenant general was ousted from peace talks with Russia at Moscow’s request. “I am pleased to inform you that General Keith Kellogg has been appointed Special Envoy to Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. He added that Kellogg will lead direct talks with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and senior officials. “He [Kellogg] knows them well, and they have a very good working relationship together,” Trump said.

NBC News and Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources, that Russian officials demanded that Kellogg be excluded from peace talks due to his pro-Kiev position. The retired US Army lieutenant general was absent from last month’s Russia-US talks in Saudi Arabia and this week’s US-Ukraine talks in Jeddah, where the delegations proposed a 30-day ceasefire. On Thursday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow to formally present the details of the initiative to Russian officials. Witkoff’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was hailed as “very good and productive” by Trump.

Putin expressed support for a potential 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict, but has raised concerns regarding how it can be implemented. He also offered the Ukrainian forces encircled in Russia’s Kursk Region time to surrender, guaranteeing them their lives and dignified treatment. Regarding ties between Moscow and Washington, the Russian president acknowledged the Trump administration’s efforts to rebuild them, but said the process remains challenging. “We know the new administration, headed by President Trump, is doing everything to restore at least part of what was practically reduced to zero, destroyed by the previous American administration,” Putin said.

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“..Medvedev dismissed the ultimatum, telling Britain and Lammy personally to “shove their idea back up the sh*thole it came from, diplomatically speaking.”

• Putin Aide Compares EU Leaders To ‘Affectionate Puppies’ (RT)

President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, has echoed the Russian leader’s comparison of European leaders to puppies, commenting on how quickly they shifted to supporting the US push for a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict. Last month, Putin predicted that European politicians, who “happily carried out any order from the president in Washington” under President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, would soon fall in line with changing US policy. Given Trump’s “character and persistence,” all of them would soon “stand at the master’s feet and gently wag their tails,” the Russian president said. In an interview on Friday with Russia 1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin, Ushakov was asked to comment on European leaders’ recent shift to supporting the US-proposed 30-day ceasefire after years of steady military assistance to Kiev.

Everything is turning out as Putin “vividly” portrayed, the presidential aide said. “He described it as if they would be like affectionate dogs at the feet of their master. This is approximately what is happening now,” Ushakov stated. Following a virtual meeting of European leaders on Friday, France and the UK both demanded that Russia accept the 30-day ceasefire agreed upon by Ukraine and the US during bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia earlier in the week. “Russia must now accept” the truce deal, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the press that Moscow must accept the ceasefire without conditions. “Ukraine has set their position out. It is now for Russia to accept it,” he said. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed the ultimatum, telling Britain and Lammy personally to “shove their idea back up the sh*thole it came from, diplomatically speaking.”

The US and its allies in Europe severed diplomatic ties with Russia soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, pledging to support Kiev with financial and military aid “as long as it takes.” Moscow has long characterized the conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia. Trump has repeatedly signaled his intention to diplomatically wind down the conflict during his reelection campaign. Relations between Washington and Moscow began to thaw following a phone call between Putin and Trump, which was followed by high-level talks in Riyadh last month. European leaders who severed ties with Moscow can reestablish diplomatic contact whenever they choose, Putin said last month, though he noted they are “deeply entangled with the Kiev regime” and that it would be “very difficult or almost impossible for them to backtrack without losing face.”

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“For Orban, the War Against Soros Is Personal.”

Where do you think this weekend’s big anti-Orban protests come from?

• Viktor Orban vs. the Modern-Day Habsburgs in Brussels (Sp.)

Hungary’s prime minister has released a 12-point ultimatum to the European Union, demanding peace, sovereign equality, the protection of Europe’s Christian heritage, the expulsion of “Soros agents” in the European Commission, and an EU “without Ukraine.” Sputnik asked two renowned experts of Hungarian politics what’s really at stake. Orban’s appeal, coinciding with the anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, signals recognition that Brussels bureaucrats have become the modern-day oppressors of Hungary, imposing an “ongoing tyranny” amid Budapest’s efforts to “pursue its own national, historical, cultural policies,” renowned international affairs commentator Dr. George Szamuely explained. It’s very much about “national autonomy, national self-determination [and] national identity” versus the universalist, globalist vision of the likes of Ursula von der Leyen, according to the observer.

The timing of Orban’s statement has to do with the rise of Trump, Szamuely says, with the Hungarian leader already serving “kind of ‘Trump before Trump’” anyway, opposed to mass illegal immigration, promoting a “Hungary First” vision, and consistently advocating for “immediate peace in Ukraine.” “Russia raised objections about Ukraine in NATO, but never in the EU. So it’s very interesting that Orban has done this,” Szamuely said, commenting on the Ukraine-related aspect of Orban’s 12-point demands. “He sees Ukraine in the EU as being a serious economic threat to countries such as Hungary and others in Central Europe, particularly with its cheap agricultural products that will be used to wipe out agriculture,” Szamuely explained.

“He probably sees that this is part of the plan on the part of the EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen, Kaja Kallas and the rest to destroy the economies of Central European states such as Hungary and Slovakia,” the observer added.
Veteran Hungarian journalist Gabor Stier agrees. “Orban is saying we have suffered from the war, and now will suffer from Ukraine’s membership in the EU, because the EU will collapse if Ukraine becomes a member…I agree with this 100%,” Stier, a senior foreign policy analyst at Hungary’s conservative daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet, explained. In this regard, Orban and Hungarians recognize a reality that EU elites and most ordinary Europeans don’t, according to the observer.

The Hungarian leader has “been very much the victim of George Soros’ infrastructure in Europe, which has been targeting him for 15 years, really, ever since he first came to power in 2010,” Szamuely said, commenting on the anti-Soros portion of Orban’s 12-point appeal. Up for reelection next year, Orban “sees Soros money behind the candidacy of Peter Magyar, who is going to be the leader of the opposition, the leader of the Tisza Party,” Dr. Szamuely explained. Besides this, Soros’ arsenal includes his NGOs, think tanks, newspapers, legal and lobbying groups, who target “nationalist populists” across the EU. “Whether it’s Fico and Slovakia, we’ve also seen what happened to Georgescu in Romania, and without question, if they can get Orban, that’ll be a huge victory for the color revolution,” Szamuely stressed.

Stier notes that Orban’s mission today is about “squeezing out everyone tied to Western networks, the so-called Soros structures.” “This is a part of the war that Trump is waging against the globalists. And [in Hungary] one of Trump’s European supporters is making great efforts to do the same,” Stier explained. Today’s global political landscape in the middle of an “ideological war between globalists and the sovereigntists, between ‘Sorosists’ and ‘Trumpists’,” Stier says. “It’s very important that Orban now feels Trump’s support and strength behind him, and this expands his room for maneuver. At the same time, in domestic politics, he must somehow mobilize his supporters, because while there is still a year before the elections, he will need to work very hard to win,” the observer summed up.

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There is no alternative.

“Ukraine is estimated to be already using nearly 50,000 proprietary Starlink terminals..”

• With Starlink, Musk Has Similar Effect On Europe As He Does In US (JTN)

Since returning to the White House nearly two months ago, Donald Trump has tested the willingness of the U.S.’s European allies to deal with uncertainty regarding trade and security. On a smaller, but important, Trump ally and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has charted a similar path with his groundbreaking Starlink telecommunications systems. Using a vast network of low-orbit satellites, Starlink – a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX – can provide users with high-speed Internet access essentially anywhere in the world, even when users are on the move. The technology plays a key role in the high-tech war in Ukraine, and it’s also of use in remote parts of the world and can even be used for limited periods during power outages. There are downsides, of course. Though Starlink’s services have come down in price, they are still expensive compared to faster, traditional Internet alternatives. And they require a clear line of sight to the sky order to work correctly, making them ineffective in some urban contexts, mountainous areas, or dense forests.

Scientists also worry about filling up low orbits with “space junk” that could crash into spacecraft or other satellites, obscure astronomers’ views of the heavens, and increase the amount of space debris that falls to earth. But the biggest obstacle to the company’s spread may be Musk himself. Since taking a role in the Trump administration and weighing in on an array of hot button global issues, Musk has become a controversial figure. That is having an impact across Musk’s business empire, leading to plummeting sales of Tesla cars and a growing exodus of users from his X social media platform. Late last year, Italy began talks about signing a $1.6 billion deal to provide Starlink services to its diplomatic corps and military personnel stationed abroad. But the deal has run into trouble amid allegations that it is the fruit of the cozy relationship between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and both Trump and Musk.

Musk also threatened to turn off access to Starlink in Ukraine (“Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off,” Musk tweeted a week ago). He has since backtracked off the threat, but it has helped turn public opinion against him in Italy and elsewhere. In addition, Musk’s threat also cause s riff with Poland, when the country’s prime minister, Poland’s foreign minister over the use of the tech billionaire’s Starlink satellite internet system in Ukraine. Musk said on X that Ukraine’s “entire front line” would collapse if he turned the system off, Radoslaw Sikorski,responded to Musk by saying his country pay for Starlink’s use in Ukraine and a threat to shut it down would result in a search for another network. “Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year,” he said. “The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed Sikorski’s claims and told him to be grateful, while Musk called him a “little man.” Musk has also drawn fire from leaders in the U.K., Germany, and France. Additionally, the Trump administration’s hardline criticisms of Europe are having an impact, according to Hashem Alkhaldi, founder of ReshapeRisks, a London-based geopolitical risk consultancy. “European political considerations are an increasingly important factor for Starlink,” Alkhaldi told Just the News. “U.S. companies, including Starlink, are now likely to be viewed as strategic threats rather than market partners.” Alkhaldi said the change has ramped up efforts in Europe to improve its “strategic autonomy” from the U.S. “Recent developments have only heightened this sensitivity,” he said, likely referring, at least in part, to Trump’s tariffs on the EU and threats to stop U.S. funding to Ukraine in its effort to fend off Russia’s invasion, leaving the task up to European countries.

The problem is, there isn’t a viable global alternative – at least not for the time being. European leaders said earlier this month that they’d step in to help Ukraine replace Starlink’s networks if access to Starlink was blocked. But it’s not clear how they could do that. A spokesman for the European Commission said the entity was looking into helping Ukraine by using Govsatcom – a pooled constellation of satellites from European Union member states – combined with the Iris2 sovereign satellite network that is at least five years from being fully operational. But that would only answer a small fraction of Kyiv’s operational needs. Shares in French satellite operator Eutelsat – for now, Starlink’s most direct competitor – shot up more than 500% in a week as tensions with Starlink escalated. But by most counts, Eutelsat operates just one satellite for around every 12 Starlink has deployed. In a similar circumstance in the U.S., Musk’s top two Teslas cars – Model Y and Model 3 – account for roughly 43% of the country’s electric vehicle sales.

“The Eutelsat network would be pushed to its limits to meaningfully fill the gap Starlink could leave in Ukraine,” Alkhaldi said. “Starlink has technological advantages over European companies, which haven’t had big incentives to grow since there aren’t that many service gaps in Europe. Add to that the fact that Ukraine has relied excessively on Starlink.” Even if it could work, a switch to a new technology would be slow and expensive. Ukraine is estimated to be already using nearly 50,000 proprietary Starlink terminals. Starlink terminals have also proved unusually resistant to Russian electronic interference. There’s no way to know whether the same would be true for Eutelsat and others. What may be more likely than a viable European alternative in the Ukraine war would be one from the other side of the world: China. China’s global communications satellite presence is still modest, but it is ramping up fast. And even as things stand, Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns China is already wading into the fray on the Russian side.

Read more …

“..for the glory of humanity.”

• Moscow Invites Musk To Collaborate On Mars Exploration (RT)

Russian sovereign wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriev has pitched a US-Russia partnership for Mars exploration to Elon Musk. In a post on X on Saturday, Dmitriev, who has also taken on the role of chief economic envoy in the US-Russia talks, noted the importance of space collaboration between the two countries “for the glory of humanity.” Dmitriev’s remarks came in response to Musk’s announcement of a planned 2026 Mars mission. The SpaceX founder stated that the company’s Starship spacecraft is set to depart for Mars next year and will be carrying a Tesla humanoid bot called Optimus. Musk also suggested that human landings on Mars could begin as early as 2029.

“Shall 2029 be the year of a joint US-Russia mission to Mars, @elonmusk? Our minds & technology should serve the glory of humanity, not its destruction,” Dmitriev wrote. He also noted that 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first crewed international space mission carried out jointly by then-spaceflight rivals, the US and the Soviet Union, in July 1975. Musk has not yet publicly responded to Dmitriev’s proposal, but the idea has garnered a slew of positive reactions from X users.

Read more …

“The message is that America wants Greenland, but that Greenland will ultimately need the U.S…”

• Trump’s Overtures Toward Greenland Are Paying Off (DS)

Acquiring Greenland remains a priority for the Trump administration, and there are signs that a deal may be inching closer to happening.You may have missed it, but President Donald Trump referred to Greenland in his joint address to Congress in early March. Trump said to the people of Greenland, “We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.” That short line, “and if you choose,” is significant because it undermines the silly conjecture that Trump is going to take the United States to war with Greenland and NATO or some such nonsense. Sumantra Maitra at The American Conservative wrote that the U.S. purchasing and integrating lands peacefully is very much in line with the country’s traditions.

“The idea that the U.S. would just simply annex Greenland, even by force if needed, is unappealing to a lot of Americans and worse for Europeans,” Maitra wrote. “Peaceful integration and mutually beneficial trade with foreign lands, on the other hand, is as American as, well, apfelstrudel” (the German phrase for apple pie). Gentle, but forceful coaxing is the way to go here to entice the people of Greenland without provoking anti-American backlash. Trump affirmed his commitment to this path on Thursday, too, saying how important he thinks Greenland is for security around the Arctic, through which Russian and Chinese ships frequently pass. The message is that America wants Greenland, but that Greenland will ultimately need the U.S. It will be a mutually beneficial relationship for all. Greenland’s recent elections were a mixed bag but they showed that the potential for a long-term deal is increasing.

The victorious Demokraatit party is considered center right. It’s generally pro-Europe and not currently in favor of U.S. acquisition but leans toward long-term independence. Notably, the second-highest vote-getting Naleraq party—that only trailed Demokraatit by a few points—is the one most strongly amenable to independence (from Denmark) and partnership with the U.S. They will almost certainly be part of the ruling coalition of the country, since the two parties’ combined vote percentage was over 50%. And most importantly of all, the left-wing parties hostile to Trump and the U.S. were soundly defeated. [..] Even NBC News admitted in an analysis of the election that while the pro-U.S. party didn’t win outright, the results are likely good for the White House. It should be noted that Greenland’s voters are typically very much to the Left of Americans. The rightward shift after Trump’s overtures is significant.

Greenland is almost certainly willing to “play ball,” so to speak. And for a good reason. The United States offers huge investment possibilities far beyond the capacity of any European country or collection of countries, and certainly of Greenland alone. Right now, both Denmark and Greenland are trapped in a suboptimal economic situation. Denmark can’t quite invest in Greenland to the degree necessary to make the partnership really pay off and it remains an underdeveloped financial burden as a result. Greenland is rich in natural resources, but the island has a tiny number of people and only a few marginal industries. A great power like the United States could step in and make things happen like never before. The key phrase here is “great power.” Greenland is of more importance now than it has been in decades because there’s been an unmistakable return to international great power competition.

A look at any map of the globe from the top should explain why Greenland is important. It’s straddled by Russia on one side, and China is highly interested in the region, especially its resources. Starting the long-term process of acquiring Greenland signals that the U.S. is not going to let another great power encroach on the territory. It will help build upon the U.S. presence and influence over the Arctic. And it will provide significant investment and job opportunities to Americans and Greenland residents. Trump said to the people of Greenland in his address, “We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.” The Trump administration’s focus on Greenland demonstrates that the U.S. is not content to be a fading power or an economic zone in a global, woke empire. Instead, it will act as a great nation, willing to defend its interests at home and abroad and unwilling to allow other powers to force their way into the Western Hemisphere.

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“Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing;” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government;” and “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”

• The 4th Circuit Reverses Nationwide Injunction on Ending DEI Funding (Turley)

On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the much-covered nationwide injunction imposed by U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore regarding ending federal support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The three-judge panel ruled that Judge Abelson had gone “too far” in seeking to enjoin the federal government across the country. The Fourth Circuit recognized that the executive orders “could raise concerns” about First Amendment rights that might have to be addressed down the road. However, it found Abelson’s “sweeping block went too far.” It also pointed out that the orders were not nearly as unlimited and sweeping as suggested by the district court or the media.

Trump’s orders directed federal agencies to terminate all “equity-related” grants or contracts, and further required federal contractors to certify that they implement DEI programs which the Administration believes are discriminatory and violated federal civil rights laws. Those orders are also being challenged in other cases and include “Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing;” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government;” and “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The district court found the orders in the Maryland case to be unconstitutionally “vague” and chilled free speech. That was a victory for the litigants, including the City of Baltimore, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.

In their order, the panel explained that the orders were misrepresented in their scope. Judge Pamela Harris, a Biden appointee, wrote that: “The challenged Executive Orders, on their face, are of distinctly limited scope. The Executive Orders do not purport to establish the illegality of all efforts to advance diversity, equity or inclusion, and they should not be so understood.” Judge Harris also noted that the orders “do not authorize the termination of grants based on a grantee’s speech or activities outside the scope of the funded activities.” Likewise, she noted that the certifications only require pledges not to violate existing federal anti-discrimination laws. Nevertheless, Judge Harris noted that the officials could enforce these orders in unconstitutional ways: “Agency enforcement actions that go beyond the Orders’ narrow scope may well raise serious First Amendment and Due Process concerns,” the judge added.

Chief Judge Albert Diaz, an Obama appointee, agreed with Harris but wanted to emphasize that the enforcement of these orders should not stray from their narrow framing: “I too reserve judgment on how the administration enforces these executive orders.”Judge Diaz, however, went beyond that scope and engaged in a degree of editorialization on the value of DEI programs. “Despite the vitriol now being heaped on DEI, people of good faith who work to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion deserve praise, not opprobrium,” the judge wrote. “When this country embraces true diversity, it acknowledges and respects the social identity of its people. When it fosters true equity, it opens opportunities and ensures a level playing field for all. And when its policies are truly inclusive, it creates an environment and culture where everyone is respected and valued. What could be more American than that?… A country does itself no favors by scrubbing the shameful moments of its past.”

The only Trump appointee pushed back on the rhetoric of her colleagues in their defense of DEI policies. Judge Allison Rushing correctly, in my view, objected to the political dimension of such dicta. “Any individual judge’s view on whether certain Executive action is good policy is not only irrelevant to fulfilling our duty to adjudicate cases and controversies according to the law, it is an impermissible consideration. A judge’s opinion that DEI programs ‘deserve praise, not opprobrium’ should play absolutely no part in deciding this case.” I also found the tenor of the opinion of Chief Judge Diaz to be concerning. The review of an injunction is not an invitation or license to express one’s personal view of the moral or social value of government programs. I share the concern of all three judges with how these orders will be enforced to protect free speech rights. However, we have a court system to address any such abuses if they were to arise. If there are “as applied” violations, they can be raised in the context of a specific case with the courts. In the meantime, the Supreme Court has signaled that it is losing patience with nationwide injunctions from district court judges.

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“..unelected bureaucrats were running the country while Biden struggled to remember what day it was..”

• Trump Has Something To Say About the Biden Autopen Scandal (Margolis)

The Biden administration has been caught in what could be one of the most jaw-dropping scandals in presidential history. As PJ Media previously reported, virtually every document during Biden’s presidency was signed by autopen. While the presidential autopen isn’t new—Barack Obama first used it to sign legislation in 2013—the scale of its use under Biden and the circumstances surrounding it are raising serious red flags. Legitimate questions have been raised as to whether use of the autopen was always authorized by Joe Biden, or even if he was aware it was being used to sign documents. The situation has become so alarming that President Trump addressed it directly during his Friday speech at the Department of Justice.

“Crooked Joe Biden got us into a real mess with Russia and everything else he did, frankly,” Trump begain. “But he didn’t know about it and he, generally speaking, signed it with autopen. So how would he know? That autopen is a big deal? I don’t know.” Trump continued, “You know, they’re having, who’s, who’s doing this? When my people come up, Will and all of the people, Steve, they come up and, ‘Sir, this is an executive order.’ They explain it to me and you know, 90% of the time I sign it, 99% of the time I say, ‘Do it,’ but they come up and I sign it. But you don’t use autopen. Number one, it’s disrespectful to the office. Number two, maybe it’s not even valid because you know who’s getting him to sign? He had no idea what the hell he was doing. If he did, all of these bad things wouldn’t be happening right now.”

Even more alarming are the revelations from former Biden White House insiders. One source told the New York Post that they suspect a key aide to Joe Biden may have unilaterally decided what documents to auto-sign. The plot thickens, with anonymous White House sources painting a picture of potential abuse of power. The source explained that “everyone” was worried that a particular aide was exceeding his or her authority, “But no one would actually say it.” “I think [the aide] was using the autopen as standard and past protocol,” the source said. “There is no clarity on who actually approved what — POTUS or [the aide].” Speaker Mike Johnson previously highlighted Biden’s inability to recall signing an LNG (liquified natural gas) exports executive order. Let that sink in—the “president” couldn’t remember signing a major executive order affecting our energy security. But was he even involved in the decision at all?

The left-wing media will try to sweep this under the rug, but the evidence is mounting. We’re potentially looking at a situation where unelected bureaucrats were running the country while Biden struggled to remember what day it was. Former White House staffers can dispute these allegations all they want, but the American people aren’t stupid—we could see what’s happening. This isn’t just about an autopen anymore—it’s about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House. And the answer to that question should terrify every American who believes in democratic governance. With President Trump speaking of the scandal, you can bet this won’t go away anytime soon. Will we find out that Joe Biden hadn’t authorized and maybe wasn’t even aware that official documents were being signed on his behalf? What happens if we do?

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1900579758162788741

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“..Under the order, the agencies must reduce their operations and staff to the bare minimum required by law..”

• Trump Orders Cutbacks At State-Run Media (RT)

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at significantly reducing operations at the agency that funds state-sponsored news outlets such as Voice of America and Radio Liberty. The move is part of Trump’s drive to root out wasteful spending, bureaucracy, and corruption in the US government, which has already resulted in the cancelation of programs and significant job cuts within the federal workforce. Signed on Friday, the executive order targets seven federal agencies, including one that provides funding for museums and one that deals with homelessness. It also targets the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees the state-owned Voice of America (VOA), along with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Radio Free Asia, which are separate not-for-profit entities that are also fully funded from the US budget. All three claim to provide unbiased news to audiences in around 100 countries, but are widely seen as propaganda outlets.

Under the order, the agencies must reduce their operations and staff to the bare minimum required by law. Agency heads have seven days to submit compliance plans outlining which functions are legally mandated. Trump has frequently criticized US-funded media outlets, including VOA, accusing them of being biased. In a speech at the Department of Justice on Friday, he blasted the US media as “corrupt and illegal,” calling them “political arms of the Democrat party.” He singled out CNN and MSNBC, claiming they “literally write 97.6% bad about me,” and vowed to continue eliminating “rogue actors and corrupt forces” within the federal government.

Elon Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has pushed for a complete shutdown of RFE/RL and VOA. In a post on X last month, the tech billionaire labeled them “radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.” Since then, the Trump administration has reportedly taken nearly full control of the USAGM, imposed a 30-day freeze on its funding, and initiated layoffs, particularly among probationary employees at VOA. Kari Lake, Trump’s newly appointed head of VOA, has supported the cost-cutting measures, but suggested that the agency could still be salvaged. On Thursday, she announced plans to end costly contracts with major wire services such as AP, AFP, and Reuters. In a social media post, Lake said she was “finding a lot of nonsense that the American taxpayer should not be paying for.”

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“Trump can authorize Musk and DOGE to do what he simply cannot because of time and resource constraints on him. To argue otherwise is to suggest either that the president can be barred from ensuring that the laws be faithfully executed or that the chief executive must be omniscient..”

• The Swamp Can Scream But DOGE Is on a Lawful Path to Success (DS)

Despite a smattering of preliminary injunctions and administrative stay orders from rogue federal judges, President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency is well on its way to accomplishing its worthy goals. And despite what some out-of-control judges are saying, it is acting well within the boundaries of the law. Already, DOGE has exposed wasteful, potentially fraudulent, and truly bizarre spending of taxpayer funds to the tune of $105 billion. For comparison, that’s equivalent to about half the gross domestic product of Kansas and more than twice that of Vermont. Unsurprisingly, DOGE’s work has elicited vehement howls from the parasites of government largess, particularly so-called nongovernmental organizations that have received billions of dollars. They have flooded the courts—engaging in very selective venue shopping to find “their” judges—with multiple lawsuits all alleging that Elon Musk and his team are acting outside of the law.

“NGO” is really a misnomer when you consider that these organizations who call themselves “nongovernmental” are sucking so much money out of the federal government—like Planned Parenthood, which received over half a billion taxpayer dollars in just one year. No way are they “nongovernmental.” But contrary to what it might seem if you read the headlines of The New York Times or watch hysterical outbursts at MSNBC, so far the Trump administration has been relatively successful in defeating those trying to prevent DOGE from finding and stopping the waste of federal funds. To date, about 23 lawsuits have been filed to halt DOGE’s work. Only three have obtained orders adverse to DOGE—and none has successfully stopped DOGE from doing its much-needed work.

For instance, 19 states led by New York asked U.S. District Court Judge Jeannette Vargas to stop DOGE from changing how the Treasury Department performs its work, which included actually recording who payments were going to and what specific congressional appropriation authorized the payment. Gosh, what a radical concept—applying standard business accounting standards to the government! What did Vargas say to this wild request from New York? A resounding “no” to such “broad and sweeping” restraints on the executive branch. Instead, she issued a much narrower injunction limiting who could access personally identifiable information. A Maryland judge also entered a temporary restraining order barring “unauthorized” government employees—i.e., DOGE—from accessing personally identifiable information possessed by the Treasury Department on similar grounds.

Those injunctions presume that Congress can limit the president from reviewing information held by executive branch agencies or authorizing someone to do it for him. That’s a dubious idea when it comes to the president’s inherent executive authority under the Constitution to oversee federal agencies and make sure they are following the law—if necessary, by checking in on their day-to-day operations. And then on March 10, District of Columbia Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that DOGE must respond to a Freedom of Information Act request. In his view, DOGE’s actual structure and work didn’t matter as much as rhetoric around DOGE for determining whether DOGE is an agency that is subject to FOIA. Otherwise, however, DOGE’s challengers are striking out.

When unions sued to block DOGE’s access to data at the Labor Department and two other agencies, Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, denied their request for a temporary restraining order. Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee, also refused to issue a temporary restraining order in another lawsuit challenging DOGE’s access to student loan data. And when the Electronic Privacy Information Center broadly challenged DOGE’s access to agency-held information, Judge Rossie Alston, a Trump appointee, also denied an injunction. Even Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presided over special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal prosecution of Trump and demonstrated on numerous occasions that she is no friend of Trump’s, could not find sufficient legal grounds to issue an injunction when 14 states claimed that Musk’s position and role were unconstitutional. As she explained, the states were only speculating that they would be harmed. But as a consolation prize, she did expedite the discovery process in their lawsuit.

That’s not to say that the judges hearing these challenges are not sympathetic to claims that DOGE’s structure or operations somehow raise constitutional flaws. Chutkan, for instance, speculated that Musk might need to be Senate-confirmed and pontificated that DOGE represents an unconstitutional power grab by the president. At the end of the day, however, such speculation—which lies at the heart of many of these lawsuits—is just wrong. Speculations by a judge are totally inappropriate unless the issue has been raised and briefed by the parties, and the judge has examined all the facts, thoroughly researched the law, and come to a conclusion on the merits—or lack thereof—of the claims being made. Keep in mind that it was President Barack Obama who launched the U.S. Digital Service, DOGE’s predecessor, in 2014 and appointed a tech engineer who formerly worked for Google to head the team. Even Obama had an Elon Musk—and no one cried foul then.

Trump’s executive order simply renamed the U.S. Digital Service as DOGE and reorganized it within the Executive Office of the President—and a president has complete control over the structure, organization, and staff of his Executive Office. Neither Congress nor any court can tell him what to do within that office. Aside from that realpolitik observation, Musk isn’t an officer requiring Senate confirmation. Obfuscating rhetoric aside, Musk has no actual power to change or cancel contracts, terminate or halt spending, or create any regulation. He is simply an unofficial adviser to the president with no executive authority of any kind. All he can do is make recommendations—which, as Trump reminded his Cabinet during their first meeting, agency officials can reject.

It is Trump who is vested with the authority under Article II of the Constitution to carry out Congress’ legislative mandates. Thus, he has a constitutional obligation to ensure that bureaucrats inside the executive branch are complying with statutory requirements and that taxpayers are getting the most bang for their buck.

On top of that, the president has inherent constitutional authority to instruct executive officials to gather whatever information is needed to carry out those duties, unless there is a specific statute that limits the president’s authority, is within the constitutional bounds of congressional authority, and does not violate the president’s constitutional position as the head of the executive branch. The notion that federal agencies should police themselves and that the president has no authority to do that (or to receive advice on how to do that from anyone he wants) is nonsense. It is fundamentally contrary to the constitutional mandate that the buck stops with the president. That’s why Trump doesn’t need Congress to pass a law authorizing DOGE to do its work. He has inherent constitutional authority as the chief executive to ensure that federal agencies are following the law.

At bottom, Trump can authorize Musk and DOGE to do what he simply cannot because of time and resource constraints on him. To argue otherwise is to suggest either that the president can be barred from ensuring that the laws be faithfully executed or that the chief executive must be omniscient. Neither is tenable—and the former is unconstitutional. Opponents of reform have retreated to the citadel of judicial activism in a last-ditch attempt to cripple the now-underway restoration of America’s political institutions. But contrary to their claims, DOGE is bringing much-needed sunlight to the swamp of bureaucracy that is the federal government today. And it is doing so well within the legal boundaries set by the Constitution. We can only hope that more unelected judges recognize that fact and stop acting like an imperial judiciary that can override the elected leader of the country.

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Wrong chair, dude.

• Federal Judge Tells Trump He Can’t Use the Law to Deport Illegals (Margolis)

Judicial activism was hard at work again on Saturday when a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The ruling not only halted deportations but also ordered any flights already in progress under Trump’s directive to turn back and return to the United States, effectively forcing the administration to keep these dangerous criminals on American soil. USA Today has more:

“The order came after Trump on Saturday issued a proclamation, which he signed the day before, that relies on the 18th-century law to deport members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which he said “continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens.” The Alien Enemies allows the deportation without a hearing of anyone from the designated enemy country who is not a naturalized citizen. The law has only been invoked three times while the country was at war, to hasten the removal of citizens of enemy countries. Hours before the proclamation’s release, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., granted a temporary restraining order Saturday and ordered the government not to deport five Venezuelan nationals cited in a lawsuit brought by two nonprofits, Democracy Forward and the American Civil Liberties Union.”

So, yeah, we have a federal judge telling a U.S. president he literally can’t use the law to deport criminal illegals. The judge converted a lawsuit into a class action during a hearing Saturday evening, extending the temporary restraining order to all non-citizens in the U.S. covered by Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. The order will remain in place for at least 14 days while litigation proceeds. Trump’s proclamation, which invoked the Act, accused Tren de Aragua, a group designated as a foreign terrorist organization, of conducting hostile actions and irregular warfare against the U.S. at the direction of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. Another hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Boasberg claims the Alien Enemies Act does not “provide a basis for the president’s proclamation given that the terms invasion, predatory incursion really relate to hostile acts perpetrated by any nation and commensurate to war.” But, that’s not exactly true. “Congress approved the Alien Enemies Act in anticipation of another war against the United Kingdom,” explains USA Today. “It has been invoked three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, according to Katherine Yon Ebright, a counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.” However, there is ample precedent for using the law even when not during times of war.

Despite being invoked during wars, former Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman each continued to enforce the law after the end of hostilities, Ebright said. Wilson used it to detain German and Austro-Hungarian immigrants for two years after the end of World War I in 1918. Truman used it for detentions and deportations for six years after the end of World War II in 1945. The Supreme Court upheld Truman’s extension in 1948 by reasoning the end of wartime authorities is a “political” matter. The Trump administration plans to appeal, of course.

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“Last night, the Constitution appeared to me in a dream and told me to do this..”

“At publishing time, Judge Dithers had been unseated as President by a higher court judge who declared himself President instead..”

• Federal Judge Appoints Himself President (BBee)

The Trump Administration agenda was stopped in its tracks this week after a federal judge appointed himself the new President of the United States. “There’s nothing we can do,” said legal experts. “He’s a federal judge.” Sources confirmed that Judge Mortimer Dithers of the Northern District of California granted himself all the powers of the executive branch in an emergency move to stop Trump. “Last night, the Constitution appeared to me in a dream and told me to do this,” said Judge Dithers. “You can’t argue with that. Also, my word on this is law because I’m a federal judge.”

President Judge Dithers has already issued several executive actions, including orders for Tesla to stop making cars, Elon Musk to punch himself in the face, and Trump to not move his head next time someone shoots at him. “This is the bidding of your new leader,” said Judge Dithers. “So let it be done, by the order of your new Federal Judge President.” Trump later responded to the ruling on Truth Social by accusing the judge of “looking like a potato.” At publishing time, Judge Dithers had been unseated as President by a higher court judge who declared himself President instead.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Clots
https://twitter.com/SenseReceptor/status/1900741265651581263

 

 

Elephant

 

 

Mother and
https://twitter.com/TheFigen_/status/1900323166557528133

 

 

Jurassic

 

 

Boji

 

 

Pizza
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1900989010492760340

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle Christmas Day 2024

Dec 252024
 
 December 25, 2024  Posted by at 10:59 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Giuseppe Arcimboldo Four elements – Fire 1566

 

• A Simple Way Donald Trump Can End the Ukraine and Israel Wars (Adam Dick)
• The Greatest Gift of All (Paul Craig Roberts)
• EU In Denial About Defeat In Ukraine – Orban (RT)
• Orban Offers Two Scenarios For End Of Ukraine Conflict (RT)
• Kremlin Comments On Orban’s Vision Of Ukraine Peace (RT)
• Trump Wants ‘Sustainable Peace’ In Ukraine – Envoy (RT)
• Trump in 2025 (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Eric Trump Posts Dad’s ‘Shopping List’ Of Countries (RT)
• Zelensky Admits Offering Money To Slovak PM Fico (RT)
• EU Should Investigate Ukraine Not Slovakia – Lawmaker (RT)
• NATO States Won’t Achieve Spending Goals Soon – El Pais (RT)
• Democrats More Likely to Cut Off Relatives Over Political Differences (AmG)
• Rand Paul’s Annual Festivus List: Over 1 TRILLION in Government Waste (Calvin)
• Speaker Johnson Shielded J6 Committee ‘Star Witness’ from GOP Subpoena (HUSA)
• Putin Weighs In On The Syrian Situation (Bhadrakumar)
• High Electricity Taxes Are Crippling European Industry (OP)
• Africa Is ‘New Focus’ Of US Biolab Activities – Moscow (RT)

 

 

 

 

Silent night
https://twitter.com/i/status/1871286098854584390

Reagan

Greenland

Scaramucci
https://twitter.com/i/status/1871370816727740800

Jan6

Chamath
https://twitter.com/i/status/1871367613164499114

Isaacson

Gaetz

 

 

 

 

“..righty tighty..”

• A Simple Way Donald Trump Can End the Ukraine and Israel Wars (Adam Dick)

Upon his inauguration as president, Donald Trump will become the leader of a United States executive branch mired in two major wars via its continuing pumping of money, weapons, and intelligence into support of the Ukraine and Israel governments. Trump has declared his opposition to the continuation of these wars. But, how can he end them? The means by which Trump can end the wars is simpler than many Americans think. This means just does not come to mind for many Americans because it is far removed from the course US presidents have tended to pursue over the last few decades. Righty tighty. That’s it. Taking the US out of these wars is as simple as turning off a standard outdoor water faucet. President Joe Biden has turned the handle all the way lefty loosey. Trump should just turn it back all the way. Shut off the money flow. Shut off the weapons flow. Shut off the intelligence flow.

And there is no good reason for Trump to take his time about it. He should turn off the flow of aid in all forms promptly in his presidency. Doing so would comport with Trump’s stated objectives regarding the Ukraine War and the Israel War during his campaign and since. Trump has repeated his promise to end the Ukraine War in a day. He has also commented on multiple occasions that he wants the Israel War over before he is even sworn in as president. Without US support, Ukraine and Israel lack the means to continue their wars. Deprived of the means to continue fighting in anywhere near the strength they have, both governments will immediately find themselves in a new situation where their best option is to seek peace. Without critical US support, the Ukraine government will negotiate what it will give up in its loss to Russia.

Meanwhile, Israel, also deprived of critical US support, will have to pare its ambition in its multifront war. Their only other option is suicidal fighting on in a lost cause. Sober military members would probably put a stop to that. No matter, it was never the cause — lost or otherwise — of America anyway. What about negative political repercussions for Trump from his ending US participation in the wars? Such participation lacks popular support, so ending it would seem a plus for Trump’s popularity. Further, since Trump won the presidential election portraying himself as the “peace candidate,” even people who dislike his extraction of the US from the wars would not be very convincing complaining of Trump acting inconsistently or hypocritically. Indeed, Trump could proclaim that his action is a promise kept.

There is even a political urgency for Trump to turn the faucet handle righty tighty. If he continues supporting the wars for weeks or, worse, months or even years, the wars will become Trump wars as they have been Biden wars. Americans would feel relief when Trump after significant delay terminates US involvement, but any effort then to praise him as a man of peace will be met with justified skepticism. There would be blood on his hands. If President Trump quickly turns off the faucet for the Ukraine War, the defeat of Ukraine will be accelerated. Trump can portray such as the much-needed termination of Biden’s deadly folly, reminding Americans as Trump has over the past couple years that the entire conflict would have been avoided had Trump been president. Trump can also claim victory in stopping the killing of people — Ukrainian and Russian — something he has pointed to as his primary objective.

In turning off the war support for the Israel government, Trump is in a different position as he has expressed his particularly strong support for this government. But, Trump, as with the Ukraine war, has also expressed his strong desire for the carnage in the Israel War to end. Trump, when shutting off the faucet, can declare victory for Israel. He can claim the defeat by Israel of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He can claim also Israel’s elimination of threat posed to it from Syria. The war is over and won can be his message. Trump will surely face difficult challenges as president, but on the major issues of the Ukraine War and Israel War, the solution is simple: righty tighty.

