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Debt Rattle April 4 2026

Apr 042026
 
 April 4, 2026  Posted by at 9:47 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  35 Responses »


Paul Gauguin Apatarao 1893


• Strait of Hormuz Won’t Return to Pre-War Status Quo – Iranian Official (RT)
• EU To Be Hostile Alliance For Russia, Worse Than NATO – Medvedev (TASS)
• Western Leaders Demand More Sacrifices From Their People (RT)
• Germany’s Economy Minister Urges Nuclear Rethink As Energy Prices Surge (ZH)
• Bondi’s Replacement is Important, But Not as Important as Perceived (CTH)
• Is This the REAL Reason Trump Fired Pam Bondi? (Matt Margolis)
• Why States Are Right to Reject AI Legal Personhood (ET)
• Trump Offers Cabinet Position With Perks, Power, and Zero Job Security (Turley)
• The Red Line (James Howard Kunstler)
• Most Powerful Energy Crisis In Human History Is Looming – Putin Envoy (RT)
• Primary Fundraising Mechanism of Democrats Accepted Foreign Donations (CTH)
• HUGE March Jobs Report Leaves Democrats Speechless (Margolis)
• Chicago Bulls Release Forward After He Speaks Out Against Pride Month (Turley)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2039840056316186806?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2039925796454772799?s=20 https://twitter.com/TRUMP_ARMY_/status/2040004781306208600?s=20 https://twitter.com/Nob0dymyname/status/2039622739867103741?s=20

 


 

 


 


“The key waterway is closed for the US and its allies, but ships from other countries are able to use it, the official told RT..” A French ship crossed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. Is there hope from that angle?

• Strait of Hormuz Won’t Return to Pre-War Status Quo – Iranian Official (RT)

The Strait of Hormuz will not return to the status quo enjoyed before the US-Israeli war against Iran, a security official has told RT. The waterway, through which around 20% of seaborne crude oil trade passes, remains effectively closed due to the fighting during the past month. The deadlock has caused economic strains for many countries – including the US, where gas prices surpassed $4 per gallon earlier this week. The Iranian official said in an interview with RT on Thursday that the “conditions in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the pre-war status quo.”


At the moment, transit through the waterway “remains operational,” but ships “are subject to the approval of the Iranian side and require the flag state of the vessel to establish contact with Tehran,” he said, adding: “To date, no vessel belonging to the enemy or its partners has been granted permission to pass,” referring to the US, Israel, and their allies. The Iranian authorities have established a “secure route” through the strait, the official said. “Given the insecurity caused by American aggression across various parts of the Persian Gulf, this corridor remains the only viable path for the transport of goods and products.”

He also urged the international media “to ignore the disinformation campaigns by the US-Israeli side and [US President Donald] Trump personally.”“Iranian regulation and control over the Strait continues and will persist,” he told RT. In an address to the nation on Thursday, Trump suggested that countries that depend on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz should “build up some delayed courage… and just take it.” He added that the waterway could “open up naturally” after the war ends, without providing details.

Earlier this week, the Iranian parliament approved a “new regime,” according to which Tehran will collect payment from ships going through the strait. Lloyd’s List magazine said earlier that one vessel has already paid $2 million for transit. Tasnim news agency estimated that Tehran could make around $100 billion annually under the scheme once traffic in the strait is fully restored.

Read more …

“European political freaks, especially in Brussels, are seriously thinking about creating a full-fledged military component within the EU..”

• EU To Be Hostile Alliance For Russia, Worse Than NATO – Medvedev (TASS)

The European Union could turn into an extremely hostile military alliance toward Russia, “worse than NATO,” Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council, said on Max. “It is obvious that there are powerful contradictions within the alliance, which have been exacerbated by the Iranian campaign. And European political freaks, especially in Brussels, are seriously thinking about creating a full-fledged military component within the EU. But this is altering the picture of the world,” Medvedev warned. He said until now the Russian rhetoric about EU membership has been restrained and calm in relation to all neighbors, even to Ukraine: join it, if you want.


“But now everything has to change – now the EU is no longer an economic union. It can quickly turn into a full-fledged and extremely hostile military alliance against Russia, in some ways worse than NATO,” the politician said. “It will be a disgusting rabble of rabid European parasites and their task will be to earn political capital and, of course, dough by inflating Russophobic hysteria. It’s time to abandon the tolerant attitude towards joining the military-economic European Union of our neighbors.” Medvedev said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had already done this neatly when he told Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that Moscow was calm about the development of Yerevan’s relations with the EU, but Armenia would not be able to be in two customs unions at once – the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union.

Read more …

Until the people say no more.

• Western Leaders Demand More Sacrifices From Their People (RT)

The leaders of the UK and Australia have told their citizens to cut fuel consumption and prepare for months of hardship as a result of the US-Israeli war with Iran. But Keir Starmer and Anthony Albanese couldn’t bring themselves to name who’s responsible. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, delivered a pair of seemingly coordinated addresses to their nations on Wednesday. “The economic shocks caused by [the Iran war] will be with us for months,” Albanese said, telling Australians to switch to public transport if possible, and promising to cut fuel taxes and prepare for the possibility that “the global situation gets worse and our fuel supplies are seriously disrupted.”


“Australia is not an active participant in this war,” he claimed, despite his government being the first in the world to back the US and Israel’s opening strikes on Iran on February 28. Starmer struck a similar tone, declaring that “this is not our war,” but warning that “the impact of this war will affect the future of our country.” The British PM promised that “no matter how fierce this storm is, we are well placed to weather it,” and vowed to help “reopen” the Strait of Hormuz.

How bad is the energy crisis?
The US-Israeli war with Iran has triggered the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s, if not in history. Around 40% of the world’s oil comes from the Middle East. Nearly a third of the world’s seaborne crude oil transits the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway less than 40 km wide at its narrowest point, which through a combination of Iranian attacks on tankers and hesitance by Western insurers, is de facto closed to maritime traffic. Additionally, Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Gulf states hosting American troops have taken refineries and export terminals out of action. Qatar, which supplies 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG), completely halted production almost a month ago.

As a result, Brent oil prices – which serve as a barometer for 80% of the world’s crude oil – have sat above $100 per barrel for three weeks, while gas prices have surged 60% in the EU and more than 100% in the UK. While the crisis is global, its effects are particularly acute in the EU, UK, and Australia, all of which have sanctioned Russian oil and gas, shutting themselves off from a potential lifeline amid the crisis. The EU once relied on Russia for 45% of its gas imports, before switching to more expensive American and Qatari supplies after 2022. With no date in sight for the resumption of Qatari imports, and with inflation spiking across Europe, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned last week that “we are facing a real shock…probably beyond what we can imagine at the moment.”

The Strait of Hormuz was open to maritime traffic until the US and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran in the middle of nuclear talks. However, neither Starmer nor Albanese mentioned the US or Israel in their speeches. Instead, both the UK and Australia issued a joint statement – along with 32 other US allies in Europe and the Gulf – blaming the closure of the strait squarely on “Iran’s actions.” “We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping,” the statement reads, accusing Tehran of posing “a threat to international peace and security.

Read more …

You can’t just have a “Nuclear Rethink”. It’ll take a decade at the very minimum.

• Germany’s Economy Minister Urges Nuclear Rethink As Energy Prices Surge (ZH)

Germany’s Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has openly called for a fundamental reassessment of the country’s long-standing rejection of nuclear power, warning that heavy dependence on gas has left Europe’s largest economy dangerously exposed to repeated energy shocks. Speaking at the launch of a new international investor conference aimed at drawing foreign capital into Germany, Reiche told the Financial Times that the decision by previous governments to phase out nuclear generation has eliminated any realistic alternative for reliable baseload electricity. “We need gas to secure our supply – that is the only baseload supply I have left,” she said. “Politically speaking, I have no alternative.”


Reiche, a senior figure in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, made the remarks as fresh data highlighted the mounting costs of the nuclear exit, originally decided under Angela Merkel in 2011 and completed under Olaf Scholz. While the policy was accompanied by a massive push for renewables, it has left Germany more reliant on gas-fired power stations to keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. European gas prices have risen more than 60 per cent since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, delivering the continent’s second major energy price crisis in under five years. Futures contracts for German electricity in May are trading at four times the level seen in France, Europe’s biggest nuclear producer, according to the energy exchange EEX.

Reiche urged Germany to stop sitting on the sidelines of Europe’s nuclear revival. France, Sweden and Poland are all either building new reactors or extending the life of existing ones, attracted by the technology’s ability to deliver large volumes of low-carbon, dispatchable power. “We can decide that we are not interested. Then we stick to gas and become more dependent on one energy source,” she said. “Or we can say that we are interested in technology again.” With Germany’s renowned engineering expertise, Reiche argued the country should at minimum engage constructively in European nuclear projects and international forums. “Anyone standing on the sidelines simply commenting loses influence. You must be on the pitch if you want to play.”

The vulnerability of Germany’s gas strategy was brutally exposed after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine cut off pipeline supplies. Berlin was forced to pivot rapidly to liquefied natural gas, much of it from the United States, which now accounts for around 10 per cent of the country’s gas supply. Energy costs have remained stubbornly high ever since. In the second half of 2025, gas prices for private households were 79 per cent above 2021 levels, while electricity prices rose 23 per cent, official statistics show. The latest price spike is already hammering industry and derailing growth forecasts. A consortium of leading German economic institutes warned on Wednesday that the energy shock would erase more than half the GDP growth previously expected for 2026.

The new projection is just 0.6 per cent, down from 1.3 per cent in September, with 2027 growth seen at 0.9 per cent. Reiche acknowledged the strain on energy-intensive sectors but insisted Germany faced no immediate supply shortages. She noted that Chancellor Merz, who heads a year-old coalition between the CDU and Social Democrats, has long described the nuclear phase-out as a “huge mistake.” While the government has ruled out restarting closed conventional reactors, it is now supporting research into small modular reactors and nuclear fusion. Merz has also pledged to end Germany’s previous opposition to nuclear power at EU level.

The renewed energy debate comes as Berlin battles to revive an economy weighed down by high costs, Chinese competition and structural weaknesses. Despite a €1 trillion decade-long infrastructure and defence spending package – the largest since reunification – growth remains elusive. To counter the gloom, the government is hosting the first “Invest in Germany” summit in Berlin on 19-20 October. Reiche hopes the event, modelled on France’s “Choose France” initiative, will secure concrete investment pledges and reposition Germany as a stable, diversified alternative for global capital. “I don’t see a flight from the dollar … but we see a lot of inquiries from America,” she said.

Investors she speaks to recognise the country’s underlying strengths, she added: a powerful industrial base, well-capitalised small and medium-sized companies (Mittelstand) and strategic importance. “Germany is currently in a weak phase,” they tell her, “but … you are of great strategic interest to us.” Whether a more pragmatic stance on nuclear power can help restore that interest – and ease the pressure on German households and factories – will be one of the defining tests for Merz’s government in the months ahead.

Read more …

The intelligence community controls the DOJ. That is significant.

• Bondi’s Replacement is Important, But Not as Important as Perceived (CTH)

In a two-week period right after the 2024 election, the most energy expended by the transition team putting a cabinet together was toward Main Justice or the Dept of Justice. As a consequence, those around Lutnick and Wiles spent an incredible amount of time thinking about the Attorney General pick. Following an insider discussion, I spoke with several people about positions and appointments, focused on pointing out that the transition’s priorities were misplaced. The AG needed to be someone with exceptional moral character, capable of gathering information and presenting it for public consumption, with the option of supporting criminal referrals if necessary.


The Attorney General wasn’t going to be the tip of the spear in any operation to confront the Deep State, because if Main Justice wanted to confront Lawfare they needed to confront the Intelligence Community first. The IC controls all of the activity within the Dept of Justice. Read that again for emphasis. For the issues of greatest importance, the Intelligence Community controls all of the activity within Main Justice. The IC is in control of the source material. The IC is above the DOJ. If you don’t strategize a confrontation with the IC first, it doesn’t matter what you do with the Dept of Justice.

The best example I could reference at the time was the Mar-a-Lago documents case and Judge Aileen Cannon. In that example the Executive branch was targeting Trump through the DOJ/FBI, and representing the Judicial branch Judge Cannon was the firewall ensuring the appropriate administration of justice. Trump’s defense, through Cannon, pushed back against the DOJ (Jack Smith) while Smith leveraged all his Lawfare tools back against Cannon. You might remember the “classified document” issue went to the 11th CCA.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the government position that any documents defined as “classified” by the executive branch that claimed, “national security,” should not be disclosed to the defendant, Trump. The 11th CCA said when it comes to matters of national security, the judicial branch must defer to the determinations of the executive. Basically, if the intelligence community decides certain information is tied to national security and labels it as classified for the DOJ, that decision can’t be challenged. The U.S. Supreme Court has backed this view. As a result, when it comes to national security issues, the judicial branch has to defer to the executive, giving the IC significant control over the DOJ.

If you drag former CIA Director John Brennan into court and Brennan’s lawyers argue ‘national security’ as a defense against indictment, inquiry or questioning, it’s not the DOJ (Attorney General) who matters – it’s the ‘national security’ determination of the Intelligence Community (Tulsi Gabbard) who controls the outcome. Over and over, I kept emphasizing this point. If you want to hold the Spygate/Russiagate folks accountable, it’s not going to be the DOJ who matter; not directly. It is the Intelligence Community that matters.

If you seek accountability, and if you want to stop Lawfare from exploiting the silo defenses, it’s the IC that matters; not the Dept of Justice. The transition team was putting emphasis on the wrong syllable. Remember, my emphasis was on the need for institutional accountability on Spygate and Russiagate, and the DOJ is a tool toward the goal but not the ultimate weapon.

Read more …

I doubt it. She just never arrested anyone.

• Is This the REAL Reason Trump Fired Pam Bondi? (Matt Margolis)

On Thursday, we learned that President Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi as attorney general, making her the second Cabinet member he’s axed in less than a month. Trump’s official send-off was gracious, but the question remains: Why did he fire her? Bondi has come under fire for her handling of the Epstein files. Her muddled public statements about the existence of a so-called “client list” turned a political liability into a full-blown firestorm, drawing bipartisan condemnation and fueling accusations of a transparency cover-up. But there may be another nugget to the story.


Trump, for what it’s worth, praised her in a post on Truth Social, calling her “a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” crediting her with doing “a tremendous job” overseeing a crackdown on crime that drove murder rates to their lowest point since 1900. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.” That’s a warm sendoff, atypical for Trump, who often kicks people out the door and trashes them immediately after. It’s a welcome change, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never been a fan of his constantly trashing and making enemies out of people he had served in his administration.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, the reason Trump gave Bondi the axe is that he believes Bondi tipped off Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) about the FBI’s plans to release documents tied to his decade-old relationship with a suspected Chinese spy. “She’s intervening in those matters,” a source close to the situation told the paper. “The White House wasn’t pleased she was intervening due to her personal friendship with Swalwell.” Trump had also grown privately furious that Bondi wasn’t prosecuting the political enemies who spent years targeting him. He made it known — publicly — posting last September that the delays in those cases were “harming our reputation and credibility.”

According to a senior administration source, Trump informed Bondi of her dismissal on Wednesday night, just before he delivered his Iran speech. And she didn’t take it well. Bondi reportedly pleaded for more time, and the confrontation at the White House grew tense. “She was unhappy and tried to change his mind,” the source said. Bondi stayed at the White House throughout the Iran speech, then quietly flew home to Florida. The Swalwell angle is an interesting one. But still bizarre. “It is unclear why Bondi would have intervened, but it is believed that Bondi and Swalwell have a friendly relationship,” explains the Daily Mail. “Swalwell, a fellow lawyer, has openly criticized her since she took the AG position after failing to prosecute multiple death threats against him and his family.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, is now serving as acting Attorney General until a permanent nominee is identified. Some are speculating that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is a possible candidate.

Read more …

An AI system can easily be smarter than a human. But it’s not accountable?

“..a clear chain of human accountability from every AI action to every AI consequence. When an AI system causes harm, there must always be a human who answers for it.”

Can a human “answer” for a system that is much smarter than him/her?

How would an AI system answer that?

• Why States Are Right to Reject AI Legal Personhood (ET)

A quiet but consequential legal movement is gathering momentum. Idaho and Utah have enacted statutes declaring that artificial intelligence systems are not legal persons. Ohio’s House Bill 469 proposes to declare that AI systems are “nonsentient entities” and bars them from acquiring any form of legal personhood. Similar bills are advancing in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Missouri, South Carolina, and Washington. The legislatures driving this movement are not technophobes. They are drawing a necessary line that philosophy, law, and common sense all demand.


The pressure in the opposite direction is real. In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, historian Yuval Noah Harari described AI as “mastering language.” Since language is the medium through which law, religion, finance, and culture are constituted, AI may soon be capable of acting within every institution humans have built. Harari asked whether countries would recognize AI as legal persons—whether AI could open bank accounts, file lawsuits, and own property without human supervision. The prospect is not science fiction. It is a policy choice, and the wrong choice would be deeply consequential.

Phantasms versus Nous
Aristotle argued in De Anima that all sentient creatures share a basic cognitive capacity to perceive the world, retain impressions of it, and recombine impressions into new configurations—what he called phantasia, imagination. A dog, a crow, and a chess grand master possess this competency.

Aristotle distinguished human beings as categorically different: possessing nous, the capacity to grasp universal, abstract concepts—ideas like justice, causation, and the good—that cannot be derived from any sensory experience alone. A dog can recognize its owner, but it cannot grasp the concept of ownership. A parrot can reproduce a sentence about fairness, but it has no understanding of fairness.

vWhat is the distinction? Can’t we simply feed an AI system Webster’s definition of “fairness” and let it work from there? No—feeding a machine the dictionary definition only gives it more words to pattern-match against—the concept is not in the words. Any child who grasps fairness can apply it correctly to a situation no definition anticipates. AI can only produce text that statistically resembles how humans talked about fairness before.

This is not a gap that more computing power or better training data will close. Computer scientist Judea Pearl demonstrated mathematically that no amount of pattern recognition over observational data can substitute for genuine causal inference. The appearance of understanding is not understanding itself. And it is precisely the capacity for genuine understanding—for deliberating about what is good and right—that grounds moral responsibility, which is the only coherent basis for legal personhood.

The Problem With the Corporate Analogy
Proponents of AI personhood often invoke corporate personhood as precedent. Corporations are not natural persons, yet the law treats them as legal persons capable of owning property, entering contracts, and being sued. Why not extend this pragmatic fiction to AI? The analogy breaks down at accountability.

Corporate personhood is a legal convenience built on human moral agency. Behind every corporation is a structured network of natural persons—board members, executives, shareholders—who bear fiduciary duties, can be deposed and held liable under piercing-the-veil doctrine, and face reputational and criminal consequences for their decisions. The corporation is a vehicle for organizing human action, not a substitute.

Ohio’s HB 469 captures this logic by denying AI legal personhood, prohibiting AI systems from serving as corporate officers or directors, and assigning all liability for AI-caused harm to identifiable human owners, developers, and deployers.

Labeling a system “aligned” or “ethically trained” does not discharge human responsibility. Granting AI legal personhood would shatter this accountability architecture. An AI “person” could own intellectual property, hold financial assets, and bring lawsuits—all without a human principal who can be held responsible. Sophisticated actors could construct chains of AI-owned shell companies that dissolve liability through layers of nominal personhood. The result would not be extending rights to a new class of beings; it would be creating accountability vacuums that benefit the powerful humans who deploy AI while insulating them from consequence.

The Moral Stakes for Real People
A deeper moral issue underlies all of this. Legal personhood is not merely an administrative category; it carries normative weight. It signals that an entity has standing to make claims, to be wronged, and to bear obligations. Extending that status to systems that cannot genuinely deliberate, cannot suffer, and cannot be held morally responsible would dilute the concept of personhood in ways that could ultimately harm the humans who most need its protections.

We have not yet secured the full benefits of legal personhood for all human beings in practice—for the displaced, stateless, and structurally invisible. Rushing to extend a contested status to machines while that work remains unfinished would be a profound misallocation of moral and legal energy.

None of this requires hostility to AI as a technology. AI systems can be powerful, useful, and—when properly governed—enormously beneficial. What AI systems cannot be is persons. The states passing anti-personhood legislation are preserving something more important than a competitive advantage—a clear chain of human accountability from every AI action to every AI consequence. When an AI system causes harm, there must always be a human who answers for it. That principle is not a constraint on technology; it is the foundation of a just society.

Aristotle taught that law is reason without passion—a framework for coordinating human beings capable of living well together. AI can help us pursue the good life, but it cannot deliberate about what that life requires. As states across the country move to codify this distinction, they are doing exactly what legislatures exist to do—drawing lines that protect persons: all of them, and only them.

Read more …

Lee Zeldin.

• Trump Offers Cabinet Position With Perks, Power, and Zero Job Security (Turley)

There is an old joke that scientists switched from lab rats to lawyers because you do not get as attached to lawyers. President Trump has shown the same tendency not to become attached to either private or public counsel. Attorney General is only the latest in a long line of lawyers let go by a president made famous with the tagline “You’re fired.” There is no evidence of bad blood between President Trump and Bondi. The Attorney General has been attacked over her loyalty to the President and has been by his side in some of the most precarious moments from his impeachment to his criminal defense. As his “apprentices” learned, this is not personal. It’s business.


Jeff Sessions. Rex Tillerson. Bill Barr. Mark Esper. Kristi Noem. Trump’s “cabinets” are known more for shelving than storage.Indeed, being a cabinet member in a Trump administration is about as secure as being a quarterback on the Cleveland Browns. Trump has always viewed terminations as a way to spur higher performance levels. There is a reason why Trump may have wanted to move now in swapping out Attorneys General. There are growing predictions that the Republicans will lose the House and could also lose the Senate. Democrats are running on pledges of unleashing a new spasm of investigations and impeachments, targeting not just President Trump but anyone who supports him.

Figures like Susan Rice, top policy adviser to both President Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have promised “revenge” against all those who pushed Democrats out of power and warned that “it’s not going to end well for them.” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) pledged that, as soon as they regain power, they will start throwing Trump people in jail when they retake Congress. Democratic strategist James Carville previously threatened that “collaborators” may be treated in the same way as they were after World War II.Trump has to decide who will be the best hand on the wheel in those coming choppy waters.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has the street cred that Trump values. An accomplished litigator and former prosecutor, Blanche is neither flashy nor gregarious. He is a lethal litigator who can gut you like a trout without breaking a sweat. He has been at the president’s side in and out of court. While he will be a lightning rod for Democrats who have attacked him for his role in the release of the Epstein files, his firmness in dealing with a hostile media likely appealed to the President.

Blanche offers a seamless transition for the Department. He literally only has to walk down the hallway to take the reins from Bondi. Another name reportedly under consideration is EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who would likely be the easiest to confirm and the most popular with members of Congress. Zeldin transformed the EPA in short order, including clearly away barriers to increasing energy production. Almost elected governor of New York, Zeldin has cross-over appeal in Washington as someone who cut his teeth in this town.

Other candidates include state attorneys general, as well as wild cards like U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a former judge with a tough-as-nails reputation in Washington, D.C. It is a deep bench. There will be no shortage of applicants for the job. The office of the Attorney General in the Trump Administration has everything that one could want in Washington. Everything, that is, except job security.

Read more …

“The ends must justify the means — the only question is what means are necessary.” —Saul Alinsky

• The Red Line (James Howard Kunstler)

Why do the news anchor ladies of CNN, Erin Burnett, Kate Bolduon, always look so depressed on the air? They never smile. Their faces always register something between grave concern and hysteria. Is it the network’s cratered ratings? The pending hostile takeover by Paramount / Skydance (led by conservative David Ellison)? Too much botox, zombifying the small facial muscles? Or is it self-loathing from being compelled to slant everything they report on in the direction of a lie?


There does seem to be some hidden hand in Narrative Central issuing prescribed story-lines to the networks, and that hand seems to be tinged with malice for anything and anyone seeking to rescue our country from chaos, penury, psychosis, and jihad. It looks like the hidden hand wants the country to go down in flames, and will resort to any means necessary to get it done. The template for that is so-called “color revolution,” which is a hyper-accelerated version of Antonio Gramsci’s “march through the institutions” to capture the transmitters of culture so as to produce a communist utopia.

Gramsci (1891 – 1937) founded the Italian communist party. The fascist Mussolini tossed him in jail where Gramsci scribbled out three thousand pages of his Prison Notebooks, in which he laid out his strategy for destroying civil society, later adapted by the Americans Saul Alinsky (1909-1972) in his Rules for Radicals and Gene Sharp (1928-2018), who penned several concise manuals of strategic mechanics for dismantling targeted governments.

These are the mentors of chief Lawfare ninja Norm Eisen, who has made a specialty of marching through the institution of American law in order to advance the agenda of the Democratic Party allied with cohorts of the permanent Washington bureaucracy (or Deep State) to fend off any challenge to the corruption and racketeering embedded in those two symbionts.

The challenge obviously presents in the form of Donald Trump, the once and current president battling an increasingly rabid set of opponents. Norm Eisen has been deeply involved in every attempt to undermine and disable Mr. Trump since 2016. He wrote briefs for the Mueller Special Counsel operation; he acted as prosecutor in Trump’s impeachment # 1 (prompted by CIA agent and so-called “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella, as facilitated by then Rep. Adam Schiff); he assisted ex parte in the House Jan 6 Committee proceedings; he prepared legal arguments for the Fani Willis prosecution of Mr. Trump and 18 co-defendants; and he helped construct the legal framework for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s cases against Mr. Trump. In short, Norm Eisen spent the past decade laboring to brand Donald Trump as a criminal and shove him out of the political arena. His efforts failed.

Norm Eisen founded or is associated with several swamp NGOs active in Trump-hunting operations, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the States United Democracy Center, the Democracy Defender’s Fund, Democracy Defenders Action — all posing as anti-autocracy operations. Eisen and his orgs have filed hundreds of lawsuits against the Trump administration to obstruct any initiative the President advances to stop Democratic Party sanctioned grift, deport illegal aliens ushered in during the “Joe Biden” years, and especially to derail investigations of election fraud. These orgs are well-funded by George Soros’s Open Society NGO and it’s spinoffs, Arabella Advisors (rebranded as Sunflower Services), the Tides Foundation, that is, the usual suspects.

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“The EU and the UK are unprepared and face deindustrialization after rejecting Russian oil and gas, Kirill Dmitriev has said..”

Repeated from a few days ago. It seems that important.

• Most Powerful Energy Crisis In Human History Is Looming – Putin Envoy (RT)

The world is heading toward the most severe energy crisis in history and Europe is unprepared, Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev has said. The warning comes as the escalating conflict in the Middle East has driven volatility in global energy markets. Speaking on Thursday, Dmitriev – who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and is President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation – said he earlier predicted that oil would exceed $100 a barrel if a conflict like this broke out. “Back then, no one believed,” he said, adding that some market participants are now discussing the possibility of prices rising to $150 or even $200.


“We see that the most severe energy crisis in the history of mankind is approaching. Neither the EU nor the UK is at all prepared for it,” Dmitriev said on the sidelines of the RDIF congress. Brussels and London “shot themselves in the foot” by rejecting Russian oil and gas, and the consequences of this are only beginning to emerge, he added. Dmitriev warned that the EU faces deindustrialization, and that “big problems” await the UK, arguing that this the result of choices made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other “Russophobic politicians.” Western governments will eventually be forced to seek renewed access to Russian energy, he said.

Oil and gas prices have spiked since the escalation of the Middle East conflict, triggered by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and subsequent Iranian retaliatory attacks across the region, which have led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz to Western shipping. The strait normally carries around a fifth of the world’s daily oil supply, and the IEA has warned that disruptions could last months or years. European gas prices have risen by around 70% since March 1; Brent crude has topped $110 per barrel, prompting Washington to ease the sanctions on Russian oil.

The EU was already grappling with the fallout from its decision to cut energy ties with Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, as well as the costs of its green transition policies. The European Commission has said there will be no return to Russian energy, and it will continue to pursue a full phase-out of Russian fossil fuels by 2027. This week, however, it put plans for a complete ban on Russian oil on hold, due to what some officials reportedly called “current geopolitical developments.”

Read more …

ActBlue.

“.. the Eric Holder law firm Covington & Burling, the primary legal mechanism for the ActBlue/DNC machinery, lies at the heart of the matter.”

• Primary Fundraising Mechanism of Democrats Accepted Foreign Donations (CTH)

ActBlue is to the Democrat party fundraising machine as WinRed is to the Republican side of the equation.


In a rather stunning outline by the New York Times [SEE HERE] the progressive outlet is reporting of serious concerns within the leadership of ActBlue related to their willfully blind reception of foreign sources of money to fund Democrat candidates. The remarkable aspect is not just that ActBlue takes foreign funds, but rather the New York Times revealing internal legal discussions about it. According to the Times reporting, the Eric Holder law firm Covington & Burling, the primary legal mechanism for the ActBlue/DNC machinery, lies at the heart of the matter.

(NYT) […] The firm concluded that ActBlue’s chief executive had given a potentially misleading response to congressional Republican investigators in a 2023 letter explaining how the organization vetted donations to ensure that they were not illegally coming from foreign citizens. The letter from the chief executive, Regina Wallace-Jones, said ActBlue carried out “multilayered” screenings of contributions that helped “root out” those from overseas. In fact, the law firm found, some of the steps she had described were not always followed.

“This presents a substantial risk for ActBlue,” the law firm, Covington & Burling, wrote in one of two memos expressing legal concerns. One memo raised the specter of a criminal investigation if prosecutors believed that ActBlue had tried to conceal facts about its efforts to prevent foreign contributions. To really appreciate the scheme that seems to be outlined by the internal documents, it is worth remembering that James O’Keefe previously did some boots on the ground research into ActBlue and found that multiple, perhaps thousands, of “donor” names and addresses were assigned to contributions the donors said they never made.

Put the two issues together and it appears that ActBlue may have been laundering foreign money into the DNC by using donor identities to cover the funding mechanism. Foreign funds, broken up into separate, smaller components and then attributed to Smurf donor identities. As many surmised at the time, the donor IDs would be useful – only to launder the funds. That would explain why thousands of donors denied making contributions, yet FEC reports filed by ActBlue officials assign, falsely, their identity to donations. Shortly before the 2024 federal election, on October 24th, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also submitted a criminal referral to the DOJ following his own investigation of this activity.

TEXAS – “Attorney General Ken Paxton made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) detailing the results of an investigation that revealed how suspicious actors seemingly use ActBlue’s political fundraising platform to make illegal straw donations.” Put the New York Times story together with the James O’Keefe investigation, and then overlay the Texas AG investigation and criminal referral, and there’s not just smoke -or fire- there’s an inferno ablaze.

[…] ActBlue is now all but declaring war on its own past lawyers, an extraordinary turn of events at a moment when President Trump has already ordered a Justice Department investigation into the organization. Democrats are nervous that any additional upheaval at ActBlue could destabilize the party’s critical fund-raising apparatus ahead of the midterm elections. All levels of Democratic candidates, from incumbent presidents to school board aspirants, use ActBlue to raise campaign money from online donors. The platform has processed nearly $19 billion in contributions since its founding in 2004, building a donor database with millions of credit card numbers that is unmatched in American politics. Nearly 23,000 candidates and groups used the site in 2025, ActBlue has said, raising almost $1.8 billion from 52 million contributions, some of which recur every month.

[…] “It can be alleged that ActBlue accepted and/or facilitated the acceptance of foreign-national contributions into American elections,” one memo states. “In addition, because ActBlue’s staff was aware that its system was not as robust as necessary, it could be alleged that these violations were ‘knowing and willful,’ a standard that both increases the penalties the F.E.C. might seek and gives the Justice Department jurisdiction for a potential criminal investigation.” (more)

It’s called, Money Laundering.

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Strong numbers. Not much attention.

• HUGE March Jobs Report Leaves Democrats Speechless (Margolis)

The so-called experts didn’t just miss the mark on March jobs numbers; they got steamrolled by reality. Economists predicted a weak 59,000 jobs. The actual number came in at a stunning 178,000. Talk about getting it completely wrong. And it’s the latest reminder that the same crowd that spent months warning about economic doom under President Donald Trump still doesn’t understand what’s actually happening on the ground. Even CNN couldn’t deny that this was huge. CNBC couldn’t contain its excitement.


Unemployment dipped again, falling from 4.4% to 4.3%. Even more telling, the rate dropped across multiple groups, including women, black Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and veterans. That kind of broad-based improvement doesn’t happen in a weak economy. It doesn’t even happen when a Democrat is in the White House. Meanwhile, jobless claims are now hovering near a two-year low. In other words, fewer people are losing jobs, and more people are finding them. That’s the formula for sustained momentum. Manufacturing and construction both saw real growth, the kind that signals strength in the backbone of the economy. Let’s keep going, shall we?

Since Trump returned to office, the private sector has added 609,000 jobs. At the same time, federal government employment has dropped by 352,000. On top of that, native-born Americans are benefiting, too. A total of 218,000 native-born workers have gained employment, and 193,000 have entered the labor force. That’s no accident; that’s by design. Trump’s designWages are also moving in the right direction. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% in March and sit 3.5% higher than a year ago. It gets better. Blue-collar workers, who took a beating during the Biden years, have now recovered those lost wages in just one year under Trump.

As for inflation, it continues to cool. It now sits at 2.4%, down from 3.0% when Trump took office — and way below the 9% it reached under Biden. Core inflation has dropped to 2.5%, its lowest level in five years. That’s a major shift after the price spikes Americans endured not long ago. What does this mean for Americans? It means prices for everyday staples like bread, meat, fruit, and dairy have all come down. Egg prices, which became a symbol of runaway inflation, have plunged nearly 50% since Trump took office and 60% compared to last Easter. Housing is showing signs of relief as well. Mortgage rates have declined, and rents are down 1.7% over the past year.

Put it all together, and it’s clear that the Trump economy is working. Jobs are growing faster than expected. Wages are rising. Inflation is falling. And everyday costs are easing. The “experts” can keep predicting collapse if they want. The numbers keep telling a very different story. Trump’s golden age is coming through. Neither Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DNC Chairman Ken Martin, nor the Democratic Party has addressed the new jobs report on X.

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”Ivey expressed his opposing religious beliefs, including criticizing the NBA’s Pride Month celebrations.”

• Chicago Bulls Release Forward After He Speaks Out Against Pride Month (Turley)

This week, the Chicago Bulls waived guard Jaden Ivey for “conduct detrimental to the team.” No, Ivey did not assault anyone or gamble on games. He did not call for violence. Ivey expressed his opposing religious beliefs, including criticizing the NBA’s Pride Month celebrations. There is no question that private companies have the right to control employees’ on-the-job speech, including barring demonstrations such as kneeling during the national anthem. However, the Ivey controversy exposes the hypocrisy of sports associations and teams in the combination of corporate virtue signaling and athlete speech limitations.


Companies in various fields have asserted the right to condition contracts on the possibility of termination due to public behavior or comments that are detrimental to the company. Notably, this was a player speaking off the basketball court who was deemed “detrimental” to the brand. The main concern is the lack of consistency. Actors such as Rachel Zegler have tanked their own movies to use their platforms to advance their own political viewpoints. Likewise, athletes have routinely espoused controversial views on racial divisions or law enforcement without losing their contracts. Recently, teams supported athletes espousing anti-ICE sentiments. In other words, it is not advocacy but the cause that these companies focus on when allowing or punishing speech.

At the same time, the NFL and NBA require players to wear and espouse views that some of them — like some in the nation — may oppose. Ivey was objecting that he does not feel that Pride Month is espousing “righteous” lifestyles. Ivey was not attacking the Bulls or the game. He was asserting that he does not support the virtues or values being endorsed by the company. Many of us were offended by social media postings by Ivey in referring to Catholicism as a “false religion.” He also drew the ire of many by telling a fan that “God does not hear your prayer if you are a sinner.”

However, it appears that it was his criticism of the LGBTQ community and Pride Month that ended the matter with the NBA. Ivey objected to the advocacy required by the NBA, objecting “they proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month,’ to celebrate unrighteousness.” The issue of “talent” becoming notorious has long been a focus of sports and entertainment contracts. Hateful or divisive public comments can impact a brand or corporate image. For example, a team does not have to continue an association with a racist spewing hateful remarks about fans.

The Ivey controversy should force a discussion of the countervailing responsibilities of the teams and the NBA. Some of us have previously criticized the virtue-signaling of associations like the NFL, with giant statements in the end zones and on players’ helmets. Many fans would like these teams to stop lecturing them and simply play sports. We do not need morality or civics lessons from the likes of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. However, if the NFL and NBA are going to get into the business of shaping fans’ values, they may need to accept greater leeway for athletes who hold opposing values. Instead, they are expecting athletes like Ivey to effectively endorse approved values while barring them from expressing dissenting views.

This is not the first such controversy. Years ago, former coach Tony Dungy was the subject of a cancel campaign because he expressed his faith at a pro-life rally. Former Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio was punished for expressing a dissenting view of what happened on January 6th and what he viewed as the different treatment given to these cases, including excessive sentences. Likewise, recently, Chicago Cubs player Matt Shaw was the target of a campaign to trade him after he attended the funeral of Charlie Kirk.

Sports organizations, like other businesses, have every right to bar protests and political statements at games. They should, however, apply the same standard to themselves. It is time to get virtue signaling and social statements out of sports. Teams need to stop picking sides on social and political issues while blocking opposing views from their athletes. Once out of the business of shaping public values and views, these teams will be in a better position to demand that athletes avoid controversial public statements that alienate fans or harm a brand.

Otherwise, teams could simply bar such commentary during games and allow athletes the same freedom of expression outside of the game that the teams enjoy during games. None of this means that Jaden Ivey is right or admirable in his specific statements. It only means that, if teams want him to just play basketball, they should do the same.

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https://twitter.com/BROKENBRITAIN0/status/2039988689246298534?s=20 https://twitter.com/CatholicArena/status/2039794549229322271?s=20 Half an hour of your time. You will come away a lot smarter. https://twitter.com/farzyness/status/2039760304805220662?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle March 6 2026

Mar 062026
 
 March 6, 2026  Posted by at 10:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  78 Responses »


Mark Chagall I and the village 1911


• Iran Isn’t Moving Public Opinion—Trump Is (DS)
• Iran Says Strait Of Hormuz Open (ZH)
• Trump to Replace Kirsti Noem at DHS With Mullin (Matt Margolis)
• EPIC FURY: Trump’s Play to Starve the Dragon? (Stephen Green)
• Division, Derision and the Economics of the Thing (CTH)
• Churchill Saw the Cold War Coming (David Manney)
• Hemispheric Boss Level: Epic – Venezuela Edition (CTH)
• Pam Bondi Subpoenaed In Epstein Investigation By House Oversight Panel (ZH)
• German Top Court Issues Two Landmark Rulings In Favor of Free Speech (RMX)
• The Atlantic Says Pete Buttigieg Is a Real Man (Robert Spencer)
• The Biden Autopen Probe Ends The Way So Many Others Do (David Manney)
• Hungary To Block Every EU Decision On Ukraine Over Oil Blockade – Orban (RT)
• Russia Could End Gas Supplies To EU Immediately – Putin (RT)

 


 

https://twitter.com/PrometheanActn/status/2029278072483020940?s=20 https://twitter.com/DanielLDavis1/status/2029298437813146048?s=20 https://twitter.com/HungaryBased/status/2029308402157912115?s=20

 


 

 


 


Trump’s influence is outta here..

• Iran Isn’t Moving Public Opinion—Trump Is (DS)

When it comes to Iran, Americans’ opinions aren’t necessarily reflective of what’s happening on the battlefield—but rather their feelings about President Donald Trump. That’s according to veteran pollster Scott Rasmussen, founder of the Napolitan Institute. As the conflict intensifies in the Middle East, Rasmussen said his polling suggests that Americans’ views on Iran appear to be driven less by U.S. military action and more by their broader opinions of Trump. At a Wednesday briefing, Rasmussen said public reaction to the unfolding situation in Iran has remained stable since Saturday—and is similar to Trump’s overall job approval numbers.


When voters were asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation in Iran, 42% said they approve. That figure is close to Trump’s overall job approval rating of 45% in the same polling. The consistency in Rasmussen’s surveys indicates that opinions on Iran are tracking closely with existing political opinions of Trump—rather than shifting in response to news headlines. Only 32% of voters say they are following news about Iran “very closely,” underscoring another key finding: most Americans are not immersed in the details of military strategy or regional politics. As Rasmussen noted, few voters consider themselves military experts, and that reality may help explain why public opinion has shown little change since Saturday’s strikes.

Polling conducted Saturday afternoon—immediately after news broke of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran—found that 40% of voters favored the strikes. Days later, after extensive news coverage, that number has not changed. Support remains at 40%, according to the Napolitan Institute’s latest survey.n nOpposition also moved only marginally. Initially, 46% said they opposed the attacks. That number has since moved up by just one percentage point. In other words, despite intense media focus, public sentiment has barely shifted.