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“Power is the horse ridden by evil.”

• The Greatest Gift of All (Paul Craig Roberts)

The decorations and gifts of Christmas are one of our connections to a Christian culture that has held Western civilization together for 2,000 years. In our culture the individual counts. This permits an individual person to put his or her foot down, to take a stand on principle, to become a reformer and to take on injustice. This empowerment of the individual is unique to Western civilization. It has made the individual a citizen equal in rights to all other citizens, protected from tyrannical government by the rule of law and free speech. These achievements are the products of centuries of struggle, but they all flow from the teaching that God so values the individual’s soul that he sent his son to die so we might live. By so elevating the individual, Christianity gave him a voice.

Formerly only those with power had a voice. But in Western civilization people with integrity have a voice. So do people with a sense of justice, of honor, of duty, of fair play. Reformers can reform, investors can invest, and entrepreneurs can create commercial enterprises, new products and new occupations. The result was a land of opportunity. The United States attracted immigrants who shared our values and reflected them in their own lives. Our culture was absorbed by a diverse people who became one. In recent decades we have lost sight of the historic achievement that empowered the individual. The religious, legal and political roots of this great achievement are no longer reverently taught in high schools, colleges and universities or respected by our government.

The voices that reach us through the millennia and connect us to our culture are being silenced by “Identity Politics,” “political correctness,” “critical race theory,” “DEI,” and the war against “white culture.” Prayer has been driven from schools and Christian religious symbols from public life. Christianity is being gradually marginalized. Each year it becomes more difficult to find a Christmas card that says “Merry Christmas” instead of “Seasons Greetings.” In place of Christmas carols we get Hollywood Christmas songs. In some churches Christianity is being transmuted into Christian Zionism and the worship of Israel. Others fly LGBTQ and BLM flags. We are approaching a time when a Christian Christmas cannot be celebrated as it is not inclusive in a diverse society and therefore is politically incorrect if not a hate crime.

Constitutional protections have been diminished by hegemonic political ambitions. Indefinite detention, torture, and murder are now acknowledged practices of the United States government. The historic achievement of due process has been rolled back. Tyranny has re-emerged. Diversity at home and hegemony abroad are consuming values and are dismantling the culture and the rule of law. There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not within a single country. A Tower of Babel has no culture. A person cannot be a Christian one day, a pagan the next and a Muslim the day after. A hodgepodge of cultural and religious values provides no basis for law – except the raw power of the pre-Christian past. All Americans have a huge stake in Christianity. Whether or not we are individually believers in Christ, we are beneficiaries of the moral doctrine that has curbed power and protected the weak.

Power is the horse ridden by evil. In the 20th century the horse was ridden hard, and the 21st century shows an increase in pace. Millions of people were exterminated in the 20th century by wars that served the ambitions of political leaders and ideological movements. Many were murdered simply because they were members of a class or race that had been demonized by intellectuals and political authority. In the beginning years of the 21st century, hundreds of thousands of Muslims in seven countries have been murdered and millions displaced in order to serve the neoconservatives’ agenda of extending Washington and Israel’s hegemony. Power that is secularized and cut free of civilizing traditions is not limited by moral and religious scruples. V.I. Lenin made this clear when he defined the meaning of his dictatorship as “unlimited power, resting directly on force, not limited by anything.”

Washington’s drive for hegemony over US citizens and the rest of the world is based entirely on the exercise of force and is resurrecting unaccountable power. Christianity’s emphasis on the worth of the individual makes such power as Lenin claimed, and Washington now claims, unthinkable. Be we religious or be we not, our celebration of Christ’s birthday celebrates a religion that made us masters of our souls and of our political life on Earth. Such a religion as this is worth holding on to even by atheists. As we enter into 2025, Western civilization, the product of thousands of years of striving, is in decline. Degeneracy is everywhere before our eyes. As the West sinks into tyranny and degeneracy, will Western peoples defend their liberty and their souls, or will they sink into the tyranny, which again has raised its ugly and all devouring head?

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“Orban has repeatedly called for immediate peace talks. “We need to stop dreaming about a military solution..”

• EU In Denial About Defeat In Ukraine – Orban (RT)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused the European Union of being in denial about its inability to secure a victory for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. Speaking to the broadcaster M1 on Sunday, Orban criticized the bloc’s leaders for ignoring the reality on the ground and asserted that their current approach is merely prolonging the conflict without achieving meaningful results. In recent months, Russian forces have advanced rapidly in the Donbass region, steadily pushing westward since capturing the strategic town of Avdeevka in February. In October, they seized another key Ukrainian stronghold, the town of Ugledar, and are now close to taking control of Kurakhovo, a major Ukrainian logistical hub. “The reality is that Ukraine is not winning on the battlefield,” Orban said during the interview.

“Leaders in Brussels are living in a self-created bubble, refusing to acknowledge that this war cannot be won in the way they imagine.” He argued that continued military support and sanctions against Russia are counterproductive, harming European economies more than achieving their intended goals. “The sanctions have failed,” Orban claimed. “Instead of crippling Russia, they have weakened Europe. Yet, Brussels refuses to face this truth.” Hungary has often been at odds with its EU partners over their approach to the conflict. While the bloc has remained steadfast in providing military aid and imposing sanctions on Russia, Orban has repeatedly called for immediate peace talks. “We need to stop dreaming about a military solution,” he said.

“The only way forward is through negotiations. Ukraine’s defeat is not just possible but increasingly likely, and the longer this war drags on, the worse it will be for all of Europe.” Orban’s comments have drawn criticism from other EU leaders, who argue that his remarks undermine the bloc’s unity against Russia in the conflict. Despite the backlash, Orban has insisted that Hungary would not support measures that escalate the conflict further. “Hungary will stand for peace and the interests of its people,” he said. “It’s time to prioritize diplomacy over delusions of victory.” Russia has repeatedly insisted that Western weapons supplies to Ukraine will not deter it from achieving its military objectives, nor will it change the outcome of the conflict. Rather, arming the Kiev regime only serves to prolong the hostilities, Moscow believes.

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“The war will end in 2025. Either through successful peace negotiations or by the destruction of one of the fighting parties..”

• Orban Offers Two Scenarios For End Of Ukraine Conflict (RT)

The Ukraine conflict will be resolved one way or another next year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told the newspaper Magyar Nemzet, proposing two basic scenarios for how this outcome will emerge. “The war will end in 2025. Either through successful peace negotiations or by the destruction of one of the fighting parties,” he said in an interview published on Tuesday. Orban, a longtime critic of Western military assistance to Kiev and sanctions on Russia, was discussing how his nation had weathered the three years of the Ukraine crisis. He said in such a period a nation is lucky not to backslide economically, as many members of the EU have. Next year Hungary will enjoy the renewal of strong growth, he predicted. “We are prepared, and we will make a flying start in 2025,” he said.

“The policy of peace will return instead of war policy, and we will have great economic successes again.” When asked about Orban’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Russia has always been willing to take the diplomatic route for achieving its national security goals vis-a-vis Ukraine, but that Kiev is unwilling to negotiate. That is why Moscow keeps moving toward its objectives by military means, he added. “We see the dynamics, and the dynamics speak for themselves,” the official said.

The Hungarian leader did not explain which party he believed could be “destroyed” in 2025. Russia currently has a decisive advantage on the battlefield, while the government in Kiev is reportedly lobbying US President-elect Donald Trump for better support. The incoming president has argued that both Ukraine and Russia must seek to stop the bloodshed. He has stated his intention to facilitate a truce upon taking office in January. Orban, who supported Trump during the presidential race, has expressed confidence in the latter’s ability to deliver.

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“Since so far there has been no movement in terms of Ukraine’s readiness to negotiate, we are continuing our military operation..”

• Kremlin Comments On Orban’s Vision Of Ukraine Peace (RT)

Russia has always been willing to achieve its goals in the Ukraine conflict diplomatically and has only resorted to military means because Kiev rejects talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, commenting on a statement by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that the hostilities will end next year. In an interview published earlier in the day by Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet, Orban expressed certainty that peace in the Ukraine conflict would be achieved in 2025, either through negotiations or after “one of the parties” is destroyed, he reasoned.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “has repeatedly stated that we are open to dealing with our issues through negotiations,” Peskov told the media, when asked about the remarks. He was referring to the national security goals outlined by the Russian leader. “Since so far there has been no movement in terms of Ukraine’s readiness to negotiate, we are continuing our military operation,” he added. The situation on the battlefield, where Russian troops have an advantage over their opponents, “speaks for itself,” Peskov said. Moscow wants its neighbor to be neutral rather than a member of NATO, a military bloc that Russia considers hostile.

It also demands that the Ukrainian military be limited in strength and that Kiev abandon policies that discriminate against ethnic Russians in the country. Moscow has characterized the conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia in which Ukrainians serve as cannon fodder. Earlier this month, the Russian military released its latest assessment of Ukrainian battlefield casualties. Roughly one million troops have been killed, injured or taken captive since the tensions with Kiev escalated in February 2022, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said in a year-end report. More than half of the losses, or 560,000, were recorded this year, he said.

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“It’s time for Europe to really step up… It’s in their neighborhood..”

• Trump Wants ‘Sustainable Peace’ In Ukraine – Envoy (RT)

A sustainable peace between Russia and Ukraine is one of President-elect Donald Trump’s top foreign policy priorities, according to his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired Army General Keith Kellogg. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Kellogg stated that Trump wants to “stop the killing and bring peace to the region,” describing the Ukraine conflict as the “number one international priority” for the president-elect. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Kellogg stated that Trump wants to “stop the killing and bring peace to the region,” describing the Ukraine conflict as “number one international priority” for the president-elect. According to Kellogg, Trump is seeking a peace that will be “fair… sustainable, and secure,” adding that he does not want the settlement process to go the same way as the now-defunct Minsk agreements.

Signed in 2014 and brokered by Germany and France, the agreements were intended to give the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, now part of Russia, special status within the Ukrainian state. However, former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, as well as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande have admitted that they wanted to use the ceasefire to buy time and buttress Kiev’s military. The Minsk process “failed miserably,” Kellogg said. “The president will not go there. He understands the importance of relations he has with his allies, and also with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin as well.

He is the man who can bring it to a conclusion… in a relatively near term,” he said, without commenting on how the president-elect plans to accomplish this goal. Kellogg stressed that the Ukraine conflict is a “European-based problem,” adding that the US has been “incredibly generous” in terms of aiding Kiev. “It’s time for Europe to really step up… It’s in their neighborhood,” he stated. The retired general was reportedly one of the authors of a peace plan that would freeze the conflict along the current front line without recognizing Russia’s sovereignty over territories claimed by Ukraine while suspending Kiev’s NATO membership ambitions.

Several Western media have reported that Kellogg will soon embark on a European tour and visit several capitals, including Kiev, Rome, and Paris, in a bid to further Trump’s long-stated goal of settling the Ukraine conflict. According to Bloomberg, Kellogg may also be open to traveling to Moscow after visiting Kiev. Officials in Moscow have said they have had no contact on Ukraine with either Trump or his team. They have also ruled out the freezing of the conflict, insisting that all the goals of the military operation, including Kiev’s neutrality, demilitarization and denazification, must be met. However, Putin has signaled that he is open to talks with Trump.

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“Plea bargaining permits anyone to be charged for anything and coerced into a self-incriminating plea bargain. Consequently, the evidence against the person is never tested in court..”

• Trump in 2025 (Paul Craig Roberts)

As President-elect Trump’s inauguration approaches, Trump supporters are happy in their thoughts that Trump will halt the inflow of immigrant-invaders, pardon the wrongly imprisoned Jan 6 attendees, stop America’s participation in wars that benefit only Israel, and hold accountable scoundrels such as FBI director Wray, AG Garland, and a large number of FBI, DOJ, and CIA operatives who committed high treason by engaging in frame-ups of the President of the United States. The ruling establishment is unlikely to accept these goals and can use its control over House and Senate that its campaign contributions provide to water down, if not block, these initiatives. It is time for MAGA America to think beyond specific agenda items. The restoration of America requires the restoration of truth, justice, the rule of law and respect for the Constitution.

The restoration of truth requires the breakup of the six mega-corporations that own 90% of the American media. The print and TV media must be returned to a combination of private and smaller corporate hands. The restoration of justice requires the abolition of plea bargains. When guilt had to be determined by jury and not by self-incrimination, a prosecutor’s budget required him to focus on the most serious crimes with the most likely success in conviction. Plea bargaining permits anyone to be charged for anything and coerced into a self-incriminating plea bargain. Consequently, the evidence against the person is never tested in court. The restoration of the rule of law requires serious punishment for prosecutors who weaponize law and turn it into a weapon in the hands of the state instead of a shield of the people.

To restore respect for the Constitution requires a total cutoff of federal funding for every university the law school of which disrespects the Constitution. The United States is the Constitution. Disrespect for the Constitution is disrespect for the United States. Universities and law schools that disrespect the US Constitution are actively working against the United States. They are agents of a hostile ideological agenda to overthrow the United States and to replace it with something else. This does not mean that reforms cannot be achieved. There have been reforms over the course of our history, many of which were ill-considered and damaging. The Constitutional grounds for some reforms were non-existent and were invented by progressive Supreme Court judges to serve ideological agendas. Bad judgment aside, the Constitution does not prevent reforms.

The agenda I propose is more likely of success. It does not directly attack the immediate economic or financial interests of lobby groups that want cheap labor and wars that produce armaments profits. It is difficult to oppose conviction by evidence instead of self-incrimination. It is difficult to oppose faithfulness to and respect for the US Constitution. Top officials still take their oath of office on it. It is difficult to champion propaganda over truth. It is difficult to defend double standards in law and punishment. My fear is that Trump, having assembled a government of Zionists, will achieve nothing but a war with Iran for Israel’s interest.

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“..“is of the belief that empires that don’t grow start to fail”..”

• Eric Trump Posts Dad’s ‘Shopping List’ Of Countries (RT)

Eric Trump has posted a tongue-in-cheek meme depicting his father, US President-elect Donald Trump, purchasing entire regions on Amazon. In a post on X on Tuesday, Eric Trump showed his father’s imaginary Amazon Prime “shopping cart,” filled with Canada, Greenland, and Panama Canal and complete with a “free delivery” option. He accompanied the meme with the caption: “We’re so back!” Eric Trump’s lighthearted post follows his father’s controversial comments regarding the three places listed and his plans for them upon returning to the White House in late January. Last week, the president-elect revived a suggestion he made during his first term in office that Washington could buy Greenland from Denmark, which has controlled the territory for more than 300 years.

In a post on his Truth Social media platform, Trump wrote that the US needs to acquire the autonomous territory “for purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world.” In another post on Saturday, Trump warned that Washington could seek to regain control over the Panama Canal, a crucial artery which handles about 5% of world trade, if the Central American country continues to impose “exorbitant” fees on American vessels to use the waterway. He slammed the US decision to transfer full control over the canal to Panama back in 1999 as foolish. Earlier this month, Trump also suggested that Canada should become the 51st US state. He reportedly first made the comment during a dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where the latter tried to dissuade Trump from placing tariffs on his country in retaliation for failing to stem the flow of illegal migrants and drugs across the border with the US.

Trump reiterated his call in a post last week, writing: “I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!” Trump aides and allies reportedly believe he is in earnest about buying Greenland and potentially retaking the Panama Canal, according to the New York Post. “The president is 100% serious,” a source close to Trump told the news outlet, while another one noted that the president-elect “is of the belief that empires that don’t grow start to fail” and “favors past presidents who were expansionist on the continent.” The Panama and Greenland authorities, however, have not been thrilled with Trump’s expansion plans. Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, dismissed any possibility of a deal with Trump on Monday, stating that the island “is ours” and “not for sale,” as quoted by AFP.

In a video address on Sunday, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino also brushed off Trump’s threats, declaring that “every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama, and it will continue to be so.” Canadian leader Trudeau has yet to respond to Trump’s 51st state jabs, but other officials have so far downplayed them. For instance, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said last week Canada will “never” become part of the US, as did Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

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“Robert Fico has said he rejected a proposed €500 million in exchange for backing Ukraine’s NATO bid..”

Who gives Zelensky that money?

• Zelensky Admits Offering Money To Slovak PM Fico (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has confirmed that he offered money to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico during their recent meeting in Brussels, amid a row between the two nations over the transit of Russian gas.Kiev intends to cut supplies of Russian fuel through its territory when a five-year transit contract expires at the end of the year, which Slovakia says would undermine its energy security. After a meeting of EU leaders with Zelensky last week, Fico claimed he had rejected an offer of €500 million ($520 million) in exchange for Bratislava’s backing of the Ukrainian bid to join NATO. Zelensky disputed the reason for his proposal in a post on X on Tuesday. “We offered him solutions regarding potential compensation for Slovaks – the Slovaks specifically – for losses from Russian transit, as well as alternatives for transit – any other gas, not Russian, at the request of the European Commission,” he wrote.

Zelensky reiterated his previous allegations that Fico’s policies are motivated by “personal gain” under “murky schemes” with Moscow. The Ukrainian leader first made the unsubstantiated claims when reacting to Fico’s visit to Russia last Sunday, where he met President Vladimir Putin to discuss the situation with gas supplies. The €500 million that Fico mentioned during a press conference would come from Russian national assets, which Kiev claims it has the right to use as it sees fit. Western nations have frozen some $300 billion in funds kept by Moscow in their jurisdiction, after the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022.

Brussels has rejected calls by Kiev and Washington to seize the immobilized money, saying that the move would deal a blow to the euro and the bloc’s financial system. Russia has warned that it would retaliate against the “theft” of its property. Fico has warned that a “serious conflict” with Kiev would develop if Zelensky “doesn’t release our gas.” Ukraine has been transporting Russian-origin energy to European consumers since Soviet times. The Slovak prime minister is a dissenter among Western leaders, as he opposes continued military assistance to Kiev and urges a negotiated resolution of the tensions with Russia.

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“Slovakia needs to keep the lights on and its industry running and “cannot afford to act like children..”

• EU Should Investigate Ukraine Not Slovakia – Lawmaker (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s demand for the EU to investigate Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is absurd, an MP from Slovakia’s ruling party has told RT. Kiev is violating its deal with the bloc not to obstruct energy deliveries, Richard Gluck has argued. Fico traveled to Moscow over the weekend for talks with President Vladimir Putin on how Bratislava can continue to buy Russian oil, gas and nuclear fuel. Zelensky lambasted Fico over the meeting on social media. Bratislava’s engagement with Moscow is “a big security issue” for the EU and raises the question of how much Russia is paying Fico, he claimed. The Ukrainian leader urged Slovakia’s “law enforcement and special services” to get involved in the matter. Speaking to RT on Monday, Gluck insisted The prime minister’s decision to go to Moscow was “very smart” and “how all sovereign countries should act.”

“Russia is our partner,” he added. “We need to have good energy supplies for a reasonable price.” Gluck disagreed with Zelensky’s assessment, noting that Fico has committed no crime. He said that the democratically elected prime minister acted as the leader of a sovereign country to protect Slovakia’s interests. Zelensky’s comments are “a little bit funny,” Gluck said, given that Ukraine violated the terms of its application to join the EU by blocking gas deliveries to a member of the bloc. Gluck suggested that the EU should investigate this issue instead. Slovakia needs to keep the lights on and its industry running and “cannot afford to act like children,” Gluck said.

After his meeting with Putin, Fico said his trip to Russia was in response to Zelensky’s refusal to allow the transit of Russian natural gas to Slovakia. “Such attitudes financially harm Slovakia and threaten the operation of nuclear power plants in Slovakia, which is unacceptable,” Fico said at the time. Russia delivers gas to Slovakia mainly through the Soviet-era Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline. Kiev is unwilling to extend the gas transit agreement with Moscow, which is set to expire on December 31. Last week, Fico accused Zelensky of offering him a bribe of €500 million ($521 million) in exchange for Bratislava supporting Kiev’s bid to join NATO. The Slovak prime minister has publicly said he would veto any attempt by Ukraine to become a member of the US-led military bloc, as this would amount to a war with Russia.

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Bring down US spending instead of raising EU spending. At least one problem solved.

• NATO States Won’t Achieve Spending Goals Soon – El Pais (RT)

A number of NATO members are reportedly concerned they will be unable to fulfill the defense spending goals likely to be demanded by incoming US President Donald Trump, Spanish outlet El Pais reported on Monday citing diplomatic sources. According to the outlet, Trump’s upcoming presidency has revived debate within the US-led military bloc about increasing the defense spending requirement by its 32 members to 3% of their GDP. The new spending target could reportedly be approved as early as the next NATO summit in the Hague next July, according to El Pais sources. However, the paper said some members have warned that this goal is unrealistic. “A gradual increase could be agreed, but it is more important to ensure that everyone reaches the figure of 2% that had already been agreed and which was also recently agreed to be the spending floor and not the ceiling,” a diplomatic source told the outlet.

The newspaper also noted that increasing military investment could prove “problematic for many European countries” due to already tight budgets. This includes the major economies of Germany and France, which currently contribute just over 2% of their GDP to military spending. Eight members of the bloc, including Spain, Slovenia, and Belgium, have come under particular scrutiny for failing to comply with the current spending level of 2%. Spain, for example, currently contributes just 1.28% of its GDP and is in last place in terms of military spending in the bloc. It only plans to reach 2% by 2029. Sources within these countries admit that there is pressure from the bloc to comply but also note that the idea of raising the spending requirement even further is “not at all consolidated.”

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko recently warned that NATO appears to be preparing for war with Russia, stressing in an interview last week that it is “in everyone’s interests not to let the situation reach this kind of experiment.” Grushko stated that NATO’s current course poses a danger to both Russia and the overall security architecture and that Moscow determines its actions in view of the US-led bloc’s aggressive behavior and the direct risks to Russia’s security. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov also cautioned last week that the ongoing standoff with the US and its allies “continues to intensify and expand” and suggested that a direct clash with NATO in Europe could happen within the next decade, saying Russia should be prepared for such a scenario.

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“..nearly five times as likely as Republican voters (5%) to say they will be spending less time with certain family members..”

• Democrats More Likely to Cut Off Relatives Over Political Differences (AmG)

A new study found that Democratic voters are more likely than Republican voters to reduce the amount of time spent with family members over the holidays due to political disagreements. As reported by Breitbart, the survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), posted on December 13th, determined that “Democratic voters (23%) are nearly five times as likely as Republican voters (5%) to say they will be spending less time with certain family members because of their political views.” In a statement following the results of the study, PRRI founder and President Robert Jones said that “it may be tense around the Hanukkah and Christmas table.

“It’s not just that we’re disagreeing about abortion or we’re disagreeing about taxes or even immigration… but we’re disagreeing about a fundamental worldview and about identity.” Jones added that many respondents said their solution to such differences will be to simply avoid discussing politics during their family gatherings. The survey was conducted between November 8th and December 2nd, 2024, with a sample size of 5,772 American adults. The margin of error is 1.72%. Other studies have reported similar findings, with a CBS/YouGov survey in November finding that 72% of Democratic voters and 62% of Republican voters opted to avoid politics as a topic of discussion during family reunions.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1871331582922949019

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“..the U.S. government will add over $6.4 billion of debt every single day for the next ten years..”

• Rand Paul’s Annual Festivus List: Over 1 TRILLION in Government Waste (Calvin)

One of the wonderful features of Christmas is how different cultures have different ways of celebrating the holiday. If you are Irish, for example, you might go to Midnight Mass or take a plunge for a Christmas Swim. Italians traditionally celebrate Christmas Eve with the insanely delicious Feast of the Seven Fishes (La Vigilia in Italian). Germans are generally recognized as the culture that first brought us advent calendars and the Tannenbaum or Christmas tree (thank you, Martin Luther), but they also brought Krampus Nacht for the naughty children. If you are an American small government conservative, however, one Christmas tradition you always look forward to is the annual Festivus airing of grievances from Senator Rand Paul. Each year, Paul publishes a report of some of the worst examples of federal government waste … and calls out his colleagues on both sides of the aisle while doing so.

But Senator Paul may have outdone himself this year. For the first time ever, his Festivus list contains over $1 TRILLION in government waste. That’s ‘trillion’ with a T. Are you listening, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and DOGE? Paul’s full report is available here, but his introduction lets everyone know that, as usual, he is pulling no punches. “Last Festivus, we bemoaned the national debt nearing $34 trillion. In just a year, Washington’s career politicians and bureaucrats have managed to push it beyond $36 trillion—unsurprisingly, with hardly a second thought. Who’s to blame for our crushing national debt? Everybody. This year, members of both political parties in Congress voted for massive spending bills, filled with subsidies for underperforming industries, continued military aid to Ukraine, and controversial climate initiatives.

“As Congress spends to reward its favored pet projects, the American taxpayers are forced to pay through high prices and crippling interest rates. The same big spenders teamed up, yet again, to continue sending Americans’ hard-earned money to foreign countries, funding endless wars, all while STILL ignoring our wide-open southern border. And our mountain of debt will continue to pile even higher. The Congressional Budget Office predicts we will add an average of $2.1 trillion in debt annually for the next decade. According to a July House Budget Committee Report, the U.S. government will add over $6.4 billion of debt every single day for the next ten years, borrowing over $268 million every hour, $4.5 million every minute, and over $74,401 every second.

“This year, I am highlighting a whopping $1,008,313,329,626.12. That’s over $1 trillion in government waste, including things like ice-skating drag queens, a $12 Million Las Vegas pickleball complex, $4,840,082 on Ukrainian influencers, and more! No matter how much money the government has wasted, politicians keep demanding even more. As always, taking the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but I’ve been fighting government waste like DOGE before DOGE was cool. And I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season.

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Does Johnson have a future as speaker?

• Speaker Johnson Shielded J6 Committee ‘Star Witness’ from GOP Subpoena (HUSA)

Over the last two years, the Republican-controlled House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight found numerous inconsistencies and outright lies in the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, who was the Democrat-controlled January 6th Commission’s “star witness” in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021. The Oversight Subcommittee apparently wanted to subpoena Hutchinson about her testimony. But according to a Tuesday report from Breitbart, House Speaker Mike Johnson blocked that from moving forward. Breitbart noted that the Oversight Subcommittee’s recent final report on Jan. 6 mentions Hutchinson by name 268 times, but didn’t reference bringing her in for questioning. “Johnson (R-LA) personally intervened to block the subcommittee from issuing a subpoena to Hutchinson,” Breitbart reported, citing an unnamed source. “Johnson, in a statement to Breitbart News, called that claim ‘clearly false.’”

The House Administration Subcommittee’s findings against Hutchinson are related to her June 28, 2022, testimony, when she said that she personally wrote a proposed Tweet on Jan. 6, 2021, for President Donald Trump to send advising rioters to leave the Capitol. The text of that proposed Tweet said, “ANYONE WHO ENTERED THE CAPITOL ILLEGALLY WITHOUT PROPER AUTHORITY SHOULD LEAVE IMMEDIATELY”—with the word ILLEGALLY scratched out. At the time, Hutchinson testified that she wrote the note as dictated by then-Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows and Eric Herschmann, one of the President’s attorneys. However, Herschmann alleged that Hutchinson was lying, and that he was the one who wrote the note. The House Administration Subcommittee said in October that it hired a handwriting analyst to review the note and determine who wrote it.

“After a thorough analysis, their certified handwriting analyst stated in the report that ‘the evidence supports my opinion that the handwriting that appears on the Questioned Document was written in the same hand as the exemplars [Herschmann],’” the House Administration Subcommittee said at the time. “This new evidence provided by an independent, Certified Questioned Document Examiner, not only contradicts Ms. Hutchinson’s numerous claims that she penned the note, but also exposes the Select Committee’s willingness to accept all her testimonies without corroboration or further investigation,” Subcommittee on Oversight Chair Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., said in a press release. The subcommittee also found that then-January 6th Commission Vice Chair Liz Cheney secretly communicated with Hutchinson, and may have pressured her to fire her attorney.

Additionally, Hutchinson was caught changing her testimony during the course of the Jan. 6 Committee hearings, as has been widely documented. Specifically, Hutchinson testified on June 28, 2022, that Trump tried to control the steering wheel while being driven to the White House following his Jan. 6 speech. Additionally, she claimed that the former president lunged at another agent. However, in her previous three transcribed interviews on February 23, 2022, March 7, 2022, and May 17, 2022, she did not mention that interaction, according to a later investigation from Loudermilk’s committee. The Oversight Subcommittee has recommended that the FBI investigate Cheney for potential witness-tampering charges.

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“The speed with which Assad was given asylum in Moscow and the peaceful transfer of power in Damascus hinted that the Kremlin was not taken by surprise.”

• Putin Weighs In On The Syrian Situation (Bhadrakumar)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his Results of the Year annual marathon yearender interactive televised discussion with the Russian public and the media in Moscow on December 19, spoke at some length on the recent developments in Syria. These were Putin’s first public remarks on the topic and, coming 12 days after armed opposition forces seized Damascus and the exile of former president Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow, they signified that the Kremlin is recalibrating its compass of West Asian strategies. Putin disclosed that he will soon have a meeting with Assad, signalling a level of transparency that is very rare in international diplomacy in comparable volatile circumstances. We still do not know, for instance, what happened to Afghan president Ashraf Ghani after the Taliban takeover four years ago, or whether President Joe Biden even showed the courtesy to receive America’s fallen ally — and an erstwhile proxy at that.

Putin sees no reason to feel ashamed or petrified over the regime change in Syria. Russia’s mission in Syria was to decimate the US-sponsored extremist groups destabilising that country and the region as part of a regime change project. And that enterprise has been hugely successful as Russia inflicted a crushing defeat to the American project. The Russian mission in Syria never had a hidden agenda to prop up the Syrian regime. As Putin explained, Russian ground forces were never deployed or involved in the fighting in Syria. The speed with which Assad was given asylum in Moscow and the peaceful transfer of power in Damascus hinted that the Kremlin was not taken by surprise. Again, compare the chaotic and desperate US evacuation on August 16, 2021 from Kabul airport with Afghans falling from the sky as American military planes took off. Yet, western propaganda is painting the town red that Russia has been “defeated” in Syria!

The narrative by Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan seems entirely plausible when he claimed that at Ankara’s urging, Moscow and Tehran counselled Assad to peacefully transfer power. Fidan disclosed to NTV broadcaster on Dec. 13, “We spoke with the Russians and Iranians and told them that the man they had invested in was no longer someone worth investing in. They made one phone call, and that evening Assad was gone.” Putin openly acknowledged that Russia keeps contacts with the HTS and their conversation will have a bearing on the fate of the bases in Latakia. Russia is offering that the international community may use the bases to handle humanitarian assistance to Syria. Conceivably, Turkey, Russia and Iran synchronised their watches. Tehran disclosed in the weekend that it is reopening the embassy in Damascus and that the HTS has offered to provide security for the mission’s functioning.

Through the entire three-and-a-half hour event in Moscow last Thursday, Putin never once voiced any criticism of Turkey’s backing for HTS or questioned the legitimacy of Ankara’s stated concerns in the Syrian situation — although he remains sceptical whether the Kurdish nationality question involving 30-35 million ethnic Kurdish population spread over Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran lends itself to a solution. Putin asserted that Moscow has already conveyed to the HTS as well as the regional states that the Russian bases are “capable of offering assistance… (and) this was met with understanding and a willingness to collaborate.” Putin stressed: “An overwhelming majority of them have expressed interest in retaining our military bases in Syria.”

Putin ridiculed the Biden administration’s prognosis that Russia faces “defeat” in Syria. His broad message was that “there will be plenty to discuss” with Trump when they meet, implying that Biden Administration is no longer consequential to Syria’s future. The Biden Administration’s efforts to rally the Arab states have failed to gain traction as the trust deficit is formidable. Arabs suspect that the US’ continued illegal occupation has ulterior motives. Indeed, a new matrix is appearing, as Biden administration’s obsession shifts to creating a quagmire in the Middle East for the incoming Trump administration. In a somersault on Sunday, the US state department’s Assistant Secretary Barbara Leaf landed in Damascus to personally convey the US decision to scrap the $10 million reward for the arrest of HTS leader (Syria’s de facto leader) Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, following what she claimed to be “very productive” meetings with the group’s representatives.

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“Power prices in the EU are up to three times higher than in the United States..”

• High Electricity Taxes Are Crippling European Industry (OP)

European countries need to work out ways to lower taxes on electricity to revive the competiveness of Europe’s energy-intensive industries, Leonhard Birnbaum, president of electricity lobby Eurelectric, told Reuters in an interview published on Monday. Power prices in the EU are up to three times higher than in the United States, for example, which further erodes the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries including aluminum, steel making, chemicals, and cement production. Europe is losing and will continue to lose competitiveness and jobs if it doesn’t tackle its high energy costs compared to other regions, Morten Wierod, chief executive of Switzerland-based engineering giant ABB, told Bloomberg last month.

To restore competitiveness for European companies which have been suffering from high energy costs, the EU governments should look to lower the high energy taxes, according to Eurelectric’s Birnbaum. “We appreciate that states always need more money, but if you really want to electrify then you can’t have, for example, an over-proportional tax burden on electricity compared to the tax burden on gas,” said Birnbaum, who is also chief executive of German utility giant E.ON. The problem with these taxes lies in the fact that part of the levies and fees on electricity are individually set by the single EU countries, where the EU has no jurisdiction. Earlier this month, Eurelectric and energy intensive representatives CEFIC and European Aluminium discussed how to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and electrify industry.

The group proposed six actions to ease the pressure on energy-intensive industries, which include “level out electricity taxes and levies.” “Fixing Europe’s perverse energy taxation” is a way to lower energy prices and support electrification, said Eurelectric and the lobbies of the energy-intensive industries. Taxes on electricity in the EU as a share of the final bill are respectively three and three and a half times higher for household and industrial consumers compared to natural gas, the industry said. “A well-functioning market with long-term investment signals, incentives to reinforce infrastructure and lower taxes on electricity are no-regret solutions that can be implemented immediately,” said Eurelectric’s Secretary General Kristian Ruby.

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“..participating states lose their national sovereignty in the field of biosafety and become completely dependent on the United States.”

• Africa Is ‘New Focus’ Of US Biolab Activities – Moscow (RT)

Africa has become a focal point of interest for the US government, which views the region as an unlimited natural reservoir of dangerous pathogens and a testing ground for experimental medical treatments, the Russian military has reported. The Russian Ministry of Defense continues to scrutinize the military-biological activities of the US in Ukraine and other regions worldwide. Previously, attention was drawn to the transfer of unfinished Ukrainian projects to post-Soviet states and Southeast Asia. According to Major General Aleksey Rtishchev, the deputy chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, Washington’s system for managing biological risks in other countries was tested in Ukraine and Georgia, and is now actively employed in Africa.

In a briefing on Tuesday, Rtishchev said the US views Africa as a limitless natural reservoir for dangerous infectious agents and a testing ground for experimental medical products. The activities of this system are directed towards acquiring pathogens in endemic areas and natural focal points, he explained, as well as monitoring and managing the biological situation to serve US interests. According to the report, one of the primary objectives of this initiative is to analyze epidemic situations along the borders of geopolitical adversaries, particularly in regions where military contingents could be deployed.

“US government agencies and private contractors, including companies from so-called ‘Big Pharma’, are involved to establish cooperation with local specialized ministries,” the general said. “The result of this ‘selective assistance’ is a transition to American standards for personnel training, as well as the transfer and consolidation of information about the biological situation, the degradation of national healthcare systems, and the imposition of medical equipment and supplies providers. As a result, participating states lose their national sovereignty in the field of biosafety and become completely dependent on the United States.”

Washington is particularly concerned about the efforts of Russia and China to engage with African nations in exposing the true nature of the US military biological programs, according to Rtishchev. Reporting about US biolab activities was one of the main priorities of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the Russian military’s top official on the hazards posed by weapons of mass destruction. He was murdered along with his assistant in Moscow last week. According to investigators, the attack was ordered by Kiev.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Cena

 

 

Giraffe
https://twitter.com/i/status/1871363633738871196

 

 

Hug
https://twitter.com/i/status/1871302773461155902

 

 

Marty

 

 

Elvis
https://twitter.com/i/status/1870820671754031292

 

 

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Debt Rattle December 22 2024

Dec 222024
 
 December 22, 2024  Posted by at 10:42 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  44 Responses »


René Magritte The Pleasure Principle (Portrait of Edward James) 1937

 

• Ukraine A ‘Gold Mine’ For Western Arms Makers – Moscow (RT)
• Dangerous Fascist Elon Musk Tweets Six Words About AfD (eugyppius)
• ‘Associated Propaganda’: Musk Hits Out At AP (RT)
• Putin Says If World War Three Is Underway (RT)
• Biden’s Officials Trying To Destroy Trump’s Push For Peace – Moscow (RT)
• Orban Proposing Russia, Ukraine to Preserve Gas Transit by Changing Owner (Sp.)
• Slovakian PM Warns of ‘Serious Conflict’ With Kiev (RT)
• Putin To Meet Slovakian PM On Monday (RT)
• CIA Chief Pays ‘Last Visit’ To Kiev (RT)
• Trump Plans To Continue Aid To Ukraine But Will Raise NATO Spending To 5% (ZH)
• Trump Gives Oil Ultimatum To EU (RT)
• US Had Foreknowledge of HTS Offensive To Topple Assad (Antiwar)
• NATO Must Talk Turkey (Baumann)
• How the Left Will Defend Its Censorship Regime Against Trump (RCW)
• The West’s Romance With Elections Is Dead (Ottenberg)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mottur

 

 

Dana White

 

 

 

 

The only reason there’s a war going on.

“..41 US corporations out of the top 100. They received $317 billion, or 50% of global arms-sales revenues..”

“..the combined revenues of the world’s 100 largest weapons manufacturers in 2023 reached $632 billion.”

• Ukraine A ‘Gold Mine’ For Western Arms Makers – Moscow (RT)

Ukraine has become a lucrative opportunity for Western arms manufacturers, who profit from weapons supplies that prolong the conflict, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has claimed. Speaking at a United Nations Security Council briefing on Friday, Nebenzia accused NATO member states of exploiting the conflict in Ukraine to enrich their defense industries. “It is well known that Ukraine has become a genuine gold mine for the military-industrial complex of the [US and UK] and their allies. But it is American companies that are profiting the most from the conflict,” he stressed. The Russian diplomat alleged that Western countries are prioritizing economic gains over peace. “According to the latest data, half of total arms sales in 2023 were processed by 41 US corporations out of the top 100. They received $317 billion, or 50% of global arms-sales revenues,” Nebenzia said.

The Russian UN representative cited a recent report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), noting that the combined revenues of the world’s 100 largest weapons manufacturers in 2023 reached $632 billion. “It would be naive to expect that these unscrupulous traders, who have tasted the flavor of lucre, will give up riding this gravy train for the sake of those miserable Ukrainians,” he argued. Nebenzia went on to suggest that Western military companies “often act in cahoots with the Kiev regime,” citing the example of 25 foreign lobby and consulting firms that began representing Ukraine’s interests free of charge after the conflict began. He specifically mentioned BGR Government Affairs, whose leadership has publicly advocated for increased military assistance to Kiev and which also represents Raytheon Company, a major US arms supplier.

Nebenzia also alleged that the US military-industrial complex funds think tanks, whose conclusions are later cited by the media. On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported that Ukraine fired six US-donated ATACMS and four UK-made Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles, at the Kamensky chemical plant in Rostov Region in southern Russia. On Friday, in retaliation to the attack, the Russian military claimed it struck a Ukrainian command center and targeted installations of US-supplied Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems. Russia has consistently stated that Western aid cannot prevent its forces from accomplishing the objectives of their military operation or alter the final outcome of the conflict. Moscow has argued that by supporting Kiev, they only prolong the conflict.

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“BREAKING: In latest threat to German democracy, dangerous fascist Elon Musk tweets six words about Alternative für Deutschland..”

• Dangerous Fascist Elon Musk Tweets Six Words About AfD (eugyppius)

German democracy, which has endured since 1949 but is somehow always shaken to its foundations whenever anybody sings the wrong song or holds a televised debate with the wrong person, is once again on life support. Christian Lindner, head of the market-liberal Free Democrats, did much to trigger the present catastrophe on 1 December, when he said that the Free Republic should “dare more Milei and more Musk.” Because there is little distinction between praising Milei and Musk and demanding the return of National Socialism, there ensued a brief period of establishment hyperventilation. Less than a week later, CDU chief and probable future German chancellor Friedrich Merz did his part to denounce Lindner’s political wrongthink in a statement to Deutschlandfunk:

“So neither the Argentinian president nor, how shall I put it, the American entrepreneur Elon Musk – let’s put it plainly – are role models for German politics in my view. I don’t see where we can find similarities in German politics. What Christian Lindner meant will probably remain his secret.” The next day, Merz repeated the same denunciations, only more harshly, explaining to one of our extremely adult and far-sighted pantsuit talkshow hosts that “To be honest, I was completely appalled that Christian Lindner made that comparison.” Milei, Merz said, is “really trampling on the people there.” Yesterday, all of this came to the notice of the (honestly rather tiresome) influencer Naomi Seibt, who posted a video statement to X rehearsing all of this old news to her largely American audience: Elon Musk then brought down the hammer on the German democratic order, retweeting Seibt’s video and remarking that “Only the AfD can save Germany.”

Today a lot of very important and influential people got out of bed and took to their keyboards to denounce Musk’s election interference. His statement might be illegal, at any rate it is very likely fascist and certainly it is beyond the pale for an American to voice an opinion about German politics. Germans absolutely never, ever, utter the slightest word about American politics and certainly would never advance negative opinions about the American president in the middle of an election campaign. Our Foreign Office would never try to fact-check an American presidential debate! Our journalists would never depict President Donald Trump dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member or offering the Hitler salute or decapitating the Statue of Liberty! That’s just not done!

Like a great stream of green diarrhoea, the outrage is pouring fourth. Matthias Gebauer, who writes for Der Spiegel, observes that “Elon Musk … is openly promoting the AfD” and concludes that “Putin is not the only one who loves this party.” Erik Marquardt, head of the Green faction in the European Parliament, says that “The EU Commission and EU member states should no longer stand by and watch as billionaires misuse media and algorithms to influence elections and strengthen and normalise right-wing extremists.” This “is an attack on democracy,” and “has nothing to do with freedom of expression.” Dennis Radtke, CDU representative in the European Parliament, concludes that “Musk … is declaring war on democracy” and that “the man is a menace.”

We are also under siege via “interference from Putin”; “the erosion of our democracy is being fuelled from both within and without.” Julian Röpcke, who writes for BILD, believes that “This is interference in the German election campaign by a tech billionaire who uses algorithms to decide what gets heard.” If Germany does not “respond with penalties, there will be no help for our eroding democracy.” Jonas Koch, at Die Zeit, complains that “the richest man in the world is now campaigning for right-wing populists in Germany.” Tech billionaire Elon Musk has spoken out in favour of the Alternative for Germany party in the German parliamentary election campaign. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” he wrote on his online service X.

You can almost see Mr Koch before you, clasping his pearls. He notes that the government are doing their best to weather this unprecedented assault on the German republic. He quotes longsuffering government spokesperson Christian Hoffmann saying that “It’s not the first time that Elon Musk has commented on German politics.” Olaf Scholz, he notes, “has been concerned about … X since Musk assumed control of it,” but he has inexplicably not yet decided to delete government X accounts.

Read more …

Replace the MSM entirely.

• ‘Associated Propaganda’: Musk Hits Out At AP (RT)

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused the Associated Press (AP) of disseminating propaganda following the global news agency’s coverage of Friday’s deadly incident at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg. Musk referred to the agency, commonly known as AP, as “Associated Propaganda” in a post on X that criticizes its reporting of the attack on civilians. Musk’s comment was in response to criticism by an X user over the Associated Press’s headline about the incident. The headline read, “A car has driven into a group of people at a Christmas market in Germany.” The user accused AP of using passive language that downplayed the severity of the attack, stating, “You don’t hate the legacy media enough. The Associated Press uses a passive voice when reporting on the Christmas market terror attack in Magdeburg, Germany.

As if the car simply drove itself peacefully, and the affected number of people small and insignificant.” “It wasn’t a ‘group of people’—it was an entirely mass of people whose bodies were flung by the force of the impact, and many more who were crushed beneath the wheels as the vehicle zigzagged its way through the packed market,” he added. A speeding vehicle rammed into a crowd at Magdeburg’s festive market on Friday evening, resulting in at least four fatalities, including a child, and injuring over 60 people, Bild reported, citing police. The driver, identified as a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian doctor residing in Germany, was detained by police at the scene. Authorities have classified the act as a deliberate attack, though the motive remains under investigation. X owner Elon Musk’s critique aligns with his history of challenging mainstream media outlets over perceived biases.

In 2022 Musk expressed concerns about the lack of public trust in news organizations, describing it as a “real problem.” This comment was in response to a Washington Post op-ed that criticized his involvement with X (then Twitter). Earlier this year Musk claimed that the “propaganda level” in mainstream media is “tediously high” and accused long-established outlets of bias in the narratives that they offer. The attack has prompted increased security measures across Germany, with several towns canceling weekend Christmas markets as a precaution. Earlier Musk lashed out at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, insisting he must resign immediately, after it emerged that the man who mowed through a crowded Christmas market in Germany was an Arab immigrant with a residence permit.

This incident mirrors previous attacks on Christmas markets in Germany, notably the 2016 Berlin attack in which a truck was deliberately driven into a crowded market, killing 12 people and injuring 56. The attacker in that instance, Anis Amri, a Tunisian national who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, fled the scene and was later killed in a shootout with police in Italy.

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“If they want it so much, if their life is so bad, let them escalate..”

• Putin Says If World War Three Is Underway (RT)

The threat level is rising globally, but there is no need to scare people with talk of World War Three, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. During an interview published by Russia 1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday, Putin was asked if the extensive involvement of the US in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine meant that WWIII has already begun. “You know, one should not scare people,” the president replied. However, he added that “there are many dangers, and they keep increasing.” “We see what our current opponents are doing. They are escalating the situation,” Putin said after Zarubin mentioned plans by the administration of US President Joe Biden to drastically increase the amount of weapons deliveries to Ukraine during his final weeks in office.

“If they want it so much, if their life is so bad, let them escalate,” the president stressed during a conversation recorded after his end-of-year press conference on Thursday. Russia will “always respond to any challenge” coming from the West, he insisted. “And when our current opponents – and maybe potential partners – will finally hear, understand and realize this, it seems to me that at that point the realization will come that what is needed is to seek compromises,” he said.Moscow is ready to try to rebuild ties with the US and its allies, but it should only happen “without harming our interests,” Putin pointed out.

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“..destroying the chances of its successor,” Trump, of fulfilling his campaign promise of swiftly finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict..”

• Biden’s Officials Trying To Destroy Trump’s Push For Peace – Moscow (RT)

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden is doing everything to make sure that President-elect Donald Trump will not be able to facilitate peace in the Ukraine conflict once he returns to the White House in January, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said. The policy currently pursued by the White House is “quite risky, even self-destructive,” Ryabkov told RT in an exclusive interview on Saturday. “We caution them against it,” the diplomat added. He was referring to the permission given by Washington to Kiev to carry out strikes deep into Russian territory with American-made weapons, and an increase in arms deliveries to Ukraine, which happened after Biden’s loss to Trump in November’s election.

”The outgoing US administration demonstrates a unique capability of doubling down and destroying the chances of its successor,” Trump, of fulfilling his campaign promise of swiftly finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the deputy FM stressed. There have been several strikes with US- and UK-supplied missiles on internationally recognized Russian territory in recent weeks, with the deadliest coming on Friday as five people were killed and twelve others wounded after the Kiev forces targeted the town of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk Region with an American HIMARS system. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last month that Russia will respond to all such attacks and could go as far as using “weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow the use of their weapons against our facilities.”

Ryabkov also commented on various ideas voiced in the West about how peace between Russia and Ukraine could look, saying that Moscow is considering them, but views them as “informal.” “They are a way to probe our position, but that is absolutely unnecessary as the President has repeatedly laid it out in full,” he explained. Speaking at his end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin reiterated that Moscow remains open to negotiating with Kiev without any preconditions, except those that had already been agreed upon in Istanbul in 2022, which envisaged a neutral, non-aligned status for Ukraine, as well as certain restrictions on deploying foreign weaponry. He also noted that such talks would have to respect the realities on the ground that have developed since that time.

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Orban is smart: he wants the gas to officially become Hungarian while it still flows in Russia, before it reaches the Ukraine part of the pipeline. ‘The moment I pay upfront, it’s my gas’.. They won’t agree, but it’s smart.

• Orban Proposing Russia, Ukraine to Preserve Gas Transit by Changing Owner (Sp.)

Hungary is interested in preserving the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine and negotiates this opportunity with both states by proposing an option to transfer gas under Hungarian ownership right on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday. “We are not abandoning our plans to receive energy through Ukraine, and we are holding talks with both Russia and Ukraine. We will continue to negotiate next year as well. We want to pull off such a trick: what if the gas entering Ukraine was no longer considered Russian, but would be owned by the buyer? In other words, when it crosses the border into Ukraine, it would no longer be Russian but Hungarian gas. It is currently being discussed whether Ukrainians and Russians would agree to this, but we are not giving up on the idea,” Orban told a press conference.

Hungary is interested in diversifying its energy supply routes, Orban said, adding that “if you rely on energy from only one pipeline, you are always vulnerable.” “We are dissatisfied that the Ukrainian route has been replaced by another one. Of course, if it hadn’t worked out, there would have been problems. But this does not bring joy. We would be happy if three or four affordable energy sources were constantly available,” Orban stated. Hungary believes that the sanctions against Russia have to be fully lifted as soon as possible, but only a few EU member states agree with this, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday. “If it [the Ukrainian conflict] ends, the sanctions [against Russia] tormenting Europe will end. Hungary’s point of view is that the sanctions have to be lifted as soon as possible and to the full extent,” Orban said at a press conference.

The removal of Russia sanctions will end the streak inflation and the economy will start to recover, the Hungarian prime minister said. He stressed that Hungary advocates for this at European discussions, but with no success, as “only one or two member states think the same way, while the rest, including the big players, are opposed and not even discussing this.” The West stepped up sanctions pressure on Russia after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine in 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the West’s long-term strategy of containing Russia hurts the global economy. The sanctions target Russian politicians, companies, athletes, students, scientists and artists.

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“One idea was to allow the flow to continue on condition that Russia would not receive any payment until the end of the Ukraine conflict. “What fool will give us gas for free?”

• Slovakian PM Warns of ‘Serious Conflict’ With Kiev (RT)

A “serious conflict” is possible if Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “doesn’t release our gas,” Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico warned on Friday. He made the comment a day after a behind-closed-doors meeting between the two in Brussels. =Slovakia is considering retaliation against Ukraine over its refusal to continue transit of Russian gas to the EU nation, Fico announced in a Facebook post. Kiev is determined not to renew a multi-year transit contract with Russia, which allowed the fuel to flow across its territory despite the armed conflict between the two nations. Slovakia is one of the recipients of the gas. Slovaks are not servants doing the bidding of Zelensky, Fico, who in March was shot multiple times at close range by an activist who disagreed with his stance on arming Ukraine, insisted. Kiev is “losing decisively,” while Zelensky “absolutely rejects any ceasefire,” he said.

Bratislava is sympathetic towards Kiev’s situation and Zelensky’s predicament, the prime minister said, but Slovakia is “not at any war” either with Russia or Ukraine. Fico said the proposals regarding the gas situation, which Zelensky outlined to him at a European Council meeting, seemed “absurd.” One idea was to allow the flow to continue on condition that Russia would not receive any payment until the end of the Ukraine conflict. “What fool will give us gas for free?” Fico asked journalists. Slovakia is helping Ukraine by providing non-military assistance, including by transferring electricity to its capacity-starved power grid, the prime minister said. Relations between the two nations cannot be a one-way street, Fico asserted, adding: “I cannot completely rule out reciprocal measures.” His government will consider its options over the next week, he said.

Kiev previously floated the idea of letting gas that is not Russian in origin to be pumped through the Soviet-built pipelines on Ukrainian territory. Azerbaijan could be the source of such supplies, according to officials. On Tuesday, European buyers of Russian pipeline gas, including Slovakia’s SPP, warned the European Commission that the looming termination of Ukrainian transit posed significant risks to members of the EU, and urged Brussels to act. The escalating row has been caused by Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, during his annual Q&A marathon. Russian gas giant Gazprom “can live” without the transit, he insisted.

Read more …

“..a possible Putin-Fico meeting “will provoke a reaction from other European leaders from the EU, and you can see how complicated things are.”

• Putin To Meet Slovakian PM On Monday (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on Monday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed. The reported meeting comes as Belgrade is preparing for the US sanctions against the country’s main oil and gas company, Naftne Industrije Srbije (NIS). “As I learned unofficially, and when I say unofficially, as I said about the sanctions against NIS, it is absolutely certain, on Monday Robert Fico will go to Putin, as the leader of a European Union country,” Vucic said during an interview with Serbian Happy TV on Friday, as quoted by Euronews Serbia. President Vucic stated that starting January 1, 2025, gas supplies from Russia through Ukraine will stop. This decision will greatly affect European energy security and Serbia’s preparedness for winter demands. He stated that Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal had signed the relevant order on Friday.

Additionally, Vucic previously mentioned that US sanctions against NIS could also come into effect on January 1, 2025. The expiration of a transit agreement between Moscow and Kiev, which facilitates the flow of Russian gas to the EU, has raised concerns among countries like Slovakia that rely on this route for their supplies. As Fico warned on Friday, Slovakia is considering retaliation against Ukraine over its refusal to continue the transit of Russian gas to the EU nation. Relations between the two nations cannot be a one-way street, Fico asserted during the same speech, adding: “I cannot completely rule out reciprocal measures.” His government will consider its options over the next week, he said. Vucic added in his interview that a possible Putin-Fico meeting “will provoke a reaction from other European leaders from the EU, and you can see how complicated things are.”

Read more …

“Burns came to Kiev to tie up loose ends and coordinate actions with Zelensky for when Trump begins his review of the multi-billion-dollar US budget spending on Ukraine..”

• CIA Chief Pays ‘Last Visit’ To Kiev (RT)

The Central Intelligence Agency’s director, William Burns, has made yet another unannounced trip to Kiev, likely his final before stepping down from his position, according to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. Zelensky disclosed the meeting in a Telegram post on Saturday, highlighting the significant role Burns has played in supporting Ukraine during its ongoing conflict with Russia. “Bill Burns paid his last visit to Ukraine as CIA director. We have held many meetings during this war, and I am grateful for your help,” Zelensky wrote, accompanied by a photo of him shaking hands with Burns. The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that such high-level meetings are typically kept confidential but emphasized the importance of highlighting their continued communication.

“Usually, such meetings are not reported publicly, and all our meetings – in Ukraine, in other European countries, in America, and in other parts of the world – took place without official information. But now, after the last visit, it is worth saying openly,” Zelensky said. Burns has held the position of CIA Director since March 2021 and is set to leave his role after the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, scheduled for January 20. Trump has nominated former National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe to succeed Burns. Zelensky expressed his commitment to maintaining contact with the new leadership at the CIA. Throughout the conflict, the United States has been Ukraine’s most crucial sponsor, providing the bulk of financial and military support as well as intelligence. The visit by the US spymaster comes at a critical juncture, as Trump has pledged to quickly end the Ukraine conflict, raising concerns in Kiev that it could not only face a decline in aid but also an audit of the billions of dollars it received from Washington under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry suggested that Burns’ trip aimed to warn Ukrainian authorities against sharing potentially compromising information with Trump’s auditors. Senior Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik described Zelensky as a “weak link” and suggested that Burns sought to ensure he would not disclose any sensitive “evidence of illegal actions by American officials related to the Democrats and Biden.” “Burns came to Kiev to tie up loose ends and coordinate actions with Zelensky for when Trump begins his review of the multi-billion-dollar US budget spending on Ukraine,” Miroshnik told TASS on Saturday. “The Democrats hardly expect Zelensky to keep his obligations to them, which is why they sent Burns,” the diplomat said, noting that Kiev is the most vulnerable link in the chain of corruption that has seen billions of US taxpayer dollars thrown “into a bottomless pit.”

Read more …

The EU can’t afford it. You’re instigating revolt.

• Trump Plans To Continue Aid To Ukraine But Will Raise NATO Spending To 5% (ZH)

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to continue sending military aid to Ukraine, despite Trump earlier on the campaign trail mocking Zelensky for being the “greatest salesman on earth” for his getting tens of billions of US taxpayers’ money with ease. A new Financial Times report has cited European officials who say Trump’s team told them he plans to continue military aid to Kiev after his inauguration. He’s reportedly trying to calm fears of an immediate US withdrawal of support, and this is connected to an expected Trump policy for NATO member states to increase defense spending to 5% of their GDP. “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine,” FT writes.

NATO’s existing target of 2% of GPD for defense spending certainly has not been met by all members… not even close. The 2% is being met by only 23 of the alliance’s 32 members, and so a significantly higher bar set of more than double that is certainly going to rile Europe. European NATO leaders have long been trying to figure out how to ‘Trump proof’ future defense aid for Ukraine, as has the Biden administration. But there’s at least one severe critic – Hungary’s Viktor Orban. He estimated in a radio interview on Friday that the US and the EU have pumped over $300 billion in financial aid and military assistance into Kiev’s coffers since the war’s start. “During the negotiation with the Americans, I received the figure that Europe and America together have spent €310 billion so far. Those are huge numbers!” the Hungarian prime minister declared.

He went to describe that such a massive amount “could have done wonders” for European people themselves, instead of sinking the funds into an unwinnable war, while avoiding the necessity of negotiations with Moscow. The 5% defense spending for NATO members could also be a ‘tough’ tactic as the new administration deals with NATO allies. According to more from Financial Times: One person said they understood that Trump would settle for 3.5 per cent, and that he was planning to explicitly link higher defense spending and the offer of more favorable trading terms with the US. “It’s clear that we are talking about 3 per cent or more for [Nato’s June summit in] The Hague summit,” said another European official briefed on Trump’s thinking.

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Once again: The EU can’t afford it. You’re instigating revolt.

• Trump Gives Oil Ultimatum To EU (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has said the EU should reduce its trade gap by boosting purchases of American oil and gas, or it risks being hit with tariffs. The US goods trade deficit with the EU stood at €156 billion ($162 billion) in 2023, according to Eurostat data. In a post on Truth Social media platform, Trump wrote on Friday the EU should “make up their tremendous deficit with the US by the large-scale purchase of our oil and gas.” “Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!” he warned. According to Eurostat, the US already supplied 47% of the EU’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and 17% of the bloc’s oil purchases in the first quarter of 2024. Data shows US crude exports to Europe stand at around two million barrels per day, representing over half of the country’s total exports, with the rest going to Asia.

The Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Italy, and Sweden are the biggest US energy importers, government data shows. The European Commission (EC) responded to Trump’s warnings, saying it was ready to discuss how to deepen what it described as an already strong relationship, including in the energy sector. “The EU is committed to phasing out energy imports from Russia and diversifying our sources of supply,” an unnamed EC spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters. The EU pledged to stop consuming Russian fuel following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Supplies of higher-cost US fuel have replaced much of the cheap pipeline gas that was previously delivered by Russia. Data, however, shows that EU countries still continue to buy billions of euros’ worth of Russian gas each month. In 2024, the bloc is expected to import 10% more LNG from Russia than in 2023, according to energy analytics firm Kpler.

The bloc’s plans to completely phase out energy imports from the country by 2027 have been met with strong opposition from some EU members, particularly Hungary and Slovakia, that are still heavily reliant on the imports. Trump, who takes office on January 20, has pledged to impose sweeping tariffs on several major US trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and China. He also has repeatedly said during his campaign that Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades. EU exports are dominated by Germany, with key goods being cars, machinery and chemicals, which means Trump’s levies could wreak havoc on the bloc’s already struggling major economy.

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“We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’ But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.”

• US Had Foreknowledge of HTS Offensive To Topple Assad (Antiwar)

The US had foreknowledge of the offensive led by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and helped another rebel group join the fight, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday. The report said the US notified the Revolutionary Commando Army (RCA), a US-funded militia based out of a US base at Al Tanf in southern Syria, to “be ready” for an attack that could lead to the end of Assad’s rule. “They did not tell us how it would happen,” Bashar al-Mashadani, an RCA commander, told The Telegraph. “We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’ But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.” In October, the US brought several other Sunni Muslim militias under the command of the RCA, swelling the force from 800 fighters to about 3,000.

All of the fighters are armed by the US, and the US pays their salaries of $400 per month. The US also backs the Kurdish-led SDF in eastern Syria, but the RCA is a separate force. When the HTS-led force began its offensive from Syria’s northwest Idlib province and advanced south toward Damascus, the RCA headed north. According to The Telegraph, the US-funded group now controls about one-fifth of Syria’s territory. Mashadani spoke to the paper from a former Syrian government air base that was used by Russia outside of the city of Palmyra. Mashadani said RCA and HTS were cooperating during the offensive and that the US coordinated the communication between the two groups from Al Tanf. The US has celebrated the overthrow of Assad and made clear it’s willing to work with HTS despite the fact that the group is an offshoot of al-Qaeda and designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.

The Telegraph report makes clear that the US was aware of the planned HTS offensive. RCA members said the US told them about the opportunity to overthrow Assad in early November, about three weeks before the offensive started. Mashadani said the US wanted his group to capture territory to keep it out of the hands of ISIS, which RCA has helped the US fight in the past. The Biden administration is sending a high-level State Department official to Damascus to meet with HTS’s leader Mohammad Abu al-Julani, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head. Julani founded the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, known as al-Nusra Front. In 2016, Julani changed the name of Nusra as part of a rebranding campaign to gain support from the West and merged the group with several other Islamist factions to form HTS in 2017.

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“Turkey was considered a secular nation when it sought entry into NATO after World War II. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Turkey has been attempting to resurrect its Islamic fundamentalist, Ottoman roots..”

• NATO Must Talk Turkey (Baumann)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) hasn’t just outlived its usefulness. One of its member states has been wearing out its welcome since the fall of the Soviet Union. Turkey was considered a secular nation when it sought entry into NATO after World War II. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Turkey has been attempting to resurrect its Islamic fundamentalist, Ottoman roots. Sadly, we the people of the United States are obligated to protect and defend it. Exactly 30 years ago, in 1994, while speaking to young fundamentalist Muslims in Antwerp, Belgium, a Turkish Sheikh named Nazim Al-Kibrisi al-Haqqani took to the stage in a stadium filled to capacity, with close to 20,000 people present. After putting the phrase, “Allahu Akbar” to a repetitive musical chant, he exhorted the crowd to join him. He even referred to the audience as a “flood of people (being) a small sign of the glorious rise of Islam”.

There, in the front row, stood a smiling, young Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is currently the President of Turkey. In his speech, Kibrisi bemoaned the failures of his generation over the previous 70 years to preserve Islam. He insisted the young crowd which filled the stadium would restore the glory of Islam. This was a clear reference to the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, in 1922. It was also a personal reference. Kibrisi was born that year. Even the stadium was built between 1921 – 1923. Did I mention that Erdogan was in the front row? In 1952, a very secular Turkey joined NATO amid concerns that the Soviet Union be problematic. Membership in NATO provided Turkey with a hedge against invasion. Then, when the Soviet Union fell, Neo-Ottomanism began to rise. Unfortunately, NATO continued growing as well, even becoming more corrupt, with the central component of its mission – Soviet style communism no longer a threat.

Neo-Ottomanism seeks a restoration of the old empire, which seeks expansionism and ultimately, a global Islamic caliphate. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in the 1920 s as well. It too seeks a return to life under the Ottoman Empire. During the one year reign of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt following the Arab Spring, this became even more evident. Erdogans support for the Muslim Brotherhood was clear. Both expressed a desire to restore an era of Islamic rule. As an aside, the history between Turkey and Russia goes back well more than 500 years; it is an adversarial history at that. It includes the fall of Christianity in Constantinople. The seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church then moved to Russia. Even then it was Muslims vs. Christians. This says nothing of the Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks during World War I.

Despite the extermination of between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians, the Turks remain holocaust denialists. The removal of Bashar al-Assad is largely perceived as a good thing. Is it? The answer to that question depends on what replaces him. The Syrian rebels are comprised of various factions, but the Muslim Brotherhood is chief among them. Again, the Muslim Brotherhood’s loyalties to the Neo-Ottoman movement should not be questioned; it’s alive and well. Of course, a rudderless Syria, especially one that helps to serve Turkey’s interests, doesn’t bode well for the Iranian Mullahs either. The attacks of October 7, 2023, have had a cascading effect that has very much helped us get to this point. Israel, rightly so, decimated Hamas and its leadership; it did the same to Hezbollah. Exploding pagers and precision strikes very much contributed to the conditions that led to Assad’s ouster.

It’s far too early to tell if the Iranian regime has been weakened, if at all. It’s likely very capable of counteroffensive attacks. Nonetheless, if the Iranian mullahs are toppled the same question will need to be asked: Is it a good thing? Again, it depends on what replaces it.

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“Controlling who gets to speak and what can be said is essential to the left’s dominance over our institutions..”

• How the Left Will Defend Its Censorship Regime Against Trump (RCW)

The reelection of President Donald Trump could serve as a historic turning point for free speech in America. President Trump has said he will investigate censorship practices by the federal government, end the rampant disrespect for First Amendment rights on our college campuses, and take on Big Tech’s Orwellian policing of speech on the Internet. If successful, these efforts would make the First Amendment stronger than ever before. Yet President Trump’s opponents will not simply stand by and watch as he dismantles their carefully crafted censorship machine. Controlling who gets to speak and what can be said is essential to the left’s dominance over our institutions. They will not give up such an important source of their power without a fight. To ensure the success of Trump’s free speech agenda, the right must anticipate and prepare for the left’s inevitable attacks.

Fortunately, their methods are not hard to predict. In fact, Democrats tipped their hand during the campaign. Back when the party’s out-of-touch leadership thought Kamala Harris would propel them to victory, they set about making plans to silence opposition to their agenda once in office. At the Democratic National Convention, Sen. Chuck Schumer promised sweeping changes to elections, voting, and campaign finance if Democrats won control of Congress and the White House. All of these efforts would slant the political playing field further in the left’s favor. Among the bills was legislation that would strip Americans of their privacy when supporting nonprofit groups that speak out on hot button issues like abortion, crime, the border, or extreme gender politics. The importance of this provision should not be underestimated.

The left calls it “transparency” when they publicly expose a private citizen’s personal information, including their name and home address, but Americans know it better as doxxing. They also know the purpose is not good government, but power politics. Exposing donors allows the left to build enemies’ lists and harass anyone who backs the “wrong” cause. Harris, who co-sponsored the DISCLOSE Act in the Senate, has her own long record of attacking conservative donors and journalists. As California Attorney General, her demand that nonprofits expose their confidential donor lists to her office led to lawsuits and a rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court. The First Amendment protects the right to give privately, as the justices reminded her. Now that the election is over, Democrats’ designs for regulating speech and exposing conservative donors may form the heart of their resistance strategy to splinter the Trump coalition. We have seen this movie before.

After the fight over Obamacare sparked a massive conservative movement known as the Tea Party, the left painted targets on the backs of the organizations and donors at its heart. IRS bureaucrats began grilling conservative groups about their activities and intentionally slow-walked their applications for nonprofit status. The massive targeting campaign succeeded in suppressing grassroots conservative activism in the run-up to the 2012 elections, where Democrats made gains. Yet Democrats do not even need to control the White House to target conservative donors. Threats can arise from inside federal agencies like the IRS, or from state legislation or regulatory actions, or even from unscrupulous media aided by leaks and hacking of confidential donor data. President Trump himself saw his tax returns illegally leaked in a politically-motivated scheme.

Organizations that are successful in promoting conservative policies have also seen coordinated campaigns to bully their donors into ending their support. These harassment campaigns are one of the tactics that allowed the left to seize control of corporate America. Today, many companies pay a heavy price for any public association with the right. America First organizations and citizens are more than familiar with this kind of discrimination. This time, however, they must not merely persist through it but fight back and defeat it. If not, the left’s control over our institutions will soon reemerge, strong as ever, despite our best efforts. The solution is simple: Ensure every American can freely, safely, and privately support the organizations that represent their values and beliefs. We must end the ability of bureaucrats and political operatives to spy on donors and nonprofits. If the Trump coalition can do this and protect its own, it can achieve its bold free speech agenda – and more.

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“..you can bet your paycheck the 2028 establishment campaign will dust off the 2016 playbook and get right to work.”

• The West’s Romance With Elections Is Dead (Ottenberg)

It’s been a bad few months for democracy. Election results offensive to the European Union were annulled in Romania; an attempted coup occurred in Georgia over elections that didn’t go the way the west wanted; the French government, widely hated, teetered over the abyss as president Emmanual Macron tried to ignore the last election; on December 16, Washington’s pet German government fell; lots of funny-business happened in the Moldovan referendum and election, amid widespread disenfranchisement of Moldovan voters living in Russia; elections were long ago cancelled in dictatorial Ukraine; and South Korea hosted an attempted coup. In short, western democracies’ storied enchantment with elections is over. As western populations grow sick and tired of their political class and vote against it, what are elites to do? Annul, cancel, overturn and ignore the elections, that’s what. The problem, for the west, is the voters.

What will happen if far-right Alternative for Deutschland sweeps the early German elections in February, or if far-left France Insoumise does the same in France? Will the U.S. through its NATO and EU tentacles annul those votes? Don’t think it won’t try. And Washington doesn’t even have to give the order, because its European puppets know exactly what’s expected of them. Granted, the Romanian front-runner, so feared by NATO, Calin Georgescu, was far right. But so what? Besides, I doubt that’s what led to the constitutional court vacating the vote. More likely it was his opposition to the Ukraine War – hence the court citing “foreign influence” (translation: Russian) via TikTok as its flimsy basis for negating the election. Incidentally, reports are coming in that the heat and internet to Georgescu’s house have been cut off, and, surprise! he can’t get anyone on the phone to help with this.

But you can’t blame European honchos for ditching elections. They’re just following Washington’s lead. After all, the post-2016 phony Russiagate hysteria may not have succeeded in ousting Trump, as was intended, but it did provide the template for American vassals. The four years of lawfare against Trump (and then another four after he left office) blazed the trail for Europe, so that now, if a candidate not favored by political bigwigs wins, all they have to do is scream “Russian influence!” to dump the election. In other words, democracy is dying in the west. It’s kicking the bucket in Europe – and if Trump ends the Ukraine War (provided Biden doesn’t utterly sabotage his peace efforts before he takes office) or gets us out of the NATO sinkhole, you can bet your paycheck the 2028 establishment campaign will dust off the 2016 playbook and get right to work.

In western media, Georgescu has been portrayed as an unknown. This is false. He is well-known in Romania and had a diplomatic career. But he is also a religious nationalist, and that’s verboten in the EU; worse yet, the U.S., aka NATO, built its biggest military airbase in Europe – where? You got it, Romania. So Washington can’t have just anybody running that country. It must be someone who will keep everything copacetic with the U.S. A nationalist opposed to Washington’s pet proxy war in Ukraine is not that someone.

As for Georgia, there the electorate proved itself most unreliable to the Exceptional Empire. It voted in a government that actually dares to require foreign NGOs to register as such – you know, the way we do, here in the United States. But here, those NGOs don’t aim to overthrow the government, like they do in Georgia, in order for Tbilisi to open a second front against Moscow. Indeed, the vast majority of rioters against the Georgian government, who were arrested, were – I’m shocked! Shocked! – foreign, i.e. European. The icing on the cake is that the French president of Georgia refused to leave office when her term expired – a president with French and Georgian passports, who boasts Nazis in her family tree.

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Martyr

 

 

Lions
https://twitter.com/i/status/1870065824716710258

 

 

Murmuration
https://twitter.com/i/status/1870445083520344416

 

 

Great white

 

 

Elvis
https://twitter.com/i/status/1870251581045912020

 

 

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Debt Rattle December 16 2024

Dec 162024
 
 December 16, 2024  Posted by at 9:41 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  82 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Female bust 1922

 

• Trump Team Studying Orban’s Ceasefire Initiative (RT)
• UK PM Calls For ‘Maximum Pain’ On Russia (RT)
• Ukraine Will Have To Trade Land For Peace – Slovak President (RT)
• The New Time Of Troubles, Part III – Don’t Worry, Be Happy (Helmer)
• Germany ‘Cornered’ – Economy Minister (RT)
• Hungary Dismayed At ‘Unprecedented Gesture In Diplomacy’ By Zelensky (RT)
• Syria: The Death of a Civilization (Karganovic)
• Trump Transition Team Considering Strikes on Iran (Antiwar)
• 20 (or So) Obvious Questions about January 6 (Jack Cashill)
• Cuomo Accuser Drops Case Against The Former New York Governor (Turley)
• Milei Admin. Posts Record Reductions in Deficit and Inflation Numbers (Turley)
• House GOP Vows To Refer ActBlue Fundraising Probe To Incoming Trump DOJ (JTN)
• Offshore Wind Opponents From Deep Blue States Hope For Trump (JTN)
• Trump Considers Privatizing US Postal Service (ZH)
• Cold War Tactics With New Anti-Communism School Curriculum (Alan MacLeod)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1868392496083923221

Meloni
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868019091434521077

Lindsey

Hegseth

Logan

Drones
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868303280956113093

 

 

 

 

A Christmas Day truce is of course very appealing.

• Trump Team Studying Orban’s Ceasefire Initiative (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump is taking “a hard look” at a proposal for a Christmas truce and prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine put forward by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Trump’s nominee for national security adviser Mike Waltz has said. Orban met with Trump and Waltz at the incoming president’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, two days before he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone. After the conversation, the Kremlin announced that Orban had proposed a Christmas Day truce and a large-scale prisoner-swap between Moscow and Kiev, and that the Russian government had responded by sending its ideas for the exchange of POWs to the Hungarian embassy in Moscow. Speaking to CBS News on Sunday, Waltz refused to say whether Orban had passed on a message from Trump to Putin.

However, he said that Trump’s administration-in-waiting wants to “stop the fighting” and that if there is “some type of ceasefire as a first step…we’ll take a hard look at what that means.” “Orban has regular engagement with the Russians, and he clearly has a good relationship with President Trump, and I would hope the entire world would want to see some type of cessation to the slaughter,” Waltz told CBS’ Margaret Brennan, calling the Donbass battlefield “a meat grinder of human beings.” In a social media post on Wednesday, Orban said that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had “clearly rejected” his proposed ceasefire. In a post of his own, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky belittled Orban’s diplomatic activities, claiming that the Hungarian leader was only trying to “boost personal image at the expense of unity” in the EU concerning support for Kiev.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto then revealed that the Ukrainian leadership turned down a phone call request from Orban and had done so in a manner that was “quite unprecedented in diplomacy.” In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Sunday, Szijjarto said that the request was refused in “a somewhat strained” manner, without elaborating on the exact wording used by the authorities in Kiev.Trump has repeatedly promised to end the Ukraine conflict within a day of taking office. However, he has not elaborated on how he plans to achieve this, and both Moscow and Kiev have cast doubt on his ability to single-handedly stop the fighting.“Trump is really serious about wanting to get to a ceasefire on day one,” a source supposedly close to the incoming president told NBC News on Friday.

Zelensky insists that his ten-point ‘peace formula’ is the only viable roadmap for ending the conflict. The Kremlin has dismissed this document – which demands that Russia restore Ukraine’s 1991 borders, pay reparations, and surrender its own officials to war crimes tribunals – as “delusional” and “divorced from reality.” Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of the Russian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved.

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Desperately seeking relevance. If you talk tough, at least you look like a man.

• UK PM Calls For ‘Maximum Pain’ On Russia (RT)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on his fellow G7 leaders to “continue maximizing Putin’s pain” through economic sanctions on Russia and increased military aid to Ukraine. During a video conference on Friday, “the Prime Minister said that with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin showing no sign of relenting, it is vital that we bolster our support to put [Ukraine] in the best possible position for the future,” according to a readout released by his office. “He called on fellow G7 leaders to continue maximizing Putin’s pain by increasing military support to the Ukrainians and ramping up economic pressure, including via further sanctions where possible,” the statement continued. Two days earlier, the US and UK announced a new round of sanctions on Moscow, targeting what the British government called Russia’s “illicit gold trade.”