One area where Rasmussen did observe some movement was on expectations of success. On Saturday, 55% of voters said they believed it was likely the mission would succeed in bringing about regime change in Iran. That number has since fallen five percentage points to 50%. Rasmussen, however, emphasized that this shift does not represent a collapse in confidence. Rather than moving from optimism to pessimism, respondents appear to have shifted into a more uncertain category—from believing success is likely to saying they are unsure what will happen next. The broader picture remains steady. Iran is not reshaping public opinion—it’s reflecting it.

Ultimately, Rasmussen argued, public opinion will hinge on outcomes. If the mission produces significant change, removes what many view as a destabilizing regime, and does so with minimal American casualties and limited cost, voters are likely to judge it positively. If not, the political consequences in the midterms could be significant.

Rasmussen noted that Trump has only a couple of weeks before he begins to lose support, with 55% of voters opposed to him sending U.S. troops to the ground. If something drastic happens, such as a rise in U.S. casualties, Trump’s support for Iran could lessen even quicker. For now, however, the numbers suggest that Americans are viewing events in Iran largely through a domestic political lens—and the perception of the president himself continues to shape reactions more than developments in the headlines.

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Open for China.

• Iran Says Strait Of Hormuz Open (ZH)

“Some are criticizing us [Iran], saying that we have closed the Strait of Hormuz. We do not believe in closing the Strait of Hormuz at all,” Iranian military commander Amir Heydari told Iranian state TV on Thursday.


The first sign that the critical maritime chokepoint was partially open came late Wednesday night, when we were among the first to report that a China-linked bulk carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz without incident, a notable development given earlier reports and market chatter that Iran might allow only Chinese-linked ships to transit. Shortly after our report that the Iron Maiden vessel made it through the narrowest part of the waterway unharmed, Bloomberg also reported on the development, noting that the ship had changed its destination signal to “CHINA OWNER.” LKatest activity in the Strait.


Earlier this week, Iran’s IRGC said that any vessel sailing through the waterway “could be at risk from missiles or rogue drones,” according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. China has urged peace and called for an immediate ceasefire to the U.S.-Israeli Operation Epic Fury to “prevent further escalation of tensions and stop the conflict from spreading and engulfing the entire Middle East.” Everyone knows why China is calling for peace: the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s cheap oil flows have effectively been closed to the world’s second-largest economy, and that pressure is likely to be used as leverage by President Trump in his upcoming visit to China.

Trump has said the U.S. will offer insurance for tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz and, if necessary, provide naval escorts to help restart energy flows as the commercial shipping lane remains heavily disrupted. Beijing is likely asking this question: “Will Trump Seize Or Destroy Iran’s Oil Export Island?”

Even with ten or more tankers and other vessels reportedly hit by IRGC drones in or around the Strait, intelligence and military analysts told Reuters that the IRGC could sustain drone attacks in the waterway for months. The Strait has not been fully closed, in part because the Trump administration spent the week degrading Iran’s naval capabilities, but the disruption is still severe because major European and global insurers have abruptly pulled or canceled war-risk coverage for the region.

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“..will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas..”

• Trump to Replace Kirsti Noem at DHS With Mullin (Matt Margolis)

UPDATE: President Trump has announced on Truth Social his intention to nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) as the next Homeland Security Secretary. “I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), effective March 31, 2026,” Trump wrote. “The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland.’”


Original Article: President Donald Trump is allegedly preparing to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. “The president has already been asking aides and congressional Republicans for names of potential replacements, the advisers said.” “The final straw for Trump was Noem’s combative hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which showed bipartisan frustration with Noem’s leadership, the advisers said. Noem’s decision to allot $200 million on an ad campaign, featuring herself urging those living illegally in the U.S. to self-deport, had already rankled the president for months for its self-promotional style. At the hearing, Noem told Senators that the President had signed off on the ad campaign–an assertion that upset Trump, who told senators and advisers he had not signed off on such a campaign.

Trump does, however, frequently change his mind, especially when it comes to firing officials. He has previously told aides he doesn’t want to make personnel decisions based on Democratic messaging or media pressure.” NBC News similarly reports that Trump has been “speaking this week with Republican lawmakers about his displeasure with Noem and has made clear in those conversations that he is considering replacing her, according to two Republican lawmakers, a person familiar with White House’s thinking and three people familiar with the president’s private discussions.”White House officials have reportedly name-dropped two potential replacements: Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

No decision has been made by the president, the sources say, but that he has told lawmakers that he is unhappy with Noem’s testimony this week before House and Senate committees.Noem has been at the forefront of Trump’s signature policy agendas: the deportation of immigrants, the restricting of immigration and the clamping down of the U.S.-Mexico border. Her ouster would mark the first time a Cabinet secretary has exited in Trump’s second term. The NBC News report cites Noem’s response to questions about her role in approving contracts, the aforementioned $200 million ad campaign in particular, as the flashpoint. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) described President Donald Trump as “pissed” over her response.

“The president of the United States called me, and I’m not going to speak for him, folks, but, I would put it this way: his recollection and her recollection are different,” Kennedy said. “I can assure you, he is not happy with her,” another lawmaker said. “She did horrible in the hearings and has made a lot of errors.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that “Time will tell” as to whether Noem will be replaced. While the White House did not comment, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told NBC News, “Secretary Noem serves at the pleasure of the President. She is honored to serve the American people and lead DHS. Under her leadership, we have the most secure border in American history, 3 million illegal aliens left the United States, and we now have the lowest murder rate in 125 years.”

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“..it fulfills my desire to welcome Russia back into the West for the first time since the Bolsheviks ruined everything.”

• EPIC FURY: Trump’s Play to Starve the Dragon? (Stephen Green)

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Beijing “told the country’s top oil refiners to suspend exports of diesel and gasoline” as Operation Epic Fury continues disrupting oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. “China’s curbs just six days into a war reflect a scramble across Asia to prioritize domestic needs as the crisis in the Middle East deepens.” China imports “about 11 million barrels of crude per day,” my Townhall colleague Walter Curt added on X this morning, “with roughly 40-45% of that flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.” And yes, while China is a net importer of oil and natural gas — and yugely so — the Communist nation exports refined products including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and marine bunker fuel, largely to Southeast Asian, South Pacific, and African nations.


But not as of today. “Officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner,” Bloomberg [paywalled link] continued, “called for a temporary suspension of refined product shipments that would begin immediately.” It isn’t just China, either, according to the same report: “With virtually no oil or fuel making its way out of the Persian Gulf since US and Israeli attacks began at the weekend, refiners from Japan to Indonesia and India have begun cutting back run rates and suspending exports.”= I had a brief item about this earlier today on Instapundit, but the news kept nagging at me because it’s worth a deeper look — and, as it turns out, the petroleum exports angle might be the least interesting part.

The first addition, as Curt noted, is that China’s “strategic petroleum reserves are estimated by analysts at around 90-100 days of total consumption,” which ought to be more than enough for a war hardly anyone expects to last that long. But Politico reported Thursday that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) asked the Pentagon “to send more military intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days but likely through September.” As I wrote earlier this week, I hope for a short campaign, but maybe that isn’t in the cards. Or maybe CENTCOM’s request — leaked to Politico for worldwide dissemination — is a warning to whoever is in charge of Iran that we won’t quit before they do, so they might as well quit now.

Another possibility is that the Trump administration did indeed want to send a message, but to Beijing, not Tehran. “We’re willing to disrupt Persian Gulf oil exports until it hurts you because we have all we need for ourselves and our friends right here, thank you very much, Comrade Xi.” If that is the case — and probably nobody outside the administration has anything better than informed guesses — it certainly fits the developing broader picture we’re getting of President Donald Trump’s strategic vision. The short version is first securing the Western Hemisphere (Panama Canal, Venezuela, Cuba) from the worst of Chinese influence, then putting the squeeze on them elsewhere to re-establish American dominance. Iran is the Middle East lynchpin of Beijing’s global ambitions, so it’s my belief that Trump sees that regime as something that must be removed or co-opted.

The rest… well, this is pretty wild stuff involving Russia, courtesy of tech and finance guy G.C. Cooke: The argument is that a back-channel deal is already taking shape. Russia, increasingly squeezed and looking for off-ramps, begins redirecting energy exports toward Western markets. Out of self-interest, not friendship. In return, Moscow gets energy revenue guarantees and a pathway back to the global trading system. Canada, with its existing Arctic and energy ties, becomes the diplomatic bridge.

The result is a North American–Russian energy alignment that removes China’s last major source of leverage. You might want to click over to X to read Cooke’s entire piece because it’s fascinating stuff — but not before finishing up here, naturally. I’ll admit up front that I have a natural bias toward buying into Cooke’s theory, because it fulfills my desire to welcome Russia back into the West for the first time since the Bolsheviks ruined everything. West + Russia isn’t always a natural fit — it took a determined effort by Peter the Great to make it happen the first time, and very little effort by the got-dam Communists to blow it apart.

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I do remember, but I also forgot a lot. Back in 2015, people were laughing at Trump’s chances.

• Division, Derision and the Economics of the Thing (CTH)

Do you remember this moment during the 2015 republican presidential debates when all of the candidates were on stage and leading control outlet Fox News (Bret Baier) purposefully asked the candidates: “… is there anyone on stage, unwilling tonight, to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the republican party, and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person. Again, we are lo oking for you to raise your hand now if you won’t make that pledge tonight.

The need for control is a reaction to fear. The question was intentionally constructed to create both an optic and a narrative Fox News, Rupert Murdoch and the republican party were purposefully shaping. Collectively the professional republicans were desperately afraid Donald Trump would run as an independent candidate.


I bring us back to that moment because it is the key to understand where we are even today. This was the core of the matter. This is the “trillions at stake” aspect. This is the economics of the thing as it first manifest. Why did Donald J Trump stand against them all?nFor many years before that moment, a small group of us had been outlining why it was urgent for MAGAnomics to take charge of the U.S. economy; because underneath both wings of the UniParty in Washington DC was a system that few understood. Prior to 2016, the United States Chamber of Commerce (U.S CoC), a private K-Street lobbying consortium, were the negotiators for every single trade deal done from the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).


The U.S. government (USTR, POTUS and Congress) was the trade stakeholder who signed the agreements; however, the actual nuts and bolts of what the trade deal included, the terms and conditions, were negotiated by the US CoC. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce represented the corporate interests of their Wall Street clients. After all, the corporations paid the CoC and the business model of the CoC is dependent on the corporations. This is the larger background for how decades of trade agreements ended up with offshoring, the Rust Belt, diminished domestic manufacturing, and increased corporate profits.

This is the core mechanics of how a U.S. manufacturing economy was shifted to a “service driven economy.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was writing the trade deals. The CoC would then fund the politicians who would approve the trade deals. The CoC would also finance the presidential candidates. When President Trump ran for office in 2016, his trade, manufacturing and economic policies were against the interests of the entire business network that controlled trade. The U.S. CoC poured money into Hillary Clinton’s campaign and their main GOP partner in the enterprise, Mitch McConnell. When Trump won the election, he completely shut out the CoC from any involvement in U.S. trade negotiations. Trump literally put himself, Wilbur Ross, and Robert Lighthizer in control.

The CoC was apoplectic but powerless to stop this action. CoC President Tom Donohue could not even get an appointment to see President Trump in the White House. The only thing the CoC and Tom Donohue could do was to fund anyone who would assist them in removing the existential threat that Trump represented. That’s what they did. With the CoC removed from influence, President Trump, Wilbur Ross and Robert Lighthizer began the painstaking process of taking the Wall Street profit tentacles off U.S. trade policy. In essence, President Trump put the interests of the American citizens back into the top priority of the U.S. govt, as it pertained to the biggest of all big picture items, the U.S. economy. That’s why in 2018 and 2019 the U.S. economy was on fire with growth.

All of that MAGAnomic background remained in place when President Trump retook control in 2025, and now we are starting to see the positive economic effects again resurface. However, that collective UniParty opposition still remains, albeit significantly diminished by the refusal of President Trump to move away from America-first policy.

The core of the opposition to all of President Trump’s actions, remains almost exclusively an outcome of the economics of policy the DC system no longer controls. It’s about the money. It will always be about the money. The division we are encountering in the MAGA ranks, is specifically driven by those same financial interests who opposed candidate Donald Trump a decade ago. When it came to trade policy, economic policy, tariff policy and the confrontation with China, there was not one iota of difference between any of the 17 republican candidates in that 2016 election. There was not one degree of divergence from the traditional corporate economic policy of the 30 years that preceded that moment on stage. Every one of the republican candidates aligned with the CoC message.

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First thought: how deep Britain has fallen since.

• Churchill Saw the Cold War Coming (David Manney)

Eighty years ago today, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood before an audience at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. President Harry S. Truman sat beside him on stage. Although Churchill was out of office, his words carried enormous weight in a world still recovering from World War II, but which believed that peace had arrived. Churchill believed something else entirely. His speech, titled “The Sinews of Peace,” warned that a new political and military divide had already taken shape across Europe. One phrase from that afternoon would become permanently embedded in modern history.


“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.” Churchill believed Western leaders misunderstood Soviet intentions after the victory over Nazi Germany failed to secure unity among former allies. Instead, Stalin’s government expanded influence through political pressure, intimidation, and military presence across the eastern half of Europe.

Churchill didn’t deliver the speech casually; he’d spent months studying reports on Soviet behavior in Eastern Europe. British diplomats warned that democratic governments were being pushed aside. Communist parties supported by Moscow steadily gained power. Churchill feared Western hesitation would allow Stalin’s system to harden into permanent control. The speech called for a strong alliance between the United States and Britain to defend democratic institutions, maintain military readiness, and prevent further Soviet expansion. Churchill argued that strength and cooperation offered the best path to preserving peace in the postwar world.

Churchill knew that while the world looked forward to putting the horrors of war behind, events at the beginning of 1946 portended an even darker future ahead. In the wake of the Allied victory, the Soviet Union had begun shaping Eastern Europe in its image, bringing the governments of many nations into line with Moscow. On February 9, Premier Joseph Stalin gave a speech in which he declared that war between the East and West was inevitable. On February 22, the American Ambassador to Moscow, George F. Kennan, sent the famous “Long Telegram” warning of the Soviet Union’s perpetual hostility towards the West.

Communist parties supported by Moscow steadily gained power. Churchill feared Western hesitation would allow Stalin’s system to harden into permanent control. The speech called for a strong alliance between Britain and the United States to defend democratic institutions, maintain military readiness, and prevent further expansion. Churchill argued that strength and cooperation offered the best path to preserving peace in the postwar world. The immediate reaction proved mixed. Many Americans admired Churchill’s wartime leadership, yet some political leaders believed his warning sounded too confrontational toward a former ally. President Truman never formally endorsed every line of the speech, though his decision to invite Churchill to speak in Missouri suggested sympathy with its message.

“The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American Democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe inspiring accountability to the future. If you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity is here now, clear and shining for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of the after-time. It is necessary that constancy of mind, persistency of purpose, and the grand simplicity of decision shall guide and rule the conduct of the English-speaking peoples in peace as they did in war. We must, and I believe we shall, prove ourselves equal to this severe requirement.”

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“President Trump wants Venezuela to have stability. Venezuela needs dollars and both the coordinated sale of Venezuela oil and Venezuela gold (47 tonnes in strategic reserve) will provide those dollars to retain stability and seed economic growth projects.”

• Hemispheric Boss Level: Epic – Venezuela Edition (CTH)

Sometimes you have to sip coffee slowly, while taking in the landscape. About a month ago President Donald J Trump bombed Caracas, engaged the U.S. military with a direct firefight against Venezuela military & security forces, then snatched regime dictator Nicholas Maduro out of the country to face criminal charges in the United States. Yesterday, Maduro’s replacement, President Delcy Rodriquez, stood on the steps to the Venezuela presidential office and publicly thanked Interior Secretary Doug Bergum for the kindness and support of President Donald Trump. That reality represents a level of hemispheric ‘ultimate boss’ that boggles the mind. But wait, it gets better. There’s video (prompted):

Before going further to current events, let us remind ourselves of a few details. Sandwiched between the Venezuela Maduro operation and the recent Operation Epic Fury in Iran, approximately three weeks ago, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth convened a gathering in Washington of all the defense chiefs and senior military officials from 34 Western Hemisphere countries. As most of you will remember, securing the national security of the entire Western Hemisphere, was outlined in the national defense strategy document released by President Trump. In addition to setting the priorities for the United States focus, the report details the Trump administration perspective on the world as broken down into specific regions.

The report is a brutally honest review of the current state of geopolitical benefits, risks and threats as they pertain to vital U.S. interests. The report outlines a critically renewed focus on the Western Hemisphere. Now, back to Secretary Bergum’s visit. At the same time as Interior Secretary Bergum is meeting with key government and private sector partners to discuss strategic mineral development (ie. deconflict dependency on China via independent development), oil production for U.S. hemispheric security (Iran output offsets), Venezuela announced the transfer of 1,000 kilos (more than a ton) of gold reserves for sale on the U.S. market {SOURCE}.

Venezuela needs stability. Hemispheric Boss President Trump wants Venezuela to have stability. Venezuela needs dollars and both the coordinated sale of Venezuela oil and Venezuela gold (47 tonnes in strategic reserve) will provide those dollars to retain stability and seed economic growth projects. This coordinated approach secures the economic future of Venezuela and simultaneously secures the energy security of the Western Hemisphere while geopolitical operations continue in other regions, like the confrontation with Iran.

In essence, President Trump is isolating the Western Hemisphere from collateral economic damage that is likely to happen as the U.S. begins to take down the leading sponsors of global conflict. As things are in flux, the close and controlled partnership with Venezuela can offset/mitigate a lot of chaos. While the ongoing Iran confrontation happens in the middle east, and in combination with the priority of the National Security Strategy, President Trump then convenes a meeting of hemispheric leaders in Florida this weekend. The Latin-America meeting in Doral is being called the “Shield of the Americas Summit.” The Trump administration has made it a priority to assert dominance over the Western Hemisphere, where China previously built influence through massive loans and expansive trade.

Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced President Trump will host heads of state from “Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and maybe some others as well.” So, let’s put it all together. President Trump proactively secured the border, targeted narcotraffickers, confronted narcoterrorists, targeted Mexican drug cartel leadership, leveraged the DOJ to indict regional actors, pushed China out of control in the Panama Canal, took out Nicholas Maduro, took control of Venezuela oil production – both for the security of the U.S. and benefit of the Venezuelan people, removed the discounted oil benefit for China and reasserted stability in the Western hemisphere.

Then, with all that in place, he turned toward Iran…. but, proactively planned for a ‘Shield of the Americas Summit’ before the Iran operation began and scheduled it while Operation Epic Fury continues. Jumpin’ ju-ju bones. That outline and timeline is not supposition; it is what took place. And, yeah, we just watched “interim” Venezuela President Delcy Rodriquez react to what she is witnessing happening all around her. Accepting all of this, I would not be in the least surprised to see President Rodriquez in Doral this weekend. This my friends, is a level of strategic boss maneuvering beyond anything we have ever witnessed before. […

– “Interior Secretary Doug Burgum landed in Venezuela on Wednesday to begin talks about a potential rare earth minerals partnership, just weeks after the U.S. arrested former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. FOX Business exclusively joined Burgum on the trip. President Donald Trump‘s administration views Venezuela’s untapped resources as a potential alternative to relying on China for critical minerals, FOX Business has learned. While in Venezuela, Burgum will also help expand the relationship between U.S. oil companies and the Venezuelan government. The secretary will meet with the current Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez to continue the growing relationship between the two countries.Burgum is the first member of Trump’s Cabinet to leave the country since the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on Saturday.”

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“AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not,” Mace wrote on X..”

• Pam Bondi Subpoenaed In Epstein Investigation By House Oversight Panel (ZH)

House investigators are hauling in Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer for what lawmakers say is a troubling disappearance of documents tied to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The House Oversight Committee voted 24-19 on Wednesday to subpoena Bondi for a deposition, escalating a fight with the Department of Justice over its handling of records from the sprawling Epstein investigation. Lawmakers say the DOJ may have pulled tens of thousands of pages from public view despite a federal law requiring the material to be released.


The move was spearheaded by Rep. Nancy Mace, who blasted the Justice Department earlier in the day and accused officials of misleading the public about what has actually been disclosed. [Though we would point out that Mace herself vowed to reveal her tits, only to redact them with grainy footage.] “AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not,” Mace wrote on X, calling the saga “one of the greatest cover-ups in American history.” .@RepNancyMace’s motion passed. We voted to subpoena Pam Bondi and to release the files of those who sexually harass others in Congress. This is about transparency and going after predators, not politics.


Four Republicans – Reps. Lauren Boebert, Scott Perry, Tim Burchett and Michael Cloud – joined Democrats on the panel to force the subpoena through. The dispute centers on the Epstein Transparency Act, passed almost unanimously by Congress last year. The law ordered the Justice Department to publicly release its trove of investigative material related to Epstein and his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. In January, the DOJ released more than 3 million documents tied to the case. But the department later said it would not release the remaining files, estimated to include another 2.5 million documents. Since then, watchdogs and journalists say the situation has gotten even murkier.

According to reports, thousands of records that had briefly been available online have vanished from the public database. CBS News reported Tuesday that more than 47,000 files – totaling about 65,500 pages – were taken down by late February. Some of the withheld records reportedly included internal FBI interview summaries and notes – including material tied to a woman who has accused President Donald Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor. Trump has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has said he had no knowledge of the financier’s criminal conduct.

The Justice Department has not publicly explained why the documents were removed or why millions more remain under wraps. CNBC said the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bondi’s forthcoming deposition could become one of the most explosive congressional confrontations yet in the long-running battle over the Epstein records – a case that has fueled years of speculation about powerful figures tied to the late sex offender.

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In Europe these days, defending free speech is big news..

• German Top Court Issues Two Landmark Rulings In Favor of Free Speech (RMX)

The wave of police searches and prosecutions in Germany may be facing a new hurdle after Germany’s top court, the Constitutional Court, issued two landmark rulings strengthening freedom of expression. However, Fatina Keilani, editor in Welt’s freedom of expression department, said that these two decisions have gone largely unnoticed by the public, an oversight that she finds remarkable. Writing in Welt, Keilani reports that the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe handed down two resolutions in December that push back against what she describes as hasty convictions for insults. The rulings stem from two separate cases in which individuals used sharp, even offensive language against public officials and medical staff — and were criminally sentenced for it.


As Remix News has extensively reported, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of such cases in recent years. Some of these cases have even attracted international attention and led to questions about freedom of speech and growing repression in Germany.Just late last month, German prosecutors launched investigations into dozens of comments under just one post criticizing Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with one user calling him “Pinocchio.” A number of constitutional lawyers were quick to slam the investigations, with one labeling it “hysterical madness.” Now, Germany’s top court is strengthening freedom of expression at a worrying time.

The first case involved a retired police officer whose son attended a high school during the Covid pandemic. Angered by the school’s testing requirements, the father sent the headmaster a series of emails accusing him of serving a “fascist system and its henchmen” and of “fascist cadre obedience.” The Göppingen District Court sentenced him to a fine of 70 daily rates of €80 each for insult. He lost every appeal before taking his case to Karlsruhe — where he finally prevailed. The Constitutional Court found that his right to freedom of expression had been violated, ruling that the lower courts had not examined the meaning of his statements carefully enough, nor struck an adequate balance between free expression and the protection of personality.

Keilani quotes the court directly: “Part of this freedom is that citizens can attack officials they consider responsible in an accusatory and personalized way for their way of exercising power, without having to fear that the personal elements of such statements are removed from this context and form the basis for drastic judicial sanctions.” The second case involved a man who had been placed in a psychiatric hospital on multiple occasions and subjected to coercive measures. In a letter to his lawyer in 2023, he described hospital staff as a “psychiatric mob.” When he applied to have the letter formally served, a senior bailiff refused on the grounds that its content was punishable. The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court upheld that refusal — but Karlsruhe disagreed.

The Constitutional Court was pointed in its criticism, noting that the Higher Regional Court’s entire reasoning had been reduced to just two sentences, and that it had made no real weighing of the fundamental right to free expression at all. The case has been sent back for reconsideration. For Keilani, both rulings carry a significance that extends beyond the individual cases. She situates them within a broader climate of concern, noting that “numerous decisions against freedom of expression have recently raised doubts in Germany about the rule of law and about the stability of the courts with regard to this crucial fundamental right.”

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They make their own problems. Kamala, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, only their moms would vote for them….

• The Atlantic Says Pete Buttigieg Is a Real Man (Robert Spencer)

Among the kingmakers, queenmakers, and they/themmakers of the far left is a stubborn contingent that clings to the belief that the cure for what ails the nation’s self-styled “progressives” has been right there among them for several years now, and that his name is Pete Buttigieg. The failed transportation secretary has the gift of being acceptable to both the Democrat Party’s leftist establishment and power-to-the-people-right-on-let’s-burn-the-house-down wing, and while there really isn’t a dime’s worth of difference ideologically between the two factions, that’s still an unusual accomplishment.


Yet Pete is not polling all that well, coming in a weak second in a recent poll. It’s a crowded field with no clear frontrunner: Buttigieg’s 16% was better than Kamala Harris’ 13%, but Gavin Newsom led the pack with 20%. And he has a big weakness, one that Kamala Harris herself identified in September 2025, as she surveyed the smoking ruins of her 2024 presidential campaign and tried to figure out whom to blame.= One of the groups she hit upon was the same American people she had just been trying to convince to vote for her. Kamala’s post mortem of the 2024 election was that Americans were just too racist to vote for her, and too besotted with traditional morality to embrace a homosexual who was “married” to a man, such as Pete.

“As Kamala Harris rushed to pick a running mate last year,” The Atlantic reported last September, “her ‘first choice’ was her close friend Pete Buttigieg, but she decided that it would be ‘too big of a risk’ for a Black woman to run with a gay man.” In her excuse-making volume 107 Days, Harris explains that Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man. But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.” She adds tellingly: “And I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.”

Pete has to have noticed an Aug. 2025 poll that showed him with exactly zero support among black voters. Leftist sports analyst and possible future presidential candidate himself Stephen A. Smith told Bill Maher: “He doesn’t move us.” He said he would leave Maher and his audience to speculate as to why that was, but it was clear: Smith was suggesting that black voters didn’t want to vote for a gay man — the same reason why Harris left him off the 2024 ticket.

And so one of the left’s flagship propaganda organs, The Atlantic, has now decided to try to give Pete a little boost, and what a boost it is. From the photo that accompanies the article, it’s clear what’s going on here: Buttigieg is sitting alone at a booth in a diner, nursing, as it were, a cup of coffee. He has a mustache and a tightly trimmed beard just barely covering his chin. He’s looking off frankly and forthrightly into the distance, a man with nothing to hide and nothing to fear. The title is “Pete Buttigieg in the Wilderness,” an attempt at a double entendre encompassing both Pete’s also-ran status among the 2028 presidential hopefuls and his new attempt to project a rugged masculinity, as the subtitle makes clear: “He has a beard, a splitting maul, and a house in Michigan. Is that enough to convince America that he’s a man of the people?”

Wait a minute. He has a beard and a splitting maul? I’ve heard this tune before: long, long ago, when America was a very different place, we had a presidential candidate who had famously been a rail-splitter in his youth, and who grew a beard right around the time he became president. Is Pete Buttigieg trying to make us think he is the new Lincoln, ready to do the hard work to unify our tragically fractured nation? It won’t work. It can’t work. Abe Lincoln never posed grinning in a hospital bed with his “husband” and the two infants they had just bought, er, that is, adopted. Abe Lincoln never had to project the image of being a man; he simply was one.

The left has now become so deeply encased in its arrogance that it thinks that a couple of props and a soulful expression are enough to rescue Pete Buttigieg from the weakness and incompetence he has displayed for years, as well from the increasing unpopularity of the woke delusions he so energetically embraces. If The Atlantic’s puff piece is remembered at all by the time the 2028 campaign begins in earnest, it will be as an embarrassing attempt to make a deeply unpalatable candidate attractive. The Democrats may indeed nominate Pete in 2028, but if they do, they’ll soon find that his candidacy is still suffering from the same epic deficiencies that The Atlantic is so pathetically trying to cover for now.

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Actually, Trump just threw out all of Biden’s autopen decisions. 92% in total…

• The Biden Autopen Probe Ends The Way So Many Others Do (David Manney)

Tell me if you’ve heard this before. Former President Joe Biden avoids charges after federal prosecutors closed the probe into his use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents. Prosecutors in Washington reviewed the case, examined whether Biden authorized the signatures himself, and decided there were no crimes committed. Like March that comes in like a lion, the investigation launched with big promises but ended quietly, adding to the increasingly rotten pattern in which scandals evaporate without consequences.


Last June, President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into whether the Biden administration used an autopen to sign key presidential documents, such as pardons, months after Mr. Trump had claimed his predecessor’s pardons were illegitimate. Mr. Trump told Attorney General Pam Bondi and the White House counsel in a memo to probe what he claimed was a “conspiracy” to “abuse the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline.”

The order cited a number of executive actions by Biden, including pardons and judicial appointments, and argued: “There are serious doubts as to the decision-making process and even the degree of Biden’s awareness of these actions being taken in his name.” Despite concerns that lawmakers and conservative media had about Biden’s lack-of-mental state in his final months, suggesting staff overstepped their roles … crickets. What are we left with? Another grand declaration of justice that crumbles into nothing, leaving everyone to wonder if some secret shield protects the powerful or if the whole thing was just hot air from the beginning.

Jeanine Pirro leads as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and her office reviewed Biden’s pardons and actions. Prosectors couldn’t find any law that bans the use of an autopen if the president approves it. Without proof, the case gets dropped. How shocking to discover that the evidence falls short again, as if the system is designed to let big fish swim free while wasting everybody’s time and taxpayer money with empty threats. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) chairs the House Oversight Committee, which issued a report on Oct. 28, 2025, that blasted Biden’s final months in office. The report claims aides hid Biden’s condition and limited his involvement and accessibility. Comer referred the findings to Bondi, demanding a full probe.

Yet, here we sit, with zero charges and the same old excuses: lack of evidence or whatever mechanism kills these things before they bite. The way this bullscat so often repeats, it drains any sense that serious oversight still exists. The committee targeted Biden’s physician and senior aides with scrutiny over decisions. I hope they scrutinized them with a raised eyebrow or two. Some witnesses invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to speak. Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, along with his brother and a sister, right before exiting office. I’m sure all those pardons were above board, right? [..] https://twitter.com/GreereMedeea/status/2028870849718108499?s=20

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“Last month, Orban placed a double veto on EU initiatives..”

• Hungary To Block Every EU Decision On Ukraine Over Oil Blockade – Orban (RT)

Ukraine has reportedly rejected a proposed EU mission to inspect the pipeline. Orban said Budapest will not give in to “Ukrainian blackmail,” vowing to “dismantle the oil blockade” and to use Hungary’s veto power in Brussels for as long as necessary. “Until the situation is resolved we will block every European Union decision that is important to Ukraine,” he said.


Last month, Orban placed a double veto on EU initiatives, blocking Brussels’ planned €90 billion ($106 billion) emergency loan for Kiev, as well as the bloc’s 2th package of sanctions on Russia. The EU has called for a total ban on Russian energy by 2027, despite some bloc members remaining heavily reliant on Russian crude. While hosting Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Moscow is a reliable supplier of energy. “We have always fulfilled all our obligations and, of course, we intend and are ready to do so in the future,” Putin said.

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“Budapest and Bratislava have accused Kiev of “blackmail…”

• Russia Could End Gas Supplies To EU Immediately – Putin (RT)

Russia may withdraw from the European gas market and redirect its supplies elsewhere without waiting for the EU to ban its imports, President Vladimir Putin has said. The president made the remarks on Wednesday after he hosted Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin. “There’s no political motive here. But if we’re going to get shut off in a month or two, we’d be better off stopping now and moving to countries that are reliable partners, and establishing ourselves there. But that’s not a decision yet, it’s just me thinking out loud, so to speak. I’ll definitely instruct the government to work on this issue with our companies,” Putin told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.


Moscow could redirect supplies to “emerging markets” instead, given the EU’s repeatedly stated intention to phase out Russian resources completely, Putin suggested. The energy crisis in the EU is the result of the “misguided policies” pursued by the bloc’s authorities over “many years,” he said. Russia “has always been and remains a reliable energy supplier” for all its partners, including the European nations, the president noted. Moscow is ready to continue work in such a manner with those partners “who are themselves reliable,” he added.

“For instance, with those in Eastern Europe, Slovakia, and Hungary. We supply them with our energy resources, both oil and gas, and we intend to continue to do so in the future. And the leadership of these countries will pursue the same policy as today, namely, being reliable for us,” the president explained. Following the meeting with Putin, Szijjarto revealed that Budapest has secured oil and gas supply guarantees from Moscow. Russia and Hungary have agreed to work on diversifying energy resource supply routes, he said. “We agreed that if transport routes become unavailable for various reasons, we will always seek alternative solutions. For example, if pipeline oil transportation continues to face difficulties, we will consider maritime transport options,” the diplomat said in a video address posted on Facebook.

Hungary, as well as Slovakia, has recently experienced a disruption in Russian crude supplies after Ukraine shut down the Druzhba oil pipeline in late January. Kiev has claimed the artery was damaged in Russian long-range strikes, which Moscow has denied. Budapest and Bratislava have accused Kiev of “blackmail,” alleging it deliberately halted the supplies for political reasons and threatened retaliation.Slovakia ended its emergency electricity supply scheme for Ukraine, while Hungary vetoed a proposed €90 billion ($106 billion) EU loan for Kiev as well as the latest package of anti-Russian sanctions.

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https://twitter.com/ShiningScience/status/2029414985991111103?s=20

 

 

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Debt Rattle September 22 2025

Sep 222025
 
 September 22, 2025  Posted by at 9:37 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  70 Responses »


 

• Trump Praises Charlie Kirk: The ‘Martyr for American Freedom’ (Salgado)
• The Band Is Back Together: Trump and Musk Reunite at Kirk Memorial (Margolis)
• President Trump Asked if Truth Social Post Was Critical of Pam Bondi (CTH)
• Rep. Crockett Slams ‘Caucasian’ Dems For Honoring ‘Racist’ Kirk (VF)
• Great Tribulation Volcanos, Earthquakes & Tsunamis – Steve Quayle (USAW)
• Kremlin Comments On State of Putin-Trump Relationship (RT)
• Brussels Bureaucrats Are Running Around Like Panicked Chickens – Orban (RT)
• Great Britain Recognizes Palestinian Statehood (TASS)
• Antifa Is A Very Real And Organized Terror Threat (ZH)
• Far-Left Protesters Will Not Be Satisfied Until France Collapses (ZH)

 

 


https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1969905443741802745

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1969903262955663756

 

 

President Trump’s Cabinet Remembers and Honors Charlie Kirk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And oh, that’s right: not one single instance of violence. Nothing at all.

I tried to watch it all yesterday. That was a long trek. Gospelrock -if that’s what it’s called- starts working on my patience after mere seconds. And all those speakers. Only two were interesting: Erika Kirk, because she’s who she is, and Donald Trump, because he’s so good at it, he’s a natural. Noticed also how safe Erika feels in Trump’s arms. None of the other speakers are really speakers. Much of that may be unlearning things, not learning.

• Trump Praises Kirk: The ‘Martyr for American Freedom’ (Catherine Salgado)

On Sunday, President Donald Trump delivered a powerful eulogy to “our greatest evangelist,” a man to whom we owe a “profound and eternal debt of gratitude now,” Charlie Kirk. America is now “a nation in grief, a nation in shock,” Trump began, because it “was robbed of one of the giants of our nation.” Trump declared that “none of us will forget Charlie Kirk, and neither now will history.” Charlie Kirk, Trump continued, “was violently killed because he spoke for reason and for justice,” and “he argued brilliantly without apology.” The president described the work and legacy of a man he dubbed a true “martyr for American freedom.” Trump promised that “his voice on earth will echo through the generations,” and thanked Charlie’s widow Erika, promising to work for her and her children to create “a land where there father is honored and revered as a great American hero.”

He spoke directly to Charlie’s parents and described how Charlie went from being a teen with no money or connections to the leader of a history-shaping movement in a little over a decade. As Trump stated, Charlie “in his 31 years [did] than most people…can bring in a lifetime.” And as Kirk loved America, so “America loved Charlie Kirk.” Trump praised the faith of the crowd, labeling it “like an old time revival.” And while “it is agonizing and unthinkable to say goodbye to a patriot whose heart still had so much to give,” Trump said, we must carry on his work. For instance, Trump recalled that one of Charlie’s last messages was, “Please sir, save Chicago,” which Trump aims to do. “Inspired by faith and his love of freedom Charlie did something remarkable,” he “devoted his life to converting young people to the conservative cause,” and “the young man from Illinois whom no one had ever heard of started an organization” that launched him to international fame.

In the early days, Charlie wouldn’t accept a paycheck and wore Goodwill clothes, working around the clock, as “he was always in it for the mission.” Trump described Charlie as “actually a master builder, a master builder of people…it was Charlie who stood up for persecuted Jews and Christians,” who fought censorship, who “helped unite MAGA” and created the union of Robert F. Kennedy’s health movement with MAGA. When Trump makes an important health announcement, he “will be missing [Charlie] tomorrow.” Charlie also urged Trump to take notice of JD Vance. The president remembered with fondness how Charlie would call him up at night during the election campaign and ask, “Do you think you can come speak at the event [tomorrow]?” Trump said he would usually object, then often agree, because “you never wanted to let Charlie down, he worked so hard” and “he made me feel guilty…he always gave more than he took.”

Not only that, but “no one was too small for him to notice,” and Kirk even agreed to appear on a fourth grader’s podcast! Kirk worked tirelessly; “he did this until his dying breath.” Trump said that when Kirk was assassinated, he ordered some very important people out of the Oval Office to focus on Charlie. TPUSA under Trump’s leadership became “a juggernaut of American politics,” and “Charlie didn’t just bring young people into the movement,” he delivered a historic number of young votes for Trump in 2024. Even the day he was assassinated, when warned that Utah Valley University had hostile students and staff, Kirk declared, “I want to know them and love them.” This made him “a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose.” With a flash of humor, Trump admitted, “that’s where I disagree with Charlie, I hate my opponent.”

But “the more success Charlie had,” Trump said, “the more dangerous his mission became.” Leftist violence is a growing threat, which Trump plans to address. Charlie “knew the risks,” but he was determined to go on without fear, and “he was winning, and he was winning big, he was taking over college campuses….They lied about him because they did not want you to listen to him…. He won the hearts, he won the minds, and yes, he won the elections.” The 2024 GOP election victory was Charlie Kirk’s win. Trump remembered how when the results came through, Charlie “was overcome with emotion…his eyes were filled with tears,” and he put his face in his hands until his beloved Erika ran to give him a hat. Charlie “had a tremendous heart,” and when he finally looked up on Election Day he said, “I am humbled by God’s grace.”

Trump urged everyone to think how twisted must be the “soul of a man who would kill a man like Charlie,” so charitable and good. “Charlie’s murder was not just an attack on one man,” the president said, but on “our entire nation…The gun was pointed at him but the bullet was aimed at all of us.” Yet Charlie is bigger than ever and “the depraved assassin who” killed Charlie, “God willing, he will receive the full and ultimate punishment.” Trump marveled at the hypocrisy of people who claim preferred pronouns are morally necessary but “were filled with glee at the murder of a young father.” Democrat rhetoric is to blame. “If speech is violence, some are bound to conclude that violence is [the response] to speech,” he cautioned. In spite of all the violence, our liberties are “among the most treasured achievements of civilization, and we will carry forward the torch of liberty that Charlie Kirk held,” working for “a spiritual reawakening,” because “without borders, law and order, and religion you really don’t have a country anymore.” So “we want God back.”

The marvel was that “within minutes of the gunshot in Utah millions of Americans young and old dropped to their knees” to pray for Charlie, Trump said. While Charlie died, “those prayers for a miracle have already been answered…his legacy has touched so many millions around the world,” as we have seen. Therefore, Trump said, “you should never underestimate what one man can do with …a righteous spirit” and “the will to fight, fight, fight.” While Charlie Kirk “started with only an idea,” Trump added, he ended up “changing history.” So “we grieve for the friend and leader that we have lost but we go forward …[to] defend the country he fought for.” And as Trump stood with his arms around Erika Kirk, facing that stadium, one could not doubt that he will try to carry on the legacy that Charlie Kirk left to him. May the same be said of us.

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Inevitable. They really like each other.

“..in June, Kirk predicted they would find their way back. “I actually think they’re going to reconcile at some point, though, because, deep down, I would like to believe they both want the same thing..”

• The Band Is Back Together: Trump and Musk Reunite at Kirk Memorial (Margolis)

Charlie Kirk knew that if conservatives were going to stop the radical left, unity was non-negotiable. He often warned that America’s survival depended on it. And on Sunday, his words rang truer than ever. At his memorial service in Arizona, Kirk’s prediction that Donald Trump and Elon Musk would reconcile came to life as the two shook hands—a moment that felt like history bending to prove him right. There was Trump, sitting behind bulletproof glass in his presidential box, when Musk approached and extended his hand. The brief exchange captured by lip readers revealed something beautifully human: “It’s good to talk,” Trump said, according the lip reader who spoke with the Daily Mail, with Musk responding “very much so.” Then came the kicker—Trump’s admission that “I’ve missed you” as he squeezed Musk’s hand before the Tesla CEO quickly departed.