At the same time, EU ambassadors agreed on a 15th package of economic penalties, this time targeting Russia’s petroleum industry and Chinese companies allegedly producing drones for the Russian military. Repeated rounds of sanctions have failed to “crater” the Russian economy, as US President Joe Biden predicted they would in 2022. Instead, the Russian economy grew by 3.6% this year, while Britain’s grew by 1.1%, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ”We learned a lot after the sanctions started,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told American journalist Tucker Carlson earlier this month. “But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, you know. They would never kill us, so they are making us stronger.”

Amid an historic decline in living standards at home, the UK has given £8.34 billion ($10.52 billion) in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022, according to figures from Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Western aid to Kiev.Starmer claimed last month that this outpouring of arms and ammunition will help the Ukrainians “secure a just and lasting peace on their terms.” However, the Kremlin has argued that any future peace terms will be worse for Ukraine than those rejected by Kiev during peace talks in Istanbul in April 2022. While Russia was prepared to settle the conflict in 2022 with Ukraine agreeing to stay out of NATO and grant autonomy to the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Kiev must now accept the “realities on the ground,” Lavrov told Carlson, referring to the fact that Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye are now parts of the Russian federation and will not be ceded back to Ukraine.

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“The Russians are gaining more and more territory, the sanctions are not working, and Ukraine is no longer strong enough for possible negotiations..”

• Ukraine Will Have To Trade Land For Peace – Slovak President (RT)

The Ukraine conflict will not be resolved until Kiev accepts some “partial territorial losses,” Slovak President Peter Pellegrini has said. Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico have both called on Russia and Ukraine to enter immediate peace talks. Speaking to Slovakia’s STVR broadcaster on Sunday, Pellegrini said that daily updates from the front line have convinced him that Ukraine cannot hope to achieve its territorial goals – the return of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporozhye and Crimea – by force.“When it comes to peace, I believe that we need to remain realistic,” he told the network. “Today, probably no sane person in Europe believes that it will be possible to achieve peace without some partial territorial losses for Ukraine.” The president then called on Ukraine and Russia to sit down at the negotiating table as soon as possible.

Pellegrini’s comments echo those made by Fico earlier this week. Speaking to Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo news outlet, the Slovak prime minister said that it is necessary to be “at least a little realistic” and to “admit that Russia will never leave Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk.” After taking office last year, Fico immediately halted military aid from Bratislava to Kiev, and vowed to veto Ukraine’s potential accession to NATO. He has also accused “Ukrainian Nazis and fascists” of starting the conflict by “murdering the Russian population of Donbass,” and has condemned his fellow EU leaders for prolonging the fighting with military aid and sanctions on Moscow.

“What is the result? The Russians are gaining more and more territory, the sanctions are not working, and Ukraine is no longer strong enough for possible negotiations,” he told Folha de Sao Paulo. Fico also predicted that Kiev will likely be “betrayed” by its Western backers and possibly end up losing a third of its territories without being invited into NATO, receiving security guarantees only in the form of a foreign troop presence in the country. Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of its former regions. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved.

Read more …

Helmer enters PCR territory.

• The New Time Of Troubles, Part III – Don’t Worry, Be Happy (Helmer)

President Vladimir Putin gave a party rally speech in Moscow on Saturday in which he omitted to mention seven of the eight domestic issues most troubling Russian voters – inflation; high interest-rate caused stagnation in the economy; corruption; low quality education; poor public health care; terrorism; and illegal immigrants. He made an exception for the Special Military Operation and “the front to fight for the Motherland”.To Russians who tell pollsters the protracted war and the casualty rate are their biggest concerns, Putin said not to worry — he and his party are taking care of both: “The United Russia party has been supporting our troops literally from the first day of the special military operation: it submits important draft laws to create legal and social guarantees for our heroes and their families; assists the recovery of the liberated regions; collects and delivers everything the civilians there need.

“The party also does much for the veterans who are back from the combat areas, helps them realise themselves in civilian professions, in public and political life.” Reading methodically without departing from his script, Putin told delegates at the 22nd Congress of United Russia that the party stands for “the unity of people, faith in the country and in our victory…the desire to ensure the safety of the Motherland, to protect our sacred historical memory, spirituality, traditions.” This is political boilerplate — and it’s bullet-proof. The polls reinforce Putin’s message with the assurance that Russian voters see and fancy no alternative. In the current State Duma, elected in September 2021 to a five-year term, United Russia holds 324 of the 450 seats. The opposition is led by the Communist Party with 57 seats; Just Russia with 28, and New People with 16. In the Levada polling, support for United Russia is stable at 42%; the other political parties are polling between 4% and 10%.

No other Russian politician represents a challenge to the president; he does not face a new election until 2030. Public approval for Putin remains at 87% according to the Levada Centre; 79% according to the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), and stable. There is no government or party figure drawing current voter support in opposition, and no public canvassing for the succession. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov trail after Putin in the polls but far behind; their political profiles and approval ratings are based on the frequency of their media appearances. But public trust for them is a fraction of Putin’s rating, and they are not candidates to succeed him. Trust in former President Dmitry Medvedev is a fraction of that for Mishustin and Lavrov because Medvedev – though head of the United Russia party and deputy head of the Security Council — is almost invisible in the mainstream media.

The general public mood, as measured by Levada between November 2 and 27, is overwhelmingly positive and confident – 72% of Russians believe the country is going in the right direction; only 18% think it’s headed in the wrong direction. In this domestic atmosphere, Putin is calculating there is no good reason for him to mention the Russian military withdrawal from Syria, or to answer press questions of why he decided to evacuate Russian bases in the country, allow Israel to destroy Syria’s military and industrial infrastructure, and accept Israeli, Turkish and American takeover of Syria’s sovereignty, territory, and natural wealth, particularly water and oil. A Moscow source comments: “I think the Russian public will not be convinced to risk a presence there especially when the propaganda has changed its tune to the line, ‘it’s impossible to help those who can’t help themselves.’ With Syrian statehood gone, this battle is lost.”

This is the rationale, several Moscow sources believe, for Putin to cut his losses and run from Syria without risking the appearance to Russian voters of having done either. The military and strategic implications of Putin’s decision-making on Syria, argued behind closed doors with the General Staff, are unmentioned in the Duma and the media. The Moscow source adds: “What happens in Ukraine and when are the main questions now. There could well be more surprises from the US. There might be a new ground assault into Russian territory and continuing missile attacks deep into Russian territory. So far, these are not disturbing the national mood of confidence and optimism. So for the time being Russians are not expecting and are not prepared for any escalation on any front – at least not on the ground.

“If Putin can negotiate to keep the four [Donbass] regions and a demilitarisation accord with [President Donald] Trump, there will be what the Defense Ministry calls retaliation, but no escalation. At least not for now, not for six months after Trump takes office if the talks head nowhere.” “What is needed now from Russian point of view is time to build the army and the economy for a bigger war. That, according to everyone I talk with, is going to be war with Turkey when the stakes will be much higher than they are with Ukraine. Putin is adopting a wait-and-see stance. Russian military sources believe that Putin and the General Staff have agreed to restrict their operations to electric war targeting; to avoid decapitation strikes at the Ukrainian leadership or US, French and British forces operating long-range Ukrainian missile units; and to characterize current air operations as “retaliation”, not “escalation”.

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They will never admit they cornered themselves.

• Germany ‘Cornered’ – Economy Minister (RT)

Germany has been forced into a corner by underinvestment and policies pursued by other leading economies, Economy Minister Robert Habeck has said, after the central bank warned of a difficult year ahead. In an interview with Bild newspaper published on Sunday, the politician, who intends to run for chancellor next year, insisted that Germany can turn the situation around. “Our business model is really cornered. Will it no longer work? It would be too early for me to throw in the towel,” Habeck said. The minister noted that Germany has failed to make sufficient investment in its infrastructure, tax system and workforce skills, resulting in a “negative impact” on its economy.

Germany is an export-oriented nation that needs open markets, Habeck argued, in reference to US President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of major tariff increases. Trump warned in November that he would impose steeper duties on foreign-made cars to protect US jobs, a move that would disproportionately affect Germany. Habeck also pointed to Chinese-made electric cars flooding the EU market and causing “a big problem” for the German automotive industry. Car manufacturing is one of the key drivers of the German economy, accounting for approximately 5% of GDP. The Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research estimates that future tariffs could cost Germany €33 billion ($34.6 billion), and that exports to the US could fall by 15%.

Germany does have a problem, “but one that can be solved,” Habeck told Bild, without elaborating. On Friday, the German central bank slashed its growth forecast for next year to 0.2%, from the 1.1% level it had predicted in June. The regulator also said it expects the economy to contract by 0.2% this year, having previously predicted modest growth of 0.3%. It would mark a second consecutive year of decline, after gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% in 2023, according to the Federal Statistics Office, Destatis. The agency attributed last year’s contraction to persistent inflation, high energy prices, and weak foreign demand. A snap federal election will be held in Germany on February 23. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed earlier this month after he fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

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“Ukraine was not ready to start any talks with Russia as there is insufficient support from the West to conduct negotiations from a position of strength..”

• Hungary Dismayed At ‘Unprecedented Gesture In Diplomacy’ By Zelensky (RT)

The Ukrainian leadership turned down a phone-call request from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a manner that was “unprecedented” in nature, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has revealed. The rebuff followed an hour-long conversation between Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Sunday, Szijjarto said that he had approached Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga and Vladimir Zelensky’s top aide Andrey Yermak, asking for the authorization of a telephone conversation between Orban and the Ukrainian leader. ”In a gesture that was quite unprecedented in diplomacy,” the request was refused in “a somewhat strained” manner, Szijjarto said, as quoted by the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.

Hungary’s top diplomat did not elaborate on the exact wording used by the authorities in Kiev. Hungary has tried “everything” during the past six months of its EU presidency to use it “for a good cause, to initiate a ceasefire and peace negotiations,” Szijjarto noted. Budapest has held the rotating presidency of the EU Council in the second half of this year. Earlier this week Orban said he’d put forward a proposal for a Christmas ceasefire and a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. ”One side accepted it, the other rejected it,” the Premier told Kossuth Radio on Friday. Zelensky, in turn, claimed that the Hungarian leader was only trying to “boost personal image at the expense of unity” in the EU in terms of supporting Ukraine.

The authorities in Kiev have sent mixed messages about their readiness for negotiations with Russia. On Wednesday, Zelensky’s top adviser Mikhail Podoliak said Kiev could engage in talks with Moscow if they are not based on Russia’s conditions. Andrey Yermak said on Friday that Ukraine was not ready to start any talks with Russia as there is insufficient support from the West to conduct negotiations from a position of strength. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it’s ready to resume the negotiations. It has urged Kiev to accept the new realities “on the ground,” with President Vladimir Putin citing the complete withdrawal of all Ukrainian forces from all Russian territories as a key prerequisite for peace talks.

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“Syria was an imperfect yet incontestably successful pattern of civilisation, at least in the perspective of those who in human relations strive for a semblance of peace, cooperation, and harmony..”

• Syria: The Death of a Civilization (Karganovic)

Pepe Escobar was spot on when he stated that the downfall of Syria signified the “death of a nation.” Is it premature to chant a requiem for that marvellous land and its intriguing people, not just their virtues but also their flaws having duly been taken into account? And ought we to do it so soon, as the black flag of Syria’s latest conquerors, matching the darkness of its present circumstances, flutters over it, having just been raised in its capital? Time will tell, but reputable observers appear to be partial to precisely such a sombre conclusion. An argument could be advanced that Syria’s tragedy may prove to be even greater in scope than Pepe avers. Syria surely never was a “nation” in the conventional sense, signifying the homogeneity of shared ethnicity, faith, and moral purpose. It was in fact largely the opposite. Historically, however, Syria was an entity and perhaps even an idea much loftier than a mere homogeneity.

It was a concept of conviviality, not of the simple and easy kind, founded upon commonalities, but of the truly challenging and infinitely more complicated sort. Syria throughout the ages was a precarious, yet for the most part sustainably functional cultural crucible, consisting of a combination of disparate components thrown inexplicably together by the whims of fate. Yet astonishingly, and contrary to virtually every lesson of human interaction taught and learned elsewhere, Syria was an impossible combination that for the most part worked reasonably well. This patchwork of manifestly incompatible elements, of diverse faiths, often incongruous ethnicities, and real or imagined identities, willy-nilly and probably more by trial and error than by design, had developed a unique modus vivendi, a formula for practical coexistence from which the world has much to learn.

Instead of watching idly as freakish barbarians armed with sledgehammers pound it to smithereens, we should perhaps have reacted, contrary if need be to the tenets of geopolitical logic, to preserve this ancient land and cultural treasure from defilement and devastation. We can do no better now than to study for our own profit and edification that remarkable historically conditioned mechanism that Syria used to be, to emulate its spirit and apply its principles wherever practicable. I would argue, without idealising, that the now apparently defunct Syria, rather than being merely a nation whose death it is proper to mourn, as Pepe rightly does, conceptually was much more than the sum of its constituent parts. Syria was an imperfect yet incontestably successful pattern of civilisation, at least in the perspective of those who in human relations strive for a semblance of peace, cooperation, and harmony. Whether or not that pattern can ever be reconstituted is a question to which a ready answer is not at hand.

That having been said, we may skip the analysis of how Syria’s tragic and unexpected Untergang has come about, that topic being competently expounded by other commentators. There is, however, an aspect of the current events that needs to be particularly highlighted. That is the human dimension of the horror. Under the guise of opposing the excesses of a dictatorship, a combination of countries which purport to occupy the high moral ground in world affairs (the allusion is to the collective West and its lackeys, of course) have waged a relentless proxy war of attrition and extinction not against the Syrian “regime,” as they contemptuously referred to the legitimate government of that country, but against the people of Syria en masse, irrespective of their particular affiliation.

The objective was to oppress them and to destroy their common heritage in order to render them helpless and obedient to globalist masters and their regional collaborators, determined to impose their rapacious schemes in the form of oil pipelines, territorial recomposition, or whatever corrupt and self-serving goals they may have set. In that nefarious operation, the Syrian people, and even the jihadist condottieri themselves, the militia of goons trained and equipped to destroy the tranquillity and devastate the material and cultural assets of that unfortunate land, are all expendable.

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Just don’t.

• Trump Transition Team Considering Strikes on Iran (Antiwar)

Strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities are being seriously considered within the Donald Trump transition team, according to the Wall Street Journal. While there is no proof Tehran is trying to make a nuclear weapon, Washington and Tel Aviv are threatening to attack Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure. “The military-strike option against nuclear facilities is now under more serious review by some members of his transition team,” the WSJ explained. “Iran’s weakened regional position and recent revelations of Tehran’s burgeoning nuclear work have turbocharged sensitive internal discussions, transition officials said.” Tel Aviv is undergoing a similar debate. “The Israel Defense Forces believes that following the weakening of Iranian proxy groups in the Middle East and the dramatic fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, there is an opportunity to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities,” the Times of Israel reported on Thursday.

Adding, “The Israeli Air Force has therefore continued to increase its readiness and preparations for such potential strikes in Iran.” According to WSJ, President-elect Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have recently discussed potentially attacking Iran. “Trump has told Netanyahu in recent calls that he is concerned about an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch.” The report continues, “The president-elect wants plans that stop short of igniting a new war, particularly one that could pull in the US military.” The sources explained that the administration is considering two options. The first is bolstering American military presence in the Middle East while providing Israel with the ability to destroy Iranian nuclear sites without US assistance. The other option calls for American threats to force Tehran to make concessions at the negotiation table.

Whichever option Trump chooses, he is also expected to increase sanctions on Iran given his belief that he must economically cripple Tehran. While the US intelligence community, the IAEA, the Pentagon, and Tehran all say Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, the incoming Trump administration and Tel Aviv say they are concerned the Islamic Republic will obtain a nuke. Additionally, Trump believes Tehran was behind an assassination attempt on his life. However, Trump and Netanyahu may perceive Iran as weak, given Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in Syria and Hezbollah’s concessions in its truce with Israel. Emboldened by recent events, Washington and Tel Aviv could attempt to strike Iran, believing Tehran is vulnerable. Mark Dubowitzchief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told WSJ, “If you were going to actually do something to neutralize the nuclear-weapons program, this would be it.”

On Wednesday, Netanyahu published a video on X in English telling the Iranian people that regime change may come a lot sooner than many people think.

Clawson

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“..the accused were allowed no change of venue and faced juries pulled from a pool 95 percent anti-Trump. This needs to change.”

• 20 (or So) Obvious Questions about January 6 (Jack Cashill)

Even before Donald Trump ascends to the presidency on January 20, his appointees should ask themselves the questions that follow — all of them simple and straightforward. With Christopher Wray stepping down from the FBI directorship, they will have a much better chance of getting straight answers quickly. Trump’s team should then share those answers widely. This information will make President Trump’s pardon of more than 1,500 Americans much more comprehensible to the American public and much less controversial.

–Although now the FBI admits to having 26 confidential human sources in the crowd on January 6, how many total “assets” did the FBI and other entities plant, and what roles did they play?
–Was Ray Epps working for an entity? And if so, under what terms?
–Who planted the pipe bombs outside the DNC and near the RNC headquarters?
–Who instructed Kamala Harris to conceal the fact that she was at the DNC when the bomb was found and why?
–Why did Harris allow hundreds of J6ers to be prosecuted for threatening her designated space at the Capitol when she wasn’t at the Capitol?
–Who were the “two law enforcement officials” who told the New York Times that “pro-Trump rioters” fatally struck Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with a fire extinguisher, inflicting “a bloody gash in his head”?
–Who orchestrated the 100-day-plus suppression of Sicknick’s autopsy report?
–If Sicknick was not murdered, as the DOJ finally conceded, why did a federal judge give Julian Khater an 80-month prison sentence for spritzing Sicknick with an over-the-counter pepper spray?
–Has there been an official inquiry into the subsequent suicide deaths of four USCP officers, and if not, why has the DOJ routinely blamed the J6ers for causing those deaths?
–Why was there no crime scene investigation in the likely homicide of Rosanne Boyland?
–Who chose to ignore the obvious video evidence of Boyland being suffocated as a result of a police action and to falsely blame her death on an amphetamine overdose?
–Who suppressed the Boyland autopsy report for 90 days and stonewalled her family at every turn?
–Why was Lila Morris, the Metropolitan P.D. officer caught on video repeatedly bashing the unconscious Boyland over the head with a tree branch, not even disciplined?
–Why was Metropolitan P.D. lieutenant Jason Bagshaw promoted despite having been caught on video bashing the defenseless Victoria White bloody?
–Why did the DOJ not interview the eyewitnesses to the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt?
–Why did the USCP coddle and promote Babbitt’s killer, Michael Byrd, despite a shooting that, according to use-of-force expert Stan Kephart, “violated not only the law but his oath”?
–Who ordered the “shock and awe” raids on the homes of hundreds of non-violent protesters and why?
–Why has the so-called “Scaffold Commander” not been arrested despite multiple clear images of his face?
–Why has the man who constructed the mock gallows on the Capitol grounds not been arrested despite multiple clear images of his face?
–Why did the USCP allow the gallows to stand unmolested on Capitol grounds for more than four hours before the crowds gathered?
–Why was Emanuel Jackson quickly set free despite having been caught on video swinging a baseball bat at police officers over a two-hour period?
–If there was no insurrection, as the DOJ conceded, why were the sentences given to the J6ers so much more severe than the $30–50 fines given to the protesters who physically obstructed the Kavanaugh hearings?

These are the simple questions, the ones off the top. I am sure readers will think of others I may have overlooked. To be sure, more probing questions need to be asked about the January 6 Select Committee report as well as the charging documents for the J6ers. Having read through much of this material, I am impressed by how casually — and routinely — our elected officials and federal jurists distort the facts to protect the party line. In short, they lie, and some have done so under oath. I am impressed, too, by the shamelessness of a DOJ that can boast of its success rate in securing convictions, knowing that the accused were allowed no change of venue and faced juries pulled from a pool 95 percent anti-Trump. This needs to change.

More questions need to be asked as well about the security failures at all levels on January 6. In his otherwise worthy book, Government Gangsters, Kash Patel more or less exonerates the Pentagon. He should not have. Incompetence explains much of what went wrong on January 6, but so does treason. Nearly 1,600 American citizens were arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights on January 6, and roughly half of them have been incarcerated. Save for the insurrectionists among them — if there were any — the rest deserve not just commutation of their sentences, but a full pardon. Many may deserve compensation. And all deserve the truth.

To learn more, see Jack Cashill’s newest book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6.

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…But Continues Case Against New York..

“..should require the public release of all the evidence so that New Yorkers finally know the truth: Governor Cuomo never sexually harassed anyone.”

• Cuomo Accuser Drops Case Against The Former New York Governor (Turley)

A curious thing just happened in the sexual harassment lawsuit against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo: accuser Charlotte Bennett just dropped her claims against Cuomo despite continuing with litigation against the state over the alleged conduct of Cuomo. While the state has its own obligations as an employer, it is odd that you would drop the claim against the alleged actor himself. That is like dropping your product liability claim against Tesla while suing the electric company for powering the car. A significant number of women alleged sexual harassment against the former governor. They previously gave evidence in criminal investigations and spoke to state and federal investigators. However, in 2022, Albany County District Attorney David Soares dropped a criminal complaint against Cuomo for lack of evidence. Later, five additional criminal cases were dropped.

He has been facing pending civil litigation over the allegations of sexual harassment for years. The state is reportedly paying Cuomo’s legal fees. The strange profile of the litigation with this withdrawal may reflect the strikingly different interests of the legal teams representing Cuomo versus the state. Bennett was the second of several former aides to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment. She complained that Cuomo was harassing her with “invasive” demands of her medical records and pursuing testimony from friends. However, when you accuse someone of being a sexual harasser, such discovery is not just expected but often essential for the defense. The defense took a victory lap while responding to rumors of a settlement in the making with the state. It noted that the move came shortly before Bennett would appear for deposition:

“After falsely smearing Governor Cuomo for years, Ms. Bennett suddenly withdrew her federal lawsuit on the eve of her deposition to avoid having to admit under oath that her allegations were false and her claims had no merit. If New York State does give in to her public pressure campaign and settles, it will not be on the merits and should require the public release of all the evidence so that New Yorkers finally know the truth: Governor Cuomo never sexually harassed anyone.” The deposition was expected to be brutal, including questions raised by videotapes in which Bennett calls Cuomo “amazing” and “wonderful” to work with. The defense has also cited prior allegations against others that were later dropped. The settlement talks could amplify the different interests of the two legal teams.

The state team is answerable to Gov. Kathleen Hochul, who may have an interest in not only killing the case but also creating a record of a settlement over the allegations. Her office previously settled with the Biden Administration over federal claims. I previously expressed concern over the lack of fairness and due process for Cuomo in that case and how the settlement was being portrayed. The dropping of the case may undermine negotiations with the state unless they have reached an undisputed agreement. Between the settlement with the federal government and settlements with these accusers, Cuomo may be left without an adjudication on specific claims that he wants to clear his name. Such settlements create a stain of presumptive guilt for many. The only thing that is clear is that the case against Andrew Cuomo seems to get “curiouser and curiouser.”

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He appears to be successful. But from the MSM, crickets only.

• Milei Admin. Posts Record Reductions in Deficit and Inflation Numbers (Turley)

Argentinian President Javier Milei has long been an irresistible target of the press and pundits. When he came into power with his famous “Afuera” (or Out!) platform to dramatically shrink government spending. Argentina was viewed as a basket case that was well past the red line for recovery. He was mocked as a clown for seeking to apply libertarian policies on the economy. Milei may have the last laugh. After only a year, his government has wiped out the deficit and reduced inflation from 25% to 2.4%. Argentina’s monthly inflation rate slowed to 2.4% in November, the lowest in over four years. Inflation had slowed to 2.7% in October. Instead of a disastrous deficit, the country now posts a fiscal surplus of approximately 0.4% of GDP.

For the media outlets, there is a begrudging recognition. The Associated Press reported the economic improvement by first detailing how “Milei’s lack of government experience, unkempt hairdo, sexual boasts and missionary-like zeal for his dead dog, the Rolling Stones and the free market didn’t inspire much confidence in a country with a history of failed economic reforms.” After discussing the unemployment and “brutal” measures, the article finally get to the statistics roughly half way through by noting that “signs have emerged that Argentina’s bizarre and long mismanaged economy is starting to look a little more normal. Monthly inflation has plummeted, bonds have rallied and the closely watched gap between the black market dollar and the official rate has shrunk as much as 44%. Argentina’s country-risk index, an influential measure of the risk of default, is at its lowest point in five years.”

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“Once Pam Bondi comes in as attorney general under the Trump administration, we then have a partner at the United States Department of Justice to look at this..”

• House GOP Vows To Refer ActBlue Fundraising Probe To Incoming Trump DOJ (JTN)

House Administration Committee Chairman Brian Steil said he will refer findings from his ongoing probe into the progressive fundraising platform ActBlue to the incoming Trump Justice Department. Steil believes the new Attorney General Pam Bondi, if confirmed, will be more than willing to probe the Democratic fundraising powerhouse over allegations it failed to implement sufficient security measures on its platform to prevent illegal foreign monies from flowing into U.S. political campaigns. “Once Pam Bondi comes in as attorney general under the Trump administration, we then have a partner at the United States Department of Justice to look at this, to do the investigation into bad actors, and to hold anyone who is engaged in this activity accountable,” Steil told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Thursday.

“The good news is President [Donald} Trump’s coming to office in just a few short weeks. We’re going to have an opportunity to move forward on the prosecutorial side, and then we in Congress have to continue this work, moving legislation forward.” Steil’s committee has probed ActBlue over lax security measures that may have allowed foreign entities to donate to U.S. political campaigns, which is illegal. In October, Steil and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a fellow Republican, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines about concerns that four U.S. adversaries may have donated through the platform. “We write to you to raise an urgent concern regarding potential illicit election funding by foreign actors,” the lawmakers wrote Yellen in a letter dated Thursday.

“CHA has been investigating claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, may be using ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.” They also said: “Our investigation has indicated that these actors may be exploiting existing U.S. donors by making straw donations without their knowledge.” The lawmakers specifically demanded access to any Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to money passing through the fundraising platform generated by any U.S. financial institution as part of their anti-money-laundering activities. ActBlue recently acknowledged to Congress that it has updated its donor verification policy to automatically reject donations that “use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift.

The change occurred just three days after Steil introduced the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act on Sept. 6 to ensure foreign money stayed out of online political fundraising. Before the change, Steil said, donations made with foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by ActBlue before the change, Just the News reported. ActBlue has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says that it is fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. “Democratic and progressive campaigns have trusted ActBlue’s two-decade-long track record of innovation and dependability to deliver during big fundraising moments,” ActBlue said in a statement in June celebrating its 20th anniversary in business. Steil also argues the Justice Department does not appear to be interested in conducting an investigation into what his committee has uncovered so far. “If they were, they would have started about four years ago,” he said.

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“..the projects will have “no measurable influence on climate change.”

• Offshore Wind Opponents From Deep Blue States Hope For Trump (JTN)

Shortly after taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden set a goal of developing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. Along the coasts, grassroots, community-based organizations concerned about the impacts of offshore wind development sprang up to express their opposition to the plan. They say they found their concerns ignored and dismissed as the federal government pushed full-steam-ahead with Biden’s goals. President-elect Donald Trump stated repeatedly during his campaign that he would end Biden’s offshore wind vision. Now offshore wind opponents in Democratic strongholds of the East and West coasts, while they may not be fans of Trump, they’re hopeful the new administration will finally give them a seat at the table.

In February 2024, the first phase of Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine project 15 miles south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard became the first large-scale offshore wind project to deliver power to the grid. Amy DiSibio, board member for ACK For Whales, told Just the News that people on Nantucket had, prior to this year, been supportive of Biden’s offshore wind agenda. ACK for Whales is a nonpartisan nonprofit representing Nantucket community members who are concerned about the negative impacts of offshore wind development off the coast of the island. DiSibio said there are a lot of misperceptions about Nantucket. “People think this is an island filled with a bunch of rich people. It’s actually a very economically diverse community. People don’t recognize that, especially the year-round population, these people work two and three jobs to make ends meet. It’s very expensive living 30 miles out to sea,” DiSibio said.

She said about a year ago, people on the island started seeing giant offshore wind turbines covering their ocean views. Concerns were growing about impacts of the industry to the viewshed and marine wildlife, DiSibio said, but when a blade broke off one of the turbines in July and scattered shards of debris across New England shores, the tide of public opinion turned against the industry. “People are like, ‘Are you kidding?’ This is expected to happen on a regular basis. This is an environmental disaster. People are still picking up stuff on the beach. This is a small target in a big ocean. So imagine what’s still out there,” DiSibio said. While the impacts have hit the island hard, the election outcomes suggest Trump’s vows against offshore wind weren’t a selling point for the state or the island.

Massachusetts residents voted 61% in favor of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, and in Nantucket nearly 67% of votes went for Harris. DiSibio said that as a 501(c)3, ACK for Whales is limited in what it can do, in terms of lobbying. She said that the organization will proceed now with what it’s been doing — educating the public and elected officials on the issue. She said they’ve got people in Congress who have been sympathetic to the issue, such as New Jersey Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith, as well as Maryland Rep. Andy Harris in Maryland — all Republicans — who are listening.

“There are people in Congress who have concerns. They’ve got concerns around the environment, economic concerns to what this does to not just coastal communities, but how this will impact the whole state. Concerns around this means for rate payers, concerns around search and rescue, for the Coast Guard, national security. There are many, many questions that are out there,” DiSibio said. She’s hoping there will be more questions not only about the impacts, but also if they’re worth it. Environmental impact statements for offshore wind projects, which are required as part of the federal permitting process, note that the projects will have “no measurable influence on climate change.”

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“The government is slow, slow, slow — decades slow on adopting new ways of doing things, and there’s a lot of [other] carrier services that became legal in the ’70s that are doing things so much better..”

• Trump Considers Privatizing US Postal Service (ZH)

Donald Trump is fired up about finally giving the money-losing US Postal Service its long-overdue shove into the private sector, according to three sources who talked to the Washington Post. Trump is said to have discussed the idea with Howard Lutnick, who’s co-chairing his transition team and who’s been tapped to serve as Commerce secretary in the new administration. He also held a meeting with various transition officials to exchange thoughts on privatization of the huge organization. Separately, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has held its own discussions about drastic action. Last month, USPS disclosed that it posted a net loss of $9.5 billion for the 2024 fiscal year — a loss that was 46% worse than the service’s $6.5 billion deficit in 2023.

The plunge came alongside a slight uptick in revenue enabled by the latest annual increase in postage rates, pursuant to the 2021 Delivering for America plan. That program was supposed to help the perennially-profitless behemoth “achieve financial sustainability and service excellence.” The service also has a crummy balance sheet, with nearly $80 billion in liabilities. After reviewing the numbers, Trump stated his opinion that the Postal Service shouldn’t be subsidized by the government, the Post’s sources said. Casey Mulligan, a University of Chicago economics professor who served on Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, tells the Post it’s time for a major change: “The government is slow, slow, slow — decades slow on adopting new ways of doing things, and there’s a lot of [other] carrier services that became legal in the ’70s that are doing things so much better with increased volumes and reduced costs. We didn’t finish the job in the first term, but we should finish it now.”

The Postal Service is politically powerful — starting with its raw headcount: While you may not guess it given the long lines that typify a visit to a post office, USPS has a staggering 650,000 employees, who become very active whenever privatization gains momentum. It’s also popular among Americans — 72% view it favorably, compared just 21% who view it unfavorably, according to a 2024 Pew Research poll. Meanwhile, though a belief in small government is supposedly a GOP cornerstone, the postal service is particularly valued by people living in rural, Republican districts. Earlier this month, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley angrily confronted Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over a plan to save costs by slowing delivery for some mail, something that would affect rural areas more than urban ones. “I hate this plan and I’m going to do everything I can to kill it,” said Hawley in a Senate hearing.

In addition to having GOP control of the Senate and the House in the next legislature, Trump is positioned to fill three vacancies on the Postal Service’s 11-member board. (Biden has submitted nominees, but you can expect the Senate to ignore them through Jan 20.) Of the incumbents, three are Republicans, with two of them appointed by Trump in his first term. Even if privatization doesn’t happen, Trump’s mere threat of pursuing it could help drive changes to the organization. As the Lexington Institute’s Paul Steilder tells the Post…

“At the end of the day, the Postal Service is going to need money, it’s going to need assistance, or it’s going to have to come up with some radical, draconian measures to break even in the near term. That gives both the White House and Congress an awful lot of power and an awful lot of leeway here.” Sound good on paper…but, as evidenced by the “profit”-and-loss chart above, Congress has long shown a lack of urgency about seeing the USPS “break even in the near term.” Even with a president who’s fired about it — for now — we’re not convinced it will be any different this time.

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“The wording of the bill has many worried that this will be a centerpiece of a new era of anti-communist hysteria, similar to previous McCarthyist periods.”

• Cold War Tactics With New Anti-Communism School Curriculum (Alan MacLeod)

Congress has just passed a new bill that will see the U.S. spend huge sums of money redesigning much of the public school system around the ideology of anti-communism. The “Crucial Communism Teaching Act” is now being read in the Senate, where it is all but certain to pass. The move comes amid growing public anger at the economic system and increased public support for socialism. The Crucial Communism Teaching Act, in its own words, is designed to teach children that “certain political ideologies, including communism and totalitarianism…conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy that are essential to the founding of the United States.” Although sponsored by Republicans, it enjoys widespread support from Democrats and is focused on China, Venezuela, Cuba and other targets of U.S. empire. The wording of the bill has many worried that this will be a centerpiece of a new era of anti-communist hysteria, similar to previous McCarthyist periods.

The curriculum will be designed by the controversial Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and will ensure all American high school students “understand the dangers of communism and similar political ideologies” and “learn that communism has led to the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims worldwide.” It will also develop a series titled “Portraits in Patriotism,” that will expose students to individuals who are “victims of the political ideologies” in question. The 100 million figure originates with the notorious pseudoscience text, “The Black Book of Communism.” A collection of political essays, the book’s central claim is that 100 million people have perished as a result of the communist ideology. However, even many of its contributors and co-writers have distanced themselves from it, claiming that the lead author was “obsessed” with reaching the 100 million figure, to the point that he simply conjured millions of deaths from nowhere.

Its methodology was also universally panned, with many pointing out that the tens of millions of Soviet and Nazi losses during World War II were attributed to communist ideology. This means that both Adolf Hitler himself and many of his victims are counted towards the vastly overinflated figure. The book was condemned by Holocaust remembrance groups as whitewashing and even lionizing genocidal fascist groups as anti-communist heroes. The principal organization promoting the 100 million figure today is the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which has shown a similar level of both anti-communist devotion and methodological rigor. The group, set up by the U.S. government in 1993, added all worldwide COVID-19 deaths to the victims of communism list, arguing that the coronavirus was a communist disease because it originated in China. It is these people who will be designing the new curriculum that will be taught in social studies, government, history, and economics classes across the country.

One of the central goals of the bill is also to “ensure that high school students in the United States understand that 1,500,000,000 people still suffer under communism.” This is a clear reference to China, a rapidly developing country that, in just two generations, has gone from one of the poorest on Earth to a global superpower, challenging and even surpassing the United States on many quality-of-life indicators. The bill goes on to detail how the school curriculum will “focus on ongoing human rights abuses by such regimes, such as the treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” by the Chinese “regime” and its “aggression” towards “pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong,” and Taiwan, who it labels “a democratic friend of the United States.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malhotra

 

 

Bone cancer

 

 

3d
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868136468335730729

 

 

Lynx

 

 

Fox

 

 

Bowhead

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle December 7 2024

Dec 072024
 
 December 7, 2024  Posted by at 10:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  80 Responses »


Johannes Vermeer Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window 1657-59

 

• Not a Joke (James Howard Kunstler)
• Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Biden’s Pardon Of His Son Hunter (JTN)
• Trump Confident About Getting Pete Hegseth Confirmed As Defense Secretary (JTN)
• National Police Association Strongly Endorses Kash Patel For FBI Director (JTN)
• NYC Mayor Eric Adams Hints At Switch To Republican Party (ZH)
• Jeff Bezos Expresses Optimism About Trump’s Deregulation Agenda, Offers to Help (ET)
• Congress, Trump Plan Law Enforcement Reform In DC To End Politicization (JTN)
• The Biden Family of Liars (Patrick Lawrence)
• Nothing Short Of Ukraine’s Surrender Is Negotiable With The US (Helmer)
• US Opens a Third Front Against Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Erdogan’s Idlib Shock Shadows “Kursk” (Alastair Crooke)
• The Elitist Tyranny Of “Western Democracy” Is Exposed And Crumbling (SCF)
• Orban Blames Biden For Ukraine Conflict (RT)
• Hungary Vows to Block EU Budget Draft Unless Frozen Funds Released (Sp.)
• Dementia As A Military Strategy (José Goulão)
• Romanian Court Annuls Presidential Vote, Declares Election Do-Over (ZH)
• London Declining As Financial Center – Bloomberg (RT)

 

 

 

 

Barron

YMCA

Stephen Miller
https://twitter.com/i/status/1864507104285086147
https://twitter.com/i/status/1864849006209192132

Work from home
https://twitter.com/i/status/1864757348398698509

Vance

Nunes

Obama

Chicago

 

 

 

 

“Stare into the sun and begin to glimpse the size of what you’re up against.” — Mike Benz

I called the pardon Pandora’s box before. Jim has many names who would like a blanket pardon. And there are many more. Problem is, this erodes society itself.

• Not a Joke (James Howard Kunstler)

The Hunter Biden super-sized blanket pardon went over so well around the country that “Joe Biden” — or the shadowy league of not-quite-geniuses who run the twilight White House operation — floated the idea of issuing preemptive pardons for a few of the most spectacularly dishonest characters in US political life: Dr. Fauci, Senator-elect Adam Schiff, and Liz Cheney. Does “JB” plan on legally adopting them so he can claim he was moved to act out of a father’s love? Like every official act ever associated with the name “Joe Biden,” the preemptive pardon idea has that reality-optional feel. None of the three has been convicted of a crime to be pardoned for, or even been hauled-in for questioning by federal law enforcement agents on a probable cause writ. But a pardon would necessarily paint them as criminals, ipso facto. Would they accept a pardon, with what it implies, or run shrieking from it as from an apple polished with novichok?

The proffer of a pardon itself must amount to a declaration of probable cause, igniting the very legal process it seeks to dispose of. An inquiry would have to be launched to discover what laws these three desperadoes might have broken, followed perhaps by a grand jury to evaluate the evidence, and so on. “Joe Biden” himself might have to answer some basic questions, such as: at what time prior to issuing the pardon did he begin to suspect some laws had been broken? And, since the president’s chief duty is to enforce the law, was “JB” negligent and culpable himself for misprision of felonies? You know, of course, that the Supreme Court decided last summer in Trump v. United States (Docket No: 23-939) that a president is immune from prosecution for official acts. But the misprision of felonies is neither a presidential duty nor anything describable as an official act. Rather it would be grounds for impeachment, being a “high crime.”

Now, luckily for Joe Biden, his term-in-office is so close to its conclusion that impeachment must be considered off-the-table as a practical matter. He might be subject to prosecution, though, after the clock strikes noon on one-six-twenty-five. I doubt he will be present at Mr. Trump’s inauguration, so the US marshals will have to root him out of Delaware (or wherever) and haul him into the federal lockup in DC at exactly the moment Mr. Trump pardons the J-6 prisoners. Will they get to see “Joe Biden” coming into the joint on their way out? There would be a certain poetic symmetry in that, and hard to not admire the workings of Providence after all its foot-dragging. You might well ask: how many days, or months, will “Joe Biden” have to endure in solitary detention before the paperwork is in order for a proper arraignment? Considering how the process was applied to those J-6 culprits, a year would seem sufficient.

Pardon me for saying: I fear that “Joe Biden” might have started something that isn’t going to end well for “Joe Biden” and many others. The little goldfish bowl of the White House is surrounded by the vast, pulsating DC blob and its million-footed ranks of officials deserving of pardons. You know the floated names Fauci, Schiff, and Cheney were only representative samples, denoting a certain managerial class of blobists that runs to the thousands of federal employees at least. What about Garland, Monaco, and Gupta at DOJ, and their paladin prosecutor Jack Smith, and his many deputies? Or Comey, Wray, Abate, Sallet, McCabe, Rosenstein, Strzok, Page, Pientka, Priestap, McCord, Horowitz out of the FBI? Or Mueller, Weissmann, Dreeben, Van Grack, Rhee, and Quarles from that spin-off Special Counsel venture? Or Boasberg, Chutkan, and Sullivan in the DC judiciary? Or, Collins, Wallensky, Cohen and their many deputies in Covid-land?

Surely, they all deserve pardons now, and their crimes can be sorted out later. There would appear to be no precedent for a chief executive pardoning the entire federal government, or we would have heard of it by now. At the conclusion of the Civil War, Abe Lincoln issued a conditional pardon to Southerners — they had to take an oath of allegiance to the Union — but it did not include military officers and high-ranking Confederate officials. The blob of our time is a different breed of porpoise. Actually, it’s more like a systemic fungal infection of the body politic, requiring deep fumigation and exposure to sunlight. The proposed D.O.G.E advisory under Messrs Musk and Ramaswamy might answer as a “good enough” therapeutic approach, wholesale dismissal of entire agencies and departments, actually flushing away the malign parasites en masse, pardons not required.

What I await in the sunsetting “Joe Biden” presidency is whether he will go ahead and pardon the other members of the Biden family beyond just “first son” Hunter: brothers Jim and Frank and the wives and various offspring who received cash “gifts” from officials in foreign lands laundered into their personal bank accounts amounting to millions of dollars. None of them enjoy the much talked-about presidential immunity out of mere familial proximity to their illustrious relation, number “46” in the lengthening line of commanders-in-chief.

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“Only 30% of voters favored Biden’s clemency..” There are a lot of Democrats among the remaining 70%.

• Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Biden’s Pardon Of His Son Hunter (JTN)

Americans overwhelmingly oppose President Joe Biden’s pardon that erased his son Hunter’s federal tax and gun convictions, according to a new poll released Thursday. Pollster Scott Rasmussen’s Napolitan News Service survey found 62% oppose the pardon, including 41% who strongly opposed it. Only 30% of voters favored Biden’s clemency, The poll also found Americans rejected the rationale the 46th president offered in explaining his decision. Biden has said that Hunter Biden was unfairly targeted by prosecutors for political purposes, but 54% disagreed with his rationale, while 37% agreed. Voters were more sympathetic to President-elect Donald Trump, with 46% declaring they believed that the Department of Justice unfairly targeted him under Biden’s leadership, while 42% disagreed.

Biden pardon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1864668354079854993

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All they have is smear.

• Trump Confident About Getting Pete Hegseth Confirmed As Defense Secretary (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday appeared optimistic that he can get his choice for Secretary of Defense confirmed by the Senate early next year, despite recent criticism. Trump tapped former Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth to lead the defense department last month, touting him as a major supporter of veterans and the military. However, allegations have surfaced recently, accusing him of sexual assault, alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement. The former president said he still has confidence in Hegseth, and that senators have told him that they will support his nomination. Hegseth met with multiple senators this week in an effort to reassure them that the reports are unfounded.

“It looks like Pete is doing well now,” Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview that will air on Sunday. “I mean, people were a little bit concerned. He’s a young guy, with a tremendous track record actually. He went to Princeton and went to Harvard. He was a good student at both. But he loves the military and I think people are starting to see it so we’ll be working on his nomination along with a lot of others.” Trump said he has spoken to friends of Hegseth over at Fox News who have denied the allegation that the veteran has a drinking problem. Trump himself does not drink alcohol. “He’s a very smart guy. I’ve known him through Fox, but I’ve known him for a long time,” the president-elect said. “He’s basically a military guy. Every time I talk to him, all he wants to talk about is the military. He’s a military guy.”

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“We are confident that under his stewardship, the FBI will thrive in its vital mission to protect and serve the American people..”

• National Police Association Strongly Endorses Kash Patel For FBI Director (JTN)

The National Police Association on Friday “strongly” endorsed Kash Patel, President-elect Trump’s nominee for FBI director, and urged the Senate to confirm him. “We firmly believe that Kash Patel’s appointment as FBI Director will mark a pivotal moment for law enforcement and public safety across the United States. His leadership will bring a renewed focus on collaboration, ethical standards, and the relentless pursuit of justice,” the organization said in a statement. “We are confident that under his stewardship, the FBI will thrive in its vital mission to protect and serve the American people,” the group added.

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“Those who don’t like it, they will cancel me,” he said. “I say: Cancel me. I’m for America.”

• NYC Mayor Eric Adams Hints At Switch To Republican Party (ZH)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has left the door open to returning to the Republican Party – a move that would upend the political dynamics in the nation’s largest city. In a pair of Friday morning interviews, Adams – who was a member of the GOP from 1995 to 2002, refused to rule out a switch back to the Republican Party. “I’m a part of the American party,” Adams told NY1 when asked directly about his political future. He reiterated the sentiment in a subsequent interview on PIX11, emphasizing that his allegiance lies with “American values” over partisan lines. “No matter what party I’m on or vote on, I’m going to push for American values,” he declared, urging leaders to work beyond political affiliations to solve voters’ problems. Adams’ comments come amidst heightened tensions within the Democratic Party, sparked by his growing relationship with President-elect Donald Trump.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1865033350072746187

While most Democrats have criticized Trump, Adams has avoided open conflict, even praising Trump confidant Elon Musk for his efforts to streamline government operations, Politico reports.The mayor is scheduled to meet with incoming border czar Tom Homan next week to discuss federal immigration policies. Adams has signaled tentative support for deportation plans targeting undocumented immigrants with serious criminal offenses, a position that aligns more closely with Trump’s immigration platform than his own party’s stance. Adams’ relationship with Trump takes on added significance in light of his ongoing legal battles. The mayor faces a five-count federal indictment, and Trump’s incoming administration is poised to replace the U.S. Attorney prosecuting Adams. Trump, who has repeatedly framed his own legal troubles as politically motivated, has expressed empathy for Adams’ predicament.

Speculation has swirled that the president-elect might extend a pardon to the mayor, further entwining their political fortunes.Despite his openness to a Republican pivot, Adams insists he plans to run for reelection next year as a Democrat. “That is what I’m proposing to do,” he told reporters Friday. However, his lukewarm endorsement of the Democratic Party and his past GOP affiliation leave room for doubt. Adams’ critics see his comments as a calculated effort to hedge his bets as Trump prepares to wield significant influence over New York City’s political and legal landscape. Local Democrats have expressed frustration, with some questioning whether Adams is using his position to align himself with Trump’s administration for political gain. Adams defended his controversial stance with a bold parting message: “Those who don’t like it, they will cancel me,” he said. “I say: Cancel me. I’m for America.”

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Bezos, like Zuckerberg, are all too aware of Elon Musk’s presence.

• Jeff Bezos Expresses Optimism About Trump’s Deregulation Agenda, Offers to Help (ET)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos expressed optimism about President-elect Donald Trump’s second term on Wednesday, voicing enthusiasm for potential regulatory rollbacks in the years ahead, even offering to personally help with the deregulatory effort like his business arch-rival Elon Musk. Speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York on Dec. 4, Bezos said that there are “too many regulations in this country” and praised Trump’s commitment to slashing red tape. “I’m actually very optimistic this time around,” Bezos said. “He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I’m going to help him.” Bezos said that, in his view, the United States is “so set up to grow” thanks to factors like abundant energy resources and the world’s best risk-capital system, and that eliminating barriers to growth is key to solving the nation’s most vexing economic problems, such as ballooning public debt.

“You’re going to solve the problem of the national debt by making it a smaller percentage of GDP,” he said. “That means you have to grow the GDP at three, four, five percent a year, and let the national debt grow slower than that. If you can do that, then this is a very manageable problem. The billionaire entrepreneur added that America’s many advantages are being undermined by burdensome regulations. “I’m very optimistic that President Trump is serious about this regulatory agenda, and I think he has a very good chance at succeeding,” he said. Bezos’ comments come weeks after his decision in October to bar The Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing a presidential candidate. The move sparked backlash, with tens of thousands of readers canceling subscriptions and protests from veteran journalists at the paper.

In an op-ed, Bezos defended the decision, arguing that endorsements contribute to perceptions of bias in an era of widespread mistrust in the media and have little impact on election outcomes. During his interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Bezos also addressed Trump’s contentious relationship with the press, saying he would work to dissuade the president-elect from seeing the media as an adversary. “I don’t think the press is the enemy,” Bezos said, adding that he believes Trump’s relationship with the media has become less adversarial in recent years as he has grown as a person, and is “calmer … more confident, more settled.”

During his first term, Trump frequently criticized Bezos, Amazon, and The Washington Post. In 2019, Amazon alleged in court that Trump’s animosity cost the company a $10 billion Pentagon contract, which the Biden administration later split between Amazon and Microsoft. Later in the interview, Bezos also commented on Musk’s regulatory role in the upcoming administration, expressing confidence that Musk would not use his influence to harm competitors. Bezos’s space venture, Blue Origin, is a rival to Musk’s SpaceX.

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“An important part of my platform for president is to bring back, restore, and rebuild Washington D.C. into the ‘crown jewel’ of the nation..”

• Congress, Trump Plan Law Enforcement Reform In DC To End Politicization (JTN)

Donald Trump and his political allies are promising law enforcement reforms and to fight crime in Washington, D.C., when he takes office again in January. Already, allies on Capitol Hill are preparing to launch investigations, new committees, and detail new priorities as the former president prepares to take the reigns on the executive branch for the second non-consecutive term. Some initiatives are taking aim at the nation’s capital, following promises from Trump on the campaign trail to clean up the city. Congress is looking to block disfavored city laws or using its power to shape the city’s budget, while Trump wants to enforce “tough on crime” policies in the district.

One congressman believes the security of the U.S. Capitol building itself and the politicization in the police force protecting the complex at the heart of the city should be the focus of a new select committee. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight says reforms are needed to root out undue political influence on the department’s leadership, exposed by a probe into the Capitol Police in the aftermath of the January 6 riot. “I believe we need a select committee that is focused on the security of the United States Capitol. You know, we’ve done a lot with our January 6 investigation, and have done more than anyone ever thought that we would do to get to the truth,” Loudermilk told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. He added: “But there’s one thing that we’ve uncovered that no one else can fix, except for the United States Congress, and that’s the issues we have internally.”

“You have the Architect of the Capitol, you have the Capitol Police, you have both Sergeant at Arms that collectively are responsible for securing this Capitol. I believe we need a select committee that is dedicated to looking into all of those to find the how politicized each of those organizations are, and even the Capitol Police Inspector General,” Loudermilk said. Loudermilk’s probe into the Capitol Police followed from a broader investigation spearheaded by his subcommittee into the security failures of January 6 and the conduct of the January 6 Select Committee. That probe has upended several of the narratives espoused by the former select committee and uncovered troubling failures, like the Capitol Police and Democratic leadership’s failure to act on warnings of violence ahead of the riot.

[..] At the same time, President-elect Trump has promised to bring changes to law enforcement in the wider city of Washington, D.C., which is still suffering from elevated violent crimes rates, though it has declined from high levels last year. “An important part of my platform for president is to bring back, restore, and rebuild Washington D.C. into the ‘crown jewel’ of the nation,” Trump said last year during his campaign at the same time that the city was experiencing its greatest spike of homicides since 1997. He has frequently reiterated a promise to “take over our horribly run” capitol city on the campaign trail, according to an Axios analysis of his speeches, press conferences and interviews about policy. As president, Trump will have many options to directly address issues he perceives with the city, For example, he could deploy the National Guard to the city to crack down on crime.

The president used this option during the Summer 2020 riots in the district following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis that sparked violent Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Trump will also have the opportunity to appoint a new federal prosecutor for the district who shares his law enforcement priorities. His congressional allies also have tools that could help Trump shape the city’s government and law enforcement. The Congress can exercise control of the district by imposing an oversight board to run the city’s budget. It did so once before in the 1990s when the city went bankrupt. Congress can also block or overturn laws implemented by the city government, as it already did once before with a bill many critics saw as being too soft on crime.

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Biden’s pardon is a carbon copy of the earlier rejected plea deal.

• The Biden Family of Liars (Patrick Lawrence)

With his shocking presidential pardon of his son Hunter, announced Thanksgiving weekend, when the maximum number of Americans would be watching football games and consuming potato chips, Joe Biden goes out just as he was the whole of his tatty career as a politician — a self-serving fiddler, indifferent to democratic process, ever going against his word. Peter Baker, that inimitable (thank goodness) clerk The New York Times posts as its chief White House correspondent, tells us in Wednesday’s editions, “We don’t really know how history will remember Joe Biden. It’s too early to say, obviously.” Actually, we really know at this point. Obviously. Much has been made of Biden as the family man torn between his duties as president and his compassion for an errant son as the victim of perverted justice. The Times unfolded a singular line of argument on Tuesday.

“President Biden was deeply concerned,” Katie Rogers and Glenn Thrush reported, “that legal problems would push his son into a relapse after years of sobriety, and he began to realize there might not be any way out beyond issuing a pardon.” No other way out. Here we have Joe Biden pimping the helpless suffering of his son’s addictions (to alcohol and crack). It is of a piece with Biden’s very regular references, always for similar political advantage, to the death of his other son, Beau, and the earlier deaths of his first wife and daughter. The Rogers and Thrush piece now passes for news reporting Americans are invited to take seriously. It is one among countless others of its kind and quality that are together a measure of how the corruptions of the Bidens, father and son as well as others, have deepened an already severe crisis in American media and turned public discourse into bad afternoon television.

The reporting on the pardon has been defective since the White House released the Executive Grant of Clemency, along with Biden’s official statement, last Sunday. The Times, The Washington Post, the other major dailies and the broadcast networks all reported as if in unison that Joe Biden’s motivating concerns were the guilty verdicts Hunter Biden faces on gun-possession and tax-evasion charges. Hunter was scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Biden père has told the nation his intent was simply to protect Hunter from a judicial system that political antagonists had unduly politicized. From the president’s statement:

“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room—with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases. No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong.” You read a statement such as this and you have to wonder whether Joe Biden is capable of speaking truthfully in any circumstance bearing upon his personal interests.

The plea deal, negotiated in the summer of 2023, was indeed carefully negotiated — by Hunter’s attorneys and corrupt Justice Department prosecutors acting to keep the president’s son out of prison. The agreement collapsed not due to political pressure — there was none — but because an un-beholden judge with a commitment to the rule of law, Maryellen Noreika, read it and threw it out of court. The feature of the plea bargain that moved Judge Noreika to put an end to the negotiated arrangement was its stipulation that Hunter would be immune from further prosecution not only for the matters then tried — the gun and taxes charges — but for any other crimes he may have committed. Preposterous, Noreika rightly concluded.

Was Hunter Biden singled out as his father asserts? Not as his father asserts, but yes, singled out. He had made a mess of his life, breaching various laws while doing so, and was singled out for special treatment in a judicial system that plainly leaves elites and their families above the law. This context is essential to understanding why Joe Biden decided — and one strongly suspects this was not, as reported, a decision Biden considered and took over the Thanksgiving weekend — to grant his son clemency in the manner he did. The operative language in the official document, the raison d’être of the case, is this:

“Be It Known, That This Day, I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States, Pursuant to My Powers Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, of the Constitution, Have Granted Unto ROBERT HUNTER BIDEN A Full and Unconditional Pardon For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions)…” As is easily discerned, President Biden has reinstated, not quite verbatim but nearly, the terms of the plea agreement thrown out of court a year and a half ago — the agreement he defended in his official statement as fair and reasonable. He has granted his son precisely what Judge Noreika found objectionable — open-ended immunity for crimes “he has committed or may have committed or taken part in.”

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“Brown spilled the beans as part of a warfighting exercise to show light between Gerasimov and Putin,” a NATO military veteran comments. “It was underhanded, but typical.”

• Nothing Short Of Ukraine’s Surrender Is Negotiable With The US (Helmer)

The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), General Charles Brown (lead image, right), has just revealed by press leak that he and the chief of the Russian General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, had talked by telephone last week, on November 27, and agreed not to disclose the contents of their call. If that was the point of agreement the two generals reached, Gerasimov has honoured it. Brown has just now decided to break his word. “At the request of General Gerasimov, General Brown agreed to not proactively announce the call,” the New York Times has reported Brown’s spokesman saying “after he was approached by a reporter about the call”. The newspaper omitted to say that Brown had leaked information about the call in advance, in order to prepare reporters to publish the exchange.

As an exchange of positions between the two generals, the Russian assessment is that once again the American side proves that nothing it says in private, agrees to in public, or signs on paper can be trusted. Sources say in Moscow that Gerasimov and the General Staff will dictate the terms for the end of the Ukraine war “proactively”; that is, when the battlefield is ready, and there is nothing left for Brown to fight or leak. Officially, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) have not announced their “read-out” of the telephone conversation of November 27. The last of Brown’s calls was identified by the JCS three days earlier. The Russian Defense Ministry has made no disclosure. Boris Rozhin, who reports through the Colonel Cassad military blog, has not mentioned the telephone exchange. Neither has Yevgeny Krutikov, whose Mudraya Ptitsa blog and essays in Vzglyad report GRU-level intelligence.

The Foreign Ministry briefer was not asked about the call at her press briefing in Moscow on December 4, and she appeared to be unaware of it. The only publication in Russian to report the call was Meduza, an anti-Kremlin website in Latvia. In the New York Times version of Brown’s leak, it is claimed that Gerasimov said “the Oreshnik ballistic missile launch had been planned long before the Biden administration agreed to allow Ukraine to use American ATACMS to strike deeper into Russia.” This is spin, Moscow sources claim, to reinforce the Biden Administration’s line that development of the Oreshnik dates back to the violations of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which the Trump Administration claimed as its justification for withdrawing from the treaty in 2019.

The Moscow sources also believe the General Staff was certain from its intelligence of Ukrainian battlefield preparations that the US had been planning to use ATACMS against Russian territorial targets long before the Biden Administration announced its go-ahead. On November 27, Gerasimov told Brown that because the JSC had ignored the Oreshnik strike on the Yuzhmash plant on November 21 and used ATACMS on November 23 and November 25, there would be fresh Russian retaliation. That followed on the day after the Gerasimov-Brown telephone call. Massed Russian missile and drone strikes across the Ukraine on November 28 also targeted and killed US personnel operating ATACMS launchers in the Sumy region. Since then no new ATACMS launch across the border has been reported by the Defense Ministry in Moscow or by Russian military bloggers.

“Brown spilled the beans as part of a warfighting exercise to show light between Gerasimov and Putin,” a NATO military veteran comments. “It was underhanded, but typical.” A source close to Moscow speculates that Putin and Gerasimov had agreed they would try to sound out Brown, just as they have been sounding out President-elect Donald Trump.

Read more …

PCR is a broken record.

• US Opens a Third Front Against Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)

The problem with President Putin is that he never finishes anything. He has let Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, which should have ended in three weeks go on for three years and talks about ending it with negotiations, in which he will again be deceived. He does nothing while the US tries to overthrow the Georgian government and establish a hostile anti-Russian one. He never finished clearing Syria of hostile forces. Consequently, he left Syria and Russian interests exposed to the current US/Israeli coordinated mercenary attack on Syria, which has overrun Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, forcing 280,000 Syrians to flee. This is a massive defeat for Syria and Russia. How is it possible that such an obvious thrust was a surprise? Has the inability tp perceive threats become a Russian hallmark? Will Putin ever understand the consequences of his inaction, his tolerance of endless provocations, of US hegemonic intentions against Russia, Iran, and China?

What factual basis exists for Putin and Lavrov to think that Washington’s hegemonic intention will fade away? Is Russia’s foreign policy based on hope or on reality? Putin’s terms for ending the conflict in Ukraine are reasonable. But if Trump agrees to them, he will be blamed for America’s defeat, for selling out the Ukrainians to Putin, for whetting Putin’s appetite for more conquests, for helping Putin rebuild the Soviet Empire. The neoconservatives and military/security complex will use the propaganda to direct political campaign contributions to anti-Trump candidates for the House and Senate in the midterm elections. To prevail in this fight, Trump would have to convince voters that victory is defined in terms of achieving peace and the end of the conflict. Can Trump achieve this with a hostile media and the warmongers he has appointed to his cabinet? Are Putin and Lavrov aware of these constraints? Will Putin and Lavrov ever win and end a conflict before it spins out of control?

There is no sign of a proactive Russia in her dealings with the West. Putin’s inaction has convinced the West that he will not act. This belief deprives the West of a reason to stop its provocations. Putin has again validated the West’s belief by cancelling any Western restraint from lowering the threshold of Russia’s use of nuclear weapons by giving assurances that Russia is threatening no one with nuclear weapons. Possibly Ukraine has used up its military-capable population. Possibly the collapse of the French government will prevent NATO troops being sent to Ukraine. Possibly the Georgian government will withstand the Washington-directed color revolution. Possibly this time Russia will destroy the US and mercenary forces threatening Syria and not again leave the conflict unresolved. On the other hand, possibly events will spin out of control in Ukraine, Georgia, and Syria. The West is not demonstrating restraint, and the Russians are not proactive, which leaves the initiative in the hands of the West.

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Erdogan plays his familiar double role. “Reportedly, the Turkish initiative was hurriedly brought forward, to fit with Israel’s ceasefire plan.”

• Erdogan’s Idlib Shock Shadows “Kursk” (Alastair Crooke)

‘Doomsters’ is an occasional Russian expression used to categorise commentators that only see the ‘dark side to events’ (a vice quite prevalent during the Soviet era). Marat Khairullin, a highly respected Russian military analyst, says, “Today, a network of mercenary war bloggers has begun another round of moaning – this time about Syria, where apparently everything is lost for Russia”. “Many see the events in Syria (and some add Georgia to the mix) as attempts to open additional fronts against our country. Perhaps that’s true. But in that case, it’s more appropriate to draw direct parallels with the reckless attack on Kursk, which left the Ukrainian armed forces in an almost hopeless position”. Khairullin views the activation of this jihadist insurgency in Syria as a similarly ‘desperate’ act.

The background is that the Syria-Russia-Iran coalition had – thorough the Astana negotiations – “cornered the remaining Syrian terrorists into a 6,000 sq. km enclave. Without delving into the details, it was a process reminiscent of the [Ukrainian] Minsk Agreements—both sides were utterly exhausted and thus agreed to a ceasefire. Importantly, all sides understood this was only a temporary truce; the contradictions were so profound that no one expected the conflict to end”. Aleppo fell quickly these past days, as “one division of the Syrian National Army outright defected to the Islamists (read: Americans)”. The defection was a set up. Northern Aleppo was occupied by the Syrian National Army, fully controlled, armed and funded by Turkey, which dominates northern Aleppo. The key, Khairullin says, is this crucial point: The land is flat criss-crossed by few roads:

“ … whomsoever controls the airspace controls the country. Last year, Russia formed a new aerial unit called the Special Air Corps, reportedly tailored for overseas operations. It consists of four aviation regiments, including a regiment of Su-35s. Currently, just two Su-35s are overseeing the entirety of Syria’s territory. Imagine the impact when 24 such aircraft are deployed. And Russia is fully capable of such a deployment”. The second crucial point is that “Iran and Russia have drawn closer. At the start of the Syrian war, relations between the two were decidedly ‘neutral-hostile’. By late 2024 however, we now see a very strong alliance. Israel and the U.S., by violating the peace agreements through this Turkish insurrection, have provoked a renewed Iranian presence in Syria: Iran has begun to expand beyond its bases, redeploying additional forces into the country.

This gives Assad and his allies a direct pretext to expel the American and Turkish proxies from Aleppo and Idlib. This isn’t speculation — it’s straightforward arithmetic”. Syria, however, is a key component to the Israeli-American plan to remake the Middle East. Syria is both the supply-line for Hizbullah, as well as a hub of resistance to Israel’s “Greater Israel Project”. Now that the permanent ‘Anglo’ Security State unreservedly is backing Israel’s ambition to assert regional hegemony, the West has okayed Erdogan’s jihadist insurrection against President Assad. The aim is to split Iran from its allies, weaken Assad and to prepare for the putative Iran overthrow. Reportedly, the Turkish initiative was hurriedly brought forward, to fit with Israel’s ceasefire plan.

Khairullin’s point is that this Syria ‘ploy’ is akin to Ukraine’s “reckless attack on Kursk”, which diverted Ukrainian élite forces from the beleaguered Contact Line, and then marooned these forces in an almost hopeless position in Kursk. Instead of weakening Moscow (as intended), ‘Kursk’ inverted NATO’s original objective – by becoming opportunity to eradicate a major portion of Ukraine’s élite forces. In Idlib, the Islamists (HTS), writes Khairullin, “had gained dominance – imposing a strict Wahhabi regime and infiltrating the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army. Both groups are patchwork organizations, with various factions fighting over money, border crossings, drugs, and smuggling. Essentially, it’s a cauldron—not very combat-effective but highly greedy”.

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“The utter failure of that gamble has cost European and American taxpayers a combined $200 billion and could frighteningly escalate into a nuclear conflagration..”

• The Elitist Tyranny Of “Western Democracy” Is Exposed And Crumbling (SCF)

The charade of Western democracy is rapidly unraveling as so-called leaders and their dutiful media show themselves to be brazenly unaccountable to citizens while pursuing elitist, criminal interests. Biden using presidential powers to pardon his drug-addict felonious son – after promising he wouldn’t. Western media claims that the upsurge in conflict in Syria is a “civil war” and not due to NATO-backed terrorist proxies. Western support for genocide in Gaza and a fascist Israeli leader who is mass murdering his way to avoid court prosecution for years of corruption. Western support for a money-laundering NeoNazi regime in Kiev whose proxy war against Russia could spiral into nuclear annihilation. Western sponsoring of anti-government violence in Georgia after pro-EU groups lost an election there. The pro-West South Korean leader declaring police state powers to avoid prosecution for corruption.

That’s just a quick sample of something more ample in the West’s decaying image. The visit to China this week by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was another revealing fiasco. The obsessively anti-Russia Baerbock landed in Beijing not to prioritize improving trade relations with the European Union’s biggest global partner but rather to browbeat China with tedious allegations that it was helping Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. What’s more important? Getting along with China to bolster trade and jobs for millions of Germans and Europeans, or gratuitously grandstand over a wanton proxy war in Ukraine? Understandably, the Chinese authorities were not pleased by Baerbock’s insolence and gave her short shrift. She was snubbed by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi not affording a customary joint press conference after more than three hours of discussions.

In a separate statement, China again rejected claims that it was aiding Russia militarily in Ukraine. So here we have Germany’s top diplomat who is soon out of a job because her coalition government has collapsed and is facing new elections – but she flies to Beijing on taxpayer money to aggravate relations with China, whose annual trade with the EU amounts to over $700 billion. At her solo press conference in Beijing, Baerbock doubled down in her arrogance, accusing China of jeopardizing peace and security in Europe because it supports Russia. She claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was dragging Asia into the war with Ukraine. The double-think is astounding. Germany, the European Union, NATO, and the United States have done everything to drag the whole world into a war because of its reckless proxy machinations in Ukraine against Russia.

The utter failure of that gamble has cost European and American taxpayers a combined $200 billion and could frighteningly escalate into a nuclear conflagration. Baerbock turned reality on its head when she accused Russia of pulling Asia into the war in Ukraine. It is the United States, NATO, and European Atlanticist leaders who are expanding the proxy war to other regions, including the Middle East and Asia. Western so-called democracies and NATO are supporting the upsurge in violence in Syria by terrorist militias under the banner of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an internationally proscribed terror organization affiliated with Al Qaeda. Ukrainian military personnel and Turkey (which means NATO personnel) are reliably reported to be assisting the militants in Syria with drone technology.

Read more …

“Current US President Joe Biden wants to increase the scale of the conflict, Orban claimed, while President-elect Donald Trump is “pro-peace.”

• Orban Blames Biden For Ukraine Conflict (RT)

US interference triggered the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. His comments come after Moscow accused Washington of lacking “common sense and restraint” in its approach to the conflict. In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Friday, Orban said the United States had played a decisive role in the conflict. ”America is one of the main players in this war. Without America, this war would never have happened. Ukraine would not have been able to resist without America’s support,” the prime minister said, as quoted by the Magyar Nemzet newspaper. According to official figures, as of September 30, Washington had allocated a total of nearly $183 billion in aid for Ukraine, with $130.1 billion committed and $86.7 billion disbursed.

Current US President Joe Biden wants to increase the scale of the conflict, Orban claimed, while President-elect Donald Trump is “pro-peace.” Earlier this week, the US State Department announced $725 million in assistance for Kiev, including air-defense capabilities, munitions for rocket systems and artillery, and anti-tank weapons. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently called on Kiev to lower the conscription age from the current level of 25 years, which Orban described as “terrible, because even more Ukrainians would die.” It’s time for American policies to change because they have become “unsustainable,” Orban argued. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday that Hungary was “pressing hard so that Donald Trump’s goal of ending this war quickly becomes a reality,” and warned that failure to achieve peace in Ukraine would increase the risk of escalation on a daily basis.

Trump, who is set to take over from Biden in six weeks, repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to end conflict within 24 hours of his inauguration on January 20. The proposals reportedly floated by Trump’s advisers include forcing Moscow and Kiev into negotiations by using military aid as leverage. Moscow has said it has yet to receive a detailed plan from Trump or his team regarding a potential resolution of the conflict. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that Russia would not agree to any concessions that compromise its national security. The diplomat also claimed that there was a lack of common sense and “restraint in the West, in particular the US, where people seemingly underestimate” Russia’s resolve to defend its core national security interests.

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“Hungary will veto the European Union’s next seven-year budget draft unless it receives all blocked funds..”

• Hungary Vows to Block EU Budget Draft Unless Frozen Funds Released (Sp.)

The European Union withheld some 7.5 billion euros worth of payments to Hungary from the shared budget in September 2022 over alleged rule-of-law shortcomings, but Budapest’s blocking of EU funding for Ukraine’s war effort prompted Brussels to release some of the funds to Hungary in December. Hungary will veto the European Union’s next seven-year budget draft unless it receives all blocked funds from the bloc’s budget, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. “These 12.5 billion euros [held in Hungary’s accounts in Brussels] fulfill the requirements of the Hungarian economy until the end of 2026. We are entitled to more money besides these, this will be a problem after 2026.

‘In my opinion, we will certainly get them too. Because negotiations have started on a seven-year budget after 2027. It requires unanimity to pass. And I can say for sure that the money that we did not get in 2025-2026, we will have to get in 2027-2028, otherwise there will be no budget, we will not approve it,” Orban told Hungary’s media. The European Commission said in mid-December 2023, that it was ready to unfreeze 10.2 billion euros, roughly a third of Hungary’s total withheld funds, as it had received the latest clarification from Budapest about its claims about the rule of law in the country.

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“These leaders are mistaken and make us targets of the ricochets of their unconsciousness..”

• Dementia As A Military Strategy (José Goulão)

The approval by the Washington Administration and immediate execution by the Nazi regime in Kiev of the launch of U.S.-produced tactical missiles known as ATACAM against Russian territory is a sign of the desperation that NATO and the Western world are going through in the face of the perceived military defeat, once again, now on Ukrainian territory. The most tragic and dangerous element of this decision by the real head of NATO to directly involve the alliance in the war against Russia is the fact that it was taken by a defeated and transitional U.S. president, senile and admittedly demented – always a sociopath – considered incapable of running for re-election but not of creating an imminent situation of nuclear war.

This is how the West works today: despair in the face of military defeat in a proxy war in which NATO – mainly the European Union – have invested almost everything, especially in budgetary resources and weapons, in addition to the squandering of essential means for their economies, leads to irresponsibility; And this, in turn, leads to decisions calling into question the survival of the eight billion people, as many as there are on the planet, to be taken (or at least announced) by a single sick individual, with cognitive capacities visibly and admittedly reduced to the tiniest species – but still enough for the warmongering and murderous impulses that marked his long life in the dominant imperial structures to come to the fore.

The decision to openly and effectively attack Russia using an individual without presidential legitimacy, but willing to kill his people in a losing war, was pronounced by an unconscious manipulated through the real system of power, the industrial, military and technological complex, currently in the hands of the criminal sect of neoconservatives who do not look at any means. even extermination, genocide and, ultimately, nuclear killing, to achieve their goals of controlling the planet globally. Many will think they are just crazy people raving about dominating the transnational levers of power, but they take themselves seriously. And we must take them seriously. It is almost certain that Joseph Biden did not read, or was unable to read, the new nuclear doctrine of the Russian Federation, fine-tuned after NATO, following the Western coup on Maidan Square, sponsored the war conducted by the then new Nazi-Banderist regime against Russian communities in the East of the country – now Russia’s de facto territory.

Anyone who hears or reads the opinions and statements of important Western leaders realizes that, as part of their irresponsibility and their autism, they do not give importance and do not take seriously the content of this doctrine. They interpret it as a propaganda document, intended to be a deterrent, but which does not correspond to the serious intentions of the Kremlin, sunk in a kind of congenital and deterministic weakness. That is, the West is desperately betting on a war whose ultimate objective is the destruction of the Russian Federation and its territorial transformation into a series of harmless and subservient states that allow the plundering of its goods and wealth, as happened at the end of the Soviet Union under the stylized consulate of Boris Yeltsin.

Western leaders even mock the content of this nuclear doctrine by assuring that Putin will never be able to apply it, which will be another of his manifestations of “weakness”. The worst thing is that if they pay to see it, we will all bear the price of this suicidal bet. These leaders are mistaken and make us targets of the ricochets of their unconsciousness, as has already happened with the effects of the economic sanctions on Russia.

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They’re blaming TikTok for the non-compliant candidate’s win..

• Romanian Court Annuls Presidential Vote, Declares Election Do-Over (ZH)

Something unprecedented just happened in the NATO and EU member country of Romania – a top court on Friday annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election. Essentially there will now be a ‘do over’ election. The Constitutional Court made the decision even as voting is still underway in the diaspora. “The electoral process for the election of the President of Romania will be resumed in its entirety, with the Government required to set a new date for the election of the President of Romania as well as a new calendar program for carrying out the necessary actions,” the court said in a statement. The court decided “to annul the entire electoral process for the election of the President of Romania… to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process” – in a controversial ruling which has simply never happened.

Calin Georgescu, the widely dubbed ‘far-right’ contender, came out on top in a first round of voting in a ‘shock’ outcome which left political opponents claiming Russian election interference. Apparently the ‘smoking gun’ is related to mere social media posts on platforms like TikTok. “The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision — which is final — came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia ran a sprawling campaign comprising thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram,” The Associated Press details. Georgescu emerged top of the ballot after the Nov.24 first round vote, despite declaring no campaign spending, and was set to enter a run-off originally scheduled for Sunday against reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party.

Contributing to the dossier examined by the court on the alleged Russian election interference included the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, AP has noted further. Georgescu’s nationalist rhetoric has proven ultra popular as social media videos featuring him have racked up millions of views. But at least much of this would likely be genuine and organic, given that the vast majority of the population leans ultra-conservative. Also Romania has one of the highest church attendance rates in Europe, with the dominant religion being the very traditional Romanian Orthodox Church, which is also in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia on Friday vehemently denied that it is interfering in Romania’s election. This as Western media is already labelling Georgescu as “pro-Russian”. Similar controversy has lately engulfed politics in Georgia as well, where pro-EU street protests have continued.

“The campaign for the Romanian presidential election… is accompanied by an unprecedented outburst of anti-Russian hysteria,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the press in response to the reports. “More and more absurd accusations are being made by local politicians, officials and media representatives…,” she said. “We firmly reject all hostile attacks, which we consider absolutely groundless.” The European Commission at the same time says it’s closely monitoring the TikTok platform related to Romania’s election. NATO and Washington are also watching closely, given a Georgescu victory could have huge implications for the future of Western military bases and units inside Romania, on NATO’s so-called Eastern flank:” Romania is a serious military power, which is why the risk that NATO-skeptic, pro-Russia candidate Calin Georgescu will become its president next Sunday is confounding the alliance.