Eric Trump’s Instagram post said it all: “the band is back together!” The younger Trump understood what many observers missed — this wasn’t just political theater. This was two men who’d let their egos get in the way of a shared mission to save America, finally remembering what really mattered.Trump and Musk’s feud blew up in June over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” and for a while, it looked irreparable. “Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate,” Trump said at the time, calling the original subsidy a billion-dollar handout to Tesla and other EV makers. Trump insisted Musk knew every detail of the bill all along and only started complaining once the gravy train was derailed. “He knew everything about it… better than almost anybody,” Trump said. “He never had a problem until right after he left.”

Things got even uglier on Truth Social, where Trump accused Musk of going “CRAZY!” over the subsidy cuts and admitted he had grown tired of the Tesla CEO’s behavior. Then came the real bombshell: Trump threatened to terminate Musk’s federal contracts. “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” he wrote, taking an unmistakable jab at Biden for not doing it sooner. At the time, hopes of reconciliation seemed dead. Trump told reporters he had no desire to patch things up, leaving conservatives worried that a powerful and promising alliance had collapsed. “If [Musk] and the President are in some blood feud… most importantly, it’s going to be bad for the country,” Vice President JD Vance warned. “But I don’t think it’s going to be good for either of them.”

Charlie Kirk, though, saw what most missed. Even as the titans traded barbs in June, Kirk predicted they would find their way back. “I actually think they’re going to reconcile at some point, though, because, deep down, I would like to believe they both want the same thing,” he said. Kirk understood something crucial—shared purpose always outweighs wounded pride. So, I think Kirk would have loved seeing Trump and Musk bury the hatchet at his memorial service. He believed in the power of unity among conservatives, understanding that petty squabbles only strengthen the left. And maybe, just maybe, this is a sign that their alliance—the one so many of us have been waiting for—is finally on the path to restoration.

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“As long as Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is safe and in solid position, Pam Bondi is safe and in solid position.”

• President Trump Asked if Truth Social Post Was Critical of Pam Bondi (CTH)

My analytical and historic opinion of Pam Bondi is well known. CTH previously faced anger and scorn from those who disagreed. However, from CTH long-term perspective, Bondi was/is a political animal lacking intellectual acumen and carrying outlooks subject to popular political perspectives. She was over her head from day one, but Susie Wiles liked her former colleague a lot. As U.S. Attorney General Bondi does not have the ability to independently strategize against the Lawfare system that has corrupted Main Justice and U.S. politics. That said, from the position of protecting President Trump from attacks Bondi is effective, and thus criticism of her inabilities should be tempered. Last night, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the clock was ticking and no accountability has yet been delivered against those who weaponized government power structures against himself and the American people. Shortly thereafter, President Trump was asked about his criticisms of Bondi. WATCH:

President Trump’s social media post: “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, “same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.” Then we almost put in a Democrat supported U.S. Attorney, in Virginia, with a really bad Republican past. A Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job. That’s why two of the worst Dem Senators PUSHED him so hard. He even lied to the media and said he quit, and that we had no case. No, I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so. Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT“

One hour later, President Trump posted this:

As noted in the original post, “nothing is being done” because, well, nothing is being done. Apparently, President Trump is receiving information from those in/around his orbit who are increasingly hearing the frustrated voices of his supporters. However, simultaneously the value of AG Pam Bondi lies in her primary skillset of keeping President Trump protected from political and lawfare attacks. As previously noted by The Associated Press: […] Bondi worked as a lobbyist for Ballard Partners, the powerful Florida-based firm where Trump’s campaign chief and incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles was a partner. Her U.S. clients have included General Motors, the commissioner of Major League Baseball and a Christian anti-human-trafficking advocacy group.

As long as Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is safe and in solid position, Pam Bondi is safe and in solid position. Susie Wiles is the filter that controls information that reaches President Trump. Susie Wiles controls the people, subjects, inputs and information who reach the Oval Office. If President Trump is unaware of an issue, it’s entirely because Susie Wiles keeps that issue away from President Trump. If President Trump is advocating a specific position with strong determination, it’s because that position is very important to Susie Wiles. That’s the reality of the dynamic. According to Susie Wiles she was “asked by a mutual friend” to travel to New York and meet with candidate Trump in “late December 2015.” That timeline would be post-Fox Debate (Megyn Kelly attempted hit – Aug ’15) when President Trump was leading every republican primary poll and became the enemy of the professional Republican establishment.

That mutual friend was likely well-known lobbyist and friend of President Trump, Brian Ballard. Susie Wiles was a “partner” at Ballard Partners. Both Susie Wiles and Pam Bondi connect to President Trump personally and professionally through Brian Ballard. 2018 – “Ballard, like most of Florida’s Republican establishment, backed Jeb Bush in the primary, but when Trump called he offered to do what he could for his client. In September, as it became clear that Trump’s lead in the polls wasn’t going away, Ballard dispatched Wiles to New York to meet with Trump. Wiles was named the Trump campaign’s Florida co-chairwoman a few weeks later.” Susie Wiles was also the advocate behind Mike Waltz being selected as the first National Security Advisor. We said at the time of the announcement that NSA Waltz would fail and likely be the first to exit; he did and was.

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“..the Congresswoman calling President Donald Trump an “enemy to the United States” and comparing him to Hitler..”

• Rep. Crockett Slams ‘Caucasian’ Dems For Honoring ‘Racist’ Kirk (VF)

Rep. Jasmine Crockett is now claiming that Charlie Kirk’s “rhetoric” was racist…and not only did she vote against the House resolution to honor him, she’s furious that MORE Democrats didn’t do the same. She’s now openly attacking the “Caucasians” in her own party who supported the resolution. What a sick and vile human being. “One of the things I do want to point out that’s not been laid out, that honestly hurts my heart, is when I saw the no votes, there were only two caucasians.” “For the most part, the only people that voted no were people of color.” “Because the rhetoric that Charlie Kirk continuously put out, there was rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color.” “And so it is unfortunate that even our colleagues could not see how harmful his rhetoric was specifically to us.”

“And I can tell you that a month prior to him passing away, he had actually gotten out on his podcast, I wasn’t aware of this at the time, but he got out there and he was talking negatively about me directly.” “So if there was any way that I was going to honor somebody who decided that they were just going to negatively talk about me and proclaim that I was somehow involved in the great white replacement, yeah, I’m not honoring that kind of stuff.”“So to me, just like we wanted to make sure that those confederate relics were taken down, the idea of a new age relic being propped up was something that I just could not subscribe to, and it is unfortunate that more of my colleagues, even on my side of the aisle, could not see the the amount of harm that this man was attempting to inflict upon our communities.” Disgraceful.

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1969765432753107045

Scott Jennings just came out swinging in response to Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s vile comments about Charlie Kirk. He said what no one else on CNN seems willing to admit…after the network gave her a platform to smear a man who hasn’t even been buried yet. “To say that he was continuously targeting people of color is nothing but a malicious smear, on the very day that people are remembering Charlie, and he’s going to be laid to rest.” “And so I think when you combine the no votes on the resolution and then you look at the leading Democratic voices like Ilhan Omar and Jasmine Crockett, who’ve gone out to smear Charlie before he’s even had his funeral.” “When I hear people say, we need to come together and both sides need to turn down the rhetoric, you know, a lot of the people saying that need to look inward right now.”

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1969814757503852911

But, Crockett was far from done. After CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday played clips of the Congresswoman calling President Donald Trump an “enemy to the United States” and comparing him to Hitler, the Texas Democrat doubled down. Bash asked Crockett on “State of the Union” if she had “a responsibility” to cool down her rhetoric, but she said she did not and that the president was using Hitler’s “playbook.” “I think that my responsibility is to be transparent and to be honest. And the reality is that we are living in a time in which this administration and this regime is not interested in making sure that people understand history,” Crockett said. “We need to understand why they are so problematic.” “So I am using that language because it is accurate language,” she continued, saying Trump’s policies are “a playbook out of Hitler and I won’t deny it! Like, these are the facts.” Speech may be free, but it has its costs!!

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“It’s not they are going to drag us in, they have drug us in.”

• Great Tribulation Volcanos, Earthquakes & Tsunamis – Steve Quayle (USAW)

Renowned radio host, filmmaker, book author and archeological dig expert Steve Quayle is back warning about intensifying earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis all over the world that governments and media are covering up. Add this to the political violence, possible financial breakdown, multiple wars intensifying at the same time, battles over catastrophic climate destroying geoengineering in Congress and you are witnessing a time like the world has never seen before. This is starting to look like what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24:21 when he said, “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again.” Let’s start with the increasing numbers of volcanos becoming active such as the world-famous Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii shooting molten lava 500 feet into the air happening now.

Quayle says, “The Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii has record lava plumes going off. Fountains is a more correct term. In the last week to 10 days, and this affects what is going on in Hawaii, we have watched the Kamchatka Peninsula with an 8.8 earthquake. Then we watched a 7.7, but what is not being talked about is the ring of fire with the volcanic activity with a ring around the Pacific Ocean. . .. I want people to understand the volcanos, earthquakes and tsunamis effect everything and everyone.” Quayle has been predicting a huge quake coming in the Pacific Northwest for a few years now, and he also points out the Hilina Slope in Hawaii could set off “a 500-foot-tall tsunami that could destroy the west coast of America.” Quayle says, “These are the mega events that are happening all over the world. There are earthquakes taking place on Mount Rainier.

I am watching the quakes taking place on Mount Hood and Mount Saint Helens. . .. People have to recognize, and this is an easy call, that our lives are going to change dramatically. . .. This will affect the whole country in terms of food and transportation, and it will also affect power throughout the electrical grid.” Quayle says his sources are telling him that we are close to a mega financial event. This is similar to what financial expert Ed Dowd said on USAW recently. What’s going to happen in the markets? Quayle says, “50% down and a cascading amount of failure in everything from banking to housing, emergency proclamations and even to the point of martial law. That is going to take place because the Blue states are getting ready to go to war with the Red states.”

Some people are hoping the US will stay out of the NATO war shaping up with Russia over Ukraine. Quayle says the US will get pulled in and says, “It’s not they are going to drag us in, they have drug us in. You can’t say you want peace with Russia and then send weapons to Ukraine. . .. You don’t steal $300 billion from Russia; that is what the West has done . . . and used it to buy weapons to make war on them.” Gold hit a record high on Friday, and silver is at levels not seen in years. Quayle says, “There is 750 ounces of fake paper gold for every ounce of real physical gold. . .. Whales, mega liquid investors, when they decide to go into the gold and silver markets, they can buy all deliverable gold in under three hours. . .. When you want your gold in hand, there will be no delivery. This is not a scare tactic. It’s the reality of what is going on behind the scenes.”

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“..adding that Trump’s “emotional” attitude toward the peace process is “completely understandable.”

• Kremlin Comments On State of Putin-Trump Relationship (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin “values the constructive relations” he has with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, adding that both leaders want the Ukraine conflict to move toward a peaceful resolution. In an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin aired on Sunday, Peskov said Putin appreciates that the two leaders can “openly discuss the most urgent and sensitive issues.” He added: “Putin, like President Trump, remains interested and open to bringing the entire Ukrainian crisis into the path of a peaceful settlement,” noting that Moscow will “keep working to feel out an opportunity” for continued diplomacy. “We count on the US and President Trump personally to make efforts to help in this matter. We’ll see what comes of it,” Peskov said.

The spokesman also weighed in on Trump’s recent visit to the UK, which has been one of Ukraine’s most stalwart supporters. “The United Kingdom is one of the leaders of this pro-war camp,” he said, adding that Trump “was probably told a lot about their plans to keep putting pressure on Russia,” including by using sanctions. Since taking office, Trump has made repeated attempts to mediate the Ukraine conflict, initiating numerous rounds of talks with Russian officials, which culminated in a summit with Putin in Alaska in mid-August. While no breakthrough was achieved, both sides described the talks as productive.

Since then, Trump has signaled a shift from pressing for an immediate ceasefire to seeking a permanent settlement. He said Ukraine cannot hope to join NATO or reclaim Crimea, which voted to join Russia in 2014 after a Western-backed coup in Kiev. On Friday, Trump suggested that Putin had “let me down” over the lack of progress in settling the conflict. Responding to those remarks, Peskov said Moscow assumes that the US leader maintains the “political will and intention” to pursue a settlement, adding that Trump’s “emotional” attitude toward the peace process is “completely understandable.”

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“Europe, as we knew and loved it, is over,” Orban warned. “If we deny this, we lose time. If we say it out loud, we gain time.”

• Brussels Bureaucrats Are Running Around Like Panicked Chickens – Orban (RT)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has slammed Brussels, accusing the EU leadership of mismanaging key areas such as the economy, immigration, and security.In a critical speech at Digital Civic Circles, a network of digital groups promoting conservative values in Hungary, he claimed the bloc was on the brink of collapse due to the failures of its current leaders. The prime minister painted a stark picture of “mountains of debt, crowds of migrants, street violence, the increasingly dark shadow of war, mass layoffs, skyrocketing utility costs, impoverished households, and Brussels bureaucrats running around like panicked chickens,” on Saturday while describing the EU’s troubles.

According to Orban, the EU has fallen short of establishing itself as a credible global power. Instead of rising to meet these challenges, the bloc has become a symbol of weakness, indecision, and internal chaos, he said. He criticized what he called the “tragic” trade deal with the US signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that the EU’s green policies are “killing European industry.” Energy prices, Orban noted, are “three to four times higher” than in the US, while countries like France are edging toward unsustainable debt levels. “Europe, as we knew and loved it, is over,” Orban warned. “If we deny this, we lose time. If we say it out loud, we gain time.”

The politician contrasted Budapest’s own approach with that of Brussels, pointing to stricter migration controls, a family policy tied to employment, and a tax system that, he said, supports jobseekers. Orban’s criticism, while sharply worded, taps into broader concerns which have been echoed by economists and analysts. Experts from the International Monetary Fund and other institutions have warned that the EU risks long-term stagnation. The IMF projects euro-area growth at just 0.8% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026, while public debt remains near 90% of GDP and deficits continue to exceed 3%, well above pre-pandemic levels.

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UK, Australia, Canada, and now Portugal.

• Great Britain Recognizes Palestinian Statehood (TASS)

London has recognized the state of Palestine, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced. “Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognizes the State of Palestine,” he said in a video address broadcast on the X social network. The British premier announced the decision in a video message on Sunday afternoon at the same time that Canada and Australia also recognized Palestinian statehood. He said: “Let’s be frank. Hamas is a brutal terror organization. Our call for a genuine two-state solution is the exact opposite of their hateful vision. We are clear this solution is not a reward for Hamas, because it means Hamas can have no future, no role in government, no role in security.”

On September 19, in an open letter, the US Republican Party threatened allied countries with response measures should they recognize Palestine as an independent state. The letter was addressed to Australia, the UK, Canada and France, among others. Tensions erupted again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian movement Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border settlements and seizing hostages. In response, Israel initiated a military operation in the enclave to dismantle Hamas’ military and political structure and rescue all those kidnapped.

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“The end game, though, is always the same. Burn the west to the ground. Burn free markets to the ground.”

• Antifa Is A Very Real And Organized Terror Threat (ZH)

In the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination as well as the confirmation that alleged killer Tyler Robinson is a far-left ideologue and gay man living with a transgender partner, the public’s attention has once again turned to the issue of Antifa, an activist network that shares many similar political beliefs with the shooter. Federal authorities are currently investigating the Discord sever groups used by Robinson in the lead up to the attack to find any potential co-conspirators. Discord has been identified as a common forum used by Antifa for organizing members for specific events while pretending as if their protests are random and “grassroots”. In the meantime, the corporate media is once again running interference for Antifa, claiming that the group is nothing more than a gaggle of disconnected people without no affiliation other than they “agree to oppose fascists”.

Of course, simply declaring yourself the “good guys” does not necessarily make it so. The Antifa of pre-war and post-war Europe used a similar tactic, claiming that they were a loose collection of concerned citizens seeking to fight fascism and participate in civil discourse. In reality, they were being directly funded by the Soviet Union and their ultimate goal was the downfall of the western world to make way for a communist “Utopia”. One expert on Antifa, Andy Ngo, says that the claim that Antifa is nothing more than a disorganized protest ideal is a lie. He notes that the decentralized cell structure of Antifa is similar to structures used by Islamic terror groups. Ngo is deeply acquainted with the operations of Antifa; he has tracked hundreds of violent incidents involving member of the group over the years. He was also attacked and nearly killed by a mob of Antifa activists in Portland, Oregon after they recognized him in the street.

Portland authorities failed to arrest and prosecute the attackers despite some of them being identified on video footage. In a subsequent civil trial, Antifa intimidated the jury into returning a verdict which favored the assailants. Andy Ngo and many other investigators into Antifa activities note that the group enjoys a number of protections, including legal protections and funding for operations. Financial aid comes from crowdfunding pages, but also from NGOs and even government agencies feeding cash into adjacent activism groups. This helps to explain why Antifa protesters often have the same signs, the same tents, the same riot shields, access to safe houses, etc. Many activists travel from outside of the locations that they protest in, which means funding for gas, food, lodging, etc.

Considering the average full-time protester isn’t able to maintain a job to pay for these excursions, the money has to come from somewhere. NGOs and state government funds are the primary sources. Antifa and related leftist groups exploit various civil and political conflicts, hijack these causes and then use them as a means to further their own goals. Recent examples include the mass deportation debate and the protests over Gaza. It’s important to understand that leftist militants do not necessarily care about immigrants or Palestinians, they only see their “plight” as a useful tool for radicalizing activists into using violent tactics.

The problems of the world become the justifications for Antifa terror, melding gay, trans, migrant and Islamic grievances under a single communist umbrella. The end game, though, is always the same. Burn the west to the ground. Burn free markets to the ground. Destroy as many conservatives and nationalists as possible in the process until there is no one left to oppose them.

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Antifa in Europe too.

• Far-Left Protesters Will Not Be Satisfied Until France Collapses (ZH)

Paris is crippled this week by constant protests designed to throttle traffic and shit down basic services, and the majority of the mob is comprised of far left activists including Antifa. The Paris actions are coupled with nationwide demonstrations that saw sporadic clashes with police who fired volleys of tear gas. Activists argue that eight years of leadership by France’s “business-friendly president” Emmanuel Macron have benefited too few people and hurt too many. The protests ignited in response to austerity measures issued by the struggling government, including cuts to socialist programs and an increase in the national retirement age.

Macron’s opponents complain that taxpayer-funded public services – free schools and public hospitals, subsidized health care, unemployment benefits and other safety nets that are cherished in France – are being eroded. France has crawled from one crisis to another since he dissolved parliament in 2024, triggering a legislative election that stacked Parliament’s lower house with critics of the president. Left-wing parties and their supporters want higher taxes for the wealthy and businesses to pay more to help rein in France’s debts, rather than see public spending cuts that they contend will hit low-paid and middle-class workers. France’s national debt was reported at $3.6 trillion US by the end of 2024, growing by nearly $1 trillion since 2023. This is over 100% of the country’s annual GDP.

Placards at the Paris demonstration read: “Tax the rich.” However, similar taxation efforts have been tried across the EU and in the UK, causing companies and business owners to simply close up shop and leave. In 2024, the UK lost 25% of its billionaires and 16,500 millionaires due to increasing taxation. This has led to a black hole effect in the economy, with an acceleration in job losses and slowing investment. The current tax rate for top earners in France is 45% of income over €180,471 ($211,000). High-income earners also face additional surtaxes and social charges that significantly increase the total tax rate. As is common in any country or US state that targets high earners with socialist tax measures, the people with the money walk away and go where they are better appreciated.

Leftists protesters indicate that they are not interested in fair taxation, but rather, wealth redistribution. Activists argue that French President Emmanuel Macron is “far right wing” and compared him to Donald Trump while espousing a laundry list of communist demands. Macron is a previous member of the socialist party now described as a “centrist liberal”. He has angered leftists with his shift to center and his increasing support for border controls. In other words, being “centrist” is “far right wing” in the minds of Antifa activists. The riots seem to be motivated more by typical Antifa goals, including the “Free Palestine” movement and the destruction of “nationalism”.

France’s conservative and anti-mass immigration movements have been growing exponentially along with similar movements across Europe. Leftists may be trying to flex their numbers as a way to frighten political leaders from seeking to appease these movements with tighter borders and fiscal responsibility. Ultimately, Antifa activists want a the collapse of the current government and a reformation. What the reformation would look like is hard to say, given that many of the protesters don’t seem to know. Of course, if the Bolshevik campaigns of the early 20th Century are any indication, then the end game will not be pleasant for the vast majority of people.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Nobivac
https://twitter.com/NicHulscher/status/1969794022572208586

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle August 6 2025 – 2

Aug 062025
 
 August 6, 2025  Posted by at 2:57 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  15 Responses »


Steve Schapiro Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) with mini gloves, Louisville, KY 1963

 

• Tulsi Gabbard Revokes Security Clearances (Maxwell)
• President Trump Threatens to Federalize DC After Attack On ‘Big Balls’ (CTH)
• ‘Big Balls’ Left Bloodied After DC Carjacking Attempt By 10 Minors (NYP)
• Letters and Documents Purposefully Leaked by Main Justice (CTH)
• Putin Meets With Trump Special Envoy Witkoff In Kremlin (RT)
• West Has ‘Unacceptable Control’ Over Ukraine – Former PM
• NATO Leaders ‘Do Whatever I Want’ – Trump (RT)
• Trump To ‘Substantially’ Raise Tariffs On India ‘Over The Next 24 Hours’ (RT)
• Global South Defies US Threats Over Friendship With Russia (Sp.)
• Brazil Defies US Dollar Dominance (Sp.)
• Israeli Settlers Attacked Russian Diplomats – Zakharova (RT)
• French Debt Ballooning By €5,000 A Second – PM (RT)

 

 

 

 

Gain of function monetary policy
https://twitter.com/TRUMP_ARMY_/status/1952815275985821748

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1952710464195985913

Olympics
https://twitter.com/SaveUSAKitty/status/1952836925775319406

Nunes

https://twitter.com/atensnut/status/1952874945559618022

“NBC “News” segment on DOJ opening of Russiagate grand jury probe. The “reporter” apprises the viewer that:
– Russiagate is a distraction
– All Gabbard’s claims are unsubstantiated
– *RE-EMPHASIZES* There is zero evidence to back up claims
– It’s all politically motivated
– Trump just wants to attack his political foes
That’s the entire “report.” The level of deceptive propaganda here is on par with what legacy media did when running the original hoax. And everyone understands why.”

 

 

 

 

Two is too much. Each Debt Rattle already takes 12 hours of work on average. But I did it, infected eye and all.

 

 

 

 

X thread

“Let’s be blunt: These clearances were never about safety. They were about status. They used their “former official” labels to dominate cable news, build book deals, enrich themselves, and maintain backdoor access to power.”

• Tulsi Gabbard Revokes Security Clearances (Maxwell)

DNI Tulsi Gabbard has revoked the security clearances of Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger… and that’s just the beginning!!She’s also pulled clearances from:
– John Brennan, the former CIA Director who weaponized intelligence and misled the American public about the Steele dossier.
– James Clapper, former DNI, who swore under oath there was no mass surveillance of Americans — then got caught lying.
– Susan Rice, who “unmasked” U.S. citizens for political reasons during the Obama years.
– Jake Sullivan, Biden’s National Security Advisor, who helped peddle the fake Alfa Bank narrative to smear Trump.
– Victoria Nuland, the architect of several regime-change disasters and foreign policy failures.
– Eric Swalwell, who sat on the House Intelligence Committee while having romantic ties to a Chinese spy.
– Peter Strzok, disgraced FBI agent who vowed to “stop” Trump from winning while investigating him under false pretenses.
– Lisa Page, another key player in the partisan takedown attempts of a sitting president.
– Fiona Hill, who testified during impeachment while maintaining deep ties to anti-Trump institutions abroad.

Tulsi Gabbard is doing what no one else would dare do… finally shutting the door on the corrupt old guard who treated American intelligence like a private political weapon. These people abused their access. They leaked. They lied. They profited. And they used our national security institutions as tools of revenge and manipulation — not defense. Revoking their clearances isn’t just symbolic. It’s the start of a full reckoning. You don’t get to push lies about foreign collusion, spy on American citizens, help suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, and then walk away with lifetime security access. That’s not how this republic works. At least, not anymore — thanks to Tulsi. Let’s be blunt: These clearances were never about safety. They were about status. They used their “former official” labels to dominate cable news, build book deals, enrich themselves, and maintain backdoor access to power.

Well, those doors just got slammed shut. Tulsi Gabbard is cleaning out the intelligence community like it’s never been cleaned before. And that’s why she’s in danger. Make no mistake: This move paints a massive target on her back. The people she just stripped of power aren’t just bitter — they’re dangerous. They’re part of a machine that doesn’t go quietly. These are the same forces who orchestrated the Russia hoax, buried the truth about the Wuhan lab, silenced dissent on COVID policies, and tried to break any leader who wouldn’t bow to their narrative. Pray for Tulsi Gabbard. She is standing alone in a storm of powerful enemies. The same elite circles that protected Epstein, buried Hunter’s laptop, and lied under oath are now coming for her. They know Tulsi can’t be bought, can’t be blackmailed, and won’t back down.

She’s not playing politics. She’s fighting for the soul of this country. And when someone does that — the deep state takes notice. And they retaliate. So I ask every patriot reading this: Pray for her safety. Pray for her protection. Pray that God covers her, her family, and those standing with her. Pray that the truth comes to light and that the American people have eyes to see it. This is a spiritual battle just as much as a political one. And Tulsi Gabbard is fighting it with unmatched bravery. The left called her a “traitor.” The media dismissed her as “dangerous.” The intelligence community feared her from the moment she stepped into office.

That should tell you everything you need to know. Tulsi Gabbard may be the most important leader in America right now. And she’s not acting out of vengeance — she’s acting out of duty. She’s trying to restore the very thing these corrupt players spent years destroying: the American people’s trust in government. And that’s why we must stand with her. Keep her in your prayers

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Give him one little nudge and he’ll do it.

• President Trump Threatens to Federalize DC After Attack On ‘Big Balls’ (CTH)

President Trump responded to a brutal attack on Edward Coristine, the DOGE employee known as “Big Balls.”

“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local “youths” and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released. They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these “minors” as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14. The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs.

Washington, D.C., must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see. If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore. Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” ~ President Donald Trump

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“President Trump posted a picture of the young man bloodied on a street.”

He does have balls. He’s also lucky: “The officers immediately exited their vehicle, and the juveniles began fleeing on foot..”

• ‘Big Balls’ Left Bloodied After DC Carjacking Attempt By 10 Minors (NYP)

A 19-year-old former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer was beaten and bloodied by a mob of 10 minors early Sunday as he thwarted a carjacking attempt in the nation’s capital, according to DC police. Edward Coristine, whose LinkedIn handle earned him the nickname “Big Balls” at DOGE, was with a woman near downtown DC when he saw the group of juveniles approach their car and “make a comment about taking the vehicle,” according to a Metropolitan Police Department incident report obtained by The Post. “At that point, for her safety, [Coristine] pushed his significant other … into the vehicle and turned to deal with the suspects,” the dramatic report continues.

Edward Coristine stopped an attempted carjacking early Sunday, according to DC cops. “The suspects then began to assault [Coristine],” the ex-DOGE staffer told officers, who rolled up on the scene at the same time he was being attacked. Officers patrolling the 1400 block of Swann Street NW — a popular area with several shops, bars and restaurants about a mile north of the White House — noticed “a group of approximately ten juveniles surrounding the complainants’ vehicle and assaulting [Coristine],” the report states. “The officers immediately exited their vehicle, and the juveniles began fleeing on foot,” police said. DC police were able to nab only two of the young suspects, who were later positively identified by Coristine as being among his attackers. A 15-year-old male and a 15-year-old female, both from nearby Hyattsville, Md., were arrested and charged with unarmed carjacking.

Coristine was treated on scene by DC Fire and EMS for injuries sustained in the assault, according to DC police. He is recovering from a broken nose, concussion and black eye, according to a source familiar with the matter. The group of teenagers “shouted about taking the woman’s car, and then ran across the street,” just before they started to beat Coristine, a source said. Coristine then pushed his female companion into the driver’s seat and slammed the door. “The gang tried to open the closed doors and slammed [Coristine] against the car extremely loudly while attacking him,” the source added, noting that the woman called 911 from inside the vehicle while Coristine was being beaten. The software whiz also had his iPhone 16, valued at $1,000, stolen during the attack.

President Trump shared a photograph of the aftermath of the assault on Coristine early Tuesday afternoon, showing the former DOGE staffer sitting on the ground, bloodied and with his ripped shirt barely hanging on his body.[..] Marko Elez, a one-time colleague of Coristine’s at DOGE, claimed in a social media post that he snapped the photo of his friend shortly after the assault, and described his actions as heroic. “My friend Big Balls … is a hero,” Elez wrote on X. “I took this photo after Edward protected a young woman from an attempted carjacking by 8 thugs near Dupont Circle.” “Violence like this in the heart of DC is completely unacceptable.” Former DOGE chief Elon Musk also posted about the incident on X, without naming Coristine as the victim. Coristine resigned from DOGE in June, according to Fox News, less than a month after Musk departed from the agency.

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Sundance likes Tulsi. But not Pam Bondi.

• Letters and Documents Purposefully Leaked by Main Justice (CTH)

The entire grand jury process is extremely protected as the 5th amendment requires. Fullstop. Unfortunately, we have a long and painful history with the Trump-era Main Justice system, intentionally leaking information to satiate the MAGA base and tamp-down demands for reform and accountability. For seven years various Trump officials have claimed to be working to bring accountability. None has been delivered. Also unfortunately, the pattern of bread and circuses is repeating. The Dept of Justice leaked a letter to The Federalist, in order to affirm their performance.

Obviously, The Federalist is well aware of who the assigned “prosecutor” is. However, telling the audience that name does not support the ongoing ‘clickbait’ performance as orchestrated by Pam Bondi’s Dept of Justice. After all, there’s the important public opinion to be shaped. The DOJ sending this letter to journalist Sean Davis is a case study in exactly what ‘Bread and Circuses’ looks like. The DOJ providing this letter directly to The Federalist, indicates the purpose of Pam Bondi’s DOJ action is performative; not substantive. If the DOJ does not want to compromise their grand jury case, then why are they leaking their letters? Simply, think about it. The compromise and motive to note is not in the reporting per se’; it’s in the DOJ selective (purposeful) leaking. And in this example, it indicates a profound lack of seriousness.

It’s likely the DOJ knows the challenge of the case is a very high bar and they are unlikely to clear it. So, what they are doing is appeasing the ‘Russiagate’ crowd, with the performance of the investigation itself. However, this is a very dangerous approach to take given the nature of seven years of bread and circuses in the background. If the cases were perceived as solid and serious, there would be no reason for Pam Bondi’s DOJ to be leaking internal documents to Fox News, Mollie Hemmingway, John Solomon, Sean Davis or any other media outlet. Fox News originally broke the story of the Grand Jury after they were sent documents from Bondi’s authorization of a prosecutor to review evidence and empanel a grand jury.

Now Pam Bondi’s assigned prosecutor is sending copies of his/her letters to The Federalist. Does this sound like serious investigative action taken by serious Main Justice leadership? No, unfortunately it sounds like a profoundly unserious ‘tick-tock’ screenplay is being delivered, because that is exactly what these actions indicate. We have experienced seven-years of ‘tick-tocking’, and intentional leaks, orchestrated for a purpose other than truth and justice. We The People deserve better. If the DOJ is going to leak letters and documents to ‘CONservative’ media for clickbait excitement, the outlook for serious legal accountability is not good.

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Putin cannot change his point of view, or his policies. He’s reacting to a US-sponsored attack on Russians in the Donbass. Trump will have to move.

• Putin Meets With Trump Special Envoy Witkoff In Kremlin (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun talks with Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of US President Donald Trump, according to footage released by the Kremlin.Witkoff, who has traveled to Russia multiple times in his role as special envoy, landed in Moscow earlier on Wednesday on what Trump has described as a make-or-break diplomatic mission. The US president has threatened buyers of Russian energy with secondary sanctions unless progress is made in resolving the Ukraine conflict. The Kremlin responded that demands for sovereign states to halt economic ties with Moscow have no legal basis.nSince taking office in January, Trump has reopened high-level diplomatic channels with Moscow, reversing the isolationist approach of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

The Trump administration has argued that engagement between the two nuclear superpowers is essential and could result in mutual benefits. Nevertheless, Trump has grown frustrated over the lack of swift results from his efforts to broker a peace deal, according to his public remarks. Moscow has maintained that it prefers diplomacy but will not allow the presence of a NATO-aligned adversary on its borders at the expense of national security. Kiev has continued to call on its Western backers to ramp up their military support and expand the sanctions on Russia. Some European governments have appealed to the US to sell them weapons to sustain shipments to Ukraine.

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“Ukraine is “not a failed state..” It’s not a state at all… It’s a colony..

• West Has ‘Unacceptable Control’ Over Ukraine – Former PM

Western control over Ukraine has reached “unacceptable” levels and is turning Ukraine into a “disenfranchised colony,” according to the country’s former prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko. The US and EU are using the ongoing conflict to “undermine” the nation’s sovereignty, she told The Times. In an interview published on Monday, Timoshenko claimed that Western experts play a key role in commissions appointing senior officials to Ukraine’s highest judicial bodies, including the Constitutional Court, the customs service, the State Bureau of Investigation, and various anti-corruption agencies. According to The Times, each of these commissions consists of three Ukrainian and three Western members, with the Westerners able to veto potential appointees through a joint vote.

In the event of a tie, the Western members’ votes carry more weight than those of the Ukrainians. British nationals are among those serving on the commissions, the paper noted. Since the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, “Western countries – under the threat of withholding loans – have imposed unacceptable control over Ukraine’s state institutions,” Timoshenko said, calling such control “cruel and unjust.” Ukraine is “not a failed state,” and the US and its allies would do better to apply their oversight mechanisms in countries such as Afghanistan, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Timoshenko, who leads the opposition Fatherland party’s faction in parliament, insisted.

She pointed to Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies as tools of Western control over Kiev and welcomed Vladimir Zelensky’s controversial attempt to curtail the autonomy of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – two agencies established with Western support to tackle rampant graft in Ukraine – calling it a “bright day” for the country. Zelensky introduced the relevant legislation last month, but later withdrew it after the EU threatened to reduce financial support for Kiev. Moscow has described Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies as instruments of Western influence over the country’s internal affairs. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova recently claimed they were designed not to combat corruption, but to give Western governments leverage over Kiev.

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People who have no views of their own also contribute little of value.

• NATO Leaders ‘Do Whatever I Want’ – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has claimed that NATO leaders are now completely aligned with his agenda, and credited his leadership for what he described as a dramatic turnaround in America’s global standing.In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Trump said the US had gone from a “dead country” to “the hottest country anywhere in the world by far” within several months since his inauguration. “That was told to me by every leader of NATO, which they do whatever I want,” he said, claiming similar praise from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.“I’m very happy to help,” Trump added.

Trump has for years pressured NATO members to ramp up defense spending while warning that the US would not defend countries that fall short of the bloc’s targets. At a key NATO summit in July, bloc members committed to increasing defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, up from the previous threshold of 2%. Trump also announced that the EU would pay the US “100% of the cost of all [American-made] military equipment” under a new funding deal, adding that “much of it will go to Ukraine.”

During the summit, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte referred to Trump as “daddy [who] has to sometimes use strong language,” after the US president compared Israel and Iran to children in a schoolyard fight and said “they don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing.” Trump was referring to the two countries trading accusations of violating a ceasefire in the 12-day war in June. The “daddy” remark raised eyebrows in the Western media, with critics accusing Rutte of “orchestrated groveling” and sycophancy while condemning the incident as “one of the most shameful episodes in modern history.” Rutte scrambled to defend his comments, insisting that Trump deserves praise and calling the US president a “good friend” who had “finally” persuaded European NATO members to boost defense spending.

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(A country of) 1.4 billion people will not budge.

• Trump To ‘Substantially’ Raise Tariffs On India ‘Over The Next 24 Hours’ (RT)

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will “substantially” raise tariffs on imports from India over the next 24 hours because of the South Asian’s continued purchases of Russian crude. The latest threat comes a day after India rejected US and EU criticism over its oil trade with Russia saying it would take measures to “safeguard its national interests and economic security,” while adding that the targeting of the South Asian nation was unreasonable. Calling India the “highest tariff nation,” the US President told CNBC Squawk Box in a phone interview that India has not been a good trading partner. “They do a lot of business with us but we don’t do with them. So, we settled on 25% but am going to raise them substantially in the next 24 hours because they’re buying Russian oil and they’re fueling the war machine,” Trump said in the interview.

In the 2024-25 fiscal year, bilateral trade between India and the US reached $131.8 billion, with a trade surplus of $41.18 billion for New Delhi, according to the Indian government. Trump also claimed in his Tuesday interview that New Delhi has offered to entirely waive tariffs on US imports. “Now I will say this, India went from the highest tariffs ever, they will give us zero tariffs. But that’s not good enough, because of what they’re doing with oil,” he said. Although the US President maintains that India is a friend, he has recently made a string of statements that are critical of New Delhi. On Monday, he said India was making “big profits” by selling Russian oil in the open market. “They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian war machine,” he said in a Truth Social Post on Monday.

***********
‘None of his business’ — ex-ambassador MK Bhadrakumar blasts Trump’s tariff threats to India”

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Their response? “Don’t rush into a fight you can’t win.”

• Global South Defies US Threats Over Friendship With Russia (Sp.)

Washington has declared a trade war on India, Brazil and China. Their response? Don’t rush into a fight you can’t win. Blasting Western hypocrisy and “unjustified & unreasonable” targeting, India’s MEA has vowed to “take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.” The US’s 25% tariffs aren’t about “trade fairness,” but punishment for engaging Russia, says Dr. Hriday Sarma. But “India knows what its national interest is, and will not come under pressure,” stresses Prof. Rajan Kumar. The country has no plans to ban Russian oil. Just over the past weekend, at least 3 tankers delivered over 2.2M barrels of Russian crude to Indian ports.President Lula has similarly rejected US ultimatums, declaring Brazil would “negotiate as a sovereign country.”

And it’s little wonder: Brazil-US trade totaled about $92B last year, while trade with BRICS hit nearly $210B. The US tariff tantrum could also backfire. Amid Trump’s 50% tariff threats, a third of US coffee comes from Brazil. Meanwhile, China is welcoming Brazilian coffee with open arms. The selective approach (different tariffs for Brazil & India) is an attempt to create divisions within the BRICS bloc. Dr. Sarma says. But it won’t succeed “as shared strategic interests & a commitment to multipolarity bind the group together.” China has also rejected US demands to stop buying Russian oil. “China will always secure its energy supplies in ways that serve our national interests,” its foreign ministry said. “Coercion & pressuring will not achieve anything.”

“The US is discovering its old playbook of threats, tariffs & sanctions no longer guarantees compliance,” Dr. Sarma says. “Countries are weighing their options, & finding that meaningful engagement with BRICS partners offers more stability & mutual respect.” “Multipolarity is no longer theoretical; it’s unfolding in real time.”

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“BRICS Shield Against US Hegemony..”

• Brazil Defies US Dollar Dominance (Sp.)

President Lula da Silva says global trade must be free — without Washington’s currency stranglehold. What’s driving him? “President Lula will no longer accept unequal terms of trade and US intervention because the very nature of the international system has irreversibly changed,” Dr. Anuradha Chenoy, retired professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, tells Sputnik. The US has imposed tariffs and pressured Brazil’s Supreme Court to drop cases against ex-President Jair Bolsonaro — Trump’s ally who refused to concede defeat. Many Brazilians see it as interference and a threat to sovereignty.

Brazil has BRICS partners to lean on. In July 2025, China — bolstered by its economic resilience — signed key cooperation deals with Brazil, covering everything from infrastructure to strategic development. Brazil-US trade totals around $92 billion, but BRICS trade is far larger. Brazil exports around $121 billion to BRICS — 35% of its total — while importing $88 billion. With stronger BRICS ties, Brazil has less need to depend on the US, says financial analyst Paul Goncharoff. Lula’s push for an alternative currency makes sense — sticking to the dollar means guaranteed loss in value. “There’s really no alternative for the world but to get out of the US dollar trap,” Goncharoff stresses.

The shift away from USD is only growing. PIX, Brazil’s free payment system, bypasses Western firms like Visa and Mastercard — empowering local entrepreneurs, Dr. Vinicius Vieira from the University of São Paulo tells Sputnik. “And that bothers Trump because those new technologies are a signal that the dollar empire may be coming to an end,” the pundit notes. The US acts desperately to resist its hegemonic decline, but no empire lasts forever. Just as the British pound fell, the US dollar may be facing the same fate. “The best that [Washington] could do is to offer honest agreements in order to preserve the minimum level of transactions of US dollars, instead of implying sanctions or what now we call a weaponized interdependence,” Vieira concludes.

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Putin will call Bibi: Make sure it doesn’t happen again.

• Israeli Settlers Attacked Russian Diplomats – Zakharova (RT)

Israeli settlers attacked a Russian diplomatic vehicle in the occupied West Bank last week, causing mechanical damage, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday. The vehicle was carrying members of Russia’s diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority, who are also accredited with Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Russia considers the incident, which occurred on July 30 near the illegal Israeli settlement of Giv’at Asaf, east of Ramallah and about 20 kilometers north of Jerusalem, a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, according to Zakharova. She questioned the Israeli military’s failure to intervene, denouncing their inaction “particularly puzzling.”

“The Israeli Defense Force soldiers didn’t even bother to try and stop the attackers’ aggressive actions,” she said. “We regard this incident as a blatant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Zakharova said, adding that the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv has submitted an official note to the Israeli authorities. Last month, the Kremlin reiterated that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. “Russia has always adhered to a two-state solution as the basis for resolving the Palestinian issue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Moscow’s recognition dates back to 1988, when the Soviet Union endorsed the Palestinian declaration of independence. The statement comes amid the conflict in Gaza, which began in October 2023 after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel left around 1,200 people dead. Israel’s military response has since killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to the health authorities in the enclave, and has drawn global criticism for the scale of destruction and civilian casualties.

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It adds up, even more if you have no printing press.

• French Debt Ballooning By €5,000 A Second – PM (RT)

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is urging the public to back his drastic public spending cuts, warning that the country’s debt is growing by €5,000 ($5,784) every second. The €43.8 billion ($50.9 billion) deficit-cutting program unveiled last month targets a budget gap that hit 5.8% of GDP last year – nearly double the EU’s 3% limit. Bayrou has sounded the alarm, stressing that the debt load is a “mortal danger,” while insisting tough measures are now unavoidable. In a YouTube video posted on Tuesday, he sought to convince the public that the planned budget squeeze was essential to prevent a full-blown fiscal crisis.

”Our debt stands at €3.4 trillion – a figure so vast it’s hard to imagine,” he stated, warning that interest payments alone could reach €100 billion annually by 2029 if no action is taken. The proposals include scrapping two public holidays to boost productivity, cutting public sector jobs, and freezing welfare payments and pensions, which are typically indexed to inflation. The plan has sparked backlash, with left-wing parties accusing the government of prioritizing military spending over social welfare. Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of La France Insoumise, called for Bayrou’s resignation, saying “these injustices cannot be tolerated any longer.”

France’s military budget is set to rise to €64 billion in 2027 – twice its 2017 level. President Emmanuel Macron has pledged an extra €6.5 billion over the next two years, citing growing threats to European security. A recent defense review warned that a “major war” could break out by 2030, listing Moscow among the top threats. The Kremlin has dismissed claims it is planning to attack the West, accusing NATO of using Russia as a pretext for militarization. Bayrou, who has survived eight no-confidence motions, needs parliamentary backing for his proposals before the budget is presented in October. The right-wing National Rally party has rejected the plan and called for another vote on his government. A survey by pollster Elabe published on July 31 suggests that only 12% of the French people trust Bayrou – the lowest percentage since he became Prime Minister in December.

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Optimus

Slaves

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Debt Rattle July 12 2025

Jul 122025
 
 July 12, 2025  Posted by at 9:12 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  71 Responses »


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

 

• Bongino and Patel May Resign If Pam Bondi Stays As Attorney General (Margolis)
• Tensions Explode Between Bongino And Bondi Amid DOJ Epstein Memo Fallout (ZH)
• Is This What Happened to the Epstein Client List? (Margolis)
• Flux Rules (James Howard Kunstler)
• Trump Attempts to Slow the Inertia of War (CTH)
• Trump’s Renewal of America Has Gone Dramatically Wrong (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Sen. Kennedy Skewers Comey and Brennan (Margolis)
• Trump Threatens Canada With 35% Tariff If It Does Not Help With Fentanyl (JTN)
• Sen. Ron Johnson Prepares Subpoenas For DOJ, FBI in Butler Shooting Probe (JTN)
• Europe Is Losing – Jamie Dimon (RT)
• JPM CEO Jamie Dimon: Democrats “Idiots” Obsessed With Failed Wokeism (ZH)
• EU ‘Has No Money Except For War’ – Hungarian Official (RT)
• Western European Leaders Dragging Continent Toward War With Russia – Lavrov (RT)
• Relations With US Will Never Be The Same – von der Leyen (RT)
• Kiev Needs Ceasefire By The End of 2025 – Ukrainian Spy Chief (RT)
• Zelensky Claimed He ‘Never Heard Of’ Ukrainian Nazi Crimes – Duda (RT)
• The West Mocked BRICS For Years But Now It’s Paying Attention (Lukyanov)
• France Opens Criminal Case Against Musk’s X (RT)

 

 

Benz
https://twitter.com/jayplemons/status/1943353450101878963

Scott

Reagan
https://twitter.com/mcucolo57/status/1943379084051927438

 

 

 

 

“This isn’t just about how Epstein died; it’s about whether the deep state inside the Department of Justice can finally be exposed and held to account.”

• Bongino and Patel May Resign If Pam Bondi Stays As Attorney General (Margolis)

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is on the verge of walking away from the bureau over what insiders are calling a full-blown crisis of confidence. According to a source close to Bongino who spoke with The Daily Wire, he’s issued an ultimatum: either Attorney General Pam Bondi goes or he does. The standoff stems from Bongino’s growing frustration with Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which he sees as a betrayal of the public’s right to the truth. The source says Bongino is “furious” and feels that he can’t in good conscience continue working alongside Bondi. After taking the job in February, he had hoped to help restore trust in the FBI, but Bondi’s alleged stonewalling has made that mission impossible. “He’s done if she stays,” the source said bluntly. “He’s not backing down.”

As PJ Media previously reported, Bongino’s frustration with Bondi has reached a breaking point over her handling of the Epstein investigation. Once promising a bombshell about Epstein’s so-called “client list,” Bondi has since backpedaled, claiming she was misunderstood and that the “file” on her desk was just routine paperwork. The DOJ, under her leadership, now insists there’s no evidence of a client list, no sign of blackmail, and no indication Epstein was murdered. For those demanding answers, this reversal isn’t just disappointing; it’s infuriating. But the story has gotten even bigger. According to independent journalist Nick Sortor, FBI Director Kash Patel is also considering resigning if Bondi stays on and Bongino leaves.

Axios previously reported that both Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel are “furious” with Bondi over the blowback her handling of the Epstein files has caused them. Bongino reportedly did not come into work on Friday. This isn’t some petty bureaucratic spat; it’s a crisis of trust. Bongino’s absence from the FBI after a heated exchange with Bondi signals how serious things have become. His once-busy social media has gone silent. One source close to him summed it up: “He ain’t coming back.” Officially, the administration claims he’s still on the job, but the writing is on the wall.

The DOJ’s memo concluding there was no client list was a slap in the face to anyone who’s paid attention. No client list? No blackmail? No reason to investigate further? That’s not a conclusion; it’s a cover-up. Epstein’s entire operation was built on compromising the elite. To suggest that he acted alone defies logic and insults the intelligence of the American people. What this country needs right now isn’t more spin or bureaucratic buck-passing — we need the truth. Real answers. Real accountability. Not some carefully worded memo designed to dodge the most damning questions. Bongino and Patel understand exactly what’s at stake. This isn’t just about how Epstein died; it’s about whether the deep state inside the Department of Justice can finally be exposed and held to account.

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It looks very bad on Trump if he loses Patel and Bongino, just like it looked good when he brought them in. Bondi has a much more chequered past. But he won’t want to let her go either.

• Tensions Explode Between Bongino And Bondi Amid DOJ Epstein Memo Fallout (ZH)

Speculation is mounting that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is furious over the Department of Justice’s explosive memo concerning Jeffrey Epstein, with anonymous sources claiming he has issued a stark ultimatum to the White House: dismiss Attorney General Pam Bondi or he will resign from his position. Axios, citing four sources familiar with the matter, reported Friday morning that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was absent from work following a heated confrontation with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Washington insider outlet noted that Bongino’s absence sparked speculation about whether he had resigned, though a White House source quickly clarified that he remains in his role at the FBI.

This week, federal law enforcement released a memo asserting that an “exhaustive review” of evidence from Jeffrey Epstein’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City conclusively ruled out murder. “Following a comprehensive investigation, FBI investigators determined that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell on August 10, 2019,” the memo stated. The agencies also firmly denied the existence of a “client list” linked to Epstein, directly contradicting earlier statements by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi had previously claimed on Fox News that such a list was “sitting on my desk” for review, fueling speculation about Epstein’s alleged blackmail of global elites.

By Friday afternoon, reports indicated that tensions between FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Bondi were escalating, with the FBI official reportedly contemplating resignation if Bondi remains in her role. “Source close to Dan Bongino tells me it’s either him or Pam Bondi, and that he won’t stay at FBI if she stays at DOJ,” The Daily Wire’s White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan posted on X. Independent journalist Julie Kelly corroborated Olohan’s reporting, writing on X: “Sources confirm to me the blow up between Dan Bongino and Pam Bondi is very real. This has been brewing for four months and came to a head at the White House on Wednesday.”

https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1943724569333788760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1943724569333788760%7Ctwgr%5E282c62e15638351eb281e156bb768b0bd8ae9c8e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Ftensions-explode-between-bongino-and-bondi-amid-doj-epstein-memo-fallout-reports

https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1943726798488936588?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1943726798488936588%7Ctwgr%5E282c62e15638351eb281e156bb768b0bd8ae9c8e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Ftensions-explode-between-bongino-and-bondi-amid-doj-epstein-memo-fallout-reports

“He has not been in the office since. Most of the frustration at [the] FBI relates to her handling of Epstein disclosures and disputes between [the] FBI and Bondi about how to proceed,” Kelly continued. “Bongino appears ready to resign imminently if Bondi remains in office,” she added.Fox News sought comment from the White House on whether President Donald Trump was satisfied with Bondi, to which Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded that the president is “proud” of his attorney general. “The President is proud of the attorney general’s efforts to execute his Make America Safe Again agenda, restore the integrity of the DOJ, and bring justice to the victims of crime,” Leavitt said.

“The continued fixation on sowing division in President Trump’s cabinet is baseless and unfounded in reality.” On Tuesday, Trump dismissed questions about Epstein during a press exchange. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” Trump said, while taking questions during a Cabinet meeting. “You’re asking – we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable. I mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.”

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“..he believes that the Biden administration intentionally destroyed the Epstein client files to protect powerful individuals.”

• Is This What Happened to the Epstein Client List? (Margolis)

Every time the topic of Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous client list surfaces, the American public is treated to a familiar dance: officials dodge, the media obfuscate, and the powerful breathe a sigh of relief. After years of waiting for the Epstein client list to see the light of day, the Trump administration says the list doesn’t exist. On Thursday, Alan Dershowitz came out and said that’s not true and that he saw it when he had to defend himself from false accusations of being an Epstein client. If the list does exist, what happened to it? Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) has a theory. In a recent interview with NewsNation, Burchett told host Leland Vittert that he believes that the Biden administration intentionally destroyed the Epstein client files to protect powerful individuals.

“I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration… and if they’d ever had anything on Trump, it would have been out day one under the Biden administration.” When Vittert agreed, Burchett continued, suggesting that the real reason the files remain hidden is because of who they might implicate. “I think there’s some very prominent people. There’s Hollywood people, but I think there’s world leaders too. And would it have caused economic disruption around the globe? Maybe. But I don’t really care.” Vittert asked if the hesitation to release names might be due to fear of unjustly tarnishing people who may have interacted with Epstein but did nothing wrong. Burchett rejected the idea and instead pointed to Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction:

“What’s Ms. Maxwell doing in jail? What did she do? Where is that… you know, who did she provide whatever she did? Why is she in jail? That’s gotta be a question that should be asked at some point.” He was blunt about the finality of the situation: “Dead men tell no tales. He’s dead.” Vittert pressed him to clarify: Was he saying that the Trump administration destroyed the files? “No, I think they destroyed everything,” Burchett replied, referring to the Biden administration. When Vittert asked former special prosecutor Pam Bondi wouldn’t say that directly, Burchett speculated, “Because she doesn’t have any proof of it. I’m just telling you what I think.” He went on to criticize Bondi’s handling of the situation. “I think she’s got over her skis pretty much, saying all this stuff — ‘The files are on my desk. I’m gonna release it.’ — and then she releases stuff that I knew.”

Burchett said he based his belief on his own instincts and experience in Washington. “I’ve been around this town enough. I just don’t think they exist. I think they did at one time.” He tied it back to the Hunter Biden laptop scandal: “You got an administration that lied and said Hunter Biden’s laptop didn’t exist… You had 30 of the top so-called intelligence people in the country say that, and they didn’t get chastised by anybody but y’all and a couple of others.” Burchett doesn’t trust the official story and doesn’t believe that the truth about Epstein will ever come out.

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“We’re trapped in a structure. We named the Structure ‘Jeffrey Epstein’.” — Eric Weinstein

• Flux Rules (James Howard Kunstler)

No one in America — not even the most deranged, spike-faced, pink-haired transtifas — believes the latest Epstein story as played out by Mr. Trump and AG Bondi in this week’s cabinet parlay: nuthin to see, just a bunch of pointless child porn, fuggeddabowdit. . . But stay! Much is moving, flowing unseen. The world is yugely in flux, large events in human affairs are in motion, many things are breaking, rotating, dissolving and re-forming, while others wind into giant hairballs. . . so many players acting as though they live in one great hall of mirrors, and treachery abides at every turn. Nobody seems to be actually managing any of it, though there is plenty of pretense, jockeying, staging. The public’s anger and anxiety rise in tandem.

One thing about Epstein is likely certain: it was an intel operation. And one thing is probable: it was a joint operation between the CIA, Israel’s Mossad, and the UK’s MI6. The object: to get as many political poohbahs on-the-hook for disgraceful behavior of the lowest kind and blackmail-able. Under the thumb. Theories and suppositions abound. If Mr. Trump was in on the Epstein sex shenanigans, as Elon blurted this week, why did the Democratic Party not go after him for it in three election campaigns (and all the many months in between)? Well, not to put too fine a point on it, Elon appears to be losing his shit. His CEO at “X” bailed on him this week. His A-I app, Grok, started spouting Hitler gags, and his empire of world-beating genius is tottering on a broken business model.

You can write all that Elon stuff off as a sideshow for now — wildly grotesque as it may be. But what is actually going on in the three rings of this circus? Flux in the Middle East is one. Whatever else the “Twelve Day War” was about, it’s the end of Israel threatening to bomb Iran’s nuke program out of existence. We’ve done that favor for them, or pretended to, as some are saying, kabukied it out. So, Israel, shut up about that for now . . . is the policy. One story is that the actual Epstein material, whatever still exists, that is, which might reside in multiple locations, is so destructive to the architecture of global leadership that it must be squelched for the sake of majorly realigning forces, tensions, and polities across the Middle East, namely, the Abraham Accords. Getting all that lined up is more important to Mr. Trump for the moment than defenestrating the various perverts-in-office around Western Civ. It just is. . . so. . . gotta lump it.

Let’s surmise that the president has learned a lot about the intel hall of mirrors over the past decade, but especially lately, in his second term, from DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who has access to every document in the bottomless pit of the intel archives. The President knows he is not exactly in control of his intel “community.” And he aims to do something about it. You could make the case that the so-called “community” is just a giant criminal syndicate engaged in the most nefarious activities ongoing in this world of sin: human trafficking, drugs, money-laundering, weapons, every off-the-book turpitude you could imagine. Nor is John Ratcliffe exactly in control of his own agency, though he can utilize some of its services. . . but more about that later.

Forget about Bondi’s gaffe. She is just following orders, as are Messrs. Patel and Bongino, standing down, good soldiers, and only on the Epstein business. You can’t even rule out the possibility that Jeffrey Epstein is not dead. Was it suicide? Or an escape? Shall we say, a rendition to parts unknown? I would not assert that, just proffer it as a possibility, since the events of that night in the Manhattan federal lockup were so astoundingly sketchy — the sleepy guards, the broken CC cameras, the missing minute in the one camera recording that worked, the suicide-proofed jail cell. . . . But, then, the autopsy reports. . . performed upon. . . whom, exactly. . . ?

There is parallel matter of Ukraine to consider. Mr. Trump is yugely frustrated by his inability to put a quick end to it, to make that golden deal with Russia. The Ukraine War is the globalists desperate final project, its last stand. By saying which, let’s assume that the Globalists are “a thing,” a combo of the UK’s remaining potent assets (MI6 and the City of London financial octopus), the megalomaniacal EU bureaucratic leadership (von der Leyen & Co.), and the WEF-Davos gang. Ukraine was their instrument to break up Russia. The project has failed. Yet the war goes on. Mr. Trump says he was not even informed about Ukraine’s recent long-range drone attack deep into Russia, to take out its strategic bombers. Wasn’t informed? WTF???

Was it because the CIA has gone rogue over in Ukraine? Running the war their way — and not even Mr. Ratcliffe has a handle on all that? Consequently, Mr. Trump is yugely embarrassed in his many skull sessions with Mr. Putin. And thus, Mr. Putin seeks to bring about an end to this enormous pain-in-the-ass situation by simply winning the war. Which he is doing. His terms have been simple, plain, and straightforward from the get-go: a disarmed, neutralized Ukraine that must surrender the Donbas provinces, end-of-story, and don’t even mention Crimea because there’s nuthin to talk about there. And, of course, regime change in Kiev. . . eighty-six on Nazis, thank you.

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Excellent from Sundance.

“Now Sending Weapons to NATO Instead of Ukraine..”

• Trump Attempts to Slow the Inertia of War (CTH)

Everyone can see the play by President Trump. Essentially, the “coalition of the willing” (U.K, Germany, France) are not willing to go to war against Russia without the United States in front of them. Giving the coalition the weapons puts the consequences of their use on the heads of NATO allies. Despite the majority of Washington DC, specifically the Senate thirsting, pleading and demanding an expanded NATO war, President Trump does not want to go to war against Russia. However, simultaneously Trump has to try and steer the war machine controlled by DC, the Senate, USIC and NATO. The INERTIA for expanded war is evident. President Trump is now trying to split the baby regarding Russia, by sending patriot missiles and weapons to NATO as opposed to sending them directly to Ukraine.

In February Marco Rubio earnestly and honestly said, “The Ukraine conflict is a proxy war for the United States against Russia.” President Trump has concurred with that statement and through his prior comments he attempted to extricate the U.S. from this dynamic. The shipment of missiles to NATO instead of Ukraine is simply a way of trying to stop direct support, yet Trump is forced by the inertia toward war to maintain a footing of expanded conflict with Russia. To be very clear, Russian President Vladimir Putin is clear-eyed on this situation with NATO, and he has been all along. Putin has said repeatedly that NATO was/is in direct conflict against Russia despite Ukraine not being a NATO member. This conflict with NATO well precedes Putin’s decision to conduct a ‘special military operation’ within Ukraine.

Now, we see through Trump’s approach the dropping of pretenses. Putin was correct. With NATO directly providing the war weapons to Ukraine there is no pretense, no doubt. NATO countries are funding an offensive war against Russia using a non NATO proxy state, Ukraine. As I have said, this western triggering has always been the inertia for war, and that war is now likely to expand as a result of NATO and even, unfortunately, President Trump’s approach. The only thing that works in his/our favor is the cowardice of the U.K, France and Germany to fight Russia without the USA. President Trump may try and distance himself and by extension the USA from this consequence of expanded conflict. But the consequence exists regardless of the obfuscation. We are parsing terms.

The US is going to fund expansion of the conflict directly with arms to Ukraine or indirectly by sending arms to NATO to give to Ukraine. The destination and intent of the weapons is the same regardless of the procedural process. I came to Russia this time to understand the nature of how western inertia to war can exist, despite the people of the west demanding the opposite. I wanted to see for myself exactly what Russia was preparing for, and exactly how the people of Russia were reacting to that preparation. Russia is well prepared, both physically and psychologically to go to war against any adversary. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating is between 70 to 80%, and despite what you might have heard in western propaganda media, the economy inside Russia is doing very well.

In addition to the two-year service requirement (18-20 years old), all men aged 25 to 35 have been refresher trained in preparation. The psyche of the Russian military is ready to get rid of the Nazis. Also, the sentiment of Europeans dislike of Ukrainian Nazi’s is easy to spot, albeit not well known outside the region. Despite decades of Brussels and USA provocation and political manipulation (perhaps because of it), there’s not a lot of pro-NATO support for the west here. I am not a big fan of Russia; nor do I agree with the way the government constructs societal life within it. There are a lot of negatives to daily life in Russia. However, I do have a complete understanding of the govt positions and reasons for them.

Western media have pretended that Ukraine was not a U.S/NATO proxy war against Russia. Now, those pretenses are dropped. Conversely, Vladimir Putin never pretended. Putin always accepted that Ukraine was, and long has been, a NATO proxy state for conflict against Russia; which is exactly the reason he ‘invaded‘ Ukraine in the first place. President Trump may be trying to split the baby amid the retention of pretense, but it’s a pretense Russian President Vladimir Putin never held, he could not afford to. Thus, the inertia of war and people asking “how did this happen?” If I am accurate in his exit strategy, President Trump hopes to extricate himself from the Russia-Ukraine problem by putting the conflict directly into the lap of NATO, more specifically into the lap of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz; the so called “coalition of the willing.”

President Trump is giving the weapons to NATO, again Starmer, Macron and Merz, for transfer to their buddy in Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. President Trump then stands back and draws distance from the consequence of what they do with them. However, this is also a massive provocation because NATO is now essentially operating on behalf of a non-NATO state, Ukraine, against another non-NATO power, Russia. President Trump cannot remove the fact that the USA is the lead in all things NATO. As soon as France, Germany and the U.K start bombing Russia albeit from the geography of Ukraine, the conflict will expand.

NATO -thanks to President Trump- would then be baiting Vladimir Putin to attack France, Germany or the UK in retaliation, which would trigger Article 5; subsequently the USA is drawn into the conflict by agreement, and voilà a full expanded war between NATO and Russia commences. But why? If neither Russia or Ukraine are NATO members, why is NATO involved at all? Good question. Perhaps President Trump will answer that question on Monday. President Trump told NBC News, “I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday.” Live your very best life, but prepare for war. Like a fat kid playing dodgeball, I’m out of here tomorrow (hopefully), and will hold an AMA on the topic of all things Russia next week.

Love to all,
~ Sundance

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“Has it ever occurred to Trump and his government that they are seen as nothing but the two-bit punk puppets of Israel led around by Netanyahu with an Israeli ring in their nose?”

• Trump’s Renewal of America Has Gone Dramatically Wrong (Paul Craig Roberts)

Donald Trump attracted massive political support–the most we have seen any candidate attract in many years–because he said his aim was to restore America on its traditional values, the values that had made the United States a successful country. Instead of foreign wars, Trump promised restoration at home. But everywhere we look Trump is enmeshed in foreign, not domestic, affairs. Netanyahu is leading Trump into war with Iran. Trump sends Zelensky, not himself, to meet with Putin despite the fact that Zelensky cannot deliver the mutual security agreement that Putin wants from the West. And now Trump is interfering in Brazilian domestic politics threatening a 50 percent tariff on imports from Brazil unless the current government drops charges against former president Bolsonaro.

I have no knowledge whether the charges against Bolsonaro are legitimate, any more than I know if the former charges against the current President Lula da Silva that resulted in his imprisonment were legitimate. The question is: what business is it of Trump’s? Does it ever occur to Trump and his government that it is incongruous to protect Bolsonaro but not the Palestinians, whose oppressor Trump has hosted in the White House three times in six months and plied with money, weapons, and diplomatic cover for a genocide? One would think that it is Putin, Xi, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Trump would have at the white house, and Netanyahu the one under US sanctions and threats for Israel’s genocide of Palestine and war-mongering in the Middle East.

Has it ever occurred to Trump and his government that they are seen as nothing but the two-bit punk puppets of Israel led around by Netanyahu with an Israeli ring in their nose? How are we supposed to be proud Americans when we are ruled by Zionist Israel? Will ever again Americans have a president who represents America?

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“Well, I know Mr. Comey, and I know Mr. Brennan. Neither one of them, in my opinion, should attempt more than six of the Ten Commandments.”

• Sen. Kennedy Skewers Comey and Brennan (Margolis)

In a display of his trademark wit and candor, Sen. John Kennedy delivered a scathing rebuke of former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, labeling both men as fundamentally unethical and unfit for public trust. Appearing on Fox News with Harris Faulkner, Kennedy wasted no time in making his feelings known, blending his signature biting humor with pointed criticism in a way only he can. Kennedy began by drawing on personal knowledge of both men. “Well, I know Mr. Comey, and I know Mr. Brennan. Neither one of them, in my opinion, should attempt more than six of the Ten Commandments. They’re, they’re, they’re not very nice people. They’re not ethical people.” He added, “I know people who have worked with them closely, and if you talk to people who’ve worked with them closely, those people will tell you that, um, they’re about as, as popular as male pattern baldness.”

The senator’s critique wasn’t just about personality. He questioned their competence, remarking, “What’s scary about both of them is that they think that they’re competent. They’re not.” Kennedy’s signature Southern charm came through as he continued, “I would hire the guy who salts the fries at McDonald’s before I would hire either one of them, but they think they’re competent. They think they’re smarter and more virtuous than the rest of us, and they have… they acted on their political beliefs.”Kennedy then turned his attention to Brennan’s role in the Hunter Biden laptop controversy, saying, “Brennan, for example, Mr. Brennan was one of the ones who told the American people that the Hunter Biden laptop wasn’t real… that it was Russian disinformation. They’re, they’re just not honest people and if they broke the law, they should be held accountable.”

He didn’t let up on their arrogance. “They’re also just… they’re like so many in Washington, Harris. They’re so arrogant. Um, Lyndon Johnson used to have an expression. He’d say, ‘That guy’s so arrogant. He could, he could strut sitting down.’ Well, that’s the way Mr. Comey and Mr. Brennan are.” For Kennedy, the damage Comey and Brennan did went beyond personal failings: “Those two have done more to destroy the American people’s confidence in the FBI and national intelligence than any two people I can think of.”

Kennedy then really drove his point home: “No, they really haven’t. And, and I wouldn’t say that about all of the people in President Biden’s administration, but, but these two are—they’re just especially bad, and they were so political. They’re just political hacks who tried to pretend that they had the American people’s best interests at heart, and they, and they, and they, uh, and they don’t.” He closed with a final jab, “And I love McDonald’s french fries by the way, and the people who salt ’em.”

Salt the fries

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Tariffs as a general policy tool? Is that what they’re for? Like threatening Lula over Bolsonaro?

• Trump Threatens Canada With 35% Tariff If It Does Not Help With Fentanyl (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Thursday sent Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney a letter notifying him that he would impose a 35% tariff on Canadian goods next month if the country doesn’t step up in battling fentanyl. Trump has been sending tariff rate cards out to countries this week that have not reached a trade deal with the United States. The letters have largely been going out to seven countries at a time. The president argued that Canada has not done enough to help with the illegal flow of fentanyl that has been smuggled into the U.S. through the northern border. The U.S. is facing an opioid epidemic, and fentanyl is considered one of the most dangerous opioids in the country.

“If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter,” Trump wrote to Carney. “These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.” The U.S. previously imposed a 25% tariff on Canada, but delayed the tariffs while trying to reach a trade agreement. However, the new tariffs will go into effect on Aug. 1. It is not clear if products covered under the 2020 trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico will be excluded from the tariffs or not.

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“..everybody else seems to have been moving on here and not particularly interested in an investigation. I am..”

• Sen. Ron Johnson Prepares Subpoenas For DOJ, FBI in Butler Shooting Probe (JTN)

Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson approved a subpoena to be sent to the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI regarding more information on the first assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania last year. The subpoenas will be sent near the anniversary of the shooting, which occurred on July 13. Johnson was part of the Senate’s Homeland Security investigation into the assassination attempt last year, but now leads a separate investigation as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Johnson told Fox News on Thursday that he approved a subpoena on Wednesday to get more information from the two agencies, but has described the investigative process overall as “maddening,” because of the red tape he’s experienced so far.

“I’d like our report to be bipartisan, but everybody else seems to have been moving on here and not particularly interested in an investigation. I am,” Johnson said. “Whether I have the other officers involved or not, I’m moving forward, which is why I approved a subpoena.” Johnson claimed his investigation is still getting “stonewalled” nearly a year after the incident, and that he needs more documentation and information to move his investigation forward. It is not clear when the subpoenas will go out. The accusation comes despite FBI Director Kash Patel’s promise to provide full transparency in the bureau’s investigation into the assassination attempt.

Republicans have largely criticized the federal government for not holding people accountable for the errors that led to the failed attempt. A 180-page House report last year found “preexisting issues in leadership and training created an environment” in which security failures could occur. The Secret Service also recently revealed that six agents were suspended without pay or benefits after the shooting, and were placed in restricted duties or given roles with less operational responsibility when they returned. No Secret Service agents were fired over the assassination attempt but former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after facing heavy backlash.

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“Europe has gone from 90% [of] US GDP to 65% over 10 or 15 years.”

“..GDP per person had dropped from around 70% of America’s to 50%..”

• Europe Is Losing – Jamie Dimon (RT)

Western Europe is “losing” the economic competition with its main rivals, China and the US, and is struggling with a shortage of globally competitive companies, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said. Since 2022, when the EU imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian energy over the Ukraine conflict, growth across the bloc has stagnated. Germany, once its economic powerhouse, is now experiencing its third year of economic downturn. Moscow has argued that EU restrictions are self-defeating, causing surging energy prices and weakening the bloc’s economy. Dimon, CEO of one of the world’s largest banks, cautioned EU leaders at an event in Dublin hosted by the Irish Foreign Ministry on Thursday that Europe has lost its competitive edge compared to the US and is facing a growing crisis in economic competitiveness.

“You’re losing,” he said. “Europe has gone from 90% [of] US GDP to 65% over 10 or 15 years.” “We’ve got this huge strong market and our companies are big and successful, have huge kinds of scale that are global. You have that, but less and less.” The JP Morgan boss has repeatedly expressed concerns about the state of Europe’s economy. Earlier this year, Dimon told Financial Times that Europe needed to “do more” to remain competitive, noting that GDP per person had dropped from around 70% of America’s to 50%, which he deemed “not sustainable.”

Dimon’s warning comes as European NATO members say they need to ramp up their military budgets to deter an alleged threat from Russia. NATO countries have recently pledged to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP over the next decade, more than double the longstanding target of 2%. Moscow denies posing any danger to these nations, accusing Western officials of exploiting fear to rationalize budget increases and cover a decline in living standards.

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Jamie Dimon ‘taking the knee’ looks incredibly stupid.

“I have a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they’re idiots..”

• JPM CEO Jamie Dimon: Democrats “Idiots” Obsessed With Failed Wokeism (ZH)

The inconvenient truth for Democrats is that there is still no bottom in sight, as the party of leftist radicals doubles, triples, and quadruples down on diversity, equity, inclusion, all things woke, and most alarmingly, a rapid descent into embracing Marxist ideas. That’s why rational people have been jumping ship from the imploding party. Just look at the tech bros who voted for President Trump and how the right side of the political spectrum reformatted itself with a relatable message: ‘America First’… On Thursday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon spoke at a foreign ministry event in Dublin, blasting the Democratic Party for going off the deep end with DEI, gender politics, and a series of failed policies that he said have harmed the country. “I have a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they’re idiots,” Dimon said at the event.

“I always say they have big hearts and little brains. They do not understand how the real world works. Almost every single policy rolled out failed.” Dimon continued, “They overdid DEI …. We all were devoted to reaching out to the Black community, Hispanic, the LGBT community, the disabled — we do all of that. But to the extent, they gotta stop it. And they gotta go back to being more practical. They’re very ideological.” He described himself as “barely a Democrat” since the party of woke has fallen into the abyss. His criticism of the Democratic Party also extended to politics in New York City — particularly Manhattan, where the bank is headquartered — which now faces the possibility of a Marxist becoming mayor later this year. “Barely a Democrat”? Please. Dimon was a full-blown kneeler not long ago…

“This guy [Zohran Mamdani] just got elected — he’s more of a Marxist than a socialist, and now you see these Democrats falling all over themselves saying, ‘Well, he’s pointing out some real problems, affordable housing and grocery prices.’ OK, maybe,” Dimon said. “There’s the same ideological mush that means nothing in the real world.” Dimon’s criticism of the Democratic Party is nothing new. In late May, the CEO blasted Democrats for the border invasion they facilitated over the Biden-Harris regime’s first term. “If you do not control the borders, you are going to destroy our country … Now that they are sending migrants into New York … all my super liberal friends realize what the problem is,” Dimon told CNBC last year. Dimon’s criticism signals that the party of leftist radicals is nowhere near a reset. In fact, it has gone further off course — doubling, even tripling down on failed policies that are driving more of its own supporters to jump ship and align with the America First movement.

Jason Curtis Anderson from One City Rising highlights just how far off course Zohran and the Democratic Party have gone (and spoiler alert: it’s bad): “Zohran’s worldview is shaped by his father, who has dedicated his life to promoting anti-Western values and decolonization—a field in which he is regarded as a thought leader. Marxism has become the philosophy of the “death to America” class, spanning from the permanent-protest and NGO movements to activist-teachers and into the Democratic Party through the Democratic Socialists of America—the political organization Mamdani calls home. Unfortunately, many Democrats remain slow to recognize that this philosophy breeds only misery and is incapable of improving society. In the 1960s, Frances Fox Piven outlined the revolutionary “Cloward-Piven strategy” to deliberately overload social service and welfare systems until they collapse, creating an opening for the far-left to demand a new system and “prove” that capitalism doesn’t work. It should come as no surprise that she is now an honorary chair of the DSA.”

From hating America to preaching Marxism and fueling chaos in city streets with dark money-funded NGOs, people are fed up with the radical left. And so is Dimon. It’ll be a long time before Dimon takes a knee again — of that, we’e certain.

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“While Europe cannot climb out of its own economic, social and security crisis, Brussels would continue to finance the war – weapons instead of peace, new debt instead of a competitive Europe..”

• EU ‘Has No Money Except For War’ – Hungarian Official (RT)

The EU is placing Ukraine’s military needs above the priorities of the bloc’s member states, Hungarian government adviser Balazs Orban has said. He accused EU leaders of always finding money for “war” but not other causes. Leaders of EU nations are considering the creation of a new €100 billion ($117 billion) fund under the bloc’s upcoming seven-year budget to cover expenses for the Ukrainian government, Bloomberg reported this week, citing people familiar with the discussions. Budapest, however, has been a vocal critic of the bloc’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict since its onset. “Europe has run out of money – except when it comes to war. There is always 100 billion euros for that,” Orban wrote on Wednesday on social media. He warned that such an allocation of funds would likely lead to further proposals to spend EU taxpayers’ money on Ukraine.

Orban pointed to Kiev’s estimate that it would require $1 trillion over 14 years for reconstruction and modernization, a figure shared by Prime Minister Denis Shmigal during a donors conference in Rome this week. “While Europe cannot climb out of its own economic, social and security crisis, Brussels would continue to finance the war – weapons instead of peace, new debt instead of a competitive Europe,” Orban said. Last week, Bloomberg reported that US investment firm BlackRock had abandoned efforts to attract private investors for a Ukraine reconstruction program. The fund was expected to be launched at the Rome conference, but potential participants reportedly expressed “a lack of interest amid increased uncertainty” over the country’s future.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said at the event that “only friends are invited” to help rebuild the country. He reiterated his call to confiscate Russian state assets frozen by Western nations and transfer them to Kiev. Moscow has warned that such actions would constitute international theft. EU members have voiced concern that expropriating Russian assets could significantly erode global confidence in their financial systems. As an alternative, Ukraine’s backers have been imposing a “windfall tax” on profits from the immobilized Russian funds and channeling the money to Kiev – an approach Moscow has described as another form of criminality. Hungary has accused the EU leadership of inflicting major economic harm on member states through sanctions on Russia, and of wasting resources on a war effort that it argues cannot deliver a military victory over Moscow.

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“..German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said Germany must once again become Europe’s leading military power. “He didn’t even choke on the word ‘again,’” Lavrov noted..”

• Western European Leaders Dragging Continent Toward War With Russia – Lavrov (RT)

Western European leaders have forgotten the lessons of history and are once again steering the continent toward direct military confrontation with Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned. During a press conference following ASEAN events on Friday, he pointed to recent actions and rhetoric coming from Berlin, Paris, and London as evidence that European leaders are taking an increasingly aggressive stance toward Moscow. Lavrov pointed to a public exchange in which French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was asked why Paris continues to support the Nazi regime in Kiev. The Russian diplomat questioned the sincerity of Barrot’s “hysterical” response, in which he insisted France was defending “the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

“They have forgotten the conclusions that all of humanity once drew from those lessons. And, essentially, they are once again trying to prepare Europe for war – not some hybrid war, but a real war against Russia,” Lavrov stated. Kiev’s push for territorial control serves only to “suppress the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population and to physically eliminate those who oppose” the post-coup regime, according to Russia’s top diplomat. Claims that territorial integrity is the sole motive amount to “self-incrimination,” he added. Moscow has sounded the alarm over the resurgence of Nazi ideology and suppression of Russian culture in Ukraine for years, listing ‘denazification’ as one of the key goals in the conflict.

Lavrov also addressed remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said Germany must once again become Europe’s leading military power. “He didn’t even choke on the word ‘again,’” Lavrov noted. If Merz now believes peaceful solutions are exhausted, he has effectively dedicated himself to the militarization of Germany at the expense of its own people, Lavrov argued, calling such a stance “complete nonsense.” Moscow has warned that Berlin’s stance could lead to a new armed conflict with Moscow decades after the end of World War II. The Kremlin maintains that Russia prefers a peaceful solution to the conflict but warned that conditions on the ground are rapidly evolving while Kiev balks at a third round of direct negotiations.

Moscow has condemned the EU’s growing militarization, which has stirred divisions within the bloc, while describing its weapons deliveries to Kiev as part of a NATO-led proxy war. Lavrov said Moscow will take Europe’s militarization “into account in all areas of our strategic planning.”

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“The EU’s priority is to stabilize the situation with the US, von der Leyen said. “We are working tirelessly to find an initial understanding..”

• Relations With US Will Never Be The Same – von der Leyen (RT)

Relations with the US may never return to what they used to be, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said, citing tensions with Washington over increased tariffs on European goods. US President Donald Trump introduced 20% tariffs on European imports in February. The EU responded with its own set of trade penalties. Trump later lowered duties to 10%, pending negotiations. That pause has now been extended until early August. ”We believe that tariffs are a loss for everyone. But we are not naive either: we know that the relationship with the US may never go back to what it used to be,” the EU chief stated at an economic-industrial forum in Rome on Thursday. The EU’s priority is to stabilize the situation with the US, von der Leyen said. “We are working tirelessly to find an initial understanding,” she added.

The EU chief called Washington “the most important trading and investment partner” of Brussels. In 2024, the US was the largest exporter of goods to the EU and the second-ranking destination for EU imports after China, according to Eurostat. Trump’s global tariff campaign has grown to include 211 countries. The American leader says his objective is to reduce the US trade deficit and stimulate domestic production. Since his first term, Trump has been pushing European NATO members to spend more on their own defense. While the bloc’s members agreed to a 2% threshold in February, the US president suggested that NATO countries consider spending as much as 5% of GDP, warning: “if they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said Trump was right to demand that European members step up military spending.

The bloc subsequently agreed to a 5% minimum in June. NATO leaders insisted that the hike in expenditure was aimed at deterring Russia amid the Ukraine conflict. Some officials suggested that Moscow could launch a full-scale attack on the US-led bloc within a few years. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, however, called the NATO spending increase “unreasonable and counterproductive,” which Trump responded to by saying he would “make them pay twice” through trade measures. Russian officials have repeatedly emphasized that Moscow has never had any plans to attack NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the allegations as “nonsense” and “utter rubbish,” stating that Western politicians make such claims to deceive their constituents and justify increased spending on defense and aid to Kiev. “In Ukraine, we are just protecting ourselves,” Putin insisted.

Read more …

Well, you know the conditions.

• Kiev Needs Ceasefire By The End of 2025 – Ukrainian Spy Chief (RT)

A ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine must be reached by the end of the year, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, said in an interview with Bloomberg published on Friday. He made his remarks as Ukrainian troops have been steadily losing ground along different sections of the front line, and after the 2024 incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region ended in costly failure. The Ukrainian army has also been struggling to bring in new conscripts. According to Bloomberg, Budanov argued that “a ceasefire must be reached as soon as possible and well before the end of this year.” “Is it realistic to do so? Yes. Is it difficult? No,” he told Bloomberg. “It takes at least three sides – Ukraine, Russia, and the US. And we will get to this position.”

Moscow has rejected the proposal for an immediate and unconditional truce, insisting that Kiev and its Western backers must first agree to several demands, including the withdrawal of troops from Russian territory claimed by Ukraine, an end to Ukraine’s mobilization campaign, and a halt to foreign military aid. Russian President Vladimir Putin also accused Ukraine of wanting to use any pause in fighting to rearm and regroup its forces. Moscow has further warned that it will not accept the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine, even if they are deployed under the guise of peacekeepers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this week that the sides are working to arrange a third round of direct talks in Türkiye. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, however, said during a summit in Rome on Thursday that the countries must first complete the prisoner swaps agreed during negotiations in Istanbul on June 2.