The country of 19 million has been a NATO member for two decades, and is the site of an airbase that is expanding to be the bloc’s biggest in Europe. It borders Ukraine; stares across the Black Sea at Russia-occupied Crimea; has sent arms and ammunition to Kyiv; and hosts a U.S. Aegis Ashore missile defense system in Deveselu, in southern Romania, where both Romanian and U.S. forces are based. But those international ties are deplored by Georgescu, who has condemned the Deveselu missiles as a national shame, campaigned for ending Romanian aid to Ukraine, and called for Russian wisdom in shaping foreign policy.” His rhetoric is similar to Hungary’s Viktor Orban or Italy’s Meloni…

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“British equities are currently trading at a record discount of over 40% compared to peers globally..”

• London Declining As Financial Center – Bloomberg (RT)

The number of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is decreasing at the quickest pace in more than ten years as a result of mergers and acquisitions by larger competitors and investment firms, Bloomberg has reported, citing data compiled by the outlet. In 2024, some 45 firms reportedly delisted from the London stock market, representing an increase of 10% compared to the whole of last year. It’s the highest number of companies to leave the exchange since 2010. At the same time, the volume of deals targeting UK corporations have soared 81% this year to more than $160 billion. Data tracked by the news agency also shows that only 11 companies have completed IPOs in London during the current year to raise a total of $1 billion, down 11% from the amount raised during the same period in 2023.

“Unless the UK gets its act together, it’s going to continue to lose ground and relevance,” Liad Meidar, managing partner at investment firm Gatemore Capital Management, told Bloomberg. “Quite simply, companies can’t get the right cost of capital. They can’t get the valuation they want.” Overseas private equity firms have been particularly active when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, the news agency noted. In November, Florida-based Starwood Capital Group completed the $852 million takeover of London-listed Balanced Commercial Property Trust last month. Sweden’s EQT recently closed the $2.7 billion acquisition of videogame services company Keywords Studios, while Chicago-based Thoma Bravo purchased cybersecurity software provider Darktrace for $5.3 billion. The media outlet noted that more new deals were expected to come in the near future.

Chief executive officer of UK-based insurance giant Aviva, Amanda Blanc, is reportedly trying to convince the board of the rival Direct Line Insurance Group to engage after making a $4.2 billion takeover bid. At the same time, US investment major General Atlantic has announced plans to acquire online training business Learning Technologies Group for $1 billion. The UK stock market remains popular with bargain hunters, Bloomberg said, noting that British equities are currently trading at a record discount of over 40% compared to peers globally. “If London wants to keep its place as the financial center of Europe, major reforms are needed,” said Joachim Klement, a strategist at British advisory firm Panmure Liberum, as quoted by the agency. “It is time for UK investment banks, the London Stock Exchange, and regulators to realize the seriousness of the situation and take action. Unfortunately, there are no easy fixes.”

Read more …

 

 

 

Covid

 

 

RFK

 

 

Winter dog
https://twitter.com/i/status/1864847225018523989

 

 

Save horse

 

 

Cloud seeding

 

 

Ship engine

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle November 9 2024

Nov 092024
 
 November 9, 2024  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  69 Responses »


Claude Monet Camille Sitting on the Beach at Trouville 1870-71

 

• Trump’s ‘New Conservatism’ Can Bring A Revival of The True American Spirit (RT)
• The System Worked (Jeffrey Tucker)
• Trump Prosecutors Stuck on Listless Ships Without a Port of Call (Turley)
• DOJ Says Policy Is to Not Prosecute Presidents (ET)
• Aborted- Be Careful What You Wish For (James Howard Kunstler)
• The World According to Trump – with Col. Wilkerson (Chris Hedges)
• Musk Joined Trump-Zelensky Call – Axios (RT)
• Putin Left Door Open to West (Sp.)
• Zelensky Wants All Of Russia’s Frozen Money (RT)
• Nearly Fifth of Ukraine’s Soldiers AWOL Amid Collapse in Morale (Sp.)
• US Will Abandon Ukraine – Orban (RT)
• EU ‘Lacks Brains’ – Putin (RT)
• Russian And Ukrainian Officials Meet In Belarus (RT)
• The Colonization of Europe By The United States (Vasco)
• Dr. Peter McCullough Calls On Trump To Remove The Covid-19 Vaccine (JTN)
• Dutch Health Minister Admits Covid is a Military Operation” (PCR)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1854717077837562314

Flynn warns of third assassination attempt
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854914038733385854

Second most
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854660583477702829

Tucker Vivek

Vivek

Idiots
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854902036698935645

Fed

Homan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854850081893007519

 

 

 

 

Trump, the Economy & World War III: Col. Douglas Macgregor’s Shocking Predictions

 

 

Galloway: The greatest comeback since the Rumble in the Jungle

 

 

 

 

 

 

Constantin von Hoffmeister.

“The “new conservatism” inaugurated by Trump is guided by precepts that once defined the American way of life..”

• Trump’s ‘New Conservatism’ Can Bring A Revival of The True American Spirit (RT)

Donald Trump has accomplished the improbable once more – mastering every obstacle and surviving two assassination attempts – to reclaim the throne as president of the United States. In a nation whose corrupt establishment sought to sideline him, he returns not as a defeated man but as one propelled by a profound connection with the American spirit, a connection that no attack could diminish in the slightest. Trump’s return embodies resilience and an enduring rapport with the people, marking the most remarkable comeback in American history. He has taken political center stage again to revive America’s core values and lead his supporters towards a renewal of genuine American principles. Trump’s return has reignited the aura of the time up through the 1980s when America’s moral and cultural values were clear, stable, and honored by the everyday citizen.

The nuclear family, veneration of one’s heritage, gun rights, and unfiltered patriotism – the values cherished in the past are now considered “reactionary.” However, with Trump’s victory, these values might regain their prominent place, repelling the leftist currents that have tried to undermine them for decades. This signals a dramatic shift in America’s ideological trajectory. Trump’s election acts as a direct response to decades of leftist domination in media, academia, and politics. The “new conservatism” inaugurated by Trump is guided by precepts that once defined the American way of life, including the acceptance of traditional gender roles, religion’s high status in public life, and a perception of freedom based on constructive individualism, not coercive rhetoric. Trump’s base, often labeled “backward,” sees itself as repossessing the dignity of the average, and thus quintessential, American.

It understands that what was once normal is now framed as “right-wing extremist” or “radical” simply because the ground beneath America’s cultural landscape has shifted so far left. The anti-liberal movement that Trump embodies has roots in George Wallace Jr.’s presidential campaign in 1968 and Pat Buchanan’s populist challenge to the Republican establishment in the 1990s. Trump continues these legacies, proving that his message is heard by those who feel alienated by the sterile and homogenized culture foisted upon them. His leadership represents a recapture of cultural space that many Americans feel has been taken from them. With Trump’s win, America is going to regain its sanity – its center.

In the aftermath of Trump’s triumph, our expectation is shifting forward, where J. D. Vance is positioned as a fitting successor. In his autobiographical account Hillbilly Elegy, Vance describes with unflinching clarity the plight of the white working class, revealing the same wounds of disintegration and despair that stirred Trump’s ascent. His book lays bare the erosion of blue-collar America – the scourge of addiction, the decay of family bonds, and the economic desolation haunting rural communities. These communities, spurned and mocked by the urban mainstream and coastal cosmopolitans, have become Trump’s most loyal supporters. Vance, with his intellectual acuity and profound understanding of this demographic, stands ready to carry the torch of Trump’s populist message, built on a more conceptual foundation.

One of Trump’s most significant pronouncements in his 2016 campaign – “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo” – was far more than simple rhetoric; it was a fierce call to renounce the burdens of global stewardship. With “America First,” Trump tapped into the psyche of a people weary of perpetual wars and foreign obligations that sapped the nation’s strength and spirit. The 2017 National Security Strategy echoed this reorientation, asserting that “the American way of life cannot be imposed upon others, nor is it the inevitable culmination of progress.” Here, Trump’s message resonated with unmistakable clarity: the duty of the American government lies foremost with its own citizens, firmly tied to the preservation of its own destiny.

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“It was the least expected conclusion to the most contentious election of our lives or perhaps in a century or more..”

• The System Worked (Jeffrey Tucker)

These have been a dark few years in which many suppositions about the U.S. system of government have come into question. You can see it in the polls showing the loss of trust. It has pertained to everything from medicine to media to tech to academia and of course government. In addition, the sources we once associated with expertise have pushed agendas that have contradicted all experience and hence have been rejected by vast numbers. The United States is hardly alone in this. Most countries of the world today are dealing with a wrenching upheaval in politics and social order generally. Stability has turned to instability, certainty to uncertainty, and clarity to the fog of war. The resulting thicket seemed to offer no way out. As an inevitable part of this, many people have questioned whether the democratic system of choosing leaders works properly anymore.

Protests following election returns are common worldwide, not necessarily because people have stopped believing in the ideal but because they doubt that the count is accurate and the ballots are legitimate. Technology has not helped this problem but rather introduced more doubt. This problem has massively afflicted the United States in recent years. There have been doubts at every point, not helped by a well-documented loosening of voting rules during the pandemic response (the CDC encouraged mail-in voting) and then after during a refugee wave that has disrupted many communities around the country. This is a serious problem: when people have doubts about such a core functioning of the system, there is a feeling of being caged in a machine only the elites control. This is a major reason for the shock concerning election results. It’s not just that the Republicans swept the presidency and one if not both houses of Congress but also the popular vote, which no one really believed possible.

The betting markets gave such an outcome very low odds. Many people this year trudged the polls with grave doubts about the relevance of what they were doing. Is the system so broken that the will of the people no longer matters as compared with the power of the elites? This was a real shock, from people from all sides. It was that the people’s voice rose above all the money, manipulation, claims of fraud, uncertainties over voter ID, technology, and so much more. For years now, people have habitually found fault with nearly everything. The prediction was that the conclusion of the vote in the presidency would take days, weeks, or even months. Such a prospect is enormously depressing for a nation that imagines itself to be a great one. But sure enough, the results came in on a perfect schedule, as the polls closed, culminating in a result for a candidate that had for years now faced down attacks from every angle. It was the least expected conclusion to the most contentious election of our lives or perhaps in a century or more.

It was a clean victory for Donald J. Trump, including the popular vote. Not only that: it was a credible result. That’s the key. The result accomplished much. It wiped out several years of partisan agitation against the system of the Electoral College as established in the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of this institution is to grant a more even representation of the states as entities over the popular will. This traces to the federalist system established by the Founders, not a unity government from the center but a federation of states that have come together for their common betterment. Wiping that structure out would have been transformative. But with a victory of the popular vote, that is no longer an issue. It would not have changed the result. This feature, truly blessed, of the outcome also quelled much-predicted street violence. Even the concession speech by Kamala Harris was conciliatory, and contained not even one hint of funny business or rigging. It was a clear and challenged expression of popular will to which everyone on all sides had to accede.

Read more …

“Trump will not be the only defendant to see substantial changes on January 20, 2025. Trump has pledged to pardon those prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.”

• Trump Prosecutors Stuck on Listless Ships Without a Port of Call (Turley)

Nearly two years ago, I wrote that Democratic prosecutors’ lawfare campaign against Donald Trump would make the 2024 election the single largest jury decision in history. Now that the verdict is in, the question is whether prosecutors will continue their unrelenting campaign against the president-elect and his companies. The answer is that it may not matter. The election reflected a certain gag sensation for a public fed a relentless diet of panic and identity politics for eight years. The 2024 election will come to be viewed as one of the biggest political and cultural shifts in our history. It was the mainstream-media-versus-new media election; the Rogan-versus-Oprah election; the establishment-versus-a-disassociated-electorate election. It was also a thorough rejection of lawfare. One of the things most frustrating for Trump’s opponents was that every trial or hearing seemed to give Trump a boost in the polls. As cases piled up in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia, the effort seemed to move more toward political acclamation than isolation.

These cases are now legal versions of the Flying Dutchman — ships destined to sail endlessly but never make port. If there is a single captain of that hapless crew, it is Special Counsel Jack Smith. For more than a year, Smith sought to secure a verdict in one of his two cases in Washington and Florida before the election. His urgency was seemingly shared by Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, but by few other judges or justices. Around 2 am, Smith became a lame-duck prosecutor. Trump ran on ending his prosecutions and can cite a political mandate for it. Certainly, had he lost, the other side would be claiming a mandate for these prosecutions. Trump’s new attorney general could remove Smith and order the termination of his continued prosecution. That is less of a problem in Florida, where a federal judge had already tossed out the prosecution of the classified documents case, which some of us saw as the greatest threat against Trump.

In Washington, Chutkan, who proved both motivated and active in pushing forward the election interference case, could complicate matters. Under federal rules, it is up to Chutkan to order any dismissal. In the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Judge Emmet Sullivan resisted granting the dismissal sought by the Justice Department — a record that I criticized as both unusual and unwarranted. Chutkan could run the incoming Trump administration around on any dismissal, but in the end, it should succeed in ending Smith’s ill-considered indictment. In reality, Smith was not only losing the Florida case but was likely to be reversed again in Washington due to his refusal to make sufficient changes in his indictment of Trump after the recent immunity decision by the Supreme Court. Smith could make one last push to damage Trump in the period before the inauguration by pushing for an immunity decision from Chutkan. He would again likely find a supportive ally in Chutkan.

However, in the end, this would do little to change the fact that the Flying Dutchman will soon be without a crew or port of call. One of the most immediate cases to resume is the prosecution in Manhattan by District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Many, including commentators like CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig, have denounced that case as legally flawed and obviously politically motivated. Judge Juan Merchan is scheduled to rule on the immunity issue by Nov. 11 and to hold a possible sentencing on Nov. 26. Merchan has shown a pronounced bias against Trump in the past, and his counsel is likely anticipating a continuation of this pattern. Merchan could sentence Trump to jail. However, such an abusive sentencing, even a brief one, would likely trigger an expedited appeal and would likely be stayed. Trump cannot pardon himself in a state case, but the case itself is a target-rich environment of arguable legal errors that could collapse on appeal.

Another case in New York is likely to move forward now. There is a pending appeal on the massive civil case against Trump brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. For many, James is the very face of lawfare as a prosecutor who ran on getting Trump on something, anything. She ultimately secured another openly biased judge in Justice Arthur Engoron, who imposed an absurd, grotesque $455 million in fines and interest against Trump and his corporation. Notably, some of the judges on the appellate panel seemed to agree with that assessment, questioning not just the amount but the very use of this law in a case where there was no victim and no one lost a single dollar due to the fraud alleged. My assumption is that the opinion is already written, held back only because of the election. It could now be issued and constitute a major change in the case. Whatever is left of that judgment, if anything, would then certainly be appealed.

Then there is the roaring dumpster fire in Georgia. An appellate court there will decide whether District Attorney Fani Willis and her office can continue prosecuting the case. If they are forced off the case, a new prosecutor must review the matter. While some criminal allegations against defendants can be established, the alleged racketeering conspiracy against Trump is legally flawed and likely to fail on appeal. Trump will also continue to appeal civil cases such as the E. Jean Carroll case, which will linger long past the election. Trump will not be the only defendant to see substantial changes on January 20, 2025. Trump has pledged to pardon those prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The public elected him despite that pledge and over the opposition of Democrats. That will affect hundreds and may come in the form of a mix of pardons and commutations, depending on the underlying charges.

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The GOP has demanded that Jack Smith preserve all his records.

• DOJ Says Policy Is to Not Prosecute Presidents (ET)

Special counsel Jack Smith’s office said the Department of Justice (DOJ) has a longstanding policy not to prosecute a sitting president, in response to a query about whether it will drop its criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump, who won the 2024 election. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, declined to comment on whether the office will drop its cases but directed The Epoch Times to a 2000 memo from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel. It states that “indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.” Multiple Republicans called on the DOJ and local district attorneys to end their prosecutions of Trump after he won the presidential election on Nov. 5.

“The American people have spoken: the lawfare must end,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote in a post on social media platform X. “I call on Attorney General Garland, [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg, and [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis to immediately terminate the politically motivated prosecutions of President Donald Trump.” On Nov. 6, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote on X that special counsel Jack Smith should “look forward to a new chapter” in his legal career. “The Supreme Court substantially rejected what you were trying to do, and after tonight, it’s clear the American people are tired of lawfare. Bring these cases to an end,” Graham wrote.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1854615830358614487

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served under Trump, told Fox News that prosecutors should “do the right” thing and end their cases against the president-elect. “Further maneuvering on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,” Barr said. “The public interest now demands that the country unite and focus on the challenges we face at home and abroad. Attorney General Garland and all the state prosecutors should do the right thing and help the country move forward by dismissing the cases.” He said that the U.S. electorate has “rendered their verdict on President Trump and decisively chosen him to lead the country for the next four years.” “They did that with full knowledge of the claims against him by prosecutors around the country, and I think Attorney General Garland and the state prosecutors should respect the people’s decision and dismiss the cases against President Trump now,” Barr said.

Trump is slated to appear before a New York judge later this month to face sentencing after he was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to payments he made during the 2016 election. He was convicted by a jury in May. He had pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations. However, with the election result, it’s not clear whether Trump will receive any sentencing after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents should have some degree of immunity from prosecution for official acts. It’s unclear what Judge Juan Merchan will do following the election. Merchan has already pushed back the sentencing date twice. Trump faces charges in Fulton County, Georgia, for allegedly trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election results, although that case is currently in limbo after the president-elect and several co-defendants appealed a judge’s ruling to allow Willis to remain on the case. The Georgia Appeals Court is currently scheduled to take up a Trump appeal next year, and the case is currently on pause.

Willis, a Democrat, was elected to another term in office as Fulton County’s top prosecutor on Nov. 5, according to projections from The Associated Press. In two federal cases brought against him, Trump faces criminal charges in Washington, brought by Smith, over his alleged activity following the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach. A separate case that was brought by Smith in Florida over his handling of classified documents was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year, although Smith had appealed it. When Trump officially takes office, he could use his presidential authority to dismiss the two cases brought by Smith, who was appointed by Garland. However, he has less latitude in dealing with the cases brought in New York City and Fulton County. In public events and on social media, Trump often has said that the various criminal cases brought against him were attempts to interfere in the 2024 election.

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“The Democratic Party and the Deep State blob really did try to steal that from you. As they stole the 2020 election — which is probably one of the things to be revealed in the process.”

• Aborted- Be Careful What You Wish For (James Howard Kunstler)

At last, it appears that the Party of Chaos got its fondest wish: it aborted itself in the 2024 election. “Joe Biden” was the coat-hanger it used: this miserable, grifting, now-senile hack politician who will be remembered only for driving his country to the verge of ruin. And for what? All in an effort to cover-up a long train of crimes and abuses against the American people perpetrated by a permanent bureaucracy gone rogue that was the party’s partner-in-crime. And now it’s over. The childishness of the Left — AOC whining about “fascism” — is under-appreciated. Note how the party’s most august mouthpiece, The New York Times, pretends to soul-search in the aftermath of the election debacle. “Many Democrats were considering how to navigate a dark future, with the party unable to stop Mr. Trump from carrying out a right-wing transformation of American government. Others turned inward, searching for why the nation rejected them. They spoke about misinformation and the struggle to communicate the party’s vision in a diminished news environment inundated with right-wing propaganda” — The New York Times

The New York Times diminished itself. It drove itself crazy with narratives — just as a crazy person with disordered thoughts can’t discern what’s real and what’s not. What they need is a serious mental health check. The time for incessant lying, hoaxing, and performative hysteria is over. On Thursday, in a three-minute speech, the President-elect set out a clear list of measures to reconstruct a national consensus based on reality. It includes firing a lot of people in the agencies, dis-embedding all the inspector-generals from the departments they oversee, establishing a “truth and reconciliation commission” to declassify and publish documents “related to alleged deep state activities, including spying, censorship, and corruption,” and finding out who exactly at the CIA / FBI / DHS / and other places has been leaking fables and falsehoods to the news media. In other words, clear away a shit-ton of untruth that burdens the consciousness of country.

Though the statement omitted to say so directly, it’s very likely that a number of public officials will find themselves before grand juries in the years ahead. If you haven’t figured it out already, you’ll learn that the term “misinformation” was just the gas in the gaslight used to confound the country about what has really been at stake — which is your personal liberty in what is supposed to be a free country. The Democratic Party and the Deep State blob really did try to steal that from you. As they stole the 2020 election — which is probably one of the things to be revealed in the process.

Look at this bar graph. Note how many millions more votes were cast in the 2020 elections than in the two previous and now in the 2024 contest. How did that happen? Where did that surplus supply come from? The Covid-19 scam provided the cover for a profligate mail-in ballot operation. They deluged the country with paper. Mark Zuckerberg provided $450-million through his cut-out charities to hire thousands of party activists to harvest and fill-out fraudulent ballots, and stuff them in drop-boxes by the hundredweight, with special attention to the crucial precincts in swing states — and that’s what landed the basement-cringing candidate, “Joe Biden,” in the White House.

It was that simple, and that much in-your-face, and for four years the official organs of the news swatted the truth away claiming they were “false, baseless, conspiracy theories” — and half the country was credulous enough to believe that. Or mentally ill, not able to tell fantasy from reality, especially in the newsrooms. Even more shamefully, this half of the country was led by the better-educated, credentialed, managerial class of citizens, who, amazingly, managed to turn intelligence into a new kind of personal liability. (The simplest explanation for that astounding failure is that people who consider themselves “experts” eagerly believe other experts and credentialed authorities, making them easiest to dupe. That’s why the faculty lounges are full of Jacobins.)

The winning side in this contest didn’t vote against Kamala Harris so much as they voted against the Democratic Party, the Party of Chaos, of BLM riots, of drag queens in the school library, of men in the women’s swim lane (and locker room), of forced vaccinations (your bodily autonomy, sister?), of locking up grandmothers who walked through the Capitol rotunda, of state-driven censorship, of malicious political prosecutions, of ruinous proxy war, of flooding the country with criminal alien mutts, of Mao Zedong style erasing of history, of FISA court surveillance, and, finally, of the same sort of self-loathing for the nation that a three hundred pound sophomore with a nose ring and sleeve tattoos feels for herself.

Kunstler

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Wilkerson: “..it’s genuine. I don’t think he likes war. I don’t think he likes starting wars.”

Hedges is a lifelong leftie not flexible enough to comprehemd what just happened.

• The World According to Trump – with Col. Wilkerson (Chris Hedges)

Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States and given the host of global debacles the US has its hands in—ranging from the genocide in Gaza, to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Iran to the Ukraine war—nobody is quite certain what direction the country will take with the former president at the helm again. Joining host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report is Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. With his extensive insights and expertise into the Middle East and American foreign policy, Wilkerson provides a valuable understanding into what a Trump presidency may look like outside of the borders of America.

Wilkerson predicts Trump will stay true to “his disdain for war,” emphasizing “it’s genuine. I don’t think he likes war. I don’t think he likes starting wars.” Regarding Ukraine, Wilkerson thinks Trump will shut down the war effort. But when it comes to the Middle East, that commitment clashes with one of Trump’s long standing loyalties: unwavering support for Israel. War with Iran seems increasingly likely by the day despite, according to Wilkerson, resistance from the Pentagon and prior administrations. In the case of Trump, however, “you wonder how long that resistance can hold up if the president of the United States is intent on—and this is the one place where Trump really worries me—doing everything in his power for Israel,” Wilkerson notes. He adds, “Trump has made it quite clear that that’s his policy, that’s his belief, and I think he’s being honest about it.”

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Wonder whose idea that was.

Musk has allegedly predicted the conflict will be over soon.

• Musk Joined Trump-Zelensky Call – Axios (RT)

Elon Musk joined US President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky the day after Trump prevailed in the US election, Axios claimed on Friday. According to sources familiar with the conversation, Trump reassured Zelensky of US support, though he avoided specific commitments on aid. At the same time, Musk added that he would keep supporting Ukraine with Starlink satellites, which have been a critical link for Ukraine’s communication and defense. Both men have previously been critical of financial and military support for Ukraine, saying that Kiev cannot win the conflict. The outlet described the move as a surprise that added a layer of intrigue to the call between the president-elect and the embattled leader in Kiev.

Musk’s involvement underscores his influence with Trump and his complex stance on the war, Axios added. Earlier this year, Musk allegedly told Republican US senators during an X Spaces conversation that Ukraine could not realistically win against Russia. “There is no way in hell [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to lose,” he reportedly said to Senators Ron Johnson and Mike Lee, among others. “This spending does not help Ukraine; prolonging the war does not help Ukraine. Having these boys die for nothing is wrong and needs to stop.” Musk has also urged citizens to contact their representatives and oppose continued aid, comments that generated backlash for his perceived cynicism toward Ukraine’s cause. The Biden administration is aiming to accelerate military assistance to Ukraine before the January 20 transfer of power, amid concerns Trump might cut support.

However, Trump’s call with Zelensky apparently sent a different message, with the Ukrainian leader later describing the conversation as “positive” and saying Trump’s outreach so soon after his victory was encouraging. Yet Zelensky remains cautious. Speaking at a press event in Budapest on Thursday, he stressed that while he appreciated the prompt call, he “cannot yet know” what Trump’s actions will ultimately be. Zelensky added, “If it’s just fast, it means losses for Ukraine. I just don’t yet understand how this could be in any other way.” During the campaign, Trump frequently pledged to end the conflict quickly but avoided detailing how.

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“..performed brilliantly in terms of being on top of his brief, having all these facts and figures at his fingertip, being very articulate, being very clear, answering questions directly.”

“I can’t think of any other political leader in the world who could perform in that kind of way..”

• Putin Left Door Open to West (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the plenary session of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club on Thursday. While criticizing Western leaders for failing to serve the interests of their people, Vladimir Putin also sent a positive signal for the future, Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at University College Cork, Ireland, told Sputnik. “Very clearly, he [Putin] is signaling continued resistance to Western hegemony, Western dominance. He also makes his point, time and again, that European political leaders aren’t serving their country’s best interests […] by the policy that they’re pursuing in terms of global politics,” he noted.

However, at the same time, the Russian president “made it clear that Russia is not going to run after the West to restore relations, but the door is open if that’s the choice that the West wants to make,” the leading British scholar on Soviet diplomatic and military history underscored. It’s not clear whether US President-elect Donald Trump will pursue friendly relations with Russia, but the chances are much higher now, Roberts speculated. “[Vladimir Putin] said that if Trump wants to improve relations, he is open to it,” Roberts said after attending Putin’s speech and a Q&A session at the Valdai Club. “It would be a while before we know what’s going to happen. I think a big factor will be who he [Trump] appoints to key positions in foreign policy and national security… I also think Trump will be very reluctant to increase the American commitment to NATO in any way and to see further expansion of NATO […] in Europe or elsewhere.

But as I say, that’s a matter for speculation,” the emeritus professor noted. According to the academic, Putin was “very relaxed, very confident” throughout his appearance at the event, and “performed brilliantly in terms of being on top of his brief, having all these facts and figures at his fingertip, being very articulate, being very clear, answering questions directly.” “He’s responding on the spot to comments, statements, questions that the people at the meeting, the members of the Valdai Club, are making. I can’t think of any other political leader in the world who could perform in that kind of way,” Roberts remarked.

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Biden is crazy enough to give it to him before Jan. 20.

• Zelensky Wants All Of Russia’s Frozen Money (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has demanded that the $300 billion of Russian sovereign assets currently immobilized by sanctions in Western financial institutions be given to Kiev. He raised the issue of Western aid, particularly the possibility that US President-elect Donald Trump could cut aid for Kiev, at a press conference following the European Political Community summit in Budapest on Thursday. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the US and its allies froze an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank. The bulk of the funds, around €197 billion ($213 billion), are being held at Euroclear. The Brussels-based clearinghouse has estimated that the impounded Russian assets generated €5.15 billion ($5.55 billion) in interest in the first three quarters of this fiscal year.

“Everyone says: What will you do if Trump does not support you financially? Where will you get weapons? Let me answer you. Can we take the $300 billion that rightfully belongs to us?” Zelensky said. This would allow Ukraine to buy armaments for itself, he claimed. “Is it possible for us to decide for ourselves what kind of weapons we need? Can we decide for ourselves what to do with this money?” he added. The US and its European allies have so far allocated more than $218 billion in aid to Kiev since the escalation of the conflict, according to stats from Germany’s Kiel Institute. However, in recent months, the payments have been getting smaller and the larger aid allocations have instead been loans.

In October, G7 states finalized a massive $50 billion loan for Ukraine to be backed by profits accrued on the frozen Russian assets currently immobilized in the West. Despite US pressure to confiscate the assets in their entirety, the IMF has so far opposed this course of action, raising concerns that it could undermine trust in the Western financial system. Moscow has denounced the asset freeze as “theft,” and repeatedly warned that tapping its funds would be illegal and set a dangerous precedent. Western donors have become increasingly concerned about the money allocated to Kiev, as corruption has been one of Ukraine’s biggest problems for years. In June, the European Commission also set up a special watchdog to prevent possible embezzlement. Earlier this year, the Pentagon’s inspector general described corruption in Ukraine as “endemic,” and its government as “one of the least accountable” in Europe.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1854847549242294536

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“..a million men of military age are estimated to be on the run across Ukraine..”

• Nearly Fifth of Ukraine’s Soldiers AWOL Amid Collapse in Morale (Sp.)

Ukraine’s deep manpower shortage has overshadowed the steady flow of Western arms deliveries. Against the backdrop of Russia’s steady advance, Kiev regime military personnel have been surrendering and deserting in droves, while over a million men of military age are estimated to be on the run across Ukraine. Almost a fifth of Ukraine’s soldiers have gone AWOL from their positions, The Economist cited a source in the general staff as saying. An overwhelming collapse in morale on the front line amid Russia’s steady advance is driving mass desertion, a senior Ukrainian military commander has claimed. Despite more Western weapons in the pipeline for Ukraine, these is a “breakdown of trust between society, the army and the political leadership” in Kiev, according to the outlet.

It added that Ukraine has been struggling to replace vast battlefield losses with conscription, “barely hitting two-thirds of its target.” Rampant draft dodging and desertion forced the Volodymyr Zelensky regime to adopt a new draconian mobilization law this year, while also lowering the recruitment age from 27 to 25. Ukrainians are increasingly resisting being sent into the meat grinder of a proxy conflict. Earlier, in October, Ukrainian media reported that since the beginning of 2022, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has registered some 60,000 criminal cases of unauthorized abandonment of a unit and about 30,000 cases of desertion.

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“The biggest problem in Europe right now is that they don’t talk to those who need to be talked to,” he said. “This is a luxury one cannot afford in politics.”

• US Will Abandon Ukraine – Orban (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump will pull his country out of the Ukraine conflict, leaving EU leaders in an “uncomfortable and difficult position,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. “The situation on the front line is obvious. It’s a military defeat. The Americans will get out of this war,” he told Kossuth Radio on Friday. “Europe alone cannot finance this war.” Some EU leaders want to keep pouring money into a lost cause but the silence is growing among those with such an opinion, Orban said, while others are calling for a policy reassessment. Meanwhile, the few nations that have been advocating de-escalation and talks, including Hungary itself, as well as Slovakia and the Vatican, have been vindicated, he added. Orban’s prediction of a change in US foreign policy follows Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election earlier this week.

The Republican has previously claimed that he could end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours. The Hungarian leader expects major changes for the entire world after Trump’s win, which he said was so big that “it can be seen not only from the Moon, but also from Mars.” Politicians who have been pushing for a Ukrainian victory are now in a bind, but they always knew that such an outcome was possible, Orban said. Earlier this year, he conducted what he called a “peace mission,” meeting stakeholders in the conflict. He traveled to Kiev, Moscow, and Beijing, as well as to the US, where he discussed the issue with President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Budapest subsequently sent a report to other EU member states, which recommended that they should prepare for a shift on Ukraine, so “there is no reason for any leader to say that they were surprised,” Orban said. “The biggest problem in Europe right now is that they don’t talk to those who need to be talked to,” he said. “This is a luxury one cannot afford in politics.” Orban was maligned by some other EU leaders for his diplomatic engagements. They claimed that he was siding with Russia and abusing Hungary’s rotating presidency of the EU by allegedly giving the impression that he was acting on Brussels’ behalf. The prime minister clarified that he was representing only his own nation.

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“When I talk to my colleagues and experts – I don’t want to offend anyone – but I often ask them what the EU lacks. They answer that it lacks brains..”

• EU ‘Lacks Brains’ – Putin (RT)

The EU lacks leaders who act based on the national interests of their countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He also claimed that the bloc’s current economic policies are devised by people with insufficient expertise who are guided by “vassalage” to the US. “When I talk to my colleagues and experts – I don’t want to offend anyone – but I often ask them what the EU lacks. They answer that it lacks brains,” Putin said at the Valdai International Discussion Club in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi on Thursday. “It is not that they are stupid, but that the decisions in the economic sphere are made by politicians who have nothing to do with the economy,” the Russian leader stated. As a result, the steps taken by the bloc, such as anti-Russia sanctions, are “politicized, ill-considered, and baseless,” he added. We see that many European countries – and almost all NATO members – they take steps that work to the detriment of their own interests and only benefit US politics and economy.

Putin mentioned former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whom he praised for acting “solely” in the interests of the German people. He cited one such example as being the construction of the Nord Stream pipelines, through which Russia supplied gas to Germany until their partial destruction due to sabotage in September 2022. “Schroeder did not do that in the interests of Russia, did not do it in order to create conditions for us to obtain economic benefits, but solely in the interests of the German people, fighting to ensure that the best conditions for the supplies,” Putin stated. Schroeder “deliberately risked his political career” by making decisions “completely unpopular” among his peers, Putin added. The Russian leader lamented that “very few” politicians in Germany or the broader EU can do that today, arguing that this is why their economies are in a state of crisis.

The Russian leader also criticized EU politicians for abandoning Russian gas amid sanctions linked with the Ukraine conflict. This is “incomprehensible,” Putin said, as these same politicians “made so much noise” about their green goals, only to seek alternative supply sources and restart coal plants amid the energy crisis that resulted from their actions. Putin stressed that the bloc needs more politicians such as Schroeder, who “have their own opinion,” are “consistent” in their policies, and act in the interests of the people. “People see what’s really happening. If the gap between the ruling elites who are guided by other’s interests and the bulk of the population increases, nationally oriented political forces will grow… Everything will eventually lead to a weakening of this vassalage [to the US],” he stated.

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“Russia received 37 bodies, while handing Ukraine 563.” “The lopsided numbers point the real ratio of casualties on the battlefield, multiple Russian media outlets have said..”

• Russian And Ukrainian Officials Meet In Belarus (RT)

Delegations from Moscow and Kiev have met in Belarus to exchange bodies of the fallen and discuss humanitarian matters, Russian Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has revealed. The last time Moskalkova met with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Lubinets, was in January 2023. “We exchanged lists of persons visited by mutual consent and letters from prisoners to their relatives, and also discussed further humanitarian cooperation in providing assistance to civilians, including establishing the location and reunification of families, and mutual visits to prisoners,” Moskalkova said on Friday, in a statement posted on Telegram.

One family reunification has already taken place. Anna Kondratyevna, a 91-year-old resident of Cherkasy Region, was brought to Belarus so she could be transferred to Russia and be taken care of by her family there. “Her son asked us for help in transferring his mother to Russia, where he could look after her,” Moskalkova said, noting that the Ukrainian side agreed, but the situation was complicated by the fact that Kondratyevna could not move independently.The meeting in Belarus was also used to exchange the remains of fallen soldiers. Russia received 37 bodies, while handing Ukraine 563.

Among the remains handed over to Ukraine were the bodies of 62 POWs killed in January this year, when a Russian Il-76 transport airplane was shot down over Belgorod Region by Ukraine’s US-supplied Patriot missiles. The lopsided numbers point the real ratio of casualties on the battlefield, multiple Russian media outlets have said. Moskalkova announced a pending meeting with Lubinets in mid-October, without revealing its time and place. She said at the time that the talks would address the condition of detention of prisoners, allegations of torture, and the fate of civilians forcibly relocated by Ukrainian invaders in Russia’s Kursk Region.

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Making Europe poorer is a deliberate policy.

• The Colonization of Europe By The United States (Vasco)

Former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi recently presented a comprehensive report to the European Union that demonstrates how Europeans are falling behind Americans – and even Asians – on key issues of economic development. While in 1990, GDP per capita in the United States was 16% higher than in the eurozone, by 2023 that gap had already grown to more than 30%. This means that Americans are increasingly richer than Europeans. But the gap between the richest men in the United States and Europe is also widening. Only 10% of high-tech entrepreneurs in the top 30 and top 500 of the market capitalization rankings are European. By comparison, 73% in the first and 56% in the second are American. These new figures once again reveal the economic devastation of Europe. And its origins are directly linked to American power. By the 1930s, the United States had lost all the advantage it had gained over its European competitors at the end of World War I.

Europe was devastated and Washington had emerged as the world’s great economic superpower. However, the 1929 crisis brought this strength to an end. The Great Depression seemed to have put an end to the American dream. Just as World War I was a dispute between imperialist powers over the world market, the future World War II needed to be unleashed so that the Americans could regain control – partially lost to Germany and Japan in the wake of the 1930s crisis. Franklin D. Roosevelt led the reorganization of the American economy, vastly expanding federal spending and making large public investments thanks to a dictatorial centralization of economic power in the hands of a small corporate monopoly. The result was an unimaginable increase in industrial production – focused almost exclusively on the war. Pearl Harbor came in very handy: it was the excuse the regime needed to eliminate opposition to its entry into the conflict.

Between 1941 and 1944, U.S. war production more than tripled, and by 1944 its factories were producing twice as much as Germany, Italy and Japan. American industrial production served two intertwined strategic objectives: to destroy Europe and to rebuild it in its image and likeness. The U.S. equipped Britain with the weapons needed to confront Germany, and both carried out an intense bombing campaign with the explicit intention of destroying the German economy, the industrial engine of Europe. Almost 2.7 million tons of bombs were dropped on Germany and the Nazi-occupied regions of other countries, particularly France and Belgium (completing the industrial heartland of Europe). American and British aerial bombings killed 305,000 Germans, injured almost 800,000, totally or partially destroyed 5.5 million homes, and left 20 million without essential public services.

It was genocide. Added to the immediate slaughter of 330,000 civilians in Japan by the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. bombings took the lives of 635,000 people. The U.S. destruction of Europe was a big deal that benefited the United States decisively in securing its total supremacy in the new postwar world order. The deficit of foreign countries in 1946-47 was more than $19 billion. The U.S., which was intact, offered loans to begin the reconstruction of Europe as a soft form of colonization, while at the same time punishing those countries severely. In the words of the unsuspecting establishment historian Arthur S. Link, “the American government, even during the bitter days of Reconstruction, had never taken such terrible revenge on former enemies.” The German people and institutions were reformed “in the image of the United States.”