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“Militants from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) slaughtered up to 100,000 Poles between 1943 and 1945..”

• Zelensky Claimed He ‘Never Heard Of’ Ukrainian Nazi Crimes – Duda (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed he had no idea about the atrocities committed by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during World War II until confronted about the issue by Polish President Andrzej Duda, the latter has told the media outlet RMF24. According to the president, Zelensky’s claim underscores that Ukrainians are kept in the dark about their nation’s troubled past. “He said to me: ‘Andrzej, I’ve never heard of the murders, the killing of Poles in western Ukraine, in Volhynia. They didn’t teach us about it in school’,” Duda said, recounting one of his meetings with the Ukrainian leader. The president was referring to the infamous Volyn massacre, which has long been a flashpoint in bilateral relations between the two countries.

Militants from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) slaughtered up to 100,000 Poles between 1943 and 1945 in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, which were later incorporated into Ukraine. Both the UPA and the OUN collaborated with Nazi Germany during WWII. Many historic ultranationalist leaders, including OUN leader Stepan Bandera, a notorious Nazi collaborator, are widely revered by Ukrainians today. According to Duda, they are ignorant about the crimes of the past. The widespread belief that they are aware of their own “difficult history” is wrong, according to the Polish president. It is not the first time Duda has expressed his concerns about Ukraine’s approach to its past. In September 2024, he told Polsat News that “Ukrainians have many problems with their history,” including “the Volyn massacre … service in SS units, collaboration with the authorities of the Third Reich, and participation in the Holocaust.”

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry released a statement on Thursday, saying that historical events should be studied and discussed “without politicization.” “On the eve of the day when the Republic of Poland commemorates the victims of the Volyn tragedy, Ukraine shares the pain and grief of the Polish people. At the same time, we do not forget about the numerous Ukrainians who became innocent victims of interethnic violence, political repression and deportation on the territory of Poland,” the statement continued. Warsaw has been one of Kiev’s strongest supporters since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022. Poland also provided a key logistics hub which was used to transport between 80-90% of NATO-supplied military equipment and ammunition to Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities continue to glorify Nazi collaborators despite concerns expressed by Kiev’s Western backers. In February, the city of Rovno celebrated the 120th birthday of Nazi collaborator and prominent anti-Semitic propagandist Ulas Samchuk, who called for the mass killing of Jews and Poles during WWII. Less than a month later, Ukrainian nationalists commemorated the 75th anniversary of the death of UPA leader Roman Shukhevich with a torchlit march, and unveiled a museum dedicated to him. Shukhevich is considered by many historians to have been one of the architects and commanders responsible for the massacre of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.

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“There is no clear international balance, and no blueprint for restoring one. This transitional era will last, perhaps for decades.”

• The West Mocked BRICS For Years But Now It’s Paying Attention (Lukyanov)

The idea of a multipolar world has long been used in two distinct contexts. One is when global hegemony is solid and unchallenged, as it was for the decade and a half following the Cold War. In that case, ‘multipolarity’ serves as little more than a slogan – a symbolic protest against US dominance, with no practical strategy behind it. The other is when that hegemony has fully collapsed, and international relations revert to their historical norm: a fluid, unpredictable interplay of states with differing levels of power. Then, multipolarity becomes a fact, and actions are guided by immediate context. Today’s world fits neither condition. The old unipolar order is fading, but its structures and reflexes remain. That is why the current moment is so peculiar – and why BRICS has become such an important indicator of the transition underway.

This group of nations, for all its diversity and contradictions, reflects the emerging outlines of a world less shaped by Western control. The latest BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro prompted disappointment in some quarters. Several key leaders were absent, and the headlines lacked drama. Compared to last year’s bold meeting in Kazan, it seemed muted. But this calmer tone is not a setback – it reflects the changing environment BRICS now operates in. Three trends help explain the summit’s tone. First, global tensions are rising. The recent clashes between India and Pakistan, and between Israel and Iran, directly involve BRICS members. While not full-blown conflicts within the group, they underscore a lack of unity. As BRICS expands, internal diversity increases, making it harder to maintain a single voice. The natural result is cautious language and vague formulations. That may frustrate observers, but it reflects realism.

Second, the United States under Donald Trump has adopted a more explicitly anti-BRICS stance. Washington has issued direct threats and imposed new duties on countries perceived to be aligned with the bloc. These efforts have a clear goal: to deter deeper cooperation between BRICS members. So far, they have not provoked open defiance. Most BRICS countries remain wary of direct confrontation with the West. Yet US pressure is steadily fueling resentment, and a firmer response may come if that pressure intensifies.

Third, the rotation of the BRICS presidency from Russia to Brazil altered the rhythm of the group’s activities. For Russia, BRICS is both a practical tool for economic coordination and a political platform that bypasses Western gatekeeping. Moscow invests heavily in its BRICS role. Brazil’s focus is different. Tied more closely to the West, it has other strategic priorities. That doesn’t mean Brasilia is uninterested in BRICS – only that it doesn’t treat it with the same urgency. Still, something important has happened. The 2023 and 2024 summits in South Africa and Russia changed BRICS. The group has matured, acquiring a new identity. That development will take time to digest. India’s upcoming presidency may continue the current more restrained phase, but that should not be mistaken for stagnation. It is a necessary period of consolidation.

This is why the Rio meeting should be seen as a success. The early phases of BRICS expansion, when the group was seen as vague and aspirational, were relatively easy. No one expected much. Now, the stakes are higher. America and its allies, once dismissive, are paying close attention. They are actively probing for weaknesses. This alone shows that BRICS is starting to matter. The group’s appeal lies in its alignment with real global trends. Today’s international environment demands flexibility, minimal obligations, and openness to difference. BRICS embodies these features. It avoids binding structures, embraces diversity, and operates on the basis of shared (though loosely defined) interests. We are living in a time of disorder.

There is no clear international balance, and no blueprint for restoring one. This transitional era will last, perhaps for decades. In the meantime, the world will increasingly look for platforms that reflect the new reality. BRICS is one of them. The perception of the group is shifting. It is no longer treated as a rhetorical device or a curiosity. It is becoming part of the emerging architecture of a multipolar world. That evolution will be slow and uneven, but it is underway. Following the summits in Johannesburg, Kazan, and now Rio, BRICS has entered a new phase. The challenge now is to recognize that change – and to adapt to it.

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The unpopular European “leaders” see a chance for revenge. The Trump/Musk rift gives them hope.

• France Opens Criminal Case Against Musk’s X (RT)

France has opened a criminal investigation into whether algorithms on Elon Musk’s X platform were used to interfere in domestic politics. The probe stems from two complaints filed in January, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Friday. Without naming Musk directly, she stated that investigators will examine the company and its executives for allegedly manipulating algorithms “for purposes of foreign interference.” The first complaint came from Eric Bothorel, a legislator from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble party. He alleged that a “reduction in the diversity of voices and options” on X has created a dangerous environment.

Bothorel also criticized the platform’s moderation model as lacking clarity and accused Musk of personally intervening in its management, according to France 24. The complaint described X’s activities as posing a “real danger and a threat to our democracies.” The second complaint reportedly originated from a government cybersecurity official who claimed that changes to the algorithm promote racist and homophobic content, aiming to “skew democratic debate in France.” On Thursday, Socialist Party politicians Thierry Sother and Pierre Jouvet filed a separate complaint against Musk’s chatbot Grok, which recently generated antisemitic and otherwise offensive comments on X, including praise of Adolf Hitler.

The Grok team said on Wednesday that they had updated the model to remove hate speech. Musk commented that the chatbot was “too compliant to user prompts” and “too eager to please and be manipulated” into producing hateful rhetoric. European politicians have increasingly called for greater oversight of X and similar platforms, warning of potential abuse by bad actors. Musk caused controversy in Berlin when he openly endorsed the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during the parliamentary elections in February. AfD significantly increased its vote share, becoming the second-largest faction in the Bundestag.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Bhakdi

Birth rate

Wine
https://twitter.com/LangmanVince/status/1943355762924724718

Men
https://twitter.com/CRIXUSwasHERE/status/1943287953100292104

 

 

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Debt Rattle July 11 2025

Jul 112025
 
 July 11, 2025  Posted by at 9:17 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  38 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Female bust 1943

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

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

Glenn

Bird flu

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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30% dissent is a lot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Everybody Loves Marco (PJM)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Globalism Destroyed American Jobs (Paul Craig Roberts)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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BRICS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

 

 

 

 

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


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

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

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

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

 

 

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Debt Rattle February 28 2025

Feb 282025
 
 February 28, 2025  Posted by at 10:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  65 Responses »


Giovanni Bellini Pietà 1505

 

• FBI Withheld ‘Thousands’ Of Epstein Docs – US AG Pam Bondi (RT)
• DOJ Releases ‘The Epstein Files: Phase 1’ (RT)
• Macron Persuaded Trump To Receive Zelensky In Washington (TASS)
• Trump Refuses To Guarantee Backup For British Military (RT)
• Kiev Facing Pressure To Intensify Conscription – Economist (RT)
• UN Showed ‘Common Sense’ On Ukraine Conflict Resolution – Moscow (RT)
• Putin Says 6+ Hour Talks With US “Inspire Certain Hopes” (ZH)
• USAID Blew Millions On Literal ‘Pet Projects’ In Ukraine (RT)
• Border Protection Feds Warned Of Possible Unrest Over USAID Firings (JTN)
• Polls Highlight Disconnect Between Media And Public On DOGE (JTN)
• Is the End of the Democrats’ Lawfare Strategy In Sight? (PJM)
• Leavitt Slams NY Times Reporter As ‘Left-Wing Stenographer’ (NYP)
• Prosecuted Romanian Presidential Candidate Asks Trump For Help (RT)
• Elon Musk Floats Pay Hikes For Congress, Top Gov’t Workers To Fight Corruption (NYP)
• Musk’s Father Says Son ‘Not Cut Out For Politics’ (RT)
• Bezos Calls for WaPo to Champion Individual Freedom and Free Markets (Turley)
• HHS Pauses Multi-Million Dollar Contract to Develop New COVID-19 Vaccine (ET)

 

 

 

 

DOGE
https://twitter.com/i/status/1894843925635940585

Lutnick

Malone

 

 

 

 

Bondi sort of walked into her own trap. Big promises, lot of hoopla, photo-ops, all of which affect not just her, but also Kash Patel and Trump, and then there’s nothing there. Ugly. She should have checked what she DID have. She called for a “new round” Friday 8am, but what if it’s still not there?

• FBI Withheld ‘Thousands’ Of Epstein Docs – US AG Pam Bondi (RT)

US Attorney General Pam Bondi has accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation of withholding “thousands of pages” of documents related to the investigation of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter addressed to the newly appointed FBI director, Kash Patel, Bondi demanded the immediate release of all pertinent files. Earlier that day, the Department of Justice released a set of documents titled ‘The Epstein Files: Phase 1’ to a select group of conservative influencers. Notable figures such as Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik, journalist Jack Posobiec, pundit Liz Wheeler, and conservative commentator Mike Cernovich were seen exiting the White House with binders labeled with the project’s title. However, these documents were heavily redacted and contained mostly previously reported information.

“We got the binder at noon… AG Bondi wanted to get out what they had, which wasn’t anything material,” Cernovich wrote in a post on X, adding that the FBI “held back the real information and AG Bondi directed Kash Patel to start kicking ass.” Bondi’s letter to Patel on Thursday alleges that despite assurances by his predecessors at the FBI that her office had received the complete set of Epstein-related documents, a tip from an insider revealed the existence of additional undisclosed files. The initial batch provided to Bondi’s office reportedly comprised approximately 200 pages, including flight logs, contact information, and victim identities, which according to the AG was already enough to “make you sick.”

Conservative influencers leaving the White House with ‘The Epstein Files: Phase 1’, February 27, 2025. © AP / Evan Vucci

“By 8:00am tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how such information was obtained,” Bondi wrote in her letter to Patel. “There will be no withholdings or limitations to my or your access.” The limited release of the Epstein files has drawn criticism from Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who leads President Donald Trump’s newly established declassification task force. “This is not what we or the American people asked for. Get us the information we asked for instead of leaking old info to press,” Luna wrote on X in all caps.

Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office, mandating the release of the Epstein files along with classified documents related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. The Epstein case has drawn significant attention due to his extensive network of high-profile associates, including former US President Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew, billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and numerous other celebrities and business leaders. Trump also personally knew Epstein but has denied ever visiting his private island, maintaining that he cut ties with him in the 1990s – years before the financier’s first arrest for soliciting prostitution in 2006 – and has vowed to declassify all files.

Raising concerns about the potential destruction of these sensitive documents, Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles has proposed legislation aimed at preserving all non-public records related to Epstein. In a letter to Bondi on Wednesday, Ogles announced his intent to introduce the Preventing Epstein Documentation Obliteration Act, or PEDO Act, following “reports that certain FBI agents are allegedly attempting to destroy critical records.”

Read more …

“..tasked FBI Director Kash Patel with investigating why the request for all documents was not followed.”

• DOJ Releases ‘The Epstein Files: Phase 1’ (RT)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has released the first phase of declassified documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, which includes mostly previously known flight logs, phone records, and other materials linked to the convicted sex trafficker’s network of associates. Labeled ‘The Epstein Files: Phase 1’, the documents were first made available to a select group of conservative influencers before being broadly released to the public on Thursday evening. The DOJ has not yet confirmed whether additional phases will follow or provided a timeline for further disclosures. “The first phase of files released today sheds light on Epstein’s extensive network and begins to provide the public with long-overdue accountability,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“This Department of Justice is following through on President Trump’s commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators.” According to the DOJ statement, the release is part of a broader initiative to increase transparency regarding Epstein’s criminal activities and the people connected to him. However, some critics have expressed disappointment. Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who leads President Donald Trump’s declassification task force, stated that the release did not contain the substantive information the public had been expecting. The DOJ has yet to comment on whether more names of high-profile individuals linked to Epstein will be revealed in future releases. The FBI, which has been accused of withholding documents, is also under pressure to release additional materials following Bondi’s demand for full disclosure.

Bondi has requested that the FBI hand over the remaining documents by 8:00am Friday and has “tasked FBI Director Kash Patel with investigating why the request for all documents was not followed.” “There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned – and anyone from the prior or current Bureau who undermines this will be swiftly pursued,” said Patel after Bondi wrote him a letter earlier in the day demanding the immediate release of all pertinent files. “The FBI is entering a new era – one that will be defined by integrity, accountability, and the unwavering pursuit of justice.”

Read more …

He just wanted to get rid of Macron?!

• Macron Persuaded Trump To Receive Zelensky In Washington (TASS)

US President Donald Trump did not want to host Vladimir Zelensky in Washington, but changed his decision after French President Emmanuel Macron convinced him to do so, BFMTV reported. “Zelensky was supposed to come to Washington yesterday, but someone from the Trump administration told him, ‘Listen, Vladimir, there’s no point in chartering a plane, don’t come, all meetings have been canceled, President Trump won’t receive you.’ This caused panic in Kiev,” BFMTV reporter Patrick Sauce said. After that, Zelensky began calling Macron, asking him to convince Trump to reconsider, as he hoped to sign an agreement on Ukrainian minerals in Washington. Additionally, he mentioned that the visit “would have had strong symbolic significance.”

According to a French diplomatic source cited by the journalist, the French president then called the White House and successfully persuaded Trump to meet with Zelensky, offering his personal endorsement. On February 26, Trump confirmed that Zelensky would arrive in Washington this Friday to sign a deal on Ukraine’s minerals, among other matters. Prior to that, he had mentioned February 28 as a possible meeting date. However, on February 26, an unnamed White House official told Reuters that Washington saw no point in Zelensky’s visit without the signing of the minerals deal. Zelensky announced at a press conference on February 23 that he “does not want” to sign the agreement with the US because, in his view, future generations of Ukrainians would bear the financial burden.

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Starmer and Macron want war. Trump does not.

• Trump Refuses To Guarantee Backup For British Military (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said British troops “can take care of themselves” when asked whether the US military would support them if the UK deploys forces to Ukraine as part of a potential peace agreement with Russia. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Trump at the White House on Thursday, where they discussed a plan to reach what he called a “peace that is tough and fair.” “I’m working closely with other European leaders on this, and I’m clear that the UK is ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal, working together with our allies, because that is the only way that peace will last,” Starmer told reporters after the meeting.

Trump, however, sidestepped a question about whether the US would provide backup if the deployment led to clashes with Russian forces, telling journalists that the British “don’t need much help.” “They can take care of themselves very well… It sounds like it’s evasive, but it’s not evasive. You know, the British have been incredible soldiers, incredible military, and they can take care of themselves,” Trump said at a photo op before the meeting. “If they need help, I’ll always be with the British, OK? I’ll always be with them – but they don’t need help.”

Starmer then hailed the US-UK relationship as the world’s “greatest alliance for prosperity and security,” adding that “whenever necessary, we’ve absolutely backed each other up.” “Could you take on Russia by yourselves?” Trump interrupted, turning to Starmer with a smile. “Well…” the prime minister responded to a burst of laughter from the audience before Trump moved on to other questions. The meeting came just days after French President Emmanuel Macron also reportedly failed to secure concrete US security guarantees for Ukraine during talks with Trump in Washington. Trump previously said he discussed “some form of peacekeeping” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and claimed that Putin had “no problem” with the idea. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Moscow had not been consulted on the matter.

Lavrov said the idea of deploying foreign troops to Ukraine is being pushed by “the Europeans, primarily France and also the British,” suggesting that this is meant to “further heat up the conflict and stop any attempts to calm it down.” Moscow has opposed the deployment of unauthorized peacekeepers to Ukraine, warning that without a UN mandate, they would be considered legitimate targets. Lavrov has said that any discussions about a peacekeeping force in Ukraine are “empty” and that the priority should be resolving the conflict’s underlying issues – including efforts to bring Kiev into NATO and the potential deployment of Western military infrastructure near Russia’s borders.

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“..increased mandatory conscription may be inevitable..”

• Kiev Facing Pressure To Intensify Conscription – Economist (RT)

Kiev is under pressure to escalate its mobilization drive to sustain the conflict with Russia, according to The Economist. While Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky strives to motivate younger men to volunteer, his officials acknowledge that increased mandatory conscription may be inevitable. Last year, Kiev revamped its military service system, lowering the conscription age to 25 and imposing stricter penalties for draft avoidance. However, these measures have reportedly fallen short of the recruitment goals. The Economist reported on Wednesday that Western advisers are urging Kiev to draft younger individuals, viewing this as the quickest path to strengthening the army. Publicly, Zelensky has resisted lowering the draft age – privately, however, his officials have reportedly acknowledged that it will likely be necessary.

A senior official told the British magazine that the “tightening will continue because no one has come up with a better solution.” With frontline casualties increasing, many eligible men have been evading draft officers or have even resisted. The Economist noted a recent incident in Poltava, where a military official was fatally shot during a recruitment raid. While Ukraine’s security services attribute the blame to ‘Russian infiltrators’, soldiers suspect the violence may be “homegrown,” foreshadowing a potential increase in domestic discord. The Ukrainian government has initiated a program to attract younger volunteers into the military. Officials told The Economist that their aim is to recruit 4,000 people per month by offering generous compensation and a promise of demobilization after one year, though many have reportedly expressed skepticism.

”The army does not honor the terms of the contracts anyway – recently we got some guys who were transferred from an engineering brigade. They signed up to be pontoon builders, now they’re infantry,” a Ukrainian marine officer told The Times last week. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is advocating for a rapid resolution to the Ukraine conflict, pointing to the death toll and destruction incurred on both sides. Officials in Washington view the conflict as an obstacle to improving relations with Moscow. Trump has also pushed for a rare-earth minerals deal with Ukraine, which he believes would offset the US expenditures on the conflict over the years. In contrast, the EU and a number of European NATO members have pledged to continue pouring resources into the conflict. Zelensky has insisted that peace negotiations will only be possible from a “position of strength.”

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“..Western countries that have sought to isolate Russia are “themselves are becoming more isolated..”

• UN Showed ‘Common Sense’ On Ukraine Conflict Resolution – Moscow (RT)

“Common sense” has finally prevailed in the UN Security Council after it approved a US-drafted resolution on Ukraine without anti-Russian rhetoric, Moscow’s deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, has told RT. Two competing resolutions on Ukraine were submitted to the UN on Monday, one of which was initiated by Kiev and its EU backers and condemned Russia. The other text, backed by the US, avoided branding Russia as an aggressor and called for a “swift end” to the conflict. The US text was later tabled at the UNSC, where it passed with ten votes in favor, with backing from Moscow and Washington and five abstentions from European members. Speaking to RT on Wednesday, Polyansky said it was the first time in a long while that the UNSC was able to speak with one voice on the Ukraine conflict after the US resolution was adopted with the support of Russia, China, and others.

“We owe this to common sense because I think now more and more people realize the true colors of the Zelensky regime and the true colors of Ukraine that was created under him,” the diplomat said. According to Polyansky, the new US administration under President Donald Trump has taken a more pragmatic approach on the crisis, which “really sets the framework for our future deliberations and work on this issue in the Security Council and in the UN.” Washington’s voting against a Ukrainian draft resolution condemning Russia “clearly” shows that the US approach to the conflict has changed, and that there is now a clash between a “militaristic” mindset in the EU and a “realistic” one in Washington, the diplomat said. Some members of the bloc stepped up their aggressive rhetoric this month after Moscow and Washington announced plans to restore ties and work on resolving the Ukraine conflict.

The EU was caught off guard by the US change of tone, Polyansky argued, as Brussels has spent years in a rigid position regarding any Ukraine resolutions. However, the attitude of Western countries over the past three years has shifted from “Ukraine must win” to “Ukraine must have very strong negotiating position,” and finally “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Polyansky added. The recent vote in the UNSC showed that Western countries that have sought to isolate Russia are “themselves are becoming more isolated,” the diplomat claimed. Polyansky stressed that a sustainable solution to the Ukraine conflict can only be achieved by addressing the root cause of the crisis, such as Ukraine’s NATO ambitions. Kiev also must remove its troops from all Russian territories, including the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, he added.

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The talks will continue. Without EU and Ukraine.

• Putin Says 6+ Hour Talks With US “Inspire Certain Hopes” (ZH)

TASS is confirming that Russian and US delegations have concluded their meeting after more than six hours of talks in Istanbul on Thursday, the second round of such in-person talks after last week’s bilateral Riyadh meeting. Like the prior high-level dialogue, the Istanbul talks cut out Ukrainian and European representation. These talks have been focused on restoring full staffing at the two sides’ respective embassies and the improving of relations – with an eye toward preparations for achieving a lasting peace settlement in Ukraine. Importantly, on the same day President Vladimir Putin spoke of positive developments on these fronts in a meeting of the Federal Security Service. “We all see how rapidly the world is changing, the situation in the world. In this regard, I would like to note that the first contacts with the new US administration inspire certain hopes,” he said.

“There is a mutual dedication to work towards restoring interstate relations and gradually resolving the enormous volume of accumulated systemic and strategic problems in the global architecture.” He emphasized that “it was precisely these problems that provoked both the Ukrainian and other regional crises at the time,” as cited in TASS. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov separately took the opportunity to reaffirm what will remain a key Russian sticking point in any negotiations – that the four annexed territories in the east are not up for discussion.

“The territories which have become subjects of the Russian Federation, which are inscribed in our country’s constitution, are an inseparable part of our country,” Peskov told reporters. This after Ukraine’s President Zelensky recently tried to push the possibility of an “exchange” of territory with Moscow – Kursk for the four annexed regions. But Moscow has issued a firm no to this possibility. Peskov additionally said that Moscow doesn’t see any immediate breakthroughs happening in these ongoing talks with the Trump administration. “No one expects easy or quick solutions – the problem is too complex and has been neglected for too long. However, if both countries maintain their political will and willingness to listen to each other, I believe we will be able to navigate this working process,” he said.

“There is no need to jump ahead. Information on the outcome of the negotiations will be provided in due course,” he added. Meanwhile, Moon of Alabama says that the US side risks getting further entangled in Ukraine via the controversial rare earths minerals deal being sought by the Trump White House… By pressing for the agreement, instead of taking the Russian offer for access to minerals, Trump has committed himself to continue the war in Ukraine. This “will lead to the failure of his peace initiative,” the geopolitical blog continues. “The war Ukraine is now destined to become Trump’s Vietnam.” Let’s hope this doesn’t become the case.

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“The officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift..”

• Trump Administration Cutting USAID Contracts By 90% – AP (RT)

The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to cut more than 90% of US Agency for International Development (USAID) contracts and a total of $60 billion in overall foreign aid worldwide, the AP reported on Thursday. The outlet cited an internal White House memo and filings in one of the federal lawsuits challenging the administration’s plan. Immediately upon assuming office, Trump suspended most US foreign assistance pending a three-month review to determine whether to continue or cease programs depending on their alignment with the new administration’s “America first” goals. USAID, Washington’s primary mechanism for funding political projects abroad, has found tens of billions dollars’ worth of approved grants frozen as a result.

NGOs and nonprofits formerly receiving grants and contracts from the agency have lodged multiple lawsuits against Trump and his administration, demanding the disbursement of already allocated funds. Late on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court intervened in one of the cases, and temporarily blocked a ruling that demanded that the government release billions of dollars in grants and contracts by midnight, according to AP. The administration plans to eliminate 90% of USAID contracts to the tune of $54 billion, AP reported, citing the memo and court filings. Nearly half of the State Department’s foreign aid grants also face the axe, to the tune of another $4.4 billion, according to the outlet. The officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift,” the memo reportedly states.

A further shakeup in how USAID and the State Department disbursed foreign aid was forthcoming “to use taxpayer dollars wisely to advance American interests,” it reportedly adds. Trump and his newly appointed government efficiency czar Elon Musk have repeatedly accused USAID of misappropriating taxpayer money and rampant corruption. The cuts are part of broader measures by the administration, and Musk’s recently formed Department of Government Efficiency, to cut down on ballooning government spending. On Wednesday, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) confirmed that it also had its government funding frozen. Officially a US State Department-funded nonprofit for distributing grants to pro-democracy causes abroad, the NED has faced numerous allegations over the years of acting as a CIA cut-out for toppling foreign governments.

USAID

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Pure corruption. “Literal pet projects” such as a “dog collar manufacturer” company and a “pet tracking app” firm were handed $300,000 each..” These things were never done. It’s just money.

• USAID Blew Millions On Literal ‘Pet Projects’ In Ukraine (RT)

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) funneled millions in American taxpayer dollars into Ukrainian fashion and pet companies, then attempted to hide the funding from Congress, American conservative newspaper the Federalist reported on Wednesday. USAID, Washington’s primary mechanism for funding political projects abroad, had its multi-billion dollar budget frozen by President Donald Trump last month, pending a review for alignment with his “America first” policy. The president cited uncontrolled spending and massive corruption in the agency, calling for it to be shut down entirely. Seeking accountability for the agency’s allocation of taxpayer dollars, Senator Joni Ernst arranged for her team to visit USAID headquarters for an “in-camera review” of Ukraine aid data in October last year.

Despite multiple attempts to gain some clarity on the agency’s books, USAID had stonewalled both her direct communication and Congressional action for years. While they were restricted in what they were allowed to see, Ernst’s staff found that millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded grants were funneled into Ukrainian confectionery, fashion and pet companies, the Federalist wrote. The agency allocated Ukrainian luxury fashion businesses a total of roughly $733,000, a “custom carpet manufacturer” a $2 million grant, and a “specialty biscuit and confectionery company” around $678,000, the outlet said. “Literal pet projects” such as a “dog collar manufacturer” company and a “pet tracking app” firm were handed $300,000 each, the newspaper said.

Beyond the “in-camera review,” USAID “failed to provide any of these documents” to her staff, Ernst said. The agency often cites national security as a reason for keeping “controversial charges” in its books obscure, the Federalist wrote. While USAID claimed the grants were to “enhance Ukraine’s wartime posture” by boosting its economy, in effect, “the American people have funded extravagant trade missions and vacations for Ukrainian business owners to film festivals and fashion weeks across the glamorous capitols of Europe and beyond,” Ernst wrote in a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month.

Trump has repeatedly stated that he will put an end to funding Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, claiming that his predecessor Joe Biden spent $350 billion on assisting Kiev. The US president has announced that the US will “get back” the money through an upcoming deal to tap Ukraine’s mineral resources. With USAID funding suspended by Trump, the vast majority of Ukrainian media companies have been put at risk of shutting down, multiple NGOs have reported. According to French NGO Reporters Without Borders, 9 out of 10 media outlets in Ukraine were dependent on USAID as their primary donor.

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“There is a high probability of public gathering and First Amendment activities..”

• Border Protection Feds Warned Of Possible Unrest Over USAID Firings (JTN)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials were warned Wednesday evening to take special security caution and keep “situational awareness” around their Washington headquarters in anticipation of protests as USAID workers fired by the Trump administration return to their offices to retrieve personal belongings the next two days. In memos sent from their “Operations Watch” alert system and obtained by Just the News, CBP employees in Washington were told that on Thursday and Friday “USAID staff, who previously vacated their workspace, will be on site to retrieve their belongings” in the vicinity around the Ronald Reagan federal building in downtown Washington D.C. near the White House. “There is a high probability of public gathering and First Amendment activities,” one of the alerts said. “Please maintain situational awareness throughout the building.

“CBP employees should be aware of these activities and uniformed employees should use good tactics and consider the use of cover shirts during transit portions in one out of controlled CBP spaces.” Another alert stated: “Be aware of your surroundings tomorrow, especially in uniform … we anticipate a significant amount of media as well as the possibility of nefarious actors.” Tensions have been high since President Donald Trump ordered thousands of USAID workers terminated as part of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reorganization of the federal bureaucracy. Workers and their allies challenged their firings as well as the suspension of billions of dollars in foreign aid payments by the agency.

Late Wednesday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts blocked a lower court’s order requiring Trump to resume the foreign aid payments. The Reagan building has been as the center of some of the tensions in part because CBP immediately took over some of the office space vacated in it by USAID. Officials told Just the News the CBP Operations Watch alert was based on intelligence that liberal and pro-government protesters might show up Thursday and Friday near the building.

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“I believe firmly that the story of 2024, one of the big story lines, is that the legacy media has finally been proven irrelevant,” pollster Scott Rasmussen said Wednesday..”

• Polls Highlight Disconnect Between Media And Public On DOGE (JTN)

Despite a string of headlines suggesting that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its efforts to slash federal waste is hurting President Trump in the polls, the public appears at odds with the media over its perception of the department and on Trump’s first month more broadly. Legacy media has vilified Musk in recent weeks, zeroing in on his oversight of USAID and the Treasury Department’s payment systems to pronounce the imminent end of major entitlements. Others have pointed to the price of eggs and inflation as the administration works to improve the economy. “Trump pledged to bring down food prices on Day One. Instead, eggs are getting more expensive,” read a CNN headline. “Will the backlash to Elon Musk hurt Republicans?” asked Vox. “Musk and DOGE underwater with some voters in recent polling,” Axios reported.

Despite the gloomy headlines, polling from legacy polling outlets and upstarts alike seems to show the public more supportive of Musk’s effort, and Trump’s policies, than a cursory view of the latest headlines would lead one to believe. A recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found Trump is enjoying a 50% approval rating, with just 43% disapproving of his performance. This week, a Napolitan News survey, moreover, found him with a 53% approval rating and 44% disapproval rating. Overall, he remains above water with a 49.1% approval rating in the RealClearPolitics polling average and a 47.5% disapproval rating. “I believe firmly that the story of 2024, one of the big story lines, is that the legacy media has finally been proven irrelevant,” pollster Scott Rasmussen said Wednesday on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. “They could not control the narrative. They were out of touch talking to each other. YouGov actually ran a survey a couple weeks ago and found that more voters trust Donald Trump for information about what’s going on than trust the traditional media.”

“They don’t seem to understand even where the electorate is,” he said of legacy outlets. “I think last year, when the narrative was ‘economy is improving,’ and people say, ‘not in my checkbook, not at my kitchen table it’s not’ and I think that that now has spun out to they don’t understand that people are okay with deporting illegal aliens, particularly illegal criminal aliens who’ve committed crimes. The gap of just not understanding where America is, is because reporters don’t get out and talk to real people anymore.” Harvard/Harris’s latest survey found broad support for DOGE-related efforts. Eighty-three percent supported cutting government spending over raising taxes and a further 77% backed a broad review of federal spending.

Of DOGE, in particular, 60% expressed the belief that the department was actively helping the government to make substantial cuts. Seventy percent agreed that government spending was plagued by waste and fraud, while 69% favored a $1 trillion cut. Napolitan found comparable figures, with 62% of registered voters expressing the view that DOGE would help Trump to significantly reduce the deficit within the first year. Fifty-nine percent backed the idea of a “DOGE dividend” in which 20% of the savings created by DOGE cuts would be sent back to taxpayers while 80% goes to reduce the deficit. Only 22% opposed the idea. A separate Napolitan survey, moreover, found the public reasonably divided on Musk, with 44% holding a favorable view of him, 47% holding an unfavorable view, and 7% unsure.

Asked whether DOGE had gone far enough thus far, 36% said it had gone too far, while 19% said the agency had been “about right” and 25% said it had not gone far enough. Nineteen percent were unsure, but the sum of “about right” and “not far enough” suggested clear support for the Musk-led department’s work. Prophecies of doom for the administration based on economic moves, however, appear somewhat more in step with public opinion as polling shows Trump with relatively low numbers on inflation and facing a strong demand for immediate action on price increases. Trump is currently underwater on the economy in most surveys, albeit narrowly. He currently boasts a 46.0% average approval on the issue, according to RealClearPolitics, which reported that 49.8% disapproved of his handling of the matter. He was in worse shape on inflation, with 39.7% approving of his handling of the issue and 52.7% disapproving.

During Trump’s first month, Democrats often criticized his policies on unrelated issues by questioning how they related to lowering the price of eggs, referencing Trump’s promise to combat inflation. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a $1 billion investment on Wednesday to address egg prices, though most polling data previewed her announcement. A considerable part of Democrats’ and legacy media’s objections to DOGE plans is the claim that, according to PBS, “Data published on DOGE’s ‘Wall of Receipts’ are expected to yield no savings.” Journalist and blogger Kevin Drum argued last week that DOGE has only “saved taxpayers about 0.33% of the federal budget.” Nevertheless, the nation’s mood more broadly appears to be improving, with 42.5% saying the nation is headed in the right direction, a significant uptick from the mere 27.7% recorded on Jan. 17, just before Trump took office.

Recent Napolitan data, meanwhile, found broad support for the president’s immigration and deportation agenda. In 2024, 25% of registered voters believed the government was serious about securing the border, compared to 69% who said the same in the latest Napolitan survey. Another 61% expressed support for arresting people who leak information about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Eighty-two percent of registered voters, moreover, expressed the belief that illegal immigration is bad for the country. On deportations, a clear majority of 57% expressed the belief that the administration’s deportation efforts had been either “about right” or that they had not gone “far enough.” Only 33% said they had gone too far while 10% were unsure.

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“The Chief Justice issued an administrative stay on Feb. 27, preserving the status quo while the Supreme Court considers the matter more thoroughly..”

• Is the End of the Democrats’ Lawfare Strategy In Sight? (PJM)

In a major blow to the Democrats’ lawfare strategy to prevent the Trump administration from governing, Chief Justice John Roberts responded to the White House’s request for emergency intervention. Roberts blocked a Biden-appointed federal judge’s order that around $2 billion in frozen foreign aid funds be released immediately. The Chief Justice issued an administrative stay on Feb. 27, preserving the status quo while the Supreme Court considers the matter more thoroughly. This temporary action overrides U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s midnight deadline, which would have forced the State Department and USAID to release billions in taxpayer dollars for already completed foreign aid work. Roberts, who oversees requests for emergency relief arising from cases in the District of Columbia, acted alone in halting the decision from a federal district judge issued Tuesday.

The judge, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, gave the State Department and USAID until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday to pay its bills to contractors for work that had been completed before Feb. 13. The Trump administration had earlier in the night asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the dispute involving frozen foreign assistance funds. Roberts gave the State Department and USAID contractors until noon Friday to respond to the Trump administration’s request. This is just the latest example of how Democrats’ lawfare strategy against Trump might ultimately backfire spectacularly. Judicial rulings temporarily halting Trump’s actions may ultimately serve to advance his broader objectives as they make their way to the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration filed the emergency appeal hours before the deadline, arguing that Judge Ali had overstepped his authority and interfered with the president’s obligations to “make appropriate judgments about foreign aid.” The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel had declined to stay Judge Ali’s order, absurdly claiming his orders “could not be appealed.” Excuse me? When did District Court judges get the final say in such matters? During a particularly revealing telephone hearing on Feb. 25, Judge Ali couldn’t hide his bias against the Trump administration. “I don’t know why I can’t get a straight answer from you,” he complained after Justice Department attorney Indraneel Sur repeatedly avoided his leading questions about fund releases. “I guess I’m not understanding where there is any confusion here. It’s clear as day,” Ali further insisted, regarding his original order.

Chief Justice Roberts has ordered the challengers to file a response by Friday, with the Supreme Court likely to act soon after — a sign that the Court is poised to nip these endless legal challenges in the bud. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is moving forward with its promised America First agenda, “eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad,” according to the Associated Press.

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Legacy media insist they have God-given rights. As their attention numbers are down the drain. Times change, guys.

• Leavitt Slams NY Times Reporter As ‘Left-Wing Stenographer’ (NYP)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted a New York Times reporter as a “left-wing stenographer” after he compared President Trump to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on press freedoms. The heated exchange with Peter Baker was sparked by him questioning the administration’s decision to seize control of the press pool and to bar Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One. Baker, a veteran journalist and former Moscow correspondent, compared the White House’s move to Kremlin tactics in a post on X Tuesday. “Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access,” Baker wrote.

“Give me a break, Peter,” she wrote. “Moments after you tweeted this, the President invited journalists into the Oval and took questions for nearly an hour. Your hysterical reaction to our long overdue and much-needed change to an outdated organization is precisely why we made it.” She then took a personal jab at Baker, criticizing what she described as a biased media landscape. “Gone are the days where left-wing stenographers posing as journalists, such as yourself, dictate who gets to ask what,” she added. When reached by The Post, Baker referred to an article he wrote on Wednesday which recalled the story of Yelena Tregubova, a former Kremlin pool reporter who was forced into exile from her native Russia after publishing a book detailing corruption and media censorship by the Putin regime.

Tregubova, who was kicked out of the Kremlin press pool, fled Russia after a bomb went off outside her apartment. “There are worse penalties, as Ms. Tregubova would later discover, but in Moscow, at least, her eviction was an early step down a very slippery slope,” Baker wrote. “The United States is not Russia by any means, and any comparisons risk going too far…But for those of us who reported there a quarter century ago, Mr. Trump’s Washington is bringing back memories of Mr. Putin’s Moscow in the early days.” A Times spokesperson who was reached by The Post referenced a statement from the newspaper which read: “The White House’s move to handpick favored reporters to observe the president — and exclude anyone whose coverage the administration may not like — is an effort to undermine the public’s access to independent, trustworthy information about the most powerful person in America.”

Since the early 1900s, the White House Correspondents’ Association — comprising journalists from major news organizations — has been responsible for determining which media outlets gain access to cover the president. Members elect representatives who make decisions about seating arrangements and press pool coverage. However, that system changed on Tuesday when Leavitt declared that the administration would take charge of deciding which reporters could cover the president most closely. “A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States,” Leavitt said, adding: “Not anymore.” She framed the move as a shift toward democratizing press access.

“Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people. Moving forward, the ‘White House Press Pool’ will be determined by the White House Press Team,” she said, emphasizing that legacy outlets would not be excluded but that decisions on access would now rest with the administration. Baker responded with another sharp critique, warning that the move was meant to deter tough questioning. “Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn’t pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions,” he wrote. “Trump has just declared that he will.” Despite the shift, Baker insisted that journalists would continue to hold the administration accountable. “None of this will stop professional news outlets from covering this president in the same full, fair, tough and unflinching way that we always have,” he said.

“Government efforts to punish disfavored organizations will not stop independent journalism.” Traditionally, the White House press pool has included reporters from wire services such as the Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg — along with representatives from television, print and radio as well as photographers. The shake-up followed a recent controversy in which the Trump administration removed an AP reporter and photographer from the president’s trip to Mar-a-Lago and Miami over the news agency’s refusal to use the administration’s preferred term, the “Gulf of America,” instead of the Gulf of Mexico. Despite the open seats, no replacements were assigned, highlighting the escalating tensions between the administration and the press.

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“The politician claimed that Romania had been thrown back to the 1950s..”

“..If democracy is defeated “in one country” in a “coup d’etat” that would mean a failure for the US as well..”

• Prosecuted Romanian Presidential Candidate Asks Trump For Help (RT)

Calin Georgescu, the winner of the first round of last year’s annulled presidential election in Romania, has asked US President Donald Trump for help. The politician is facing criminal charges at home, which he has called part of a political persecution campaign against him. “I definitely ask President Trump to take care about the situation,” Georgescu told an American blogger, Mario Nawfal, in an interview published on X on Thursday. On Wednesday, Georgescu was arrested by the police as he was about to file to run for the presidency again. He was released later the same day. According to the Romanian authorities, Georgescu faces a total of six charges, including “anti-constitutional acts” and misreporting his finances. He was barred by a court order from leaving the country, appearing on TV, or posting anything on social media.

Speaking to Nawfal on Thursday, the politician denounced the criminal case against him as an assault on democracy that runs counter to the will of the Romanian people. Georgescu came out ahead in the first round of the presidential election in November in a surprise victory. The Constitutional Court then annulled the results shortly before the second round of voting, citing “irregularities” in the politician’s campaign amid unproven claims of Russian interference in the electoral process. According to Georgescu, the persecution campaign against him had “exposed” the Romanian “deep state” and its “corruption.” The politician claimed that Romania had been thrown back to the 1950s when it was ruled by a Communist regime.

“The deep state is so strong in this particular [kind] of activity,” Georgescu said, referring to his arrest on Wednesday. He also vowed to “fight for our freedom and for our democracy” and called on the US to support him in this fight. According to Georgescu, the US should support him in order to preserve its own image as a beacon of democracy. If democracy is defeated “in one country” in a “coup d’etat” that would mean a failure for the US as well, the politician stated. Washington has so far not commented on Georgescu’s appeal. US officials have previously criticized the actions of Bucharest for annulling the results of the November election. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, Vice President J.D. Vance suggested that some “old entrenched interests” in Romania were using “ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation” to secure their own interests and prevent a politician with “an alternative viewpoint” from coming to power.

Elon Musk slammed the politician’s arrest on Wednesday by calling the move “messed up.” Georgescu is known for his skepticism towards Western influence over the country’s policies and criticizing both NATO and the EU. During his campaign, he also vowed to halt Romania’s military aid to Kiev if elected.

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“..hasn’t been increased since 2009..”

• Elon Musk Floats Pay Hikes For Congress, Top Gov’t Workers To Fight Corruption (NYP)

“Special government employee” Elon Musk has floated a pay raise for members of Congress and senior government employees as a means of rooting out corruption at the federal level. “It might make sense to increase compensation for Congress and senior government employees to reduce the forcing function for corruption, as the latter might be as much as 1000 [sic] times more expensive to the public,” Musk, 53, wrote on X Thursday morning. Back in December, the billionaire helped torpedo a government funding measure that would have given lawmakers in Congress a 3.8% pay hike — worth approximately $6,600 per year in extra cash to rank-and-file members. Most federal legislators receive an annual paycheck of $174,000, which hasn’t been increased since 2009.

The proposed pay hike had been nestled into a continuing resolution, a stopgap measure that Congress needed at the time to avert a partial government shutdown. But Musk whipped up public opposition against both the resolution and the pay hike, grousing at the time while overstating the increase amount: “How can this be called a ‘continuing resolution’ if it includes a … pay increase for Congress?” The concept of high pay for government workers to discourage corruption has been used in other countries. Late Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, for example, was famous for championing exorbitant pay with ministers raking in millions a year. Lee argued that paying government workers well would help reduce perverse incentives for them to pad their pockets through illicit means.

Some good-government advocates in the US have also suggested pay raises for lawmakers to attract a higher caliber of candidates or job applicants. Musk has been on a crusade to trim federal spending via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has advised the Trump administration on mass layoffs and spending reductions while setting a target of $1 trillion in savings. Last week, Musk directed an email be sent out to government workers instructing them to list their top five accomplishments from the prior week. That email whipped up a frenzy and the Office of Personnel Management clarified Monday that a response was voluntary. Musk also clarified that the emails were intended to be a “pulse check” rather than a performance review.

Amid backlash from liberals over the cost-cutting crusade, Musk insisted Thursday that DOGE has also been elevating outstanding government employees — not just reducing headcount. “Hundreds of federal workers are being promoted daily every time we encounter excellence,” he wrote on X. “The @DOGE team will be more clear about this. The goal is to make the federal government a meritocracy as much as possible.”

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“ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial ahead of the meeting.”

• Musk’s Father Says Son ‘Not Cut Out For Politics’ (RT)

Elon Musk is “not cut out for politics,” according to his father, Errol Musk, who has said the billionaire’s personality would make it difficult for him to engage with the broad range of people required in public office. The richest man on the planet and owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, Elon Musk has played an influential role in US President Donald Trump’s administration, particularly through his advisory position in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). His critics have raised concerns that he wields too much power and have accused him of trying to dismantle significant parts of the federal government. In an interview with Al Arabiya News published on Monday, Errol Musk, a retired South African engineer, dismissed the idea of his son entering politics.

“Elon is not cut out for politics,” he said. “Politics is where you have to deal with everyone, from the very incredibly clever to the very somewhat not clever, the highly sophisticated to the very unsophisticated. If you can’t do that, don’t get into politics.” He went on to compare his son’s potential political journey to Trump’s, arguing that the US president’s brash personality made it harder for him to connect with ordinary voters, and that Elon would face similar challenges. During Trump’s inauguration rally last month, Elon Musk sparked a wave of backlash after he made a gesture that some compared to a “Nazi salute.” Errol Musk dismissed the allegations that his son is secretly a Nazi as “nonsense,” and claimed that the billionaire’s actions are often misunderstood.

“Elon is a terrible public speaker. He has a lot to learn. We all do… Knowing him as well as I do, I mean, I know him very well, that he was struggling to get through his little speech as fast as possible and to try and look as charming as possible as he could,” Musk said. He also suggested that his son’s gesture was an “international salute,” saying it had been around “for the last 10,000 years or more.” While Musk has received pushback over his attempts to streamline the operations of federal agencies, Trump has repeatedly expressed support for his efforts. Despite not holding a formal cabinet position, the White House has described him as a “special government employee” and “senior adviser” to Trump. On Wednesday, Musk attended Trump’s first cabinet meeting, where the president praised his contributions. “ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial ahead of the meeting.

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“..many on the left expect Bezos to run the newspaper like a vanity project, losing millions of dollars to bankroll a far-left agenda..”

• Bezos Calls for WaPo to Champion Individual Freedom and Free Markets (Turley)

There was another meltdown at the Washington Post after owner Jeff Bezos moved again to moderate the newspaper’s message, which has plummeted in readership. Bezos told the editors that he wanted the newspaper to advocate for individual liberties and the free market. The message sent the left into vapors and led to the resignation of Washington Post opinion editor David Shipley. Outside the paper, another round of calls for boycotts and subscription cancellations followed. In the announcement below, Bezos declared, “I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.” He added that a newspaper should be a voice for freedom — “is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.” He noted that:

“There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.” For those of us in the free speech community, the return of the Post as a champion of free speech and other individual rights would be a welcomed change. Notably, staff did not object when prior owners aligned with their views on editorial priorities. Obviously, we will need to see how this new directive is carried out. I would be equally opposed to the Post purging liberal views in the way it moved against conservative and libertarian views for the last decade. I do not see such a directive in this announcement. Bezos wants his newspaper to be a voice for individual freedom and free market principles. That should not mean that the newspaper will not run dissenting views on policies and programs.

What is striking is that many on the left expect Bezos to run the newspaper like a vanity project, losing millions of dollars to bankroll a far-left agenda. This is an announcement that goes to the position of the newspaper, not any intrusion into reporting. It also does not bar a diversity of opinion on the op-ed pages which still have a vast majority of liberal writers. The thought that the Post would now focus on advocating for individual rights and the free market led Jeffrey Evan Gold, who posts as a legal analyst for CNN and other networks, to declare that it was the “last straw” and post his cancellation.

Jeff Stein, the publisher’s chief economics reporter, denounced Bezos as carrying out a “massive encroachment” that makes it clear “dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there.” For many moderates and conservatives, it was a crushingly ironic objection given the virtual purging of conservative and libertarian voices at the newspaper. Amanda Katz, who resigned from the Post’s opinion team at the end of 2024, offered a vivid example of the culture that Bezos is trying to change at the Post. Katz said the change was “an absolute abandonment of the principles of accountability of the powerful, justice, democracy, human rights, and accurate information that previously animated the section in favor of a white male billionaire’s self-interested agenda.”

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“..four years of the Biden administration’s failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production..”

• HHS Pauses Multi-Million Dollar Contract to Develop New COVID-19 Vaccine (ET)

Clinical trials for a new COVID-19 vaccine were halted after a multi-million contract authorized by the Biden administration to develop the inoculation was paused by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy implemented a 90-day stop-work order on Feb. 21 regarding the HHS contract with Vaxart Inc., according to the announcement, which was first reported by Fox News Digital on Feb. 25. Vaxart, an American biotech company, is creating a new COVID-19 inoculation for oral use. Before the stop-work order, 10,000 individuals were scheduled to start clinical trials on Feb. 24, an HHS spokesperson confirmed with The Epoch Times. Kennedy noted in comments to Fox News Digital that “it is crucial” that the HHS support pandemic preparedness, “four years of the Biden administration’s failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production, including Vaxart’s.” The trial is not terminated, according to the HHS.

Kennedy and other health officials will determine the next steps after reviewing their findings over the next 90 days. As part of the Biden administration’s $4.7 billion Project NextGen program launched in 2023, the Vaxart vaccine was funded through an agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). That panel is part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which is managed by HHS. BARDA allocated around $460 million for Vaxart to develop the new vaccine, including $240 million that has already been approved. The announcement to pause Vaxart’s contract was followed by a report that an Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory committee meeting slated for March has been canceled, according to committee member Dr. Paul Offit, who is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a vocal critic of Kennedy.

Offit told multiple media outlets on Feb. 26 that members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee received an email from the FDA letting them know the meeting would not take place. The meeting had been set to choose the strains for next season’s flu shot. The FDA is one of 13 agencies under the HHS umbrella. On Feb. 28, a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory committee is scheduled to gather and discuss which strains should be included in the next flu vaccines across the Northern Hemisphere. The FDA often adheres that that committee’s recommendations. Trump issued an executive order in January to start the process of withdrawing the United States from the WHO.

Two weeks ago, Kennedy gained Senate confirmation to become HHS secretary. He was sworn in that day, and moments later Trump signed an executive order establishing the president’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission. Kennedy serves as chairman of the commission, which directs executive departments and federal agencies to primarily advise the president on how to “address the childhood chronic disease crisis.” The MAHA Commission is tasked to explore possible causes of such diseases, including “the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.” For years, critics have called Kennedy an “anti-vaxxer,” a claim he has denied. During his presidential campaign and the Senate confirmation process, he repeatedly said he is an advocate for vaccine safety, informed consent, and “gold standard science” behind vaccine efficacy studies.

“I’ve never been anti-vaccine,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times in September 2024. “People should have a choice, and that choice should be informed by the best information possible. “I’m going to ensure that there are science-based safety studies available, and people can make their own assessments about whether a vaccine is good for them.” Under the Biden administration, COVID-19 vaccines were mandated throughout the federal government. Multiple private sector businesses, and public and private universities, also required the inoculation. Since Trump took office last month, he has signed several executive orders related to COVID-19 mandates implemented by the Biden administration. On Feb. 14, Trump signed an executive order barring funding to universities and schools with COVID-19 vaccine mandates. In his first week back in office, Trump reinstated service members dismissed for refusing the COVID vaccine, giving them full back pay and benefits.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Baby

 

 

Nose

 

 

Bull dog

 

 

Wait

 

 

Dog baby

 

 

Ladder

 

 

Suspicious
https://twitter.com/i/status/1895071755078689199

 

 

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Debt Rattle February 27 2025

Feb 272025
 
 February 27, 2025  Posted by at 10:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  45 Responses »


El Greco La Pietà c1575

 

• US Relations With Russia Promise Rollback To Pre-Gorbachev Period (Krutikov)
• America as Republic, not as Empire (Alastair Crooke)
• US To Impose Blanket 25% Tariffs On EU – Trump (RT))
• US Can No Longer Subsidize NATO – Rubio (RT)
• Trump Says US Could Lift Russia Sanctions (RT)
• EU Trying To Block Ukraine Peace – Lavrov (RT)
• Lavrov Calls Out Europe’s Peacekeeper Plan As Ploy to Rearm Kiev (Sp.)
• Russian, US Diplomats To Meet In Istanbul On February 27 (TASS)
• Zelensky Now With Only The Dictatorship In London To Support Him (Jay)
• Ukraine Can Forget About NATO, Says Trump (ZH)
• Ukraine Should Get As Much Land ‘As Possible’ – Trump (RT)
• Most Ukrainians Abroad Won’t Come Home – Unity Minister (RT)
• Federal Government Can’t Comply With Judge’s Order To Unfreeze Funds (ET)
• Rubio Cancels EU’s Kallas At Last Minute (RT)
• NATO-Skeptic Romanian Presidential Candidate Arrested (RT)
• Tulsi Gabbard Labels CNN ‘Propaganda Arm’ Of Spies (RT)
• AG Pam Bondi Announces Thursday Release of Epstein Files (ZH)
• Trump Gaza VIDEO With Bearded Belly Dancers Sparks Outcry (RT)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1894796332206039412

Press

Paper ballot

Bongino

ComeyKash

Ron Paul

 

 

 

 

It’s been a busy first 5 weeks of the Trump team. But every single day it feels again like we are just beginning.

John Helmer posts a translation of a piece by Yevgeny Krutikov, which describes the US withdrawing its troops from Europe pretty much entirely, or at least from those parts added after 1997. Let Europe take care of Europe. Problem is, it can’t. It’s pretty much broke, and it’s hopelessly divided. It needs its own Trump and Musk, but none are in sight. I guess we must hope for Brusssels to implode sooner rather than later. But that might take pitchforks.

John Helmer: “An essay by Yevgeny Krutikov, published this week in Vzglyad, the Kremlin-funded security analysis platform, suggests senior officials at the Security Council believe in the possibility of arms withdrawal from the current battlefield and of military deconfliction with Russia – without attempting the impossible, the dismantling of the NATO membership to the 1997 cutoff. At its simplest, this would mean the withdrawal of American troops, long-range missiles and nuclear ordnance (bombs, missile warheads, targeting systems) to the lines of 1997. This would leave in place NATO security guarantees for the post-1997 member states and their territories, combined with Russian non-aggression guarantees.”

• US Relations With Russia Promise Rollback To Pre-Gorbachev Period (Krutikov)

The United States is preparing to eliminate its military presence in Europe, including Poland, the Baltic states and Kosovo, in order to normalize relations with Russia. At first, the news about this in the European media has looked like fakes, but now it appears too logical to ignore them. Is this a bluff or a real prospect of “detente”? Citing an intelligence source in an Eastern European country, Bild claims that the United States is preparing to withdraw troops from Europe. More precisely, from those bases and positions which appeared there after the expansion of NATO to the east. “According to our information, we are talking about the Russian president’s demand for 2021, that is, the withdrawal of American troops from all NATO countries that joined the alliance after 1990,” the German magazine writes. And it wants to believe this.

The facilities from which the Americans are not discussing withdrawal are the bases in Ramstein, Germany, and the United Kingdom, which existed before the collapse of the USSR. But the largest American base in Europe after Ramstein, the Kosovo Bondsteel, is allegedly preparing for liquidation, and the Italian command of the peacekeeping forces in Kosovo (KFOR) inherits its infrastructure. Currently, American military personnel (just over 600 people) in Bondsteel are not part of KFOR, this is a purely American position. In the near-sensational Bild article, it’s not so much the detail that matters as the message. This is the first (!) attempt to link President Trump’s rhetoric and plans with the creation of a new security configuration in Europe that would take into account Russia’s interests.


Map of US forces and their bases in Europe, Jan 2022

Trump himself has been talking about reducing the American military presence in Europe all the time – this has been one of his narratives since his inauguration, interspersed with demands for Europeans to “defend themselves on their own” — for example, to increase their own military spending and bring their armies to a combat-ready state. For now, threats to withdraw the United States from NATO should be regarded as deceitful and frivolous. However, events are developing at such a pace that everything seems possible. This includes the rollback of the US military presence in Europe to the “basic settings” of the pre-Gorbachev period. If the White House is really ready to discuss this with Moscow as part of the process of restoring normal relations between Russia and the United States, this is a truly revolutionary event for American foreign policy. In the light of such normalization, any other pales by comparison, including Trump’s decree that the United States now recognizes only two genders – male and female.

The simultaneous withdrawal of all American troops from Eastern Europe is a “horror story” that can be used for a variety of purposes: from attempts to influence the election campaign in Germany to fueling anti–Russian sentiment. And this “horror story” is being launched against the background of unprecedentedly harsh statements by the US authorities regarding Europe, of which the most memorable is the cavalier speech by Vice President J. D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference. In this context, it is easy to believe the panicky rumours that the United States is abandoning Europe to its fate. For the last month, Europeans have been living uncomfortably under the “American umbrella.” But the fact is that the Italian military in Kosovo are indeed showing strange activity around Bondsteel.


Left: the US Bondsteel base in Kosovo; right, red dot marks the base location on the map.

Serbian sources also confirm the possible transfer of the base under the control of KFOR, which automatically means that the Americans will leave there. The Serbs, of course, are happy; when they are happy, the information coming from them should also be treated with reasonable skepticism. That is, something is definitely afoot in Kosovo, but it is not yet clear what exactly, and in what broader context this idea should be assessed. It is noteworthy that the Bild source referred to a certain demand of Vladimir Putin from 2021. Most likely, this refers to the famous declaration of the Russian Foreign Ministry dated December 2021. No one has canceled or disavowed this document, and in theory it can indeed be on the negotiating table between the Russian Federation and the United States as a certain opening of Moscow’s diplomatic position.

Smolenskaya Square [location of the Russian Foreign Ministry comparable to Foggy Bottom for the US State Department] unequivocally claims that negotiations in Riyadh are underway not only around the Ukrainian issue, but also about the normalization or, if you want, reformatting of bilateral relations. This is not a “conference on Ukraine,” but Russian-American talks about everything. Specifically, the Istanbul agreements may become the basis for negotiations on Ukraine, but in a broader context, we really need to talk about creating a configuration of continental security that would take into account Russia’s interests. The main thing here is to take into account the threats posed to the Russian Federation by the current security organization in Europe, which has developed after the uncontrolled expansion of NATO to the east.

The problem is not only attempts to draw Ukraine or Georgia into the alliance – Trump himself calls this “involvement” a mistake which has worsened the situation on the continent. In a broader context, other examples of NATO expansion have posed a threat to the Russian Federation. The current borders and configuration of the alliance cannot be the basis for lasting peace for many years. Roughly speaking, no one feels safe right now, and the source of these worries was and remains NATO as an outdated and decaying system. In the Smolenskaya Square declaration of December 2021, the first paragraph states that the Russian Federation and the United States should act on the basis of the principles of “indivisible and equal security, without prejudice to each other’s security.” Further, this basic principle is specified in slightly less general terms, but, in fact, this is a proposal to take into account the security threats to the Russian Federation that stem from the expansion of NATO to the east.

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“Europe’s “sound and fury” after jaw-dropping pivots in U.S. policy..”

“..the ‘blitzkrieg’ was “exceptionally well-planned” and had been discussed in Trump circles since late 2020..”

“That the U.S. would in essence leave Europe to their own delusions would be a calamitous event for the Brussels technocracy.”

• America as Republic, not as Empire (Alastair Crooke)

The bits are falling into a distinct pattern – a pre-prepared pattern. Defence Secretary Hegseth at the Munich Security Conference gave us four ‘noes’: No to Ukraine in NATO; No to a return to pre-2014 borders; No to ‘Article 5’ peacekeeper backstops, and ‘No’ to U.S. troops in Ukraine. And in a final flourish, he added that U.S. troops in Europe are not ‘forever’ – and even placed a question mark over the continuity of NATO. Pretty plain speaking! The U.S. clearly is cutting away from Ukraine. And they intend to normalise relations with Russia. Then, Vice-President Vance threw his fire cracker amongst the gathered Euro-élites. He said that the élites had retreated from “shared” democratic values; they were overly reliant on repressing and censoring their peoples (prone to locking them up); and, above all, he excoriated the European Cordon Sanitaire (‘firewall’) by which European parties outside the Centre-Left are deemed non-grata politically: It’s a fake ‘threat’, he suggested.

Of what are you really so frightened? Have you so little confidence in your ‘democracy’? The U.S., he implied, will no longer support Europe if it continues to suppress political constituencies, arrest citizens for speech offenses, and particularly cancel elections as was done recently in Romania. “If you’re running in fear of your own voters”, Vance said, “there is nothing America can do for you”. Ouch! Vance had hit them where it hurts. It is difficult to say what specifically most triggered the catatonic European breakdown: Was it the fear of the U.S. and Russia joining together as a major power nexus – thus stripping Europe from ever again being able glide along on the back of American power, through the specious notion that any European state must have exceptional access to the Washington ‘ear’? Or was it the ending of the Ukraine/Zelensky cult which was so prized amongst the Euro-élite as the ‘glue’ around which a faux European unity and identity could be enforced? Both probably contributed to the fury.

That the U.S. would in essence leave Europe to their own delusions would be a calamitous event for the Brussels technocracy. Many may lazily assume that the U.S. double act at Munich was just another example of the well-known Trumpian fondness for dropping ‘wacky’ initiatives intended to both shock and kickover frozen paradigms. The Munich speeches did exactly that all right! Yet that does not make them accidental; but rather parts that fit into a bigger picture. It is clear now that the Trump blitzkrieg across the American Administrative State could not have been mounted unless carefully pre-planned and prepared over the last four years. Trump’s flurry of Presidential Executive Orders at the outset of his Presidency were not whimsical. Leading U.S. constitutional lawyer, Jonathan Turley, and other lawyers say that the Orders were well drafted legally and with the clear understanding that legal challenges would ensue. What’s more, that Trump Team welcome those challenges.

What is going on? The newly confirmed head of the Office of Budget Management (OBM), Russ Vought, says his Office will become the “on/off switch” for all Executive expenditure under the new Executive Orders. Vought calls the resulting whirlpool, the application of Constitutional radicalism. And Trump has now issued the Executive Order that reinstates the primacy of the Executive as the controlling mechanism of government. Vought, who was in OBM in Trump 01, is carefully selecting the ground for all-out financial war on the Deep State. It will be fought out firstly at the Supreme Court – which the Trump Team expect confidently to win (Trump has the 6-3 conservative majority). The new régime will then be applied across all agencies and departments of state. Expect shrieks of pain. The point here is that the Administrative State – aloof from executive control – has taken to itself prerogatives such as immunity to dismissal and the self-awarded authority to shape policy – creating a dual state system, run by unelected technocrats, which, when implanted in departments such as Justice and the Pentagon, have evolved into the American Deep State.

Article Two of the Constitution however, says very bluntly: Executive power shall be vested in the U.S. President (with no ifs or buts at all.) Trump intends for his Administration to recover that lost Executive power. It was, in fact, lost long ago. Trump is re-claiming too, the Executive’s right to dismiss ‘servants of the State’, and to ‘switch off’ wasteful expenditure at his discretion, as part of a unitary executive prerequisite. Of course, the Administrative State is fighting back. Turley’s article is headlined: They Are Taking Away Everything We Have: Democrats and Unions Launch Existential Fight. Their aim has been to cripple the Trump initiative through using politicised judges to issue restraint orders. Many mainstream lawyers believe Trump’s Unitary Executive claim to be illegal. The question is whether Congress can stand up Agencies designed to act independently of the President; and how does that square with the separation of powers and Article Two that vests unqualified executive power with one sole elected official – the U.S. President.

How did the Democrats not see this coming? Lawyer Robert Barnes essentially says that the ‘blitzkrieg’ was “exceptionally well-planned” and had been discussed in Trump circles since late 2020. The latter team had emerged from within a generational and cultural shift in the U.S.. This latter had given rise to a Libertarian/Populist wing with working class roots who often had served in the military, yet had come to despise the Neo-con lies (especially those of 9/11) that brought endless wars. They were animated more by the old John Adams adage that ‘America should not go abroad in search of monsters to slay’.

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“..asked [..] whether EU countries would retaliate in-kind to any US tariffs, Trump replied: “They can’t, I mean they can try, but they can’t.”

• US To Impose Blanket 25% Tariffs On EU – Trump (RT))

US President Donald Trump has claimed that the EU was designed to weaken America and has issued new threats of 25% tariffs on all imports from the bloc. Trump made the remarks on Wednesday at the White House during his first Cabinet meeting of his second term as president. The trade row between the US and the EU has been escalating since Trump announced plans to introduce a wide range of import duties in an effort to tackle what he describes as a trade imbalance. “Look, let’s be honest, the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States, that’s the purpose of it,” Trump told the meeting. “And they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.” He reiterated that his administration plans to impose tariffs on EU imports “very soon.”

“It will be 25%, generally speaking, and that will be on cars and all other things,” Trump said, describing the EU as “a different case than Canada… they’ve really taken advantage of us in a different way.” The US and EU similarly found themselves locked in a trade dispute during Trump’s first term, when he introduced tariffs of 25% on European steel imports and 10% on aluminum, to which the EU responded with countermeasures. Trump also threatened tariffs on European cars, though those never came to pass. In total, the two sides exchanged duties on goods worth over $10 billion. As part of his current tariff push, Trump has imposed 25% duties on all steel and aluminum imports from the EU starting March 4, adding to existing tariffs. He has also directed Howard Lutnick, his nominee for US trade representative and commerce secretary, to propose new levies on a country-by-country basis by April 1 in a bid to rebalance trade.

Since taking office on January 20, Trump has slapped a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% on Chinese goods, citing concerns over illegal immigration and drug trafficking. However, following talks with the Mexican and Canadian leaders, those tariffs have been postponed for 30 days after both nations agreed to bolster border security. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the latest US tariffs, expressing “deep regret” over the decision. She said earlier this month that the levies on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered.” Asked on Wednesday, whether EU countries would retaliate in-kind to any US tariffs, Trump replied: “They can’t, I mean they can try, but they can’t.”

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Neither can Europe.

• US Can No Longer Subsidize NATO – Rubio (RT)

Washington can no longer allow its wealthy Western European NATO allies to take advantage of US taxpayers to fund their defense budgets, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on Wednesday. The top US diplomat was responding to comments by Friedrich Merz, whose Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won last week’s elections in Germany. Merz claimed that the US-led military bloc is in “jeopardy” due to Washington’s “indifference” toward Europe’s security. “NATO is not in jeopardy,” Rubio said. “The only thing that puts NATO in jeopardy is the fact that we have NATO allies who barely have militaries or whose militaries are not very capable because they’ve spent 40 years not spending any money on it.” The current US administration considers it unfair that some wealthy Western European member states only spend 1% to 1.5% of their GDP on defense, Rubio added.

“We just can’t keep subsidizing that,” he stressed. “These are rich countries, especially in Western Europe. They have plenty of money. They should be investing that in their national security, and they’re not.” US President Donald Trump has argued that NATO’s current defense spending target of 2% of GDP per year – already a challenge for a number of member states – is too low and should be raised to 5%. During his reelection campaign, Trump said he would “absolutely” consider leaving the bloc if members do not “pay their bills.” The US allocates around 3.4% of GDP to military expenditures, according to a 2023 estimate by the World Bank. In contrast, European NATO members spend an average of 1.9%, less than 60% of the US’ spending, Reuters reported earlier this month, citing S&P Global.

Meeting Trump’s proposed 5% military spending goal would cause France and Germany’s budget deficits to rise to 4.6% and 8.9% in 2025, respectively, compared to the current projections of 1.7% and 6%, S&P estimated. Since 2022, the US and its allies have provided more than $258 billion in aid to Ukraine, including over $134 billion in military assistance, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute. Western nations have depleted their military stockpiles and struggled to increase arms production due to deindustrialization, offshore manufacturing, green policies, and sanctions on Russian energy.

Trump claims that Washington spent up to $350 billion on Ukraine under the administration of his predecessor, Joe Biden, and has vowed to recover this money. Moscow has warned that NATO’s military aid to Ukraine effectively makes member states parties to the conflict. Trump is the first and only Western leader to acknowledge that one of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict was “the previous administration’s ‘pushy’ policy of dragging Ukraine into NATO,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week.

Read more …

As Europe adopts new sanctions…

• Trump Says US Could Lift Russia Sanctions (RT)

The US could lift sanctions against Russia “at some point” during the Ukraine peace negotiations, President Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday. He noted, however, that no decision has been made so far. The US and other Western nations have placed an unprecedented number of economic restrictions on Russia since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Moscow considers the sanctions illegal and has consistently demanded their removal. “No, we haven’t lifted any sanctions on anybody… I guess it will be at some point, but right now we haven’t agreed to lift sanctions on anybody,” Trump said at a press briefing, responding to a question on whether the issue has been part of Russia-US discussions so far.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently suggested that Western nations will have to consider lifting sanctions on Russia in order to find an “enduring, sustainable” solution to the Ukraine conflict. Speaking after high-level talks between Moscow and Washington in Saudi Arabia last week, he indicated that in order to bring an end to the conflict, “there has to be concessions made by all sides,” including letting go of sanctions policies. Rubio noted, however, that the EU will have to be “at the table” to discuss sanctions relief as well, as it has also imposed restrictive measures targeting Russia. Brussels has indicated it is prepared to pursue an independent sanctions policy regardless of Washington’s stance. EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said last week that the bloc has no plans to lift sanctions against Moscow even if the US decides to do so.

Earlier this week, the EU adopted its 16th package of restrictions, largely targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex and energy projects. It also introduced additional measures against alleged sanctions circumvention, including dual-use export restrictions. Moscow has often noted that sanctions have failed to destabilize or isolate it while backfiring on the countries that imposed them. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Western sanctions have inadvertently bolstered Russia’s development. Speaking at the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow, he stated that despite the challenges that Russia was forced to overcome due to the measures, they played a “stimulating role,” prompting closer collaboration between Russia’s domestic businesses and science and bolstering the country’s economic and technological sectors.

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“..Europe’s role in fomenting crises and its reputation in this area, which it has acquired over centuries, remains unchanged..”

• EU Trying To Block Ukraine Peace – Lavrov (RT)

The EU is seeking to derail the Ukraine peace process by pushing the country to continue fighting against Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Speaking at a press conference in Qatar on Wednesday, Lavrov weighed in on a resolution drafted by the US calling for a “swift end” to the Ukraine conflict, which was approved by the UN Security Council on Monday. The document, which was supported by Russia and China, excluded strong language denouncing Moscow. The resolution also came after US President Donald Trump refused to condemn Russia over the Ukraine conflict while blaming Kiev for failing to prevent the hostilities. The Russian foreign minister said that as soon as the political landscape regarding the conflict began to shift, “Europe immediately tries to undermine this trend, announces new large packages of military aid to Kiev, incites it to continue military actions.”

Lavrov went on to state that “Europe’s role in fomenting crises and its reputation in this area, which it has acquired over centuries, remains unchanged,” adding that the EU’s approach to the conflict is “hopelessly outdated and failing.” Last week, Politico reported that the EU is preparing a military aid package worth at least €6 billion ($6.3 billion) for Ukraine, with the magazine’s sources claiming that it could potentially balloon to €10 billion as the bloc’s members “dig into their inventories to see what they can send.” Meanwhile, Trump said on Tuesday that the US is not currently supplying Ukraine with any defense assistance. Russia has condemned the Western arms shipments to Ukraine, warning that they only prolong the conflict without changing the outcome.

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Who’s going to volunteer to be a Russian target?

• Lavrov Calls Out Europe’s Peacekeeper Plan As Ploy to Rearm Kiev (Sp.)

For Russia, any course of action involving the deployment of European peacekeepers to Ukraine is out of the question, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. “No, we cannot consider any such options,” Lavrov told reporters after talks in Doha. The approach being imposed by the Europeans, namely France and the UK, is aimed at further fueling the conflict and “pumping Kiev with weapons again”, Russia’s diplomacy chief added. US President Donald Trump stated that he believes the presence of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine is necessary in one form or another, but the format of this mission must be acceptable to all parties. Russia is not blocking negotiations on Ukraine, Lavrov said, emphasizing that the best way to resolve the conflict is to understand its root causes.

“We are waiting for our European colleagues to stop spreading lies that Russia is blocking the negotiations. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly responded to these false claims, pointing out that the Ukrainian leadership, instigated by Europe, refuses to negotiate,” Lavrov told reporters after his visit to Qatar. Lavrov noted that European politicians assert the conflict in Ukraine should be resolved through military means rather than through negotiations. “We believe that the best help from those who sincerely want to help resolve the conflict is to understand its root causes, as [US] President Trump did recently,” Lavrov added. An upcoming Russian-US meeting that will focus on normalizing the operation of embassies will be held on February 27 in Istanbul, Lavrov said.

“We announced that our high-level diplomats and experts, will meet and consider the systemic problems that have accumulated as a result of the previous administration’s illicit activities to create artificial obstacles to the functions of the Russian embassy, to which we naturally reciprocated and also created uncomfortable conditions for the work of the US Embassy in Moscow. Such a meeting will take place tomorrow in Istanbul,” Lavrov told reporters. Based on the outcome of the talks, it will be clear how fast and efficiently both countries can move, the top diplomat added. Israel’s presence in the south of Lebanon and the south of Syria requires constructive solutions which will not violate security of any party, Lavrov said.

“At present, the Israeli armed forces have entered the south of Syria, just as they decided to stay in the south of Lebanon. All this creates a new situation, which demands not simply understanding, but working out some kind of constructive steps, which take into account the security and development interests of all the countries of the region, including, of course, Israel. But these security problems must not be solved by violating the security and development of other [countries],” Russia’s diplomacy chief said at a press conference. Lavrov also said that Russia is deeply concerned about the fact that day by day the Israeli armed forces take steps that are not envisaged in the Hamas-Israel deals and create situations which contradict the agreements and the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

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No more time to wait or waste. There are major problems to be solved..

• Russian, US Diplomats To Meet In Istanbul On February 27 (TASS)

Russian and US diplomats will hold a meeting in Istanbul on February 27 to discuss issues related to the operation of the two countries’ embassies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced. “Such a meeting will take place in Istanbul tomorrow,” the top Russian diplomat said at a press conference following his visit to Qatar. “We have announced that our diplomats and high-level experts will meet to address the systemic problems that have piled up as a result of the previous [US] administration’s illegitimate activities aimed at creating artificial obstacles for the work of the Russian embassy, to which we clearly responded in kind, also creating uncomfortable conditions for the operation of the US embassy in Moscow,” Lavrov noted.

According to him, the problem of Russia’s frozen assets “has nothing to do with the operation of embassies” because “the asset issue is a state-level one.” Lavrov expects that the Istanbul meeting “will make it clear how capable the parties are of moving forward quickly and effectively.” Earlier, the top Russian diplomat announced that Moscow and Washington had held two rounds of preliminary technical consultations on the issue. Russian and US delegations held talks in Riyadh on February 18, which lasted over four hours. Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev. The US delegation consisted of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff.

According to Ushakov, the delegations held a serious talk on all the issues they wanted to discuss, including ways to bring Russian and US positions closer to each other and future consultations on Ukraine. Lavrov described the meeting with Washington officials as very useful. According to him, Russia and the US agreed to make sure that ambassadors to both countries are appointed as soon as possible. Rubio, in turn, said after the talks that the US and Russia had agreed to reestablish embassy staffing. Embassy staff cuts began in both countries after 2014, when Washington adopted a policy aimed at “systemic containment” of Russia.

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“Who could forget Sean Penn giving him his own Oscar, or Ben Stiller chilling with the Ukrainian leader and making small talk? Angelina Jolie is even reported to have been paid 20 million dollars to meet with him..”

• Zelensky Now With Only The Dictatorship In London To Support Him (Jay)

What is the definition of a ‘dictator’? In the days that followed Trump’s social media post calling President Zelensky one, British media seized upon the subject and ran with it for days. Various public figures were asked whether Trump was right to use the word and whether they believed Zelensky was actually one. Two figures from the right, Nigel Farage and Liz Truss both said they thought Trump was both wrong to call him one and that in fact he wasn’t one. This remarkable endearment for Zelensky is really the core of the problem in the west in particular the UK, where its leader Sir Keir Starmer declared that he would be ready to send British troops to Ukraine – a suggestion which was quickly shot down by the elites of Germany and France as preposterous. It’s rare that the giants of the EU put the British government in its place on world affairs but we are living in unprecedented times of sensational stupidity and perhaps ignorance from politicians which we have never seen before.

Farage’s views on the Middle East tell us he is both ignorant of what is happening there and doesn’t have any advisors covering the region. But his views on Ukraine are even more shockingly deranged. Zelensky is a leader who has shut down anything which resembles an ‘opposition’ both politically and media, he has conglomerated all TV stations into one state-owned entity so as to shut down even the slightest criticism or accountability of his own actions, he has had the few dissident voices arrested and thrown into prison, with some predicting that there are thousands of journalists and media workers. Add to that it is rapidly emerging that the level of corruption and embezzlement linked directly to Zelensky is on a scale that even hard line critics in the West could not have even imagined.

In my own investigation in October 2023, where a very angry Ben Wallace insulted me in a WhatsApp interview before blocking me, I outline how the original, more sensational claim that only about a third of all military equipment sent to Ukraine was actually making it to the battlefield was in fact realistic. This analogy was bandied about for some time and was dismissed by Wallace and others like Alecia Kearns MP as nonsense and yet turned out to be more than just realistic but likely. That is to say that 66 percent of what was being sent to Ukraine was being sold on the black market in Libya making Zelensky and his close circle billionaires.

In recent weeks now mainstream journalists and politicians are talking about the arms scandal and it is only a matter of time before we shall see the realities of this. The British government have always turned a blind eye to it, both in Ukraine and further afield. It would cost them nothing to do a study in the Sahel to evaluate how much of the equipment there funding terrorism is coming from the arms bazaars of Tripoli where all of this kit is ending up. I suggested to Wallace that his own government at the time should send some investigators there (Libya) to look at what’s available. I was more or less told to go there myself and do the job for them.

But Zelenksy support structure for so long has been that of a dictator, in particular media. The hundreds of media outlets in Ukraine which were receiving USAID funding is extensive, not to mention the hundreds of civil servants which support him being on the same payroll. If that doesn’t shock Farage and Truss, then consider the same slush fund which paid out around a 100 million dollars to movie stars to go and visit him and fake their adulation, all for the purposes of cheating the humble U.S. taxpayer by raising his profile.

Who could forget Sean Penn giving him his own Oscar, or Ben Stiller chilling with the Ukrainian leader and making small talk? Angelina Jolie is even reported to have been paid 20 million dollars to meet with him but didn’t even manage that and simply mooched about a but in the country before jetting back to the U.S. Of course, the celebrities all dismiss these claims, through the same left-wing woke press which is part of their extended political family. But the question we should be asking ourselves is simply this: if they were not paid, then why won’t they show up now and show support at the precise moment when Zelensky needs it the most? Given that these celebrities supported Biden and are Democrats, this would be the most logical thing for them to do. In reality, the wall of silence is what we see.

Dictators don’t stand over their hired killers and watch their victims in their final moments like Idi Amin did. In reality, they only indicate and hint to the thugs on their payroll what she should do to fix problems. Does Farage and Truss actually believe that dissidents are not rounded up and thrown into jail where they are tortured and in some cases murdered? Now that the vultures are circling over Zelensky and many are wondering how many days in office he has left, more reports are emerging with details of such cases. The story of Gonzalo Lira, the American Chilean blogger whose vlogs were often well-informed and threw a very poor spotlight on Zelensky is a very sad one as he was brutally tortured while in prison and finally died. If the Zelensky cabal can do this to an American citizen, perhaps Farage and Truss will not be too surprised when in the coming weeks we will have the same Damascus prison media moment where it transpires that there are certainly hundreds, possibly thousands of journalists, commentators and political rivals in Ukraine’s prisons.

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“The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States, that’s the purpose of it. And they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.”

• Ukraine Can Forget About NATO, Says Trump (ZH)

Huge and unprecedented words issued by America’s Commander-in-Chief in a press briefing on Thursday… Trump says Ukraine can “forget about” joining NATO: “That is probably the reason why the whole thing started.” Of course, Vice President J.D. Vance earlier this month voiced this point of view of the administration while addressing a gathering of defense leaders in Brussels. But never before has a US president so forcefully voiced that a path to NATO membership simply won’t happen. This also marks the most directly Trump has ever said NATO expansion is a key reason for the tragic war, which has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, having started in the first place. Mainstream media fact-checkers have been out in force, decrying this perspective as ‘Russian propaganda’. But is this really the case?

The head of NATO itself in the recent past said the quiet part out loud and fully admitted that constant NATO expansion to Russia’s doorstep was a central driving factor: “From the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we’ve been told that the issue of NATO expansion is irrelevant to the war, and that anyone bringing it up is, at best, unwittingly parroting Kremlin propaganda, at worst, apologizing for or justifying the war. So it was curious to see NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this month say explicitly that Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his criminal war as a reaction to the possibility of NATO expanding into Ukraine, and the alliance’s refusal to swear it off — not once or twice, but three separate times.

“President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement,” Stoltenberg told a joint committee meeting of the European Parliament on September 7. “That was what he sent us. And [that] was a pre-condition for not invade [sic] Ukraine. Of course we didn’t sign that.” “He went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite,” Stoltenberg reiterated, referring to the accession of Sweden and Finland into the alliance in response to Putin’s invasion. Their entry, he later insisted, “demonstrates that when President Putin invaded a European country to prevent more NATO, he’s getting the exact opposite.” How much clearer could the then NATO Secretary-General have said it (in the Sept. 2023 comments)?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1706173936025874767

How much clearer could the then NATO Secretary-General have said it (in the Sept. 2023 comments)?Trump also on Wednesday blasted the European Union… “The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States, that’s the purpose of it. And they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.” Among other things, Europe has lately been accused of seeking to thwart Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, even offering a rival rare earth minerals deal. The Europeans and Ukrainians have been cut out of direct negotiations with Moscow under Rubio.

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Aka very little.

• Ukraine Should Get As Much Land ‘As Possible’ – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said he wants Ukraine to regain as much territory “as possible” under a potential peace deal with Russia. He claimed that Moscow will have to make concessions, but that the agreement should ultimately represent the best possible outcome for both parties if finalized. Five formerly Ukrainian regions have voted to join Russia since 2014. While Kiev rejects the territorial changes, Moscow views them as final and non-negotiable. Following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump was asked if a peace deal that involved Russia maintaining control over Ukrainian-claimed land could send a message to China detrimental to American interests. ”We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” Trump responded, adding that for Kiev that means “they can get as much back as possible.”

Although an agreement is not guaranteed, Trump expressed hope that it would materialize “for the sake of humanity.” If a resolution is reached, Trump stressed that Ukraine “can forget about” joining NATO as this aspiration lies at the heart of the ongoing conflict. He asserted that Russia will “have to” make concessions as well. Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that Moscow would reject a truce that merely freezes the conflict along the current front line, leaving parts of Russian territory under Ukrainian jurisdiction. ”Some propose maintaining the line of engagement – this section is Russian, that one is Ukrainian… That won’t happen, as we have a Constitution reflecting the will of the people,” Lavrov said, referencing the referendums held in the five former Ukrainian regions.

Trump’s approach marks a departure from his predecessor Joe Biden’s strategy of isolating Russia, as he seeks to normalize bilateral relations. Both Moscow and Washington suggest that this shift provides hope for a swift resolution to the Ukraine conflict. Additionally, the Trump administration aims to recover taxpayer funds spent during Biden’s tenure through a forthcoming minerals deal with Kiev, expected to be signed on Friday. The new US administration has declined to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, arguing that the country holds minimal interest for American priorities and that European nations should address the issue instead.

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There’s nothing left to come home to but a crazed dictator and some neo-nazis in a barren landscape.

• Most Ukrainians Abroad Won’t Come Home – Unity Minister (RT)

The majority of Ukrainians who left the country over the past three years will not return to their homeland even after the military conflict ends, Minister of National Unity Aleksey Chernyshov has said, according to local media reports. An estimated over 5 million Ukrainians are still living abroad, three years since the conflict escalated. Kiev wants them back as it seeks to address the country’s imploding demographics, boost conscription and generate human resources for the post-conflict reconstruction. The minister reportedly claimed on Tuesday that 30% of Ukrainians currently abroad are “seriously considering coming back” when the security situation stabilizes, according to Ekonomicheskaya Pravda. “We also clearly understand that a significant portion of Ukrainians will not return,” the national unity minister said. “They have decided to stay where they are. This is not a catastrophe, it must be acknowledged.”

Chernyshov said that Kiev is developing measures to encourage people to return and cited statistics indicating that Ukraine loses 300,000 people annually for reasons unrelated to the conflict. “For post-conflict recovery and doubling Ukraine’s GDP within 10 years, it will be necessary to attract between 3.1 to 4.2 million repatriates and immigrants,” he noted. A study by the Ukrainian think tank Center for Economic Strategy (CES) published last week found that around 5.2 million Ukrainian refugees remain abroad, of which 60% plan to settle outside their homeland. Meanwhile, the share of those considering returning home had dropped to 43% by the end of 2024, compared to 74% in December 2022. The exodus peaked in March 2022, when around 2.5 million people left the country within weeks. Since then, the outflow has slowed, with around 300,000 people departing Ukraine last year, the CES said.

The agency estimates that up to 2.7 million Ukrainians may choose to remain abroad permanently, even after the conflict ends. The majority of refugees are women and children, while Germany and Poland are the most popular destinations, a Eurostat report published earlier this month showed. The report also revealed that the share of adult men fleeing Ukraine has jumped by nearly 10% over the past year amid the massive mobilization campaign. This prolonged emigration could have devastating consequences for Ukraine’s economy. CES projects it could reduce the country’s annual GDP by 5.1% to 7.8%. According to the think tank, the primary reasons Ukrainians are not currently returning home include the ongoing security threats, destroyed housing, low living standards, and difficulties in securing employment in Ukraine.

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Remember Alastair Crooke: “..the Orders were well drafted legally and with the clear understanding that legal challenges would ensue..”

• Federal Government Can’t Comply With Judge’s Order To Unfreeze Funds (ET)

Federal officials told a U.S. judge on Feb. 25 that they could not comply with his order requiring the release of frozen foreign aid within two days. U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali’s order, which gave a deadline of Feb. 26 at 11:59 p.m. ET, would mean paying at least $1.5 billion across some 2,000 outstanding and newly created requests for payment to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the official serving as deputy administrator for the agency said in a court filing. It would also require paying at least $400 million to resolve outstanding payment requests to the State Department, Pete Marocco, the official, said. “These payments cannot be accomplished in the time allotted by the Court and would instead take multiple weeks,” he wrote.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ali, in a hearing with government lawyers and attorneys representing the groups that sued over the freeze, was told that the groups had not yet been paid despite his multiple previous orders, including one on Feb. 13, mandating that the Trump administration unfreeze the foreign assistance. “I’m not sure why I can’t get a straight answer from you on this: Are you aware of an unfreezing of the disbursement of funds for those contracts and agreements that were frozen before Feb. 13,” the Washington-based judge asked Indraneel Sur, the lawyer for the government, during the hearing. “Are you aware of steps taken to actually release those funds?” “I’m not in a position to answer that,” Sur said. It’s the second time a judge has found the Trump administration did not follow a court order. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island also found this month that the administration had not fully unfrozen federal grants and loans within the United States after he blocked sweeping plans for a pause on trillions of dollars in government spending.

In the Washington case, plaintiffs recently filed an emergency motion to enforce the judge’s temporary restraining order, saying they’re still owed millions of dollars and that their contracts terminated under Trump’s foreign assistance pause remain terminated. Ali granted the emergency motion during Tuesday’s hearing and ordered the government to comply by Thursday. Marocco’s declaration came with a motion from the government asking the judge to stay his order as a federal appeals court considers overturning it. “Defendants are likely to succeed on appeal from the Court’s order for several reasons,” government lawyers said in the filing. “To start, it is not possible for Defendants to comply,” they said, pointing to Marocco’s declaration. The government has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

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A subtle hint.

• Rubio Cancels EU’s Kallas At Last Minute (RT)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cancelled a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas at the last minute “due to scheduling issues,” Euronews reported on Wednesday. Kallas, who is on an official visit to Washington to discuss the Ukraine conflict and new dynamics in transatlantic relations, intends to meet with representatives from the US Congress and Senate, according to her spokesperson cited by the EU’s news network. The bloc’s top diplomat had been scheduled to meet with Rubio on Wednesday, and news agencies had expected images from the bilateral talks, Euronews wrote. However, a spokesperson for the US official told the outlet that the meeting had been cancelled “due to scheduling issues,” adding that Kallas and Rubio “last met during the Munich Security Conference” earlier in February. According to the report, Rubio’s public calendar for February 26 did not list Kallas as an agenda item.

Former Estonian prime minister Kallas has been critical of the new US administration’s handling of the Ukraine conflict, denouncing President Donald Trump’s call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier this month as a form of “appeasement.” She has accused Washington of adopting a “Russian narrative” and argued that Brussels should “support Ukraine right now more than ever.” Kallas also claimed that Moscow emerged as the winner in the recent US-Russia meeting in Saudi Arabia, stressing that any peace deal concerning Ukraine must involve both Europeans and Ukrainians to be effective. Following the Riyadh talks on February 18, Kallas held a phone call with Rubio, later warning, “Russia will try to divide us. Let’s not walk into their traps.” On Monday, while announcing the now-cancelled meeting with Rubio, Kallas stated “I have been very clear that no deal without us, without Ukraine or without Europe will work in practice – and that is for the US, which also needs to work with us.”

An unnamed EU diplomat commented on the canceled meeting for Politico, saying it “seems that the Trump administration doesn’t miss a chance to show that for them the EU is not a player.” On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the aggressive stance of Ukraine’s EU backers makes them unfit to participate in the peace process. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov further accused Brussels on Wednesday of attempting to derail peace efforts by encouraging Kiev to continue fighting against Russia. Kallas has recently suggested extending arms deliveries to Ukraine into 2025. The proposed package, worth €10 billion (over $10 billion), has faced resistance from some EU member states and is set for discussion at the March 6 summit of the bloc. Moscow has repeatedly warned against Western arms shipments to Ukraine, arguing that they only prolong the conflict without altering the outcome, while increasing the risk of a direct Russia-NATO confrontation.

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Europe is full of highly unpopular “leaders”. Who target the few that are actually loved.

• NATO-Skeptic Romanian Presidential Candidate Arrested (RT)

Romanian police have arrested Calin Georgescu, the front-runner in last year’s annulled presidential election, and conducted dozens of raids on his supporters and people tied to his campaign, local media reported on Wednesday. A critic of NATO and the EU and an opponent of sending aid to Ukraine, Georgescu made headlines in November last year when he unexpectedly garnered 23% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election in Romania. However, the Constitutional Court annulled the results shortly before the second round, citing intelligence documents alleging ‘irregularities’ in his campaign. Georgescu’s communications team has said on Facebook that he was arrested just as he was about to submit his new candidacy for the presidency.

”The system stopped him in traffic and he was pulled over for questioning at the Prosecutor General’s Office! Where is democracy, where are the partners who must defend democracy,” his team wrote. Prior to his arrest, Georgescu condemned the raids on his supporters in a post on Facebook. “The communist-Bolshevik system continues its odious abuses,” he wrote, accusing the Romanian authorities of trying to “invent evidence to justify the theft of the elections and to do anything to block my new candidacy for the presidency.” The Romanian Prosecutor General’s Office is reportedly investigating Georgescu over allegations of involvement “in a fascist organization and the promotion of controversial ideologies and historical figures in the public space,” G4Media outlet reported, citing sources close to the investigation. According to media reports, police found “weapons, live ammunition, and more than a million dollars hidden in a safe” during the raids.

Following the reports of Georgescu’s arrest, dozens of people gathered in front of the Prosecutor General’s office, chanting his name. The president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party, George Simion, said his MPs have also made their way to the Prosecutor General’s office to demand an explanation. Digi24 quoted Simion as saying that he maintains his support for Georgescu and that “until we see undeniable evidence, we suspect that this is political policing.” He added that so far, “not a single piece of evidence” has been presented. Georgescu’s surprise election victory last year and the subsequent annulment over unproven claims of Russian interference in the electoral process sparked controversy in the country. Both conservative and liberal parties have suggested that the establishment parties – the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) – are trying to hold on to power by pulling strings within the Constitutional Court.

The canceled election over alleged ‘Russian meddling’ has also been criticized by US officials. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, Vice President J.D. Vance suggested that “old entrenched interests” in Romania are “hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation” and “don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might… win an election.” Throughout his election campaign, Georgescu repeatedly insisted on Romania’s geopolitical non-alignment and highlighted national sovereignty and self-sufficiency. While expressing skepticism towards Western influence over the country’s policies and criticizing both NATO and the EU, he stated that Romania would respect its commitments to these organizations, but only “to the extent that they will respect theirs” toward Bucharest. He also vowed to halt Romania’s military aid to Ukraine if elected.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1894722137941749825

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Dismissed/disgruntled/disloyal spies.

• Tulsi Gabbard Labels CNN ‘Propaganda Arm’ Of Spies (RT)

Newly confirmed US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard has accused CNN of acting as a “propaganda arm” for disloyal intelligence agents, calling the network’s report on potential retaliation by dismissed spies an “indirect threat” to President Donald Trump’s administration. As part of Trump’s broader effort to downsize and restructure the federal government, the Central Intelligence Agency has recently offered so-called buyouts to its agents. In a report published on Monday, CNN, citing unnamed sources, claimed that some senior CIA officers were “quietly discussing” how the dismissals “risk creating a group of disgruntled former employees who might be motivated to take what they know to a foreign intelligence service.” “I am curious about how they think this is a good tactic to keep their job,” Gabbard told Fox News on Tuesday.

“They are exposing themselves, essentially, by making this indirect threat – using their propaganda arm, CNN, that they’ve used over and over again – to reveal their hand,” she continued. “Their loyalty is not to America, not to the American people or the Constitution; it is to themselves.” She stressed that these disgruntled employees are “exactly the kinds of people we need to root out, get rid of, so that the patriots who do work in this area, who are committed to our core mission, can actually focus on that.” Gabbard also claimed that many within the intelligence community had reached out to her personally, expressing support for Trump’s efforts to “clean house” and refocus on the core mission of serving the American people.

A former US congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard rose to national prominence in 2016 when she resigned as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to endorse Bernie Sanders for president. She later ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, advocating against US military interventions abroad, which she argued are harmful to service members like herself and detrimental to national interests. As tensions with the Democratic Party escalated, Gabbard left the party in 2022. After two years as an independent, she joined the Republican Party and endorsed Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s nomination of Gabbard for the top intelligence role in November sparked criticism from establishment figures, who labeled her a security risk. Despite the backlash, she was confirmed earlier this month by a 52-48 Senate vote, with only one Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, opposing her appointment. In January, the Senate also confirmed another Trump nominee, John Ratcliffe, as director of the CIA in a 74-25 vote. Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and ex-director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, is known for his skepticism of intelligence agencies and his criticism of investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

CIA

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“..this will make you sick..”

We’ll see a lot of comments on redactions. Pam better be careful.

• AG Pam Bondi Announces Thursday Release of Epstein Files (ZH)

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Wednesday evening that she’s going to release DOJ files on dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. “You said last week that you had the Epstein files on your desk. When can we see them?” asked Fox News’ Jesse Watters. “Jesse, there are well over – this will make you sick, 200 victims. Well over… over 250 actually. So we have to make sure that their identity is protected, and their personal information. But other than that, I think tomorrow Jesse – breaking news right now, you’re going to see some Epstein information being released by my office.” “What kind? Are we going to see who was on the flights? Are we going to see any evidence from what he recorded – because he had all of his homes wired with recording devices,” Watters asked. “What you’re going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information… it’s pretty sick what that man did,” Bondi continued.

Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender was found dead in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While his death was rules a suicide, he was also good friends with the Clintons and several other high-profile figures such as Bill Gates, Britain’s Prince Andrew, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former Barclays CEO and ‘Disney princess’ aficionado Jes Staley, Larry Summers, Harvey Weinstein, and former Victoria’s Secret boss Les Wexner. Watters’ question about recordings stems from earlier reporting that the deceased sex trafficker’s homes were wired with recording devices. In late 2019, Jeffrey Epstein victim Maria Farmer alleged that the deceased pedophile had a “media room” on the first floor where high-profile johns were allegedly recorded having sex with women and children.

“So if you’re facing the house, there’s a window on the right that’s barred – that’s the room, the ‘media room’ is what he called it,” Farmer said. “And so there was a door that looked like an invisible door with all this limestone and everything and you push it and you go in and I saw all the cameras.” Maria said: “What it was – was like old televisions basically, like stacked.” “They were monitors inside this cabinet and there were men sitting here and I looked on the cameras and I saw toilet, toilet, bed, bed, toilet, bed. “And I was like I’m never going to use the restroom here and I am never going to sleep here.” -The Sun

The claim was supported in a 2024 lawsuit by two women – Danielle Bensky and Jane Doe 3, who said Epstein employed a sophisticated system involving constant CCTV surveillance within his New York mansion. Bondi’s appearance came hours after the DOJ appeared to give Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) the brush-off, telling her in a Wednesday letter that they are “reviewing your requests and look forward to engaging further to accommodate your oversight and legislative needs.” On the campaign trail, Donald Trump suggested that he would be open to releasing the Epstein list, while Bondi said in November that anyone named in the documents who are “still fighting to keep their names private, Sean, they have no legal basis to do so unless they’re a child, a victim or a cooperating defendant.”

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Opens in new tab/window. No comment needed.Note: Trump did not make this.

• Trump Gaza VIDEO With Bearded Belly Dancers Sparks Outcry (RT)

A video re-envisioning Gaza as a lavish resort complete with bearded belly dancers and dollar bills raining down posted on US President Donald Trump’s social media channel has elicited a backlash from users. The clip, which appears to be AI-generated and comes after the US leader recently suggested turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” appeared on Truth Social on Tuesday. The 30-second clip begins with what appear to be current scenes of destruction in Gaza, with barefoot children running between wrecked buildings. The wreckage then morphs into a futuristic-looking Gaza with skyscrapers reminiscent of Dubai, pristine beaches, casinos, and opulent hotels branded “Trump Gaza.” The video depicts an AI-rendered Trump enjoying the local attractions, including sunbathing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Elon Musk, also AI-rendered, is seen dining on the beach, surrounded by what appear to be bearded belly dancers. The video also features larger-than-life golden statues of Trump and kids frolicking under a shower of dollar bills.

The video is accompanied by a jingle with lyrics praising Trump’s supposed vision for Gaza:
“Donald is coming to set you free, bringing the light for all to see,
No more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here.
Trump Gaza is shining bright, a golden future, a brand new light,
Feast and dance, the deed is done, Trump Gaza number one!”

Trump suggested earlier this month that the US was prepared to take control of Gaza and transform it into a resort. He has reiterated the idea several times since, claiming that because the enclave is unsafe to live in, it should be raised completely to the ground and rebuilt. While Israel applauded Trump’s initiative, other regional players and many global powers have strongly opposed it, particularly given that it would mean relocating Palestinians living in the enclave to neighboring countries. Trump’s video has so far drawn significant backlash over its tone and messaging, even from the US leader’s own supporters. Users on Truth Social described the clip as “horrible,” “creepy,” and “in poor taste.”

“I hate this. I love our president, but this is horrible,” one user wrote on Truth Social. “This feels all wrong and actually makes me sick,” another user stated. “I could not be a bigger supporter of President Trump but this particular video is in very poor taste!” another one wrote. Some suggested that the bearded belly dancers and golden statues were excessive, while others questioned whether the video had actually come from Trump’s team. “Something does not add up here??? Really does not feel that this is something Trump would post!! Wonder if someone is messing with his account??!! I surely hope so!! Very creepy!!” a user wrote. Several more suggested that Trump should “strongly re-evaluate” the communications team responsible for creating the video. Neither Trump nor his administration has commented on the video, nor was the clip accompanied by any explanation or caption.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Catwalk
https://twitter.com/i/status/1894497772797141391

 

 

Owl

 

 

Donkey
https://twitter.com/i/status/1894819783696359446

 

 

Dachs

 

 

Trust

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle February 13 2025

Feb 132025
 
 February 13, 2025  Posted by at 11:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  78 Responses »


Dante Gabriel Rossetti Monna Vanna 1866

 

• Putin Invites Trump To Visit Moscow In ‘Highly Productive’ Call (ZH)
• China Offers To Host Putin-Trump Summit (RT)
• Hegseth Casts Doubt on Ukraine’s NATO Gamble As Peace Talks Loom (Sp.)
• Trump ‘OK’ With Keeping Ukraine Out of NATO (RT)
• NATO Boss Issues Warning To Putin (RT)
• Musk Calls For Complete Overhaul of NATO (RT)
• EU Won’t Give Zelensky 200,000 Peacekeepers – NYT (RT)
• Tulsi Gabbard Confirmed As Director of National Intelligence (ZH)
• Pam Bondi’s DOJ Sues NY, Hochul, Letitia James Over Licenses For Illegals (ZH)
• Trump Sees ‘Tremendous Kickbacks’ In US Government Contracts (RT)
• Why They Really Hate Elon Musk (Mises)
• Federal Judge Allows Trump To Push Forward With Gov’t Workers Buyouts (NYP)
• Federal Judge Blocking Spending Freezes Has History of TDS (AmG)
• Judge Temporarily Blocks DOGE From Accessing Federal Student Aid Data (ET)
• Left Will Push Violent Revolution Against Trump – Larry Klayman (USAW)
• Biden WH, DOJ, National Archives Collaborated On Trump Documents Probe (JTN)
• New Task Force To Probe jFK, RFK, MLK Murders, Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ (RT)
• Switching Off Russian Gas Pipelines Hurts Europe Far More Than Russia (SCF)
• Trump Admin Eyes Billions Going to California High-Speed Train (Turley)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1889398883786301695

Navarro

Harry
https://twitter.com/i/status/1889370026626441606

VDH
https://twitter.com/i/status/1889336313322561852

Hegseth
https://twitter.com/i/status/1889686598498832503
https://twitter.com/i/status/1889684187986210922

X – a thread

 

 

 

 

“Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end.”

• Putin Invites Trump To Visit Moscow In ‘Highly Productive’ Call (ZH)

Update(1330ET): Just on the heels of the historic Putin call, President Trump has revealed an outline of his call with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, calling it a “meaningful conversation”. He had earlier vowed to inform Zelensky of the contents of the Putin phone call, at a moment European allies are stressing that there can be no peace deal without Ukraine’s direct input and participation.
• Trump: a meeting with Vance, Rubio, Zelensky being set up on Friday
• Trump: It is time to stop the Ukraine-Russia war
• No Ukraine deal without Ukraine and Europeans: French, German, Spanish FMs
• Trump has pledged that talks to end the war will start immediately. Wednesday marks the first known conversation between Trump and Putin since the new US president entered office last month.

* * *
US President Trump and Russian President Putin held a nearly hour-and-a-half call this morning which the US president described as “lengthy and highly productive.” Trump said on Truth Social that both leaders had extended invitations of “visiting each other’s nations,” while, the US leader said he would be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “right now” to inform him about the call. President Trump took to his Truth Social account to explain what was discussed (emphasis ours):

“I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects. We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people, and we, likewise, lost so many! We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, “COMMON SENSE.”

We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now. I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful. Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end.

No more lives should be lost! I want to thank President Putin for his time and effort with respect to this call, and for the release, yesterday, of Marc Fogel, a wonderful man that I personally greeted last night at the White House. I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon!”

Read more …

Interesting twist. Riyadh seems more logical for now, but who knows?

• China Offers To Host Putin-Trump Summit (RT)

China has presented a proposal to hold a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump to help end the Ukraine conflict, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. China has long sought to position itself as a potential peace broker in the Moscow-Kiev conflict, presenting its own roadmap to resolve the crisis. The development comes after Putin and Trump held a phone conversation on Wednesday – their first confirmed contact since Trump returned to the White House last month. The leaders had a “lengthy and highly productive” conversation, according to the US president. Trump later announced that he and Putin had agreed on an “immediate” start of negotiations to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

In recent weeks, Chinese officials have put forward a proposal to the Trump team through intermediaries, suggesting a summit between the two leaders and offering to help with peacekeeping efforts following a potential truce, the WSJ reported, citing sources in Beijing and Washington. According to the report, the Chinese offer envisions a US-Russian summit without the participation of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. The proposal goes against the West’s long-standing commitment to involve Kiev in any conflict-related discussions. The White House declined to confirm to the WSJ whether it had received China’s offer but dismissed it nonetheless, with a White House official describing it as “not viable at all.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry also declined to comment on the report, stating only that Beijing is “pleased” to see that Russia and the US are “strengthening ties and intensifying dialogue on a range of international issues.”

During their conversation, Trump and Putin reportedly agreed to visit each other’s countries. The Kremlin press service has confirmed that Putin invited Trump to visit Moscow, but did not provide a time frame for any potential trip. The US president later indicated that their first meeting would “probably” take place soon in Saudi Arabia. No peace talks on Ukraine have been held since the early months of the conflict. The negotiations between Russia and Ukraine held in Belarus and Türkiye broke down in spring 2022, with both sides accusing the other of making unrealistic demands. Senior US State Department official Victoria Nuland said in 2024 that Washington and its allies advised Kiev not to agree to the terms demanded by Moscow.

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“..our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security..”

• Hegseth Casts Doubt on Ukraine’s NATO Gamble As Peace Talks Loom (Sp.)

The United States holds the view that Ukraine’s NATO membership is not a feasible outcome of any potential negotiation with Russia, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday. “The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said during a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting. The idea of returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is unrealistic and pursuing this goal will only cause more suffering, Hegseth said. “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine, but we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” Hegseth said.

Any future security assurances for Ukraine need to be supported by capable European and non-European forces, which should be deployed under a non-NATO mission and not fall under the purview of Article Five, Pete Hegseth said. “Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article Five,” Hegseth said. Hegseth highlighted that these security assurances will not entail the deployment of US forces to Ukraine. The United States is making its priority deterring war with China in the Pacific, US Secretary of Defense Hegseth said.

“We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific. The US is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific,” Hegseth said. The United States under the Trump administration will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship with allies that is based on dependency, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. “The United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security,” Hegseth said.

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“They’ve been saying that for a long time, that Ukraine cannot go into NATO, and I’m OK with that..”

• Trump ‘OK’ With Keeping Ukraine Out of NATO (RT)

US President Donald Trump has cast doubt on Ukraine’s chances of joining NATO, aligning with Russia’s long-standing opposition to the move. Moscow has been firmly opposed to Ukraine’s NATO aspirations, calling this a key reason for the ongoing conflict with Kiev. The Kremlin views expansion of the bloc as a threat to national security and insists that Ukraine must remain neutral as part of any peace deal. “I don’t think it’s practical to have it, personally… They’ve been saying that for a long time, that Ukraine cannot go into NATO, and I’m OK with that,” Trump said on Wednesday. His remarks came after a lengthy phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin – their first confirmed contact since Trump returned to the White House last month.

Trump later announced that he and Putin had agreed to begin talks to end the Ukraine conflict. He also indicated that a meeting between the two leaders could take place soon, possibly in Saudi Arabia. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s stance, calling Ukraine’s NATO ambitions and its goal of reclaiming all lost territories “unrealistic.” Speaking ahead of a meeting of the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, Hegseth stressed the need for Ukraine to prepare for a negotiated peace, potentially supported by international troops, but without NATO membership as part of any agreement. The Trump administration’s willingness to consider certain Russian demands, including keeping Ukraine out of NATO, marks a significant shift in US foreign policy. Trump previously stated that he understands Russia’s stance on the issue.

Speaking to reporters in Florida last month, he said Moscow’s position had long been “written in stone,” but that former President Joe Biden had ignored it, contributing to the current conflict. “Somewhere along the line, Biden said, ‘[Ukraine], they should be able to join NATO.’ Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I can understand their feelings about that,” Trump added. Kiev remains firm in its desire to join NATO. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has stated that membership is a crucial security goal and a prerequisite for resuming negotiations with Moscow. Despite NATO declaring last year that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to membership, no timeline has been provided. While NATO members have supported Ukraine politically and militarily, they have also insisted that Kiev must meet several conditions before joining the bloc – including resolving the conflict with Russia.

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“Mark Rutte has said the US-led military bloc would crush Russia if the country attacks member states..”

This comes as Trump and Putin talk peace. The timing! And without the US, NATO can’t crush as much as a pebble.

The US is planning to undo NATO’s article 5, which obliges help if any member gets attacked.

• NATO Boss Issues Warning To Putin (RT)

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that the US-led military bloc would deal a crushing blow to Moscow if it attacks any of its member states.In recent years, senior officials from European NATO member states, including Rutte, have alleged that Russia is harboring aggressive plans toward the military bloc. Putin has repeatedly dismissed this speculation, calling it “nonsense” and a ruse to justify increased military spending. Answering reporters’ questions at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, Rutte said, “At the moment, if Putin would attack NATO, the reaction will be devastating. He will lose. So, let him not try it, and he knows this. The deterrence and defense is very strong.” However, NATO needs to spend more on defense to be able to defend itself four or five years from now, he added.

Rutte urged member states to make “some difficult decisions this year about… defense spending, doing much, much more than the 2% we pledged.” He went on to say that while the West has “fantastic” arms manufacturers, “they are not producing enough,” which needs to be urgently addressed. The question regarding supposed Russian aggression was prompted by a report issued by Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service on Tuesday. According to the document, within five years of ending or freezing the Ukraine conflict, Moscow would be ready to conduct a large-scale onslaught on Europe, based on the assumption that NATO’s defense spending remains at the current level. “Russia is likely to be more willing to use military force … if it perceives NATO as militarily weakened or politically divided,” the intelligence agency claimed, adding that “this is particularly true if Russia assesses that the US cannot or will not support the European NATO countries in a war.”

Last month, Rutte similarly urged NATO member states to “shift to a wartime mindset” to “prevent war.” Those who refuse to spend more on defense might as well “get out your Russian language courses or go to New Zealand,” the NATO secretary-general warned at the time. In December, Rutte suggested that European member states should redirect some of the funds they currently spend on welfare toward their militaries. On Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed that the Ukrainian special services, with Western support, were preparing a false-flag provocation in the Baltic Sea involving Russian-made naval mines, in the hope of dragging NATO into a direct military confrontation with Moscow.

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“Nobody listens to them anymore. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money..”

• Musk Calls For Complete Overhaul of NATO (RT)

NATO should be thoroughly revamped, tech billionaire and US government efficiency tsar Elon Musk, has argued. US President Donald Tump has recently expressed dissatisfaction with the level of defense spending by the bloc’s European members, which he views as a drain on American resources, going so far as to threaten underpaying allies with the withdrawal of US protection. In a post on X on Wednesday, Republican Senator Mike Lee wrote that the “Cold War is over. NATO’s anachronistic.” Trump appointed Musk as a ‘special government employee’ to lead the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) following his victory in the November 5 election, aiming to slash government spending. Commenting on Lee’s message, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO concurred, suggesting that “NATO needs an overhaul.”

Over the weekend, the DOGE chief also took aim at two long-standing state-funded propaganda outlets, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA). The two CIA cutouts were prominently used by Washington to counter Soviet influence in Europe during the Cold War. “Shut them down. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Nobody listens to them anymore. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money,” Musk wrote in a post on X. Trump has insisted that NATO member defense spending “should be 5%, not 2%” of GDP, accusing some European nations of taking “advantage of us.” The US is spending “billions and billions of dollars more … than Europe,” he claimed, having previously warned that Washington would not defend those NATO countries that fail to meet their financial commitments.

Earlier this month, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated that Berlin “could neither afford that nor spend” 5% of its GDP for this purpose while NATO chief Mark Rutte has urged countries to reduce their social support spending to boost military budgets. Against this backdrop, Italian news agency ANSA, citing EU diplomatic sources, claimed in January that President Trump was considering scaling back the number of American troops stationed in Europe by 20%. In recent years, multiple senior officials from European NATO member states have alleged that Moscow was harboring aggressive plans toward the US-led military bloc. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rejected this speculation, describing it as “nonsense” and “utter rubbish.” He suggested that Western officials employ scare tactics in order to justify increased military spending.

Read more …

The EU is toothless.

• EU Won’t Give Zelensky 200,000 Peacekeepers – NYT (RT)

The EU is unable to fulfill Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s request for 200,000 peacekeepers to enforce a potential ceasefire with Russia, a senior bloc official has told the New York Times, in an article published on Tuesday. Zelensky has advocated for a substantial European peacekeeping force of some 200,000 troops to uphold a potential ceasefire and deter future Russian offensives. Analysts cited by the New York Times consider this figure unattainable, noting that deploying even 40,000 troops would be challenging and could still fall short of providing an effective solution. “A senior European official said that the continent doesn’t even have 200,000 troops to offer, and that any boots on the ground must have American support, especially faced with the world’s second-largest nuclear power, Russia,” the NYT reported.

“If not, they would be permanently vulnerable to Russian efforts to undermine the alliance’s political and military credibility.” Recent reports by the Financial Times and Politico also indicate that while Kiev has publicly called for 200,000 peacekeepers, it realistically anticipates a deployment of 40,000 to 50,000 troops. The outlets suggested that the lower figure is more feasible, though the EU would still face difficulties assembling a force. Moscow opposes the introduction of international peacekeepers in Ukraine. Russian officials have argued that the move could escalate tensions and complicate efforts to resolve the conflict. Earlier this week, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia stated that any deployment of peacekeepers to Ukraine without Moscow’s consent would be “illegal,” warning that they would be considered legitimate targets.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, he called the rumors about the possible deployment of peacekeepers “bizarre,” noting that they cannot operate without a mandate from the UN Security Council, which Russia is a part of and where it holds the right of veto. Russia remains opposed to a freezing of the Ukraine conflict and the introduction of peacekeeping forces, insisting that the only way to resolve it is to address the root causes of the conflict. Moscow insists that Kiev must commit to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification, while acknowledging the territorial realities on the ground.

Read more …

Good. Is RFK today?

• Tulsi Gabbard Confirmed As Director of National Intelligence (ZH)

In what is hands-down the most surprising, and welcome, development concerning a Trump pick for a national security top post, Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed as New Director of National Intelligence. It was narrow, and predictably along parisan lines… Mitch McConnell was the lone Republican no vote… in a post-vote statement he claimed that Gabbard is “tainted”. “Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust. The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a DNI with a history of alarming lapses in judgment,” he said, citing her refusal to condemn Edward Snowden, and her stance on the Russia-Ukraine war.

She’s been subject to years of media attacks branding her a ‘Kremlin agent’ and ‘Assadist’ etc… For example, right up through the vote The New York Times was running its smear campaign in the following: “Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii. She has taken a sympathetic stance toward Russia and Syria under the Assad family’s rule. And she has defended Edward Snowden, an intelligence contractor who released classified information in 2013. These positions, at odds with the foreign policy establishment in both parties, have made her one of President Trump’s most divisive cabinet nominees.”

But she’s long risen to popularity among military members and veterans especially, given her no compromise approach to blasting America’s regime change wars abroad in the wake of Bush’s Iraq war, taking neocons and liberal interventions alike to task. It’s a new day in the world of the deep state intelligence blob in Washington, and without doubt the old powers that be are nervous, or else running scared. But time will tell. Meanwhile, somewhat surprising to see Thune praising her, the new sheriff in town overseeing the nation’s intelligence collection…

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Pam Bondi is ready to announce the new reality. Trump is going to sue, not be sued.

• Pam Bondi’s DOJ Sues NY, Hochul, Letitia James Over Licenses For Illegals (ZH)

The US Department of Justice on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the state of New York and key officials over the state’s 2019 “Green Light” law, which has allowed thousands of illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, while blocking federal immigration and border enforcement agencies from accessing the state’s motor vehicle database. The lawsuit, filed in US district Court in Albany, was announced by Attorney General Pam Bondi during a Wednesday press conference. Aside from the state of NY, Governor Kathy Hochul, state Attorney General Letita James, and DMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder were named as defendants. The 2019 Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act prohibits New York sheriff’s departments and other agencies from sharing motor vehicle data with federal authorities for the purposes of immigration enforcement. It has allowed tens of thousands of migrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

Yet, as the Times Union notes, the program has been mired in fraud. “The Times Union reported in 2021 that there had been allegations of widespread cheating in the driver permit program, involving schemes to illicitly obtain driving credentials for immigrants. Many of those individuals allegedly also used the licenses to falsely prove New York residency in order to receive unemployment benefits under the state’s pandemic-era Excluded Worker Fund. The $2.1 billion program had provided unemployment benefits for a short period in 2021 for immigrants who did not qualify for regular state and federal benefits.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1889805417318064384

In December, following an investigation by multiple agencies, including the New York inspector general’s office, five men, including two immigrants who had returned to Brazil, were indicted on federal charges in Massachusetts for conspiring to apply for New York driver’s licenses for more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants who did not live in New York. Those charges allege the group’s conspiracy took place between November 2020 and last September, and that they typically charged customers about $1,400 to obtain a driver’s license. The scheme relied on fraudulent residency documents and falsified driving school certificates, according to the indictment.”

When the law was enacted, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and other Democrats said it was intended to improve public safety by ensuring that illegal immigrants are authorized to drive – with advocates remaining silent on subsequent allegations of widespread fraud. “From a state point of view, I want to make sure the people who are driving on our roads pass a driving test. It is a public safety issue,” Cuomo insisted during a February 2020 interview. In February 2020, former acting director of ICE, Matthew T. Albence, said that law enforcement leaders urged Cuomo and state lawmakers to restore access to NY’s motor vehicle database for ICE and the US Customs and Border Protection.

“New York has barred these two agencies, and only these two agencies, from obtaining information we need to do our jobs, and to keep you safe, and it was done purely for political purposes,” Albence said at the time. “As a 25-year law enforcement professional, it’s unfathomable that information which could be used to prevent crime or a potential terrorist attack is purposefully being withheld in this state, the same state that less than 20 years ago suffered the worst terrorist attack on American soil.”

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“How could a judge want to hold us back from finding all of this fraud and finding all of this incompetence?”

• Trump Sees ‘Tremendous Kickbacks’ In US Government Contracts (RT)

US President Donald Trump has sounded the alarm over what he described as rampant corruption in the American government, while vowing to crack down on inefficient bureaucracy that costs the country billions of dollars. The president delivered his remarks in the Oval Office on Tuesday, with Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and a close ally, standing next to the Resolute Desk as the two outlined their vision for cutting government spending. Trump noted in particular deals between the government and private contractors, recalling one case in which a consultant – whom he did not identify – was hired for three months, but continued to receive money over 20 years. “I see a lot of kickbacks. Tremendous kickbacks. Because nobody could be so stupid to give some of these contracts,” he argued.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars go “in waste, fraud, and abuse,” Trump said, adding that “nobody had any idea it was that bad, that sick, and that corrupt.” He stressed that he ran on promises to fight corruption, and he planned to do precisely that. Echoing the president’s remarks, Musk noted that “there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars.” The Trump administration and DOGE’s mission is “to restore democracy,” he added. He also noted that the US has no choice but to usher in major reforms. “We’ve got a $2 trillion [budget] deficit. And if we don’t do something about this deficit, the country’s going bankrupt,” Musk said. Trump also criticized the US judiciary for attempts to stop DOGE from auditing government agencies, particularly the Treasury Department’s payment system.

“If I need a vote of Congress to find fraud and abuse, it’s fine with me… How could a judge want to hold us back from finding all of this fraud and finding all of this incompetence?” he charged. While Trump has insisted that the goal of audits is to eliminate corruption, opponents have accused Musk and his agency of overstepping authority, seeking to dismantle critical government programs, and potentially misusing sensitive data for political purposes. As part of its push to combat government inefficiency, the Trump administration has already cracked down on the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington’s primary vehicle for funding political projects abroad, by suspending most foreign aid. The US president earlier called for the agency to be shut down, calling it run by “radical lunatics.”

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“..a political class that classifies an estimated fifty million documents a year [..] is voicing disgust over Musk’s team’s occasional use of discretion.”

• Why They Really Hate Elon Musk (Mises)

As Elon Musk continues to take over and wind down parts of the federal bureaucracy, establishment figures from across media and politics are growing increasingly resentful of the tech entrepreneur. If you read a national newspaper, turn on a major news channel, or tune into one of the establishment’s many late-night “satire” shows, you’re bound to see Musk getting mocked and criticized relentlessly. He’s framed as a rich person using government to get even richer and as a political operative willing to skirt rules and norms to get what he wants. Many establishment types also like to remind their audience Musk is “unelected” at any chance they get—a not-so-subtle suggestion that the actions he’s taking in DC right now are illegitimate. You’ll also hear Musk and his team criticized for conducting some of their work in secret.

And then there’s, of course, the swipe that’s become popular in the wake of his gutting of USAID: that he is willing to hurt poor people to make himself better off. Setting aside the many flaws and inaccuracies with these characterizations of Elon Musk, it’s worth noting that all of them apply even more accurately to the American political establishment itself. To start, “rich people using the government to benefit themselves” has defined the American political system for more than a century. As Murray Rothbard laid out in great detail in his book The Progressive Era, the transition from the laissez-faire, hyper-limited government system of the mid-1800s was not driven by the bottom-up plea to protect workers and keep food clean that we were taught about in elementary school.

It grew out of the recognition among the heads of industry that they could much more effectively protect their market share from smaller competitors and go on to expand it if they used the power of government for their own benefit. In other words, the key to staying on top switched from innovating to lobbying. That started with railroad companies in the late 1800s but quickly grew to include industrial farmers, healthcare providers, and bankers in the early 1900s, followed by weapons companies, Wall Street firms, and many others in the second half of the century. Today, virtually all the giant corporations that dominate these industries owe their positions to government policies set up in their favor—to the detriment of the American public.

The modern political establishment is defined by their willingness and ability to protect and expand this dynamic. It is laughable to hear them falsely criticize Musk for doing the same thing. The same goes for his supposed violation of constitutional rules and norms. Many of the loudest establishment voices condemning this behavior were cheering just as loudly as the George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations launched dozens of undeclared wars, conducted warrantless surveillance, used torture, carried out extrajudicial assassinations on American citizens, and provided aid and comfort to Al Qaeda. At the very least, these are explicit violations of Article 1, Section 8; Article 3, Section 3; and the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, as well as Section 2340A of Title 18 of the United States Code.

And during the covid pandemic, the political establishment took the exact same kind of approach they’re now criticizing Musk for conducting. Federal and state governments rushed to close businesses, schools, and churches and prohibit people from attending public gatherings—all without even pretending to care about the constitutional rules and norms they’re now feigning concern about. Next, the implication that what Musk is doing is illegitimate because he’s unelected is ridiculous. Not only was it made very clear to voters before the election that Musk would do this if Trump won, virtually the entire federal workforce that the establishment is trying to protect from Musk is unelected too. The millions of unelected officials who conduct the bulk of federal government operations were brought on and set to work without even a fraction of the transparency and publicity involved in Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk.

Speaking of transparency, it’s comical that a political class that classifies an estimated fifty million documents a year—ninety percent of which are “probably unnecessary” according to some establishment legal experts—is voicing disgust over Musk’s team’s occasional use of discretion.

Read more …

The first of the activist judges collapses?!

• Federal Judge Allows Trump To Push Forward With Gov’t Workers Buyouts (NYP)

A federal judge on Wednesday declined to pause the Trump administration’s buyout program for government workers, giving President Trump a key win in his push to shrink the size of the federal government. US District Judge George A. O’Toole ruled that the union groups suing to block the so-called “Deferred Resignation” program lacked standing and that his Massachusetts-based court lacked the jurisdiction to proceed with the lawsuit. O’Toole, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, temporarily blocked the Office of Personnel Management from moving ahead with the program earlier this week, after unions representing more than 800,000 federal workers charged that that the buyout offers were unlawful. “The plaintiffs here are not directly impacted by the directive,” the judge ruled.

“Instead, they allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members’ questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm.” “The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees,” O’Toole continued. “This is not sufficient.” OPM had given some 2 million federal workers unwilling to comply with a return-to-office mandate a Feb. 6 deadline to accept about eight months of pay and benefits in exchange for their resignations. The agency further warned that the buyout offer would not be extended past the deadline and that workers choosing to stay put should expect downsizing, restructurings, realignments and workforce reductions under Trump.

About 75,000 federal workers have accepted the deal, according to OPM. “OPM is pleased the court has rejected a desperate effort to strike down the Deferred Resignation Program,” OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover told The Post. “As of 7:00 p.m. tonight, the program is now closed.” “There is no longer any doubt: the Deferred Resignation Program was both legal and a valuable option for federal employees,” she added. “This program was carefully designed, thoroughly vetted, and provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures.” OPM had left the program open to resignations after the judge’s initial stay of the deadline.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), one of the groups attempting to block the program, maintains that the program is illegal despite its lack of standing to sue. “Today’s ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it’s not the end of that fight. AFGE’s lawyers are evaluating the decision and assessing next steps,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a statement. “Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program,” Kelley added. “We continue to maintain it is illegal to force American citizens who have dedicated their careers to public service to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk.”

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“Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island can be seen in video footage from 2021 accusing Trump of being “a dictator” and claiming that “racism is a white people problem..”

• Federal Judge Blocking Spending Freezes Has History of TDS (AmG)

The federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze all funding pauses while federal spending is being assessed, has a history of anti-Trump and woke activism. Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island can be seen in video footage from 2021 accusing Trump of being “a dictator” and claiming that “racism is a white people problem” and that “we all have racism inside of us.” McConnell, who was appointed by president Obama, has ordered Trump to resume all paused funding and to restore any funds that have been withheld or potentially face criminal contempt charges. The judge also mandated that if Trump wishes to delay any payment, he will need to first need to seek McConnell’s permission and justify the request to the judge’s satisfaction. Commentator Scott Jennings, in a discussion on CNN earlier this week, posed the question to fellow panelists as to whether an unelected judge can cover up fraud but the sitting president is powerless to stop it.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1889183393855725759

Fellow commentator and former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu raised the possibility that McConnell’s actions, in conjunction with 23 state Attorneys General, were the product of “judge shopping” and that “judges don’t just randomly get these cases.” Sununu told the CNN panel that “there’s a reason that these cases are filed in Boston and Rhode Island.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1889312721176265130

The question of whether the president is subordinate to 300 district court judges will likely find its way to the U.S. Supreme Court for further clarification. In the meantime, Judge McConnell’s anti-Trump statements and history of activism casts serious doubt on his ability to maintain impartiality.

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‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’ I want her to make the Education Department unnecessary.”

• Judge Temporarily Blocks DOGE From Accessing Federal Student Aid Data (ET)

A federal judge has temporarily barred Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing federal student loan and financial aid information stored at the U.S. Department of Education. In an order issued Tuesday evening, Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia barred any members or associates of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from seeing or using information from more than a dozen internal databases related to student finance until next Monday. Both sides of the lawsuit—a group of students at the University of California (UC) and the Education Department—have agreed to the halt as they prepare arguments.

UC students a week ago accused the Education Department of violating the Privacy Act of 1974, a federal law that restricts federal agencies from sharing personally identifiable information with third parties unless specific legal exceptions apply. For example, the FUTURE Act of 2019 authorizes the Education Department to import tax return information from the IRS to streamline the financial aid application process.In their complaint filed at the D.C. federal court, the students allege that the Education Department has been providing DOGE with “continuous and ongoing access” to sensitive information “for an unspecified period of time” without clear oversight or legal authorization.

“Because [the Department’s] actions and decisions are shrouded in secrecy, individuals do not have even basic information about what personal or financial information Defendants are sharing with outside parties or how their information is being used,” the complaint reads. The lawsuit comes amid growing uncertainty over the future of the Education Department, which operates on a multi-hundred-billion-dollar budget and oversees $1.5 trillion in federal student loans owed by more than 42 million Americans. President Donald Trump has expressed strong interest in dismantling the department, a position long held by some conservative and libertarian-minded Republican lawmakers but rarely taken seriously in mainstream political discussions—until now.

Speaking about his nominee for secretary of education, Linda McMahon, Trump said he hoped she would eliminate her own position and return control of education to individual states.“We spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, and we’re ranked near the bottom, we rank very badly,” Trump told reporters on Feb. 4 in the White House. “What I want to do is let the states run schools—I believe strongly in school choice—but in addition to that, I want the states to run schools. “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’ I want her to make the Education Department unnecessary.” McMahon’s Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

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“Trump says he’s going to obey the orders, and I don’t think he should… Trump should not obey the orders. That is the fastest way to get it to the Supreme Court, and that is not to obey the orders..”

• Left Will Push Violent Revolution Against Trump – Larry Klayman (USAW)

Renowned Attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and later Freedom Watch USA, predicted that the crap would hit the fan after Donald Trump was sworn into office. He was correct. Now, Klayman says, “Just in the last few days, we have had Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters and Hakeem Jefferies, the Minority Leader in the House, threating to go into the streets for violence. ..” “We can expect violence, but right now, what they are testing are these federal judges… The Democrats have gone forum shopping in leftist states, I don’t even call them liberal anymore… and they are enjoining every one of President Trump’s major executive orders. It’s an outrage. It’s illegal, and I don’t think President Trump should obey those orders.

I think they are illegal. Trump says he’s going to obey the orders, and I don’t think he should… Trump should not obey the orders. That is the fastest way to get it to the Supreme Court, and that is not to obey the orders. They will be at the Supreme Court lickety-split.” Klayman says, “The President has the right to intervene to see how that money is being spent.” “If he finds fraud, waste and corruption, it should be turned over to (AG) Pam Bondi to prosecute. What they found so far is $50 million worth of condoms for Hamas, all kinds of money going to terrorist organizations and you name it. It’s beyond the theater of the absurd. It’s criminal. Trump pointed out at his press conference today that there are likely kickbacks… There are trillions and trillions of dollars, and that is just what has been wasted in the past.”

Klayman also says the pardons from President Biden for his son and family are illegal. Klayman contends, “These so-called pardons are null and void…” “The pardons were illegal for two reasons: He (Biden) did not have the mental capacity to grant them, and they were not specific. They did not say what people were being pardoned for. I just pardon you for any crime. You can’t do that.” Klayman thinks the fight with the Left is a lot worse than most people think. Klayman explains, “We are going to be in a violent revolution potentially in short order…” “The Left is pushing too hard right now, and they are going to start the violence like they did with Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Look what happened in Philadelphia when the Eagles won the Super Bowl.

Lawless, leftist thugs burned down Broad Street. . . . This is a situation that can only spin more wildly out of control the more Trump pushes. . . . It’s getting to a very dangerous phase… The Left wants us dead – they really do. They want to have complete control. Now that control has been taken away from them in an election, they are not going to go quietly. If they don’t get what they want in court, and they probably won’t, they are going to be violent, and this could ratchet up more and more.”

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“..was never about securing classified documents — it was always about weaponizing the full force of the Department of Justice against President Trump by whatever means necessary..”

• Biden WH, DOJ, National Archives Collaborated On Trump Documents Probe (JTN)

Newly published emails show the Biden White House cooperated with the National Archives in the Justice Department’s classified documents case against Donald Trump – which allowed the White House to build a predicate for the federal case against Trump that was ultimately dismissed, America First Legal says. The emails, which were obtained in a lawsuit and released by the nonprofit conservative public interest group, show then-Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su took a phone call with National Archives and Records Administration officials to discuss the missing boxes allegedly retained illicitly by Trump in September 2021, delaying the agency’s referral to the Department of Justice until after the White House filed a “special access request” the following year.

“New NARA emails further confirm that the classified documents case against President Trump was a sham prosecution that involved the Biden White House from the start – long before NARA’s official referral of classified documents to DOJ for investigation,” America First Legal posted to X. The federal case that was ultimately dismissed centered on allegation that Trump after losing 2020 reelection took classifiied documents to his Mar-a-Lago home in Flordia. “This new timeline is further proof that Biden’s FBI raid on [Mar-a-Lago] was never about securing classified documents — it was always about weaponizing the full force of the Department of Justice against President Trump by whatever means necessary,” the group said.

On Sept. 15, 2022, NARA general counsel Gary Stern wrote to his colleagues that he had brought Su “up to speed on the issue” of the missing boxes. “this [sic] week Jonathan told me that they are open to having [redacted] participate in a meeting with [redacted] and possibly [redacted], the former Staff Secretary who was [redacted] principal source. Accordingly, they need access to war notes from the last administration, which we now hold — so they will be making a special access request,” Stern wrote. The emails show NARA abandoned sending a letter to the DOJ about the case at that time due to the ongoing discussions between the White House and Trump’s legal team. NARA admitted that the cooperation of Trump’s team on the document issue “could help to clarify, if not actually resolve, the issue,” eliminating the need for a wider probe.

But, as Trump’s team tried to fight the requests to turn over the documents, which they argued rightfully belonged to the former president, America First Legal previously argued that the Biden administration used the future “special access request” to create the predicate for an FBI-led raid of Mar-a-Lago to obtain the documents. Just the News first reported in 2022 how the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents. The White House eliminated the 45th president’s claim to executive privilege and allowed the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Trump’s Florida estate that spring, kicking the probe into high gear.

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Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. Anna Paulina Luna.

• New Task Force To Probe jFK, RFK, MLK Murders, Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ (RT)

A so-called “black book” containing the list of contacts and alleged clients of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is set to be released to the public as part of a new declassification campaign, the newly appointed head of a specialized US task force has announced. The Republican-led congressional task force was created to oversee the release of government files linked to a wide range of high-profile topics, including the 9/11 attacks, the origins of Covid-19, UFOs, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother and political ally Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights campaigner Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Epstein worked as a financier and socialized with the rich and famous for years, introducing them to dozens of young women – some of whom were underage at the time – and flying them to his private island in the Caribbean on a jet dubbed the “Lolita Express.” He was arrested in 2019 and died in his Manhattan cell later that year, officially ruled a suicide. Evidence related to his case remained classified even after his death, with media reports claiming that the FBI had found videos potentially containing compromising material on his “guests” during searches of his New York residence and Caribbean island. The newly appointed head of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), has vowed to bring some of this information to light, along with other previously classified materials.

“The federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades,” Luna said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that “it is time to give Americans the answers they deserve.” A GOP congresswoman and supporter of US President Donald Trump, Luna has repeatedly demanded “transparency” in the federal government. The 35-year-old lawmaker was elected to the House of Representatives in 2022 after serving in the military for six years. The establishment of the task force was announced by the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, James Comer (R-Ky.), who said it would “build on the Trump administration’s efforts to declassify records of national importance.” Trump signed an executive order to release federal records linked to the assassinations of the two Kennedys and King soon after his inauguration in January.

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“A low rouble is embraced which helps to offset energy price slumps and brings in bigger surpluses when prices soar. So, even cutting the oil price to $45 – which Trump is talking about – might not have as big an impact on Russia as he believes.

• Switching Off Russian Gas Pipelines Hurts Europe Far More Than Russia (SCF)

European industry is being crippled by high energy prices, and we are told, this is Russia’s fault. But it is driven by self-defeating energy policies in Brussels and Berlin. The only answer is to boost global supply which may involve uncomfortable choices about Russian pipelines. The Financial Times recently reported that some European member states are pondering restarting supplies of Russian piped gas on the back of any future ceasefire in Ukraine. This is proving controversial, not least among hard-line Russophobe states like Poland and the Balts. But it might make economic sense, not for Russia’s sake, but for Europe’s. Before war started, gas prices in Europe were extremely low – comparable to U.S. gas prices today – because of hugely favourable global supply. LNG from the U.S., the Middle East and Africa together with piped gas from Norway and Russia, pushed the wholesale price of gas down to levels not seen since 2005.

European LNG imports had risen sharply after the onset of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 increasing from only 10% of to nearly 50% today, while Russian piped gas kept flowing. As part of this, imports from the U.S. tripled in volume between 2021 and 2023 and they now make up almost 50% of total European LNG imports. Read the European press and you’ll hear often how U.S. LNG is too expensive, which contributes to the economic headwinds manufacturers in Germany and else are facing. Emmanuel Macron has in the past called out the U.S. as ‘unfriendly’ for selling expensive LNG. But this is deeply misleading. Back in 2019, there was more gas than the world could possibly use, bearing down on prices. The fact of piped or shipped was immaterial to the glut in supply. The surge in U.S. supplies was doing to global gas prices what the glut of U.S. shale oil was doing in January 2016 when prices sunk to $26 per barrel.

The 2016 oil price collapse put immense pressure on Russia’s economy, which is heavily reliant on tax from oil and gas exports. Russia’s current account surplus in 2016 hit its lowest level since 1999, pinching tax income significantly. And that was at a time when Russia was pumping record amounts of oil and gas. Because herein lies a truth; the global price of energy has a much bigger impact on Russia than the amount of energy that you buy from Russia. When President Trump talks to OPEC about slashing the oil price, and, by extension, the gas price, he thinks that this will damage Russia’s economy more than cutting Russian supplies However, Russian monetary policy today is very different to 2016. A low rouble is embraced which helps to offset energy price slumps and brings in bigger surpluses when prices soar. So, even cutting the oil price to $45 – which Trump is talking about – might not have as big an impact on Russia as he believes.

And, in any case, those prices will only be possible by radically changing the supply equation. Mothballing Russian pipelines as putative punishment for Putin’s war in Ukraine is having the opposite effect – restricting supply, pushing up prices and hurting Europe far more than it is hurting Russia. In 2018, Europe imported 201 BCM of gas from Russia, mostly through pipelines, accounting for 38% of its total gas imports. Since the war started, Europe has shut down 185 BCM in potential yearly supply, or 35% of its total gas imports. This includes the destruction or suspensions of the Nordstream pipelines (110 bcm), the suspension of the Yamal Pipeline via Belarus (33 BCM) and now the cutting off of gas transit via Ukraine at the start of 2025 (42bcm). That leaves just 17.5 BCM in pipeline capacity through Turkey for Russian gas.

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“..could ultimately come in a billion dollars a mile.”

• Trump Admin Eyes Billions Going to California High-Speed Train (Turley)

Despite a plethora of challenges, the Trump Administration is pushing ahead with its top-to-bottom review of government spending. It has already halted billions in what it views as wasteful spending. It now looks like one of the most wasteful, runaway public works projects in the country could be on the chopping block: California’s high-speed rail project. The project to build a bullet train from Los Angeles to Sacramento is an outrageous example of a public work that lacked any fiscal responsibility or oversight from the state government. Nevertheless, Democrats continue to push for billions more from the federal government as well as California taxpayers. There is currently $4.3 billion in unspent federal funds for California’s high-speed rail project, and Trump should seek to claw back the money in light of the gross negligence shown by the California authorities.

The project was initially approved in 2008 with the support of Gov. Jerry Brown (D) as an environmental and technological advance for the state. It proved a costly bait-and-switch. Voters approved a $9.95 billion bond issue in 2008 after absurdly low estimates of the projected cost. Influential figures and companies stood to make a fortune, and the key was to get a “buy-in” worth billions so that it would be more and more difficult to abandon the project as overruns and delays sent the costs soaring. Now the official estimate of future ridership has dropped by 25% and it demands billions more to complete a project that would be delayed by decades to complete. Remember that this entire project was meant to create a rail line of only 171 miles. It is projected at over $128 billion and could ultimately come in a billion dollars a mile. There are still uncompleted environmental assessments and challenging rail lines through the mountains.

In his first term, Trump criticized the project and withheld a billion dollars in federal aid. However, when President Joe Biden came into office, he opened the federal coffers and approved billions more despite well-documented mismanagement and dubious spending. Trump is now pledging an investigation, which is long overdue. There is ample reason to suspect fraud and other possible violations in this multi-billion dollar boondoggle. Indeed, this week, the inspector general, Benjamin Belnap, issued a scathing report on the first phase of still uncompleted project. That is only the stretch from Merced to Bakersfield which was supposed to be completed by 2033.

Belnap wrote: “With a smaller remaining schedule envelope and the potential for significant uncertainty and risk during subsequent phases of the project, staying within the 2033 schedule envelope is unlikely. In fact, uncertainty about some parts of the project has increased as the authority has recently made decisions that deviated from the procurement and funding strategies that were part of its plans for staying on schedule.” The Merced-Bakersfield line alone would now cost $35.3 billion, more than the 2008 projection for a complete system. California Democrats have continued to throw money at the project without making meaningful changes on the overruns and delays. There is currently only $28.7 billion in state bonds left. The inefficiency of the project has been raised for years.

Even if completed, the system would reduce auto travel by 10 million miles a day in a state where citizens drive a billion miles a day. As noted by Cal Matters, “A 10 million-mile reduction would ostensibly cut emissions by scarcely 1%.” It added: Logically, spending emission auction money on more direct carbon reduction programs, such as reducing emission-spewing wildfires, would make more sense. The current estimate for linking San Francisco with Southern California is $107 billion. Officials don’t even know how to fully finance Merced-Bakersfield, much less raise the other $72.4 billion they would need. Both a federal investigation and a cessation of funding are long overdue. It is time to bite the bullet. California has every right to spend over $100 billion during budget deficits, but the rest of the country should not subsidize it.

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Talent

 

 

Reindeer

 

 

Explain

 

 

Blackjack

 

 

Zanzibar
https://twitter.com/i/status/1889579116162158607

 

 

Penguin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1889578911207477372

 

 

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Debt Rattle February 6 2025

Feb 062025
 
 February 6, 2025  Posted by at 10:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  108 Responses »


Raphael The school of Athens 1509-11

 

• CIA Facing Major Trump Shake-Up (RT)
• USAID Worldwide Staff Placed On Leave (RT)
• USAID Will Continue Regime Change Ops on Behalf of CIA – Former US Marine (Sp.)
• Why Was USAID Kicked Out of Russia? (Sp.)
• “This Is Where The Big Money Fraud Is Happening”: DOGE and Medicare (ZH)
• Trump Administration Agrees To Restrict DOGE Access To Treasury (RT)
• Trump Repeats Call For Complete Ethnic Cleansing Of Gaza (Cradle)
• Saudi Arabia Reacts To Trump’s Gaza ‘Takeover’ Plan (RT)
• Donald Trump’s Gaza Mirage (Larry Johnson)
• Kremlin Comments On Talks With ‘Illegitimate’ Zelensky (RT)
• Zelensky Accuses Tucker Carlson Of Working For Vladimir Putin (JTN)
• Why China Would Win A War With The United States (Unz/Whitney)
• Pam Bondi Is Your New Attorney General (Victoria Taft)
• Court Denies Apple’s Request to Intervene in Google Search Monopoly Case (ET)
• Why Has Hillary Clinton Declared War on Elon Musk? (Sp.)
• How the CIA Spawned Google (Sp.)
• Did Closest US Intelligence Allies Spy on Trump? (Sp.)
• EU States ‘Fed Up’ With Von Der Leyen – Politico (RT)

 

 

 

 

CNN

Stephen Miller
https://twitter.com/i/status/1886861956205961532

Benz

Train

Gaza

Bondi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1887120253005537576

Leavitt


https://twitter.com/i/status/1887208773699395661

 

 

 

 

“..Ratcliffe is seeking to establish a “more aggressive spy agency..”

• CIA Facing Major Trump Shake-Up (RT)

The CIA has offered so-called buyouts to its agents as part of US President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize the federal government, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The idea behind the proposal is reportedly to hone the agency into a “more aggressive” tool better suited to exerting influence on the country’s immediate neighbors. According to both outlets, the buyout program – officially called ‘Deferred Retirement’ – will allow employees to resign with about eight months of pay and benefits. The overall initiative, which could potentially be applicable to 2.4 million federal employees, is designed to streamline government operations, promote efficiency, and save tens of billions of dollars in public spending. CIA Director John Ratcliffe personally decided the agency should participate in the program, according to a CNN source.

A CIA spokesperson told the outlet that the decision will “help infuse the agency with renewed energy.” The WSJ reported that the CIA has also frozen hiring for applicants who had already received conditional job offers. An aide to Ratcliffe told the paper that some of them could be pulled back if candidates are deemed unqualified to advance the agency’s new agenda. The source said that Ratcliffe is seeking to establish a “more aggressive spy agency,” adding that the CIA from now on will be more focused on the Western Hemisphere. The new efforts will reportedly include espionage to gain leverage in trade negotiations, particularly when it comes to a trade dispute with Mexico. The agency will also prioritize fighting Mexican drug cartels, which the Trump administration has designated terrorist.

However, according to the WSJ, the interest in the proposal is relatively low, with questions looming over whether the soon-to-be ex-agents are legally allowed to take another job during the payout period or whether they can return to government in the future. The buyout program has been applied to most government agencies, except for the military and Postal Service. As part of the overhaul, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) – which Trump labeled “radical lunatics” – has been significantly downsized, with its main office reportedly closed. The White House has accused the agency of mismanaging funds and failing to advance US foreign policy goals. According to Axios, only about 20,000 federal employees have agreed to take part in the blanket buyout program, which accounts for roughly 1% of the federal workforce, despite the administration’s plans to cut between 5% and 10% of all federal employees.

CIA

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Medvedev: “Smart move by @elonmusk, trying to plug USAID’s Deep Throat.”

• USAID Worldwide Staff Placed On Leave (RT)

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) will place nearly all of its employees on administrative leave, it announced on Tuesday. According to a notice on the USAID website, the change concerns all directly hired employees, with the exception of “essential personnel.” Established in 1961, USAID is Washington’s primary agency for funding political projects abroad, responsible for administering billions of dollars in so-called ‘foreign aid and development programs’ to promote American interests under the premise of humanitarian development. However, under US President Donald Trump’s new administration, the agency’s operations have come under review as part of a broader reassessment of US foreign policy.

Shortly after being sworn in last month, Trump issued a sweeping executive order pausing all foreign aid for 90 days, leading to widespread confusion, layoffs, and program shutdowns. The website notice reads that “On Friday, February 7, all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership, and specially designated programs.” Employees who are expected to continue working will be reportedly notified individually later in the week. The notice gives affected employees 30 days to return to the US. Around two-thirds of the 10,000 people USAID employs work in any of 60 countries the agency has a presence in.

The State Department will fund the return of employees to the US and will consider exceptions and extensions for personal reasons and safety concerns. The notice concluded with a brief message to staff: “Thank you for your service.” The development comes after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday he was assuming the role of acting administrator of the agency. Speaking to journalists during a visit to El Salvador, Rubio pledged to make a program-by-program review of the agency in order to put everything that USAID does “in alignment with the national interest and the foreign policy of the US.” USAID’s main office in Washington, DC was closed on Monday, with staff instructed to keep out.

Trump earlier accused the agency’s leadership of being “radical lunatics” and proposed major changes to the organization. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he plans to make a decision on USAID’s future after clearing it out. USAID has also come under the scrutiny of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Musk has been a fierce critic of the agency, describing it as a “criminal organization.” During a live session on X Spaces on Monday, Musk, who is now among Trump’s key advisers, said the president “agreed” that USAID should be shut down. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised Musk’s actions against the aid agency in a post on X on Monday: “Smart move by @elonmusk, trying to plug USAID’s Deep Throat.”

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You got this global organization built up over 60 years, all this knowledge and people and connections, someone will want to use it…

• USAID Will Continue Regime Change Ops on Behalf of CIA – Former US Marine (Sp.)

USAID’s controversial activities – along with its partnerships with George Soros’ Open Society and similar entities – have been exposed in recent years by alternative journalists, making them increasingly difficult for the public to ignore, former US Marine Brian Berletic tells Sputnik. Berletic suggests that has created the need for a rebranding aimed at protecting and streamlining the organization’s work. He believes the ongoing reform seeks to “create a left-right and liberal-conservative divide in response to growing bipartisan opposition to US interference abroad.” “By claiming these organizations are ‘bad’ because they are ‘liberal,’ the Trump administration can rebrand it as ‘conservative’ an ‘America first,’ bringing at least part of the American population back on board to support it and its activities,” Berletic explains.

The pundit emphasizes that the USAID’s coup-plotting will continue, either under the auspices of other agencies or Geroge Soros’ global network of NGOs. “Whether this regime change takes place under USAID, is transferred back to the CIA – which originally carried out the activities USAID assumed upon its creation – or the US begins depending more on private foundations including Open Society, the main point to understand is that it will continue nonetheless,” Berletic says. He notes the US makes no secret of its plans to continue regime change operations against Iran, Venezuela and possibly even Panama. The White House “isn’t even talking about the actual subject of foreign interference as an issue of USAID’s activities, and instead is complaining about wasteful programs connected to political wedge issues like ‘DEI’ [diversity, equity, and inclusion],” he says.

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2012. We can guess why.

• Why Was USAID Kicked Out of Russia? (Sp.)

President Trump has promised to “make a decision” on USAID’s future after getting rid of the “radical lunatics” running it after DOGE chief Elon Musk said it was time for the “criminal” agency “to die.” Russia banned Washington’s long-favored soft power tool in 2012. Here’s why. Russia knew about the US Agency for International Development’s “criminal” nature long before Elon Musk’s epiphany. USAID was expelled from the country after post-election street protests in Moscow verging on an attempted color revolution, with the agency accused of using its grant network to try to influence politics and civil society after the 2011-2012 Russian parliamentary and presidential elections.

20 Years of ‘Democracy Promotion’
USAID’s mission in Russia was narrowed to political influence operations in the 2000s, including funding for civil society groups like the Golos* election watchdog, the Memorial* and Moscow Helsinki Group* rights organizations, and others. These organizations engaged in increasingly sharp criticism of the Russian government prior to the US aid agency’s ouster, helping to radicalize a portion of the population toward more pro-Western opposition views through the popularization of their positions. USAID first entered Russia in 1992, immediately after the USSR’s collapse, and spent nearly $3 bln over 20 years on ‘democracy, human rights and civil society promotion’ programs.

In reality, USAID’s work in the 90s was aimed at cheerleading the gutting of Russia’s social and economic system during the painful transition to a market economy, and meddling in politics in support of liberal, pro-West politicians against conservative, populist and neo-communist forces. Nowhere was this more evident than during the 1993 constitutional crisis and the 1996 elections, which saw radical opposition to liberal reforms crushed and the voting rigged, with USAID-backed “independent media,” publishing houses and NGOs cheering on the processes. The US amassed a literal journalistic empire during its stay in Russia. Up to the year 2000 alone, its National Press Institute held 2,300 briefings and seminars attended by over 57,000 journalists, provided training for 2,700 media specialists, management and consulting services for 84 newspapers, and support for other print, TV and internet media.

On the economic front, USAID provided “technical advisory services and material support” for the infamous voucher privatization scheme. This program cemented immense wealth transfers worth hundreds of billions of dollars from the state to private and foreign coffers. In the 90s, USAID ambitiously outlined 14 “strategic objectives” for Russia, from fiscal, monetary, social service and energy reforms to US “joint ventures,” civil and legal training, environmental programs and even women’s reproductive health. Political stabilization and the maturing of the modern post-Soviet Russian state ultimately sealed USAID’s fate. But perhaps the greatest damage done by USAID to Russia has been in its backyard, where billions of dollars spent over the past 35 years helped to put neighbors on a path to NATO and EU membership, and literally rewrite history books to cast Russia as an enemy. Nowhere has this effort paid off more than in Ukraine.

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“..the current level of access is “read-only,” preventing Musk’s team from making modifications to the systems.”

• “This Is Where The Big Money Fraud Is Happening”: DOGE and Medicare (ZH)

Representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – who just obtained security clearances, have been embedded at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week, gaining access to critical payment and contracting systems, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing multiple individuals familiar with the situation. The DOGE representatives have been on site at the agency’s offices this week, the people said, and they are looking at the systems’ technology as well as the spending that flows through them, with a focus on pinpointing what they consider fraud or waste. DOGE representatives are also examining the agency’s organizational design and how it is staffed, the people added. Musk confirmed his interest in CMS oversight in a social media post, writing on X: “Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening.”

The White House and DOGE officials declined to comment on the matter. In the last week, Musk’s DOGE team has been moving swiftly to gain access across multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to uncover fraud, abuse, and excessive spending. A CMS official told the Journal that the agency has assigned “two senior agency veterans who are leading the coordination with DOGE,” and that leaders are “taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient spending in line with meeting the goals of President Trump.”

CMS sits at the heart of the nation’s healthcare economy, managing a budget of approximately $1.5 trillion in fiscal 2024 – roughly 22 percent of total federal spending. The agency employs around 6,710 people and administers Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare programs vital to millions of Americans. Many of its employees have spent decades navigating the complex regulatory and operational framework underpinning the healthcare system. Among the systems DOGE representatives have accessed is CALM, the CMS Acquisition Lifecycle Management system, which contains contract data, sources said. However, they noted that DOGE personnel have not yet gained entry to databases containing personally identifiable health information of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

They also have not accessed HIGLAS, the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System, a key accounting platform for CMS payments. One person familiar with DOGE’s work at CMS emphasized that the current level of access is “read-only,” preventing Musk’s team from making modifications to the systems. The intervention has raised concerns among CMS veterans and healthcare policy experts. The agency’s payment structures are notoriously complex, involving multiple layers of contractors and private insurers, especially within Medicare. Medicaid, jointly administered by federal and state governments, follows different financial pathways, with federal funding typically flowing to state agencies.

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“..such access to payment records will be ‘read only’.“ “..until the legal hearing on February 24..”

• Trump Administration Agrees To Restrict DOGE Access To Treasury (RT)

Lawyers with the US Justice Department have agreed to a proposed order that would temporarily restrict Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive financial data at the Treasury Department. The move by the administration of US President Donald Trump late on Wednesday comes in response to a lawsuit by a group of union members and retirees accusing the Treasury of engaging in “unlawful action” by providing information on payments and private data to DOGE. “The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” the proposed order read.

An exception would only be made for two special government employees at the Treasury associated with Musk — Tom Krause and Marko Elez. According to the document, the duo would be permitted access “as needed” to perform their duties, “provided that such access to payment records will be ‘read only’.” Krause is the former CEO of Cloud Software Group, while Elez, 25, has worked as an engineer at Musk’s X and SpaceX. Once approved by US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is overseeing the case, the restrictions on DOGE’s access to Treasury data will remain in place until the legal hearing on February 24.

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Trump said it’ll take 5 years to clean up Gaza, with all the tunnels and munitions. Hamas/Palestinians won’t be allowed to move back in as is.

• Trump Repeats Call For Complete Ethnic Cleansing Of Gaza (Cradle)

US President Donald Trump once again called for the complete ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 4 February. “It could be Jordan, and it could be Egypt, and it could be other countries,” Trump said, adding that Palestinians in Gaza have “a guarantee they’re going to end up dying. The same thing is going to happen again, over and over again.” “I think that Gaza is a demolition site right now … You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location, a location that’s going to make people happy,” the US President told reporters before saying that “it’s all death in Gaza.” “I believe we can do it in areas where leaders currently say no,” he said, adding that funding for the forced displacement of over two million Palestinians will come from “other people, really rich nations, and they’re willing to supply it.”

Tuesday’s statements from the US president marked the fourth time he has called for the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza and claimed that allies Egypt and Jordan would take in displaced Palestinians. In response, Cairo and Amman have issued repeated rejections while making overtures to their ally. On Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II held a phone call to discuss the need to adopt a “united position” to maintain “regional peace.” In response to Trump’s latest statements, Hamas leader Dr Sami Abu Zuhri called them “a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.” “Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass, and what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not to expel them from their land,” said Zuhri.

Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour replied to Trump’s demands by saying that instead of ethnically cleansing Palestinians, survivors of the US–Israeli genocide should be able to return to their family’s original homes “in what is today Israel.” “For those who want to send the Palestinian people to a ‘nice place,’ allow them to go back to their original homes in what is now Israel,” said Mansour. “The Palestinian people want to rebuild Gaza because this is where we belong,” he added. Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu came hours after Hamas announced that talks for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement sealed in January. Hundreds of Palestinian detainees and over a dozen Israeli captives have been released in four prisoner exchanges over the past few weeks.

“Everyone’s demanding one thing. You know what that is? Peace,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office before turning to Netanyahu and claiming the premier “wants peace also.” “We’re dealing with a very complex group of people, situation and people, but we have the right man. We have the right leader of Israel. He’s done a great job, and we’ve been friends for a long time.” For his part, Netanyahu said he still plans on “meeting all our war goals.” “That includes destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and making sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel,” he added. Asked about whether Saudi Arabia is demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state to normalize ties with Israel, Trump replied with a definitive “no.” Before he met with Netanyahu, the US president signed an executive order withdrawing the country from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and from participating in UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

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“Permanent peace” cannot be achieved without Palestinians securing their “legitimate rights” to statehood..”

• Saudi Arabia Reacts To Trump’s Gaza ‘Takeover’ Plan (RT)

Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land, the country’s Foreign Ministry stated on Wednesday, reiterating its “firm and unwavering” commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The comment followed US President Donald Trump’s proposal for an American takeover of Gaza. Speaking at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the US could assume control of the enclave, clear the remains of damaged buildings, and transform Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” He also reiterated his position that Palestinians should be permanently resettled outside of Gaza. While not directly addressing Trump’s remarks, the Saudi Foreign Ministry released a statement that appeared to be a response to his proposal.

The ministry said it was reaffirming its “unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land.” “Permanent peace” cannot be achieved without Palestinians securing their “legitimate rights” to statehood, the statement added, urging more “peace-loving countries to recognize the State of Palestine” based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The ministry stressed that Riyadh would not establish ties with Israel unless this key condition is met, insisting that its stance towards the Palestinians is “non-negotiable.”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has praised Trump for thinking “outside the box” with his proposal for a US takeover of Gaza. A key element of the proposal involves relocating Gaza’s roughly two million population to neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan. Trump asserted that regional leaders supported his plan but did not provide specifics on how the relocation would be carried out. The idea has drawn widespread criticism in the Middle East and beyond, with human rights organizations describing it as a form of ethnic cleansing. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, stated on Wednesday that rather than being relocated to other countries, Palestinians in Gaza should be allowed to reclaim their former homes in what is now Israel.

“For those who want to send” Gazans “to a happy ‘nice place,’” Mansour said, “let them go back, you know, to their original homes inside Israel. There are nice places there, and they will be happy to return to these places.” Around 47,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 111,500 wounded during the 15 months of Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to the latest data from the enclave’s Health Ministry. UN data suggests that 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the fighting. Israel launched its military operation in Gaza after a Hamas cross-border raid killed about 1,200 people and 250 others were taken hostage. A US-brokered ceasefire is in place with ongoing prisoner exchanges. Israeli authorities report 79 hostages remain in Gaza, 35 of whom are presumed dead.

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” I continue to believe that one of Trump’s emissaries is working out a deal for Trump to meet with Iran’s president.”

• Donald Trump’s Gaza Mirage (Larry Johnson)

I owe Danny Davis an apology. I speculated during our conversation today that one possible explanation for Trump’s recent rant declaring that the Palestinians of Gaza would be relocated to Egypt, Jordan or some other countries was simply a negotiating ploy. I opined that Trump would be able to tell Netanyahu, “Look, I proposed the idea but the Egyptians, Jordanians and Saudis turned me down.” With that no longer an option, Trump would be in a position to put some pressure on Netanyahu for a political settlement. I was wrong. Trump announced tonight he wants to take over Gaza:

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job, do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years. Trump also insisted that the Palestinians will be relocated to a third country (unspecified) and will not have a right to return. This was scripted. You can see Trump is reading from a note card. Trump claims he has talked this over with Arab leaders in the region and that they are in favor of the deal. That is a lie.

“Powerful Arab nations rejected President Trump’s suggestion to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring Egypt and Jordan. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League released a joint statement rejecting any plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.” One of the executive orders Trump signed today eliminates US funds for the UN that support UNRWA, which means other countries will have to step in and make up the difference. Any hope that Trump will help the Palestinians was dashed today. However, maybe Trump’s public comments about taking over Gaza were intended to keep Netanyahu from ending the ceasefire unilaterally. Now that Trump has pledged to put additional troops on the ground, it will make it more difficult for Netanyahu to resume military operations.

Trump’s grandstanding on Iran during the Netanyahu visit has to be taken with a big grain of salt. Trump vowed that Iran will never be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. However, Iran has made no declaration that it was trying to build one. Iran’s chief spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenie, apparently remains committed to eschewing a nuclear weapon — it is forbidden under Islamic law: “Despite having nuclear technology, Iran has never pursued building or using nuclear weapons, which its religion forbids, the country’s highest political authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday. “Building and stockpiling nuclear bombs is wrong and using it is haram (religiously forbidden) … Although we have nuclear technology, Iran has firmly avoided it,” State TV quoted him as saying. Iran has repeatedly denied ever having sought to build a nuclear bomb.” I think Trump’s statement was intended to prevent Israel from launching any attacks on Iran. I continue to believe that one of Trump’s emissaries is working out a deal for Trump to meet with Iran’s president.

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Way past his best before date. It’s all rot from here on in.

• Kremlin Comments On Talks With ‘Illegitimate’ Zelensky (RT)

Moscow is ready for talks with Kiev even though Vladimir Zelensky currently has no legal right to lead Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. On Tuesday, Zelensky told British journalist Piers Morgan that he could hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The comments marked a significant shift from the stance Zelensky adopted in the autumn of 2022, when he signed a decree banning any negotiations with the Russian leadership. “If that is the only setup in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely we will go for this setup, for this meeting,” Zelensky told Morgan. Asked to comment on Zelensky’s remarks on Wednesday, Peskov said there is “no place for emotions” when it comes to the settlement of the Ukraine conflict.

“What is needed here is legal analysis and absolute pragmatism… Zelensky has significant de jure legitimacy issues within his own country,” the spokesman pointed out. Peskov referred to the Ukrainian leader’s refusal to hold a presidential election and the fact that his term expired last May. Moscow maintains that the legitimate power in Ukraine now lies with the parliament and its speaker. “Despite this, the Russian side remains open to negotiations,” Peskov stressed, arguing that Moscow’s successes on the battlefield “clearly suggest that Kiev should be the one to demonstrate openness and interest in such negotiations.” Peskov also weighed in on Zelensky’s suggestion that the West could give Ukraine nuclear weapons as a substitute for NATO membership to guarantee its protection.

“In general, such statements are borderline madness. There is a nuclear non-proliferation regime,” the spokesman said. Peskov suggested that EU politicians, despite their flaws, should understand the “absurdity and potential danger of discussing such a topic.”Ukraine agreed to relinquish its nuclear arsenal inherited from the Soviet Union in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the US, and the UK as part of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Moscow of violating the deal after Crimea voted to join Russia following the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. Russia has argued that the deal was fundamentally undermined by NATO’s expansion towards its borders. Putin has said that Russia would not allow Kiev to create or obtain nuclear weapons “under any circumstances.”

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Everyone’s against the poor little man..

• Zelensky Accuses