The Truman Doctrine and, mainly, the Marshall Plan, were the pillars of the U.S.’s post-World War II policy of colonizing Europe: the first transformed all of Western Europe and part of its southeast into a huge American military base, through NATO, policing the politics of these countries. The second began as a clientelist policy, granting handouts to starving Europeans (11 billion dollars) that were later returned with interest, beginning the process of economic, political and social dependence on Europe. Between 1948 and 1951, another 12 billion dollars had been spent in this regard.

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“The viral infection is like the common cold now,” McCullough said. “So they’re not clinically indicated. They’re not medically necessary..”

• Dr. Peter McCullough Calls On Trump To Remove The Covid-19 Vaccine (JTN)

Prominent cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough on Thursday called on president-elect Donald Trump to pull the COVID-19 vaccine from the marketplace. “The COVID-19 vaccine should be pulled from the market,” he said. “They have not had the safety track record America wanted to see.” He added that many who have taken the COVID-19 vaccine have suffered injuries from the vaccine, got disabilities or even died. Numerous lawmakers and doctors have expressed concern about the safety of the vaccine and whether the federal government and vaccine makers fully disclosed the risks.

In January, Florida’s top doctor called for the halt of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine use. “The viral infection is like the common cold now,” McCullough said. “So they’re not clinically indicated. They’re not medically necessary. They should be removed from the market.” The Centers for Disease and Prevention has addressed concerns about “adverse events” related to the vaccines, saying they “meet the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for safety and effectiveness” and that only in “rare cases” have people experienced serious health events as a result of getting an initial shot or booster.

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“Does this explain why Sweden, which only joined NATO this year, was the only country in Europe to adopt a more lenient policy during the coronavirus crisis?”

• Dutch Health Minister Admits Covid is a Military Operation” (PCR)

The Dutch Health Minister has revealed a damning fact about the Covid Deception: The Dutch Minister of Health revealed that Covid was a far worse and far larger public deception than critics have realized. It was “a military operation” against the people. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is real. In the Netherlands, the Covid release program was run by the intelligence agency NCTV. One of the first to comment on Agema’s appearance on X was Woo researcher Cees van den Bos. Under the heading “the coup d’etat,” he characterized the NCTV as a “bamiluk” of NATO: “This country will only be free if the NCTV is completely abolished and these kinds of shadow governments never get a foothold again. This is the biggest obstacle that stands in the way of a democracy,” he said. He added that there is no control over the NCTV: “The NCTV has carte blanche, as has been shown during corona.”

According to Van den Bos, people who think corona is over (“let’s stop talking about it”) are waiting for another hard “reality check.” He thanked Agema for her “candor.” Van den Bos previously pointed out – also in this newspaper – that the NCTV was in charge during the coronavirus crisis, in the person of Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, who had succeeded Dick Schoof as NCTV boss in early 2019. At the end of 2022, Van den Bos accused the NCTV of having committed a “coup d’etat.” The crisis management was almost everywhere in the hands of the military and intelligence services, and in our country it rested with the NCTV. In addition to the day-to-day management of the crisis organization, the NCTV even counted it as its task to coordinate the parliamentary process (“timing and mutual congruence”). The intelligence service set up a separate team for this, according to a report from mid-March 2020.

Commenting on the parliamentary vote, it said: “Ambition and agreement are not surprising.” It was likely intended to prevent unexpected motions or amendments to new legislation. In early 2023, journalist Elze van den Hamelen described NATO’s role in this newspaper, based on investigative work by Van den Bos: “The documents show that since at least 2019, more than a year before the coronavirus pandemic, the government has set up a large organization to “combat disinformation.” The initiative for this came from NATO and the EU, Van den Bos shows: “It was a military operation aimed at its own population. Not to turn people off, but to influence their behavior.” During the coronavirus pandemic, NATO set the guidelines for the covid response and coordinated the “Stratcom” (strategic communications). “The guidelines were circulated through the member states’ foreign ministers.” Does this explain why Sweden, which only joined NATO this year, was the only country in Europe to adopt a more lenient policy during the coronavirus crisis?

Critics from the medical world have meanwhile reacted sharply to Agema’s revelation, including medical ethicist Wendy Mittemeijer: “For the first time in four years, I hear a public admission that the NCTV was in charge during the corona crisis, and that it had to be carried out. It was a military operation. This was not allowed to be said for four years. That was a conspiracy theory. I appreciate the honesty of the minister, that this is being admitted and that he was not in charge. The news of Agema also fits in with what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly stated about the production of the coronavirus vaccines in the US. According to him, this was a military operation, with close involvement of the US Department of Defense (DOD) and the military-industrial complex. Defense, according to him, was in full charge and paid pharmaceutical companies for their brand names, so people would think they were getting something from Pfizer or Moderna.

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RFK vaccines

 

 

Fire escape

 

 

Pelican
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854581522516377940

 

 

Wolf attack

 

 

Geese(?!)

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 18 2024

Jul 182024
 
 July 18, 2024  Posted by at 9:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


Salvador Dali Elephants 1948

 

• Assassination Attempt Changed My Father – Donald Trump Jr. (RT)
• Iwo Jima 2.0: What Story Is This Picture Telling? (Pepe Escobar)
• The Assassination Attempt (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Secret Service Explains Why It Didn’t Secure Roof Used By Trump Sniper (RT)
• Secret Service Explanations For Security Failures Not Adding Up (ZH)
• US Republicans Subpoena Secret Service Director (RT)
• The Near Miss Assassination Hit the Mark with Press and Pundits (Turley)
• Schumer Says “Best For -Positive For COVID- Biden To Drop Out Of Race” (ZH)
• Anti-Biden Dems Rush To Block DNC’s ‘Virtual Nomination’ Scheme (ZH)
• Biden Losing Support in 14 Key States Ahead of November Election (Sp.)
• EU Parliament Condemns Orban’s Peace Efforts (RT)
• EU’s Rebuke Of Orban’s Peace Mission Speaks For Itself – Kremlin (RT)
• Russia Empowered by ‘Naive and Ignorant’ Western Aggression – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1813224984749482247

 

 

 

 

Campaign ad

 

 

Bongino

 

 

Mike Benz

 

 

Eric Trump Vivek
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813366330323599778

 

 

 

 

Tucker

 

 

JD Vance

 

 

Brame
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813404218553737447

 

 

One hour
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813685098790940804

 

 

 

 

“I think there will be something. I think these are momentous occasions that change people permanently.” [..] “..a lot changes once you’ve got shot in the face.”

I love how much he loves his granddaughter.

• Assassination Attempt Changed My Father – Donald Trump Jr. (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump was “changed permanently” by the attempt on his life over the weekend, and will be a more moderate figure going forward, his son, Donald Jr., has told Axios. Trump narrowly avoided death at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when an assassin’s bullet clipped his ear as it whizzed past his head. Firing from a rooftop around 500 feet (150 meters) from the stage, the gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. Speaking to Axios on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Trump Jr. said that he was fishing with his family when his fiancee told him his father had been shot. “Kim calls me [and said], ‘Your father was shot,’” Trump Jr. recalled, adding that “It was 90 minutes before I even knew he was alive.”

Trump returned to his feet almost immediately after the shooting, pumping his fist in the air and telling his supporters to “fight!” before he was ushered away by Secret Service agents. However, Trump’s defiance has apparently given way to a more conciliatory approach to politics. Speaking to the New York Post on Sunday, the Republican presidential candidate said that he had written “an extremely tough speech… all about the corrupt, horrible administration” for delivery at the RNC on Thursday, but “threw it away” and began working on a speech to “unite our country” following the assassination attempt. “You know, I think it lasts,” Trump Jr. said of his father’s apparent mellowing. “There are events that change you for a couple minutes and there’s events that change you permanently.” “Now again it’s Trump so [he’s] still going to be reactionary,” Trump Jr. added. “[Trump will] always be a fighter, that’s never gonna change, but he’s gonna do, I think, his best to moderate that where it needs to be.”

“He’s going to be tough when he has to be,” he continued. “We’ve seen that, he’s never gonna change. But I think there will be something. I think these are momentous occasions that change people permanently.” Trump Jr. told Axios that he worked with his father on the original speech, which he described as “hot.” “And by the way, I think it probably should have been at that time,” he said. “But again, a lot changes once you’ve got shot in the face.” Trump made his first public appearance after the shooting at the RNC on Monday, looking visibly emotional as he entered the event to thunderous applause. He was officially confirmed on Monday as his party’s nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in this November’s election, and is set to address the convention on Thursday.

Kai
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813767878354903546

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“..Joe Biden was expressly chosen for what he is: a crude, corrupt, easily-manipulated lackey, and head of a crime family..”

• Iwo Jima 2.0: What Story Is This Picture Telling? (Pepe Escobar)

The Iwo Jima 2.0 pic, immortalizing the Trump fist surviving an assassination attempt, has taken the world by storm – generating everything from a meme tsunami on China’s Weibo to fresh anime in Japan. Not to mention the deluge of hats and T-shirts. This carefully composed pic changes everything – in more ways than one. So let’s engage in a first attempt to deconstruct it. We start with the major losers. The combo running Crash Test Dummy’s teleprompter/earpiece set up is essentially composed by Mike Donilon, Steve Richetti, Bruce Reed and Ted Kaufman. Government functionaries like Jake Sullivan and Little Blinkie, for their part, are placed at the heart of what is known in Washington as the “inter-agency” racket, better described as The Blob. The inestimable Alastair Crooke has explained how Sullivan and Little Blinkie’s deliberations are “spread through a matrix of interlocking ‘clusters’ that includes the Military Industrial Complex, Congressional leaders, Big Donors, Wall Street, the Treasury, the CIA, the FBI, a few cosmopolitan oligarchs and the princelings of the security-intelligence world.”

Yet the key – invisible – point is who (italics mine) tells Sullivan and Blinkie what to do. These are the people who really (italics mine) run the show: the Big Families, and the Big Donors – old money and especially new money (as in invisible Vanguard shareholders). They are all stunned. They never thought it would come to this debacle – even if Joe Biden was expressly chosen for what he is: a crude, corrupt, easily-manipulated lackey, and head of a crime family. Everyone in a position of real power in the Blob knew he was becoming a zombie ages ago. There’s fierce debate across the Beltway over how many factions are at war with each other inside the Dem blob. There are at least three:

1.The Biden crime family – on which tens of thousands of people with cushy jobs and fat salaries depend. 2.The down-ballot Dem machine – an “extended family” of other tens of thousands who will lose badly, in elections or re-elections, in the event of a Trump 2.0. These are the ones who want to throw Crash Test Dummy under the – retirement home – bus and replace him with a Dem they hope and pray might win (the number one candidate is the uber-incompetent Kamala Harris). Needless to add, these two factions not only are at vicious Hot War against each other but also at war with… 3.The ones who really matter: the actual Deep State – from the “intelligence community” to webs woven inside the CIA and the FBI. This is the infernal machine that actually gave the White House on a platter to Biden in 2020. Dem Chuck Schumer once famously proclaimed: if you cross this faction, they have “Six Ways from Sunday” to get to you, destroy you, or whack you. With total impunity.

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Good point: “..the official narrative might have been prepared to cover a successful assassination, not a failed one..”

• The Assassination Attempt (Paul Craig Roberts)

Some say that it is too early to know what explains Trump’s near assassination. However, a good case can be made that we already know all we will ever know. The passage of time simply allows official narratives to be constructed, and they are used to muddy the waters. I support the calls for an official investigation, but government investigations are always coverups. Think the Warren Commission Report, the 9/11 Commission Report, the NISH Report. If there is an investigation, nothing will come of it, and if by chance it does the presstitutes won’t report it. We have all the information we need to form an opinion. Earlier I wrote that we have three choices of explanation for which there is evidence. But two of the explanations merge into one. The withholding by the foreign-born director of the Department of Homeland Security of adequate Secret Service resources from the Trump campaign can be merged into the incompetence explanation. So we have two choices, both supported by evidence or circumstantial evidence: Secret Service incompetence and a pose of incompetence to coverup an organized assassination.

The most certain fact we have is that despite the protective presence of the Secret Service and local police, Donald Trump was nearly killed, one person was killed, and two were seriously injured. None of the shooting was prevented by the Secret Service and local police, who went into action only after Trump was down and presumably dead. So what we have is the total failure of the Secret Service. What can explain such total failure? Some say the sacrifice of professional competence to diversity and inclusion. And there is evidence for this. The Biden regime is yet to make a single appointment based on merit and ability. All appointments have been made on a race, gender, and sexual preference basis. Secret Service professionals have complained of these non-professional appointments and pointed out that the competence of the agency has been compromised by “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The reason aside, whether incompetence or complicity, clearly the Secret Service director failed.

She failed to protect Trump, and if it was an official assassination, she failed to eliminate the target. So, will she resign? Of course not. She will be promoted to some higher office exactly as all were who failed to prevent the 9/11 attack on the US. Let’s look at some of the indications that incompetence is a cover for a plot to assassinate Trump. The first thing that struck me was the unprotected roof tops of the buildings. As a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from the days when the Secret Service reported to Treasury Assistant Secretaries, this struck me as inconceivable. I also found it inconceivable that a person carrying a rifle could appear in a protected area and climb upon a building with a clear shot at an allegedly protected person and not be accosted. Initially, we were told that the buildings had, somehow, escaped the protected zone. But later we learned, for what it is worth, that the building with the assassin on top was occupied by police or Secret Service forces. How is it possible that the assassin was not seen and apprehended?

We do know that the Secret Service was complicit in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, thus depriving America of an educated and aware leadership. We do know from the civil case the Martin Luther King family won that the official account of Martin Luther King’s assassination is a cover up of what seems to have been a FBI operation. So many books have been written by insiders documenting the CIA’s assassination of foreign leaders who took a different line from the line that Washington insisted on imposing that we have hard evidence that Washington uses brute force to enforce Washington’s agenda.With the Disunited States–the blue and the red–more divided than the division caused by the North’s determination to impose a tariff regime at the expense of the South, Trump’s notion that he can achieve unity is a fantasy. There is no possibility of unity. Good and evil cannot be unified.

Trump’s responsibility, assuming a second and a third assassination attempt does not succeed, is to root out the evil in Democrat hands, in liberal-left hands, in intellectual hands, that has turned the United States of America into a Sodom and Gomorrah Tower of Babel. Trump cannot raise his fist and say “fight, fight, fight,” and then compromise with his and our enemies to unite Americans with evil. The one thing that keeps me from being convinced that the attempted assassination was a deep state plot to rid themselves of Trump is the absence of a pre-prepared narrative to be repeated endlessly by the presstitutes. However, the official narrative might have been prepared to cover a successful assassination, not a failed one. Therefore, there is no ready narrative. It will be interesting to see what narrative the ruling elites construct.

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“The Secret Service director said, ‘don’t worry, we didn’t put someone on the roof because it could’ve created a dangerous situation.’ Like what? Someone getting shot in the head?”

• Secret Service Explains Why It Didn’t Secure Roof Used By Trump Sniper (RT)

Kimberly Cheatle, the head of the US Secret Service, has cited safety concerns as the reason why her agents were not deployed on the roof of the building from which the would-be assassin targeted presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump narrowly escaped death during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. His Secret Service detail reacted only after a bullet nicked his ear. One rallygoer was killed and two others seriously injured. “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” Cheatle told ABC News on Tuesday. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.” The shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to climb on top of the factory building and had a clear line of sight to Trump less than 120 meters away.

The roof in question was far less sloped than the one behind the rally stage, where Secret Service counter-snipers were positioned. Cheatle’s explanation was met with outrage and disbelief among experts. Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces officer now running for Congress, wondered why the Secret Service didn’t secure access points to the building. “The Secret Service director said, ‘don’t worry, we didn’t put someone on the roof because it could’ve created a dangerous situation.’ Like what? Someone getting shot in the head?” said Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent turned-conservative talk show host. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said Secret Service “failure” played a part in Saturday’s events, but that he has “100% confidence” in Cheatle.

The attempted assassination was “unacceptable” and “something that shouldn’t happen again,” the Secret Service director told ABC News, but added that she has no intention of resigning. Cheatle also did not address criticism that Trump’s protection detail included three women who were much smaller in stature than the Republican presidential candidate. The Secret Service chief, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, has previously said she would prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, such as hiring more women and minorities. “DEI is one thing, competence and effectiveness is another, and I saw DEI out there,” former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told the New York Post after the Butler shooting. When Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, his security detail was composed entirely of men close to him in height.

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“..the “Secret Service was in charge,” and that “it was their responsibility to make sure that the venue and the surrounding area was secure.”

• Secret Service Explanations For Security Failures Not Adding Up (ZH)

In the wake of Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the #1 question is how the Secret Service could have failed to secure a rooftop a little over 400ft away – which former Army sniper Rep. Cory Mills called a “sniper’s paradise” that was so obvious he wondered aloud whether it was an “intentional” failure. And in typical government fashion, their excuses aren’t adding up. Sloped roof? According to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle – who has rejected calls to resign, there was no agent placed on the building because it had a “sloped roof.” “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point, and so there’s a safety factor that would be considered there, that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said in a Tuesday interview with ABC News. “So, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from inside.” This is obviously absurd. For starters, the counter-snipers near Trump were perched on a roof with a steeper slope.

Snipers had eyes-on the shooter before Trump went onstage: Conspicuously absent from the Secret Service’s explanation are reports that a local PD sniper stationed on the second floor inside the building saw the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, outside the building and looking up at the roof. He then walked away, returned, whipped out his phone, when one of the snipers took the first of two pictures of him. Crooks then took out a rangefinder – at which point the sniper radioed to a command post. Crooks then disappeared again and came back a third time with a backpack. The snipers called in once again with information that he had a backpack and that he (Crooks) was walking toward the back of the building. By the time other officers came for backup, he had climbed on top of the building and was positioned above and behind the snipers inside the building, the officer said. Two other officers who heard the sniper’s call tried to get onto the roof. State police started rushing to the scene, but by that time, a Secret Service sniper had already killed Crooks, the officer said. -CBS News.

So – law enforcement had eyes-on the shooter the entire time, took pictures of him, notified their command post – and nothing was done until Crooks shot Trump, at which point Secret Service snipers returned fire and killed him. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has said that local police officers radioed agents about a possible suspicious person before Mr. Trump came onstage. It’s unclear if the sniper teams were alerted. -NYT. What’s more, a Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told CNN that a Butler Township officer encountered Crooks on the roof of the building before the shooting, but retreated down a ladder after Crooks pointed his gun at him. According to Slupe, there was a security failure, but said “there is not just one entity responsible.” Three hours? Further complicating matters is a NYT report citing a law enforcement official who said that the local PD forces were in an adjacent building, not the one the shooter was firing from.

Nothing from the Secret Service on this report – and not one mention of it in today’s breakdown in the Washington Post – which is now suggesting that the slope could have hindered counter-snipers’ view. [..] In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the Secret Service blamed local law enforcement for failing to secure the building, and vice-versa. “There was local police in that building – there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building,” Cheatle said during her interview with ABC News. Yet – according to Butler County DA Richard Goldlinger, the “Secret Service was in charge,” and that “it was their responsibility to make sure that the venue and the surrounding area was secure.” “For them to blame local law enforcement is them passing the blame when they hold the blame, in my opinion,” he told the Washington Post on Tuesday. One former Secret Service agent told CNN: “The Service is responsible for everything, not just the inner perimeter. They should make sure all of this is covered.”

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She has DEI written all over her. She’s the embodiment of how dangerous that is.

• US Republicans Subpoena Secret Service Director (RT)

The Republican-run House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena compelling Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify on Capitol Hill about her agency’s “total failure” to prevent the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The committee first called Cheatle to testify on the day of the attack, and requested specific information related to the incident on Monday. While the Secret Service initially confirmed that Cheatle would sit down with the committee, House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed on Wednesday morning that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas forbade Cheatle from testifying. “The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the Committee on this pressing matter… further calls into question your ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the attached subpoena compelling your appearance,” committee chairman James Comer wrote in a letter to Cheatle on Wednesday.

Trump narrowly avoided death at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when a would-be assassin’s bullet clipped his ear as it whizzed past his head. Firing from a rooftop around 500 feet (150 meters) from the stage, the gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. The FBI named the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but has not released any information about his possible motive. Much about the events leading up to the shooting remains unclear, and Republican pundits have accused the Secret Service of negligence during the crucial hours and minutes before shots were fired.

Despite the building Crooks fired from having a clear line of sight to the stage, no Secret Service agents were positioned there. Local police officers stationed at the building reportedly observed Crooks circling the area, before returning and looking at the stage through a range-finder, typically used by snipers or hunters to gauge the distance to a target. However, CBS News said on Wednesday, that these officers’ reports evidently did not make it to the Secret Service.

Video footage captured by spectators at the rally purportedly showed Secret Service snipers pointing their weapons at Crooks, but hesitating to open fire until the 20-year-old fired first. While Cheatle has not testified before Congress, she has defended her agency’s actions in numerous television interviews since Saturday. In one widely-mocked appearance, she told ABC News that no agents were placed on the roof Crooks fired from as “we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.” The Oversight Committee’s hearing is scheduled for next Monday. In the meantime, Cheatle has told reporters that she has no intention of resigning.

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“Can someone send me an example of a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad?” “Republican Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana replied dryly: “I can think of an example.” Scalise was severely wounded at the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball game practice by a Sanders supporter.”

• The Near Miss Assassination Hit the Mark with Press and Pundits (Turley)

Winston Churchill once famously said that “nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” For Donald Trump, the failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania could prove politically exhilarating. After rising with a fist pump and a call to fight on, Trump seems to have gone from being a movement to a mythological figure with his supporters. All he needs now is a big blue ox named Babe to return to the campaign trail. This assassination attempt should also concentrate the minds of everyone on the escalating rhetoric in this campaign, particularly the media in maintaining inflammatory narratives. Yet, the hateful and unhinged language has continued unabated from academics declaring that the assassination attempt was staged to those who complain that the only problem was that Thomas Matthew Crooks missed.

For years, Democrats have repeated analogies of Trump to Hitler and his followers to brownshirted neo-Nazis. Indeed, defeating Trump has been compared to stopping Hitler in 1933. The narrative began as soon as Trump was elected when the press and pundits uniformly and falsely claimed that Trump had praised neo-Nazis and Klansmen in 2017 as “fine people” in Charlottesville. Watching Trump’s statement at the time, it was clear to most of us that Trump condemned the neo-Nazis and that the statement about “fine people on both sides” was in reference to the debate over the removal of historic statues. It took six years for Snopes to finally have the courage to do a fact check and declare the common attack to be false. It did not matter. The press and politicians have hammered away at the notion that Trump is seeking to end democracy and that everyone from gay people to reporters will be “disappeared.”

After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity, Rachel Maddow went on the air with a hysterical claim that “death squads” had just been green lighted by conservatives. Democratic strategist Jame Carville insists that Trump’s reelection will bring “the end of the Constitution.” It is all what I call “rage rhetoric” in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.” The book explores centuries of rage politics and political violence. This is not our first age of rage but it could well be the most dangerous. Two years before the assassination attempt, I appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on the expansion of domestic terrorism investigations. Democrats were seeking to pressure the FBI to focus on far-right groups as potential terrorist groups. The use of political views rather than conduct has been used historically to crackdown on groups from socialists to anarchists to feminists.

The narrative that the threat of violence is coming primarily from the Right is demonstrably false but consistently echoed in the media. We have seen a growing level of leftist violence in the last decade. That includes riots in cities like Portland and Seattle where billions of dollars of damage occurred, hundreds of officers injured, and many citizens killed. In 2020 alone, 25 people were killed in the protests. The Democrats often raise the Jan. 6th riot and it is important to acknowledge that the damage extended to an attack on our constitutional process. However, the preceding protest around the White House caused more injuries and more property damage. Then President Trump had to be removed to a safe location as Secret Service feared a breach of the White House.

There were a reported 150 officers injured (including at least 49 Park Police officers around the White House) in the Lafayette Park riot. Protesters caused extensive property damage including the torching of a historic structure and the attempted arson of St. John’s Church. Mass shootings by leftist gunmen have repeatedly occurred but those are treated as one offs while any conservative shooter is part of a pattern of right-wing violence. Keith Ellison, the Democratic attorney general of Minnesota, mocked the notion of liberal violence. In one tweet, he declared “I have never seen @BernieSanders supporters being unusually mean or rude. Can someone send me an example of a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad. Also, are we holding all candidates responsible for the behavior of some of their supporters? Waiting to hear.”

Republican Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana replied dryly: “I can think of an example.” Scalise was severely wounded at the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball game practice by a Sanders supporter.

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“Only eight days ago, Schumer had a different opinion on Biden: “I’m with Joe.”

• Schumer Says “Best For -Positive For COVID- Biden To Drop Out Of Race” (ZH)

Update (1927ET): Moments ago, ABC News reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., advised President Biden to end his reelection for the greater good of the country and the Democratic Party. Only eight days ago, Schumer had a different opinion on Biden: “I’m with Joe.” Earlier, according to Fox News, citing multiple sources, Schumer pushed for the Democratic National Convention’s delay as questions soared about the president’s 2024 candidacy. According to Axios, the delay “signals that the congressional leaders sympathize with rank-and-file Democrats who want more time to address concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Trump.” Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination odds for the party now stand at 50, while Biden’s is at 38. Democratic lawmakers have been urging Biden to drop out since his disastrous debate with former President Trump last month.

Kash Patel


https://twitter.com/i/status/1813703860386730445

Just hours after President Biden mentioned in an interview that he would consider dropping out of the presidential race if diagnosed with a “medical condition,” the elderly president tested positive for Covid-19 this afternoon. UnidosUS president Janet Murguía informed the audience at the organization’s national conference in Vegas about Biden’s diagnosis. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden was delivering speeches in Las Vegas when he “experienced mild symptoms.” KJP said the president “will be returning to Delaware, where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.” She noted, “The White House will provide regular updates on the President’s status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”

Biden’s doctor reported that the president developed a runny nose and a “non-productive cough” on Wednesday afternoon. “He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” the doctor wrote in a statement shared by the White House. The doctor said, “The President has received his first dose of Paxlovid,” adding that Biden’s symptoms “remain mild.” Biden boarded Air Force One in Vegas this evening, the White House pool reported. Where is the president’s mask??

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“It could deeply undermine the morale and unity of Democrats — from delegates, volunteers, grassroots organisers and donors to ordinary voters — at the worst possible time.”

“Great idea. I want that hole in the Titanic as soon as possible.”

• Anti-Biden Dems Rush To Block DNC’s ‘Virtual Nomination’ Scheme (ZH)

Saturday’s near-assassination of Donald Trump likely boosted the former president’s chances of winning the November election — and also forced a pause in what had been a steadily-boiling controversy over President Biden’s fitness to finish the race and start a new term. While Biden’s mental deterioration was nudged out of media spotlight, his campaign was quietly scheming with the Democratic National Committee to orchestrate a “virtual nomination” held weeks before the party convention kicks off on August 19. Now, indignant anti-Biden Democrats on Capitol Hill are organizing a counter-strike. “I just think it’s a terrible idea for the DNC to do this. I just think people see right through it,” said progressive California Rep. Jared Huffman. “At a time when we have this huge enthusiasm gap with the Republicans, to do a stunt like this is just going to make it worse.” Separately, he told CNN, “If the election were held today, he would get crushed. We have got to do something about it.”

The DNC, which rigged the primary process for Biden by refusing to host debates and by rearranging the sequences of state balloting, is now working to hold a “virtual roll call” where delegates would vote online between July 29 and Aug. 5, Axios reports. However, the New York Times reported voting could start as early as Monday, July 22. Either way, the extraordinary advance vote would serve two DNC goals: icing the contest for Biden and avoiding a tumultuous, contested convention next month in Chicago. Democratic “insiders” told the Times that upwards of 80% of delegates would back Biden in a virtual vote. Congressional Democrats who see Biden as a doomed candidate — who threatens to carry down-ballot candidates with him — are now racing against the clock to keep their drive to replace him alive. At the moment, they’re channeling their energy into drafting and circulating a joint letter from House Democrats to the DNC, urging party headquarters to cancel its plan.

Here’s a passage from a draft obtained by the Financial Times: “Stifling debate and prematurely shutting down any possible change in the Democratic ticket through an unnecessary and unprecedented ‘virtual roll call’ in the days ahead is a terrible idea. It could deeply undermine the morale and unity of Democrats — from delegates, volunteers, grassroots organisers and donors to ordinary voters — at the worst possible time.” “People are back to being angry at Biden and a push to sign on to this letter is going around … the ‘replace Biden’ movement is back,” said an unnamed Democratic representative. Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the first congressional Democrat to urge Biden to quit the race, said the virtual-nomination scheme was inconsistent with Biden’s own comments: “Such misguided DNC action would be contrary to President Biden’s own recommendation that those seeking an alternative nominee come to the convention.”

A key milestone in the intrigue will come at 11am this Friday, when the convention’s rules committee conducts a video call. “A majority of its members have deep ties to Mr. Biden and were vetted for their loyalty to him,” reports the Times. Contrary to Axios, the Times reported that virtual nomination balloting could start as early as Monday, July 22. One House representative used creative imagery to describe dissidents’ view of the situation, telling CNN, “The disbelief that they’d expedite the nomination is as widespread as the recognition the DNC is leading Democrats into a house fire with water bottles.”

Word of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering comes as new polling by YouGov shows Trump leading in all seven battleground states. His lead is narrowest in Michigan (+2) and Pennsylvania (+3), and largest in Arizona (+7). Notably, the poll was taken after Biden’s alarmingly poor June 27 debate with Trump, but before Trump survived the assassination attempt at a rally in western Pennsylvania. Beyond the Biden camp, there’s another group that’s wildly enthusiastic about the idea of a virtual vote that locks in the failing, 81-year-old as the Democrats’ standard-bearer: Republicans. When asked what he thought of the DNC’s maneuvering, Citizens United president and Trump 2016 deputy campaign manager David Bossie said, “Great idea. I want that hole in the Titanic as soon as possible.”

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It adds up.

• Biden Losing Support in 14 Key States Ahead of November Election (Sp.)

Incumbent US President Joe Biden is losing support in 14 key states, which are gradually turning to his predecessor and rival, Donald Trump, ahead of the November elections, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing poll data. The poll, conducted by the BlueLabs pollster, funded by the US Democratic Party, and obtained by CNN, found that Trump is outpacing Biden in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which the incumbent president managed to flip in his favor in the 2020 election. Besides that, people in Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine, New Mexico, Virginia, New Hampshire, and a part of Nebraska are also losing faith in Biden. The polling also indicated that almost all other Democrats included in the questionnaire are ahead of Biden in battleground states. The four most popular ones are Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

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. The second Biden-Trump debate is scheduled for September 10. The US presidential election will take place on November 5.

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“Lawmakers have demanded that Hungary be punished for the prime minister’s Russia trip..”

• EU Parliament Condemns Orban’s Peace Efforts (RT)

The European Parliament has strongly condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent visit to Russia and his Ukraine peace efforts, in the legislature’s first resolution since elections in June. In a press release detailing Wednesday’s resolution, the parliament described Orban’s trip to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy.” The statement went on to claim that the Hungarian leader’s “alleged peace efforts” were “irrelevant,” and that Budapest should face “repercussions” for Orban’s actions. The EU Parliament is holding its first plenary session in Strasbourg this week since elections to the law-making body were held in June.

Budapest currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Council. An adviser to Orban recently said that Hungary plans to use its six-month term to create the conditions for peace talks between Moscow and Kiev. The Hungarian prime minister traveled to Moscow earlier this month to discuss the “shortest way out” of the conflict with Russian President Putin. After the meeting, Orban admitted that there were major differences in how the warring parties viewed the potential resolution of hostilities, but pledged to continue to work to establish contact between them. On a prior visit to Kiev, the Hungarian leader proposed a “quick ceasefire” to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, something the latter rejected.

The EU leadership was outraged by Orban’s Moscow visit and has insisted that he did not represent the bloc. Orban, however, has claimed that he does not require a mandate from Brussels to promote peace, noting that his discussions cannot be considered official negotiations. The EU Parliament has stated that the bloc “must continue to support” Kiev “for as long as it takes until victory,” insisting that Ukraine is “on an irreversible path to NATO membership.” Legally binding guarantees that Kiev will not seek to join NATO are among Moscow’s conditions for the end of the hostilities.

MEP
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813832983003992143

Read more …

Yes it does.

• EU’s Rebuke Of Orban’s Peace Mission Speaks For Itself – Kremlin (RT)

The EU’s criticism of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over his Ukraine peace initiative indicates that Brussels’ pro-war policies will not change, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. The Hungarian leader wants the EU leadership and fellow member states to adjust their policies from arming Kiev to seeking a negotiated resolution with Moscow. He traveled to Ukraine, Russia, China, and the US, before detailing his proposal in a letter sent to Brussels this week. Senior EU and national officials, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, have blasted Orban for engaging with Moscow. Brussels has reportedly rejected his proposal.

Peskov was asked during a daily press call whether Moscow received the text of Orban’s plan or the EU’s response to it. He said neither document was shared with the Russian government, but conclusions can be made based on the public condemnation of Orban. ”The Europeans have targeted Orban, have disavowed any authority he could claim regarding this issue. They have expressed resolve in supporting Ukraine militarily. I guess that is the answer,” the Kremlin spokesman said. Hungary is currently holding the rotating EU presidency. People unhappy with Orban’s diplomatic engagement with Russia have claimed that he was abusing his country’s role and undermining EU unity in backing Kiev with his action. A letter urging the EU leadership to strip Hungary’s voting rights in the EU was signed by scores of MEPs, according to media reports.

In its first legislative action on Wednesday, the newly elected parliament reaffirmed support for Ukraine and blasted Orban for going “rogue.” The prime minister did not claim that he was acting on the EU’s behalf. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RT that the reaction of “pro-war politicians of the EU” will not dissuade Budapest. The diplomat met with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on the sidelines of a UN ministerial meeting in New York on Tuesday. The Hungarian government has been advocating for peace talks since the beginning of the hostilities in 2022. Brussels’ response to the crisis is misguided and harmful for member states, Orban has argued, citing the economic impact of the sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, Western military aid has failed to produce a victory on the battlefield for Kiev and has simply exacerbated the costs of the conflict, according to him. Critics claim that Orban’s position is “pro-Russian.”

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“Anti-Russia sanctions have provided Moscow the opportunity to both become more self-reliant and strengthen its alliances with other global powers.”

• Russia Empowered by ‘Naive and Ignorant’ Western Aggression – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

Two years after President Joe Biden claimed US sanctions and export controls were “crushing” Moscow, Russia continues to grow at a faster rate than that of the United States and all other advanced nations. The country’s resilience was confirmed earlier this year by the International Monetary Fund, which predicted Russia’s economy would expand at a rate of 3.2% in 2024. On the diplomatic front Russia is as influential as ever as a key player in the growing BRICS economic bloc, which was recently forced to turn away new members amid strong interest from the Global South. Internally, Russia remains politically stable and unified with President Vladimir Putin enjoying an overwhelming mandate and widespread support for the country’s military operation against Ukraine.

With Russia not only surviving, but thriving against the backdrop of US-led opposition, one can only conclude that Russophobic leaders are operating from a position of deep ignorance and naivete regarding the Eurasian world power. Such is the conclusion of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Wednesday to discuss the state of relations between Moscow and the West. “The West is under the impression that it can strategically defeat Russia,” claimed Ritter, a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer. “That means bringing about the existential end to the Russian Federation, as we now understand it. We heard the former Baltic leader turned European Union senior diplomat brag about how she envisioned breaking up Russia into tiny little component pieces,” he noted, referring to comments by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas suggesting Russia should be split into several “small nations.”

“What they don’t understand are two things,” said Ritter. “Such a desire is literally a suicide pill because Russia’s nuclear arsenal is tied to a doctrine that says if the survival of Russia is placed under existential threat, that Russia will use nuclear weapons to ensure that that threat no longer exists.” “But fortunately we don’t have to worry about that because Russia itself has shown a proclivity not only to be able to outmaneuver the West, turning sanctions against Russia back on the West – a devastating factor – but also turning the attempt to diplomatically isolate Russia back on the West.” Anti-Russia sanctions have provided Moscow the opportunity to both become more self-reliant and strengthen its alliances with other global powers. India has become a major buyer of Russian oil, as has China, which continues to carry on a robust trade relationship with Moscow.

Lavrov

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Rays
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813698457821237433

 

 

Smart bird
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813815449022541942

 

 

Tunnel book
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813827794889297971

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle Bastille Day 2024

Jul 142024
 
 July 14, 2024  Posted by at 9:31 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  93 Responses »


Salvador Dali Meditative rose 1958

 

• Trump Hit By Bullet At Pennsylvania Rally (ZH)
• Trump Suggests Simultaneous Mental Test With Biden (RT)
• Take Away the Car Keys (Hamilton)
• Tulsi Gabbard – The Ultimate Insurance Policy for Trump (Luongo)
• Musk Enters 2024 Fight With ‘Sizable’ Gift To Trump Super PAC (ZH)
• Trump’s Facebook, Instagram Restrictions Rolled Back (RT)
• Democrats Plotting To Oust Biden From Race – Axios (RT)
• Major Donors Blackmailing US Democrats Over Biden – NYT (RT)
• Democratic Party Insiders Struggle to Force Biden Out (Miles)
• Viktor Orbán Deserves The Nobel Peace Prize (RM)
• Russia Initiates Call With Pentagon On Ukraine and NATO (ZH)
• The Yemen–Russia Riddle (Pepe Escobar)
• European Cities Prime Targets For Russian Missiles – Moscow (RT)
• 72% of Israelis Want Netanyahu To Resign – Poll (RT)
• Israeli Newspaper Says Country ‘Collapsing’ as 46,000 Businesses Shutter (Sp.)
• Africans Support Russia – EU’s Borrell (RT)
• ‘Borrell Views Africa As ‘Jungle Full Of Zombies’ (RT)
• ChatGPT Maker Secretly Developing New Type Of AI – Reuters (RT)

 

 

So glad the man’s alive. The shooter was well over 100 yards away. Trump surviving was pure luck. Or fate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex doesn’t see an incident, or a lone wolf

 

 

Costas
https://twitter.com/i/status/1812169689793245427

 

 

Rogan Dore

 

 

Sidney Powell
https://twitter.com/i/status/1811899942048530690

 

 

Biden 1994

 

 

T.S. Eliot from The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock:

There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;

 

 

 

 

They’ve been calling for it. Maybe that stops now. Don’t recall anyone asking for Biden to be shot.

• Trump Hit By Bullet At Pennsylvania Rally (ZH)

• Shooter identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, NY Post
• Trump has responded, saying on Truth Social “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
• Secret Service says one spectator was killed and two were critically injured.
• Former President Donald Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
• Trump could be seen grabbing his ear and falling to the ground, before standing up and walking off stage.
• Approximately nine shots rang out.
• A member of the crowd, as well as the shooter, are dead following the assassination attempt.
• One Trump supporter says he alerted Secret Service before the shooting and was ignored.
• Trump’s team reportedly asked for ‘beefed up protection’ and was rebuffed over and over by Biden DHS.

According to The Federalist’s Sean Davis, “A source familiar with Trump’s security detail tells @FDRLST that the former and future president’s detail has been asking for beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again by Biden’s DHS. DHS, which oversees Secret Service protective detail “wasn’t responsive to those requests” for more resources, the source said.”

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“..For the first time we’ll be a team, and do it for the good of the Country..

• Trump Suggests Simultaneous Mental Test With Biden (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has urged incumbent leader Joe Biden to immediately take a cognitive test to prove his fitness for office. Trump expressed his readiness to take the test together with Biden, stating the two would work for the first time as a “team.” Trump produced the call on Friday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Joe should immediately take a Cognitive Test, and I will go with him, and take one also. For the first time we’ll be a team, and do it for the good of the Country,” Trump wrote. Such tests should also be made mandatory for all presidential hopefuls in the future, he argued. “From now on, all Presidential candidates should be mandated to take a Cognitive Test and Aptitude Test, regardless of their age!!!” he added.

Concerns over Biden’s cognitive and physical capacities skyrocketed in the aftermath of the disastrous presidential debate held late last month. The subpar performance of the president has prompted growing dissent within the Democratic Party, with an increasing number of high-profile members and major donors urging him to quit the reelection race. Facing mounting criticism, Biden has repeatedly dismissed any possibility of dropping his campaign, insisting he is the only person capable of defeating Trump in November. He has also angrily reacted to speculation about his health, stating he did not need any cognitive tests, given his job.

“I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day, I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world. Not – and that’s not hi – sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world,” Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an explosive interview last week. The effort to convince the nation he was still fit for office, however, appears to have yielded little and may have had the opposite result. According to a fresh survey by CBS News/YouGov in the wake of the debate, 72% of registered voters do not believe that Biden has the “mental and cognitive health necessary to serve as president.”

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Not sure what he tries to prove, but I get the main point.

• Take Away the Car Keys (Hamilton)

One of the saddest moments of my life was the day I felt compelled to tell my father that he should give up his car and stop driving. He resisted, but only briefly. It was an example of the kind of man my father was. And it is an example for us today when we consider the peril our republic faces with President Biden clinging to his reelection bid. We all know the liberating feeling we had when we got our first driver’s license. The opposite feeling comes when it is time to turn it in. In my dad’s case, the problem was diminished eyesight. A resilient man, he had learned to live with many handicaps, including loss of a leg and use of an arm. He told me of a trick he successfully used at traffic intersections to compensate for his difficulty discerning red lights from green: He waited for other cars to move. Okay, I said, how will you feel if you end up hurting someone? That was all it took. He sold his car.

Such a moment has come now to Joseph Biden. The chances of him winning in November are virtually non-existent. Yet, he continues to make statements that defy reason in order to keep the keys to the White House. The president’s performance in his recent debate with Donald Trump was a shock to anyone with eyes and ears. His handlers have limited his unscripted interactions with journalists for precisely this reason. Yet he and his staff insist he is as intellectually vigorous as ever and trot out ludicrous excuses for why he stumbled. One of the excuses, jetlag from recent trips abroad, showed the opposite of what was intended – that is, that it takes the president 11 days to recover from travel.They argue that he is the best person to beat Donald Trump in November. After all, they say, he is the only one who has bested Trump at the ballot box. On close inspection, however, the statement is nearly meaningless. Trump has only been in two election races, and the one he won was fluky, to say the least.

His opponent, Hillary Clinton, ran a poor campaign – and still won the popular vote. Several Democrats have a better chance than Biden of beating Trump this time round. It is sad to hear Biden claim he is intellectually up to the job at the same time he says the polls are not all that bad. As the RealClearPolitics Poll Average shows, Trump is decidedly ahead of Biden. Moreover, Biden probably needs around 52% of the popular vote to win, given how the Electoral College functions. It might be comforting to think that there is still time to turn things around. But anyone can see that Biden is losing voters, not gaining them. The best that can be said is that the battle lines have been fixed in Trump’s favor. Biden has been lagging for months and that shows no signs of changing.

It is understandable that the president seeks supportive advice from staff as well as his wife, Jill, and his son, Hunter Biden. We all want reassurance. But we also need to seek out those who will give us a point of view that we do not want to hear. Contrary to what Biden is claiming, the elites are not out to get him. Taking on the mantle of victimhood only makes Biden seem unhinged – and more like Trump. Polls show that nearly three-quarters of Americans think Biden is not fit to serve, mainly as a result of the impacts of aging. The issue is not Biden’s age, per se. Donald Trump, 78, is not much younger than the president. The issue is that in recent years Biden’s acuity and physical presence have shown noticeable decline. Whatever one wants to say about Trump, he is vigorous.

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“Obama thought “…I sure don’t want to get shot, who could I pick for VP that would make even an assassin think twice? Oh, I know, Joe Biden. No one wants that dumbass in charge!”

• Tulsi Gabbard – The Ultimate Insurance Policy for Trump (Luongo)

Having watched/listened to hundreds of hours of Tulsi Gabbard over the years, I’ve noticed a few things. First, she’s not a natural public speaker, nor is she really comfortable in front of the camera. So, she has worked very hard on crafting a public persona which is not easy for her to slip into but which is also authentically her. Because she is uncomfortable, that face begins to slip after a while…. about an hour. I always get the sense that there is a ‘macho military’ version of Gabbard lurking just below the surface, that swears like a mafia don and prays like a priest. And every once in a while it leaks out. But it will never do so in a six-minute segment on Fox News. You’ve got to get past that fatigue barrier. The reason I bring all of this up is because Gabbard was recently on the Keep Hammering Collective podcast with Cameron Hanes for nearly two hours.

She did that podcast after spending the day with him doing his triathalon he calls Lift, Run, Shoot which I suggest you watch the video of, especially if your name is Donald Trump. Why? You know why. I’ve already made my case for why I thought Gabbard is the ‘box-ticking’ favorite to be Trump’s running mate this fall. I think, however, in retrospect, that was a little unfair to Tulsi Gabbard. I, like the Davosians who tried to groom her into their perfect barista of globalism, made the mistake of not really getting past the character she plays, the boxes she ticks. There’s a fiery person underneath that calm face she wears in front of the camera. Her book, which I’ve read, makes this point ad infinitum. And the rounds she’s making supporting the book are showing us a Tulsi Gabbard hinted at, but she hasn’t really shown us before.

What’s, uh, the VP deal? Dexter White’s recent post reminded us about why Joe Biden was selected to be Barack Obama’s VP, “the life insurance policy for the first black president…” Obama thought “…I sure don’t want to get shot, who could I pick for VP that would make even an assassin think twice? Oh, I know, Joe Biden. No one wants that dumbass in charge!” Over the years, we’ve gotten so caught up in the political game that is choosing a Vice-President we forgot what the actual job description is… to be the person to step into the role should the President not be there, physically, mentally, or otherwise. I say this to remind the ghost of Al Haig that we still don’t want him in charge. It is precisely because Kamala Harris was picked to be Biden’s veep for every other reason than the job description that the Democrats and Davos are in the bind they are in as I write this.

It was never about Harris’ competence, capability, or commitment that landed her in the Naval Observatory. It was the boxes she ticked, the perception of her moral fluidity, and her solidification of the black female vote at a time when black men were drifting into Der Trumpenfuhrer’s orbit that made her the center of their Venn Diagram. Notice how she was never a person to them… just a series of attributes. For Trump, who has held back his choice for vice-president for months, the big question has been, if he wins the election will the blob/Deep State/Davos/etc. just kill him off before the inauguration? It’s a real conundrum.

So, I say, turn about is fair play. Biden was Obama’s insurance policy, make Gabbard Trump’s. Because, if there is one person of all the people on the short list to be Trump’s VP that Davos et.al. do not want to see on the ticket it is Tulsi Gabbard. Because she really is that person who walked away from power, has a strong moral center, and is authentically motivated by service. And that motivation, coupled with their previous shots against her, like they’ve done with Trump, should scare them maybe more than he does.

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“..Liz Peek said Musk and his companies were under investigation by the Department of Justice, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

• Musk Enters 2024 Fight With ‘Sizable’ Gift To Trump Super PAC (ZH)

There’s been another major plot twist in the 2024 election saga, as Elon Musk has made a “sizable donation” to a super PAC working to return Donald Trump to the White House. Completing something of a Black Friday for Democrats, the story broke just hours after the New York Times reported that major donors had frozen $90 million pledged donations commitments to Biden’s top super PAC, having concluded that Biden is a dead man walking — politically if not otherwise. The news comes four months after Musk said he was staying on the sidelines: The world’s richest man clearly had a change of heart: Citing anonymous sources “close to the matter,” Bloomberg on Friday evening broke the potentially game-changing news that Musk had given money to America PAC, which is largely focused on “ground-game” initiatives, such as voter-canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts. Among the constellation of Trump-backing groups, America PAC is spending the most money of any of them on direct voter outreach.

The amount of Musk’s donation wasn’t disclosed, but Bloomberg said sources “characterized the figure as a sizable amount.” Per Federal Election Commission rules, the PAC will provide its updated list of donors on Monday. While super PACs aren’t allowed to contribute directly to candidates or parties, or “coordinate” their efforts, they can collect unlimited contributions. With a Forbes-estimated net worth of $250 billion, Musk has obvious potential to fundamentally alter a fundraising war in which Democrats were already reeling from the mushrooming effects of President Biden’s disastrous performance in his June 27 debate with Trump, his poor interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and gaffe-filled NATO summit press events on Thursday. The donation seemingly completes a political metamorphosis: Musk has said he voted for Barack Obama, gave money to and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

However, Musk has displayed growing discontent with Democrats’ approach to a variety of issues. One of them is border control: Earlier this year, Musk told an audience that “unvetted immigration at large scale is a recipe for disaster.” He’s also called out Democrats’ opposition to photo-ID requirements for voting, saying the “far left” wants to make it “impossible to prove voter fraud.” Over the weekend, he expressed dismay at Biden’s commitment to veto a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote. In 2022, Musk tweeted that he voted for a Republican for the first time, backing Texas Republican Mayra Flores in a special US House election. Last month, Musk told Tesla shareholders that he’s “had some conversations with [Trump], and he does call me, out of the blue, for no reason… I don’t know why, but he does.”

In what may be a more potent motivator than policy issues, Musk repeatedly finds himself in the crosshairs of Democrats’ weaponized government, with a federal target on his back since buying Twitter in 2022 with a goal of ridding it of its leftist, government-serving censorship regime. Within two weeks of Musk closing on the purchase, Biden told reporters that “Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at. Whether he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting they’re worth being looked at.” With an ominously whimsical tone, he concluded, “there’s a lot of ways…” Summarizing the breadth of the attacks at The Hill in December, Liz Peek said Musk and his companies were under investigation by the Department of Justice, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Musk has expressed concern over Trump’s own victimization via politically-motivated lawfare, as he did in May when the former president was convicted in New York on mindbendingly-contrived charges relating to his 2016 funding of hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, who’d claimed the two had a one-night intimate encounter in 2006. The Trump campaign’s financial fortunes changed dramatically after that conviction, as irate sympathizers expressed their outrage with dollars, vaulting him into the lead. Musk’s entry into the game exacerbates Democrats’ dire situation, and is certain to accelerate efforts to jettison Biden from the top of the ticket…while exponentially increasing the anguish of leftists who thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Biden Elon The dumbest brain in the US talks about the smartest one.

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“Restoring his access is like handing your car keys to someone you know will drive your car into a crowd and off a cliff..”

• Trump’s Facebook, Instagram Restrictions Rolled Back (RT)

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Friday it would lift its restrictions on content posted by former US President Donald Trump. While the former US president’s accounts were unblocked 17 months ago, Meta had maintained limits on his ability to post. “Former President Trump, as the nominee of the Republican Party, will no longer be subject to the heightened suspension penalties”, the statement read. Meta claimed the penalties were imposed in response to “extreme and extraordinary circumstances.” Trump was booted from the platforms following the riot at the US Capitol in January 2021. Facebook’s parent company announced in January 2023 that it would reinstate Trump’s accounts but that he faced “heightened penalties for repeat offenses” as a way to “deter” a repeat of previous behavior.

“American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis,” Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, wrote in a blog post on Friday. Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has condemned Meta’s move. “Restoring his access is like handing your car keys to someone you know will drive your car into a crowd and off a cliff,” Biden campaign spokesperson Charles Lutvak told The Hill. “Without question, it is a direct attack on our safety and our democracy,” Lutvak slammed the decision, claiming it will allow Trump to reach Americans with “fundamentally undemocratic, un-American misinformation.”

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“..The group primarily includes veterans of the Obama and Clinton administrations..”

• Democrats Plotting To Oust Biden From Race – Axios (RT)

A growing number of “very-connected” Democrats are scheming to get US President Joe Biden to withdraw from the election race, Axios reported on Friday, citing “members” of this committee. The group primarily includes veterans of the Obama and Clinton administrations, who are seeking to field a candidate they believe has a better chance of winning the November election. The two former presidents are apparently supporting the group by having kept mostly silent since they publicly offered support for Biden following his disastrous debate against Donald Trump last month. “Silence is a very loud form of speech. No one is saying ‘come hell or high water,’” said James Carville, a veteran political assistant and one of the key figures behind Bill Clinton’s campaign. The members of the clandestine group insist it has no actual leadership or benefactor behind it, describing it instead as a ‘network’ of like-minded individuals.

“No one is more than one person away from everyone else,” an unnamed member of the group described as a “central player” told Axios. So far, the public campaign to pressure Biden into dropping out, launched by prominent elected Democrats and major party donors, has flopped and apparently produced an opposite effect, making the incumbent president adamant about his desire to win reelection. “The Clinton diaspora is freaking the hell out. But all these people going on the record aren’t helping. All it seems to have done is cause the Bidens to dig in deeper,” an anonymous former official from the Clinton White House said.

Still, it remains unclear whether the covert approach to the Biden problem will work either, given that the president has an overwhelming majority of Democratic delegates backing him for the nomination in August, a “veteran operative” member of the group admitted. They added that a decision to withdraw his candidacy can be taken only by Biden himself. “You need a psychiatrist more than a spin doctor,” he told Axios. The push to oust Biden from the race was prompted by his subpar performance during the first presidential debate in late June. The US president and his campaign have provided various excuses for the debacle, including that he had a cold, dismissing concerns over the state of his health. Over the past two weeks, Biden has repeatedly said he will not drop out of the race, insisting that he is the only person fit to beat Trump in the upcoming election.

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Blackmailing? Is that the word you’re looking for?

• Major Donors Blackmailing US Democrats Over Biden – NYT (RT)

An estimated $90 million in donations to a group key to US President Joe Biden’s campaign has been put on hold until the Democrats replace him, the New York Times reported on Friday. The Times cited two unnamed sources “briefed on the conversations” between major donors and Future Forward, a political action committee (PAC) that was expected to raise $700 million for Biden’s re-election. “Multiple eight-figure commitments” are currently frozen and the PAC is “in a defensive crouch” until it is clarified whom the Democrats will actually run in November, according to the Times. The Biden campaign tapped Future Forward as its main super PAC in the 2024 race, and the group has already announced it would spend $250 million on TV and digital advertising after the Democratic National Convention next month.

Following Biden’s catastrophic performance at the June 27 debate with Republican challenger and former president Donald Trump, however, the PAC tested potential alternatives. The poll was later leaked to the media and showed Biden with “a worse overall favorability rating than all the alternatives,” which included Vice President Kamala Harris, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The current president has doubled down on staying in the White House. “I believe I’m the best qualified to govern. And I think I’m the best qualified to win,” Biden told reporters at a press conference on Thursday. While the White House and the campaign have held up the press event as proof that Biden was doing just fine, Democrats in Washington continued to lament the present situation.

“Candidates and campaigns are supposed to make you feel something – hope, optimism, courage – but instead most of us felt nothing after that presser. And feeling nothing is how you lose elections,” a veteran Democratic operative told Politico. A Democrat member of the US House of Representatives told the same outlet that a group of “super friends” is getting together, with the intent to make their case to the White House that Biden has to step aside because “we’re going to get our asses kicked if he doesn’t.” On Thursday, several Biden campaign aides told NBC that Biden will “never recover” and that they saw no path to victory, describing his chances in November as “zero.” Multiple Democrats have raised concerns that down-ballot races might be put at risk, costing the party seats in Congress.

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The “Unofficial Committee to Unelect the President”.

• Democratic Party Insiders Struggle to Force Biden Out (Miles)

As concern mounts over the president’s political viability Biden is reportedly intent on proving his critics wrong. A loose alliance of donors, campaign advisors and other party leaders are working to convince Joe Biden to abandon his campaign for reelection without bruising the US president’s ego, according to reports in US media. But the “unofficial Committee to Unelect the President” is struggling to convince the famously stubborn head of state, according to insiders familiar with the matter, with Biden only becoming more determined as Democratic Party figures intensify their efforts. “It’s hard to deny that in the two weeks since the debate, it’s the arrogant and small Joe Biden we’ve seen most – hanging on, bragging, defensive, angry, weak,” wrote former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett on X. “Who else but him? he wonders aloud. Only God could change his mind, he tells us.”

Lovett, who has disparaged the octogenarian president’s refusal to bow out on his Pod Save America podcast, has been among Biden’s most prominent liberal critics in recent days. But he is joined by several others. The editorial boards of The New York Times and the Washington Post have been unsparing in their admonishment since the president’s performance during a debate against former President Donald Trump last month sparked public concern over his mental acuity. Many media personalities have joined the chorus. “I think that Biden debated as well as Abraham Lincoln,” said late-night television host Stephen Colbert Monday. “If you dug him up right now.” Former Clinton and Obama operatives have also chimed in. “President Biden is a historic figure, and a lot of that is gonna be tainted if he persists and loses this race,” said Obama chief strategist David Axelrod. Clinton strategist James Carville said keeping Biden on as the Democratic Party’s nominee would be an “idiotic choice” that would lead to “disaster.”

“Silence is a very loud form of speech,” the political advisor added, noting that party leaders who voiced continued support for Biden immediately after last month’s debate have grown quiet in recent days. Beyond the relative few Democratic Party figures who have publicly called for Biden to drop out are dozens more who have privately voiced concerns and are working behind the scenes to convince the president, according to insiders.But Biden remains convinced he is the best candidate to defeat Trump, pointing to his victory in 2020 and the Democrats’ better-than-expected performance in the 2022 midterm elections. The president is reportedly motivated by an intense desire to prove his detractors wrong, something that has driven him since his early days in politics. “You need a psychiatrist more than a spin doctor,” one longtime campaign operative told the online outlet Axios.

Biden is one of the longest-tenured figures in national US politics, first being elected to the Senate in 1972. He is considered a conservative politician, historically taking right-wing positions on issues from segregation to drug policy and criminal justice. His previous attempts to seek the presidency flamed out after a plagiarism scandal and comments in 2007 that many people deemed racially offensive. “You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said of then-candidate Barack Obama. He apologized for the remark and Obama later chose him as his running mate the following year, elevating him to the vice presidency when the ticket won the 2008 election.

Democratic Party leaders intervened heavily in 2020’s primary to ensure Biden won the presidential nomination after Senator Bernie Sanders’ insurgent candidacy seemed inevitable. Now those same insiders appear powerless to remove him from the pedestal they placed him on. One strategist claimed a “donor strike” is underway, with powerful financial backers of the party moving funds to congressional races and away from Biden’s presidential campaign. George Clooney, Netflix founder Reed Hastings and businessman Ari Emanuel are reportedly among the wealthy figures seeking a candidate to replace Biden. With last month’s House primary between George Latimer and Jamaal Bowman shaping up to be the most expensive in history, money is more important than ever in competitive US politics. If contributions to his campaign effort dry up, insiders say Biden’s hand could finally be forced, with billionaire donors casting the most powerful vote in America’s pay-to-play system.

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Second.

• Viktor Orbán Deserves The Nobel Peace Prize (RM)

Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, stands out for his audacity and persistence in the realm of contemporary politics. His tireless efforts in diplomacy and steadfast commitment to national and global stability merit serious consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize. His relentless pursuit of peace, even amidst widespread criticism, underscores the kind of leadership the world desperately needs today. The Nobel Peace Prize, despite its controversies, remains one of the highest accolades for contributions to global peace and reconciliation. Historical recipients, from the European Union in 2012 for turning Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace, to Henry Kissinger and Barack Obama for their diplomatic endeavors, have set a precedent for recognizing transformative efforts in international relations. While some decisions have sparked debate, the prize continues to honor those who genuinely strive for global harmony.

For over two decades Viktor Orban has been a central figure in Hungarian politics. His tenure has seen Hungary navigate through the 2008 financial crisis and emerge with strengthened national sovereignty and economic stability. Orban’s policies have focused on reducing national debt, increasing employment, and supporting families, thereby fostering a social cohesion that is essential for lasting peace. Economic stability, after all, is a cornerstone of societal tranquility. Recently, Orban’s diplomatic missions have further highlighted his unwavering commitment to peace. As the head of the rotating EU presidency, he has been at the forefront of international diplomacy, particularly concerning the Ukraine conflict. His proactive visits to key leaders—including Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev, Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Xi Jinping in Beijing, and next, Donald Trump in Florida—demonstrate his dedication to engaging with global leaders and promoting dialogue. These are not mere photo opportunities but substantive efforts to foster real change.

Orbán’s vigorous diplomatic activities have undoubtedly stirred the waters in Brussels. Critics argue that Orban’s methods sometimes breach diplomatic protocols, but his engagement with pivotal figures in the Ukraine conflict illustrates the kind of bravery and initiative that many modern politicians lack. Orban’s actions transcend superficial diplomacy; he is actively striving to move continents towards real solutions during a time of great division. Orban’s peace efforts have drawn significant criticism, especially from European and German political leaders. However, his bold and relentless pursuit of peace positions him as a modern-day Robin Hood, fighting for stability and harmony in Europe. While many leaders prefer the comfort of their offices, Orban is on the global stage, engaging with world leaders and taking decisive steps to bring about peace.

Many politicians focus on short-term gains and superficial gestures, but Orban stands out as a leader willing to take bold actions for the greater good. His approach to diplomacy—meeting with adversaries, challenging the status quo, and prioritizing long-term stability over fleeting popularity—lays the groundwork for meaningful peace talks and steps toward the de-escalation of the Ukraine conflict. These substantial contributions to peace warrant recognition. Viktor Orban embodies the spirit of a modern-day Robin Hood, daring to undertake actions that many politicians shy away from. For his relentless pursuit of peace and stability, Orban deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

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“Ukraine has been attacked by- by Russia. So the most important thing we should do is to step up our support to Ukraine to ensure that Ukraine prevails,..

• Russia Initiates Call With Pentagon On Ukraine and NATO (ZH)

In a rare positive development, the heads of the US and Russian militaries have held a rare phone call in an effort to deescalate tensions. But Moscow is livid at certain recent developments and pledges from the West. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday spoke by phone Russian Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov for the second time in less than a month. The call was initiated by Moscow just after the close of the NATO summit hosted by Biden in Washington this week. A Pentagon readout said Austin “emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told a briefing. The two sides had been quiet since a call in March 2023, but communications have been picking up, after a June 25th call which reestablished communications.

But Russia likely registered its anger at the NATO summit committing to an “irreversible path” for Ukraine’s NATO membership. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg still admitted in will be a very long path, as much as ten years or more. He said in a CBS News interview days ago: “Well, no one has said exactly 10 years but- but- but it’s obvious that it is a very serious issue to bring in Ukraine. Because Ukraine is now a country at war.” “Ukraine has been attacked by- by Russia. So the most important thing we should do is to step up our support to Ukraine to ensure that Ukraine prevails,” he continued. “That’s a precondition for any future membership for Ukraine.” According to The Hill, another recent issue which has roiled Russia and was likely conveyed by Belousov to Austin, is seen in the following:

“What’s more, NATO has backed Ukraine’s push for more latitude in its use of Western-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, with the United Kingdom announcing it would allow Kyiv to hit targets over Russian borders with British-provided long-range missiles.” There’s also the US decision to deploy long-range missiles to Europe in violation of the previously in place INF treaty, which the US pulled out of in 2019. The missiles are expected to be deployed to Germany soon. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned this could make Germany or other places in Europe a target: “There has always been a paradoxical situation: the United States has deployed a variety of missiles of different ranges in Europe, which are traditionally aimed at our country,” he said, and warned: “Accordingly, our country designated European locations as targets for our missiles.”

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“..support the Palestinian people and respond to the American and British airstrikes on Yemen.”

• The Yemen–Russia Riddle (Pepe Escobar)

Yemen’s stellar strategic maneuvering in defense of Palestine from its dramatically ascendant role in West Asia’s Axis of Resistance is acquiring the contours of an epic odyssey – eagerly scrutinized by the Global Majority. As if the unprecedented humiliation of the US Navy in the Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea was not enough, Ansarallah targeted an Israeli ship with a Hatem-2 hypersonic missile, a remarkable advancement in indigenous technological development. These prodigious strategic-military advances displayed by Ansarallah at the same time revived the always simmering, unfinished war and blockade launched against Yemen in 2015 by Saudi Arabia and the UAE with the usual US and UK backing.

Riyadh abhors the Yemeni resistance like the plague. Instead of Sanaa, Yemen’s recognized capital city, it supports an anti-Ansarallah’ government’ sitting in Aden, sort of recognized by the ‘rules-based international order.’ In truth, though, that government actually sits in a luxury Riyadh hotel. Ansarallah has tried hard to negotiate a prisoner exchange involving captured Saudi pilots traded for jailed Hamas members in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has not only refused but threatened that bank transfers to and from Yemen would be blocked, and Sanaa’s international airport and sea ports would be shut down. Ansarallah’s response was stark: if Yemeni banking is blocked, the Saudi Arabian banking system would be destroyed. If Sanaa airport is targeted, the same would happen to Saudi airports.

So, the war that never ended is suddenly and ominously back on track. Ansarallah would have no problem targeting Saudi Arabia’s oil production as retaliation to a full blockade – considering its proven capability with brand-new missiles and naval drones. The consequences for global oil markets would be catastrophic. Yemen represents the classic case of a fierce resistance actor in the context of the emerging multipolar, multi-nodal world. So that begs the question of where multipolar/multi-nodal champion Russia stands when it comes to Yemen’s fight. Which brings us to the fascinating case of two Yemeni delegations that recently visited Moscow. One of them, led by a senior Ansarallah official, met in Moscow with the Russian President’s Special Envoy to the Middle East (West Asia) and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov.

They discussed not only the ongoing Gaza genocide but also what Ansarallah describes as “the American–British aggression on Yemen,” a reference to ongoing western naval operations in the Red Sea that have – unsuccessfully – sought for months to thwart Yemeni ops against Israel-bound and Israel-associated shipping vessels. A retaliatory siege, if you will. The Yemenis reassured the Russians that their maritime operations “do not pose a threat to international navigation or target anyone, but rather support the Palestinian people and respond to the American and British airstrikes on Yemen.” Ansarallah praised Russia’s understanding and expressed gratitude for:

Russia’s position against the American–British aggression on Yemen and their support for the humanitarian and political process in our country. We also reviewed the outcomes of the de-escalation efforts between Yemen and the aggressor countries and highlighted the necessity of reaching a comprehensive solution that ensures Yemen’s unity and sovereignty.

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“..While Washington continues to “profit” from the escalation, the EU nations are only serving as targets in the standoff..”

• European Cities Prime Targets For Russian Missiles – Moscow (RT)

Moscow has enough capabilities to counter such hostile moves by Washington as its just-announced deployment of new missiles to Europe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. European nations, however, are only becoming victims of the standoff between the US and Russia. The spokesman made the remarks to Russian Journalist Pavel Zarubin, who published the excerpts of the interview on his social media on Saturday. “There has always been a paradoxical situation: the US deployed different types of missiles, of different ranges, but traditionally aimed at our country. Our country, accordingly, identified European locations as targets for our missiles,” Peskov stated. While Washington continues to “profit” from the escalation, the EU nations are only serving as targets in the standoff, Peskov explained.

“Our country is in the crosshairs of American missiles located in Europe. We’ve been through all this before. All this has already happened. We have enough potential to deter these missiles. But the potential victims are the capitals of these states,” he said. On Wednesday, Washington announced plans to start deploying long-range weapons in Germany in 2026, including SM-6 and Tomahawk systems, “as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future.” Moscow has already vowed to “calmly” prepare a military response to the hostile move, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov describing the plans as “one of the elements of intimidation that, today, is almost the main component of the NATO and US” approach towards Russia.

In late June, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Moscow could resume the production and global deployment of ground-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles in response to the hostile actions of the US. “We now know that the US is not only producing these missile systems but has also brought them to Europe, Denmark, to use in exercises. Not long ago, it was reported that they were in the Philippines. It is unclear whether they have taken these missiles out of the Philippines or not,” Putin said at the time. The munitions of this type were restricted by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which collapsed in 2019. However, Moscow has abstained from producing and deploying them, as long as Washington also refrained from doing so.

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Democracy.

• 72% of Israelis Want Netanyahu To Resign – Poll (RT)

Nearly three quarters of Israelis want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign over his government’s failures during the October 7 Hamas attack, according to a poll published by Channel 12 on Friday. Of the 72% of respondents who said that the prime minister should step down, 44% believe he should leave office immediately, while 28% suggested he should resign after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conclude their military operation in Gaza. Israeli citizens have repeatedly organized protest rallies against Netanyahu since the war in Gaza erupted, with many calling for a ceasefire and urging the government to bring back the remaining hostages held by Hamas. On October 7 last year, Hamas and allied Palestinian militants carried out a surprise raid on Israeli military bases, villages and farming communities.

In many places, the IDF were seemingly caught off-guard and quickly overwhelmed, as civilians were forced to either defend themselves or flee. The Israeli media described the attack as a “devastating intelligence failure,” with Channel 12 reporting that the army failed to properly maintain a signal system at the border with Gaza. The York Times reported in November that Israeli intelligence and military officials obtained Hamas’s plan for the October 7 incursion more than a year before it occurred, but believed it was too unrealistic to pull off. On Thursday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant urged the government to form a state commission that would investigate the failures in response to the October 7 raid. Netanyahu, however, has argued that such a probe can only be launched after the war ends.

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“Israel’s GDP fell by nearly 20% from October to December 2023..”

• Israeli Newspaper Says Country ‘Collapsing’ as 46,000 Businesses Shutter (Sp.)

Israel’s GDP fell by nearly 20% from October to December 2023, though it rebounded with a 14% gain the next quarter, that was less than economists expected. Roughly 46,000 Israeli businesses have shut down since October 7, according to the Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv. The Israeli economy has been declining rapidly since it launched its campaign in Gaza,particularly after the Yemen Ansar Allah movement (aka Houthi) and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon have been taking action in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthis have blockaded the Red Sea from ships it says are connected with Israel or the United States. Because of their actions, the southern port of Eilat –the country’s busiest port before the war– has been virtually shut down since October 2023. Exacerbating the situation further, foreign tourism has also collapsed during the war, and as of December, nearly half a million Israelis have left the country and that was before tensions inflamed significantly between Iran and Israel.

Meanwhile, the Ansar Allah movement has been attacking Israel’s north, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate the area, virtually wiping out businesses in the area. However, businesses around all of Israel are struggling, the paper said, with construction and ancillary industries being hurt the most but it noted that nearly every industry is being affected. Yoel Amir the CEO of Coface Bdi, a services and credit risk management firm, told the paper that they estimate 60,000 Israeli businesses could shut down by the end of the year. “This is a very high number that encompasses many sectors. About 77 percent of the businesses that have been closed since the beginning of the war, which make up about 35,000 businesses, are small businesses with up to five employees, and are the most vulnerable in the economy,” Amir said.

In December, South Africa brought a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide. Since then, a dozen countries have joined it and many more have publicly welcomed the case. More than 38,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and another nearly 88,300 have been seriously injured in Gaza since Israel began its campaign, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. That number is largely assumed to be a massive undercount because of a lack of health services and thousands who remain missing are presumed to be buried under the rubble. A recent study by the British medical journal The Lancet estimates that more than 186,000 Palestinians have likely died as either a direct or indirect result of the Israeli campaign.

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“..successfully delivered 200,000 tons of wheat to six low-income African nations, free of charge, making it the biggest humanitarian initiative ever conducted by Russia.”

• Africans Support Russia – EU’s Borrell (RT)

The EU’s chief diplomat has expressed surprise at the high level of backing for Russian President Vladimir Putin among people in Africa. “In Africa, people support Putin. They say Putin saved Donbass,” Josep Borrell said on Thursday, speaking at the NATO Public Forum. Borrell emphasized the need for a new approach to defense, focusing on information warfare rather than traditional military tactics. “We need a different army. We need people watching the network and people explaining what is going on, reprogramming the listeners, giving them correct information, in order to prevent an intervention in electoral processes,” the EU foreign policy chief stated.

“Don’t dismiss this kind of war. It’s not just sending bombs and tanks, it’s just sending news and occupying the cyberspace. And on that the European Union has a certain important contribution to do,” he claimed. In May, in an exclusive interview with RT, Chadian envoy Mahamoud Adam Bechir stated that Putin’s reelection was beneficial not only for the Russian people, but for the entire world, including Africa. Bechir said Putin had strengthened relations with Africa, adding that Russia is led by a “great president.” Meanwhile, during a meeting with the Russian President on February 20, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev reported that Moscow had successfully delivered 200,000 tons of wheat to six low-income African nations, free of charge, making it the biggest humanitarian initiative ever conducted by Russia.

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“..there’s no way a responsible African will abandon Russia, China or the BRICS alliance in favor of NATO or Western interests..”

• ‘Borrell Views Africa As ‘Jungle Full Of Zombies’ (RT)

Western powers lack moral authority when they try to impose their interests on African nations, former Nigerian presidential contender Adamu Garba II has told RT. The politician was reacting to controversial ideas expressed by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell earlier this week. While speaking about European influence internationally, he voiced surprise at the level of pro-Russia sentiment among African people, and argued that information warfare tools should be developed to counter “disinformation.” “Don’t dismiss this kind of war. It’s not just sending bombs and tanks, it’s just sending news and occupying the cyberspace,” Borrell warned. “We need people watching the network and people explaining what is going on, reprogramming the listeners, giving them correct information.” Adamu Garba II said that judging by Borrel’s statements, he appears to view Western Europe as a guardian for other parts of the world.

“Perhaps he sees Africa as a jungle full of zombies that can be programmed to do their interests,” the politician joked, in an apparent reference to another controversial idea from Borrel. In 2022, the diplomat declared that Europeans live in a “garden,” while most of the outside world is a “jungle.” He later apologized for his words, which drew a wave of condemnation. On relations with Moscow, Adamu Garba II said: “there’s no way a responsible African will abandon Russia, China or the BRICS alliance in favor of NATO or Western interests, who do everything possible to take our resources from us.” The BRICS group of non-Western economies, founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011, has become an attractive alliance for African nations, with some expressing their will to join. Speaking on the sidelines of the BRICS Parliamentary Forum in St. Petersburg this week, Ethiopian parliament speaker Agegnehu Teshager told RT that “most of the African countries have an appetite to be a member of BRICS.”

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AI for profit is dangerous.

• ChatGPT Maker Secretly Developing New Type Of AI – Reuters (RT)

OpenAI, the creator of virtual assistant ChatGPT, is working on a novel approach to its artificial intelligence technology, Reuters has reported. As part of the project, code-named ‘Strawberry,’ the Microsoft-backed firm is trying to drastically improve the reasoning capabilities of its models, the agency said in an article on Friday. The way Strawberry works is “a tightly kept secret” even within OpenAI itself, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The source said the project involves a “specialized way” of processing an AI model after it has been pre-trained on extensive datasets. Its aim is to enable artificial intelligence to not just generate answers to queries, but to plan ahead sufficiently to conduct so-called “deep research,” by navigating the internet autonomously and reliably, the source explained. Reuters said it had reviewed an internal OpenAI document, detailing a plan for how the US firm could deploy Strawberry to perform research.

However, the agency said it was not able not establish when the technology will become available to the public. The source described the project as a “work in progress.” When addressed on the issue, an OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters: “We want our AI models to see and understand the world more like we [humans] do. Continuous research into new AI capabilities is a common practice in the industry, with a shared belief that these systems will improve in reasoning over time.” The spokesperson did not address Strawberry directly in his response. Current AI large language models are capable of summarizing vast amounts of text and putting together coherent prose quicker than people do, but usually struggle with common sense solutions that are intuitive to humans. When this happens, the models often “hallucinate” by trying to represent false or misleading information as facts.

Researchers who talked to Reuters said that reasoning, which has so far eluded AI models, is key to artificial intelligence achieving human or super-human level. Last week, one of the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and a pioneer in deep learning, Yoshua Bengio, again warned of the “many risks,” including possible “extinction of humanity,” posed by private corporations racing to achieve AI of human-level and beyond. ”Entities that are smarter than humans and that have their own goals: are we sure they will act towards our well-being?” the Montreal University professor and scientific director of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) said in an article on his website. Bengio urged the scientific community and society as a whole to make “a massive collective effort” to figure out ways to keep advanced AI in check.

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Kate
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Cora

 

 

Meonk

 

 

Mission
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Mother’s love
https://twitter.com/i/status/1812075811857396034

 

 

Adopt don’t shop
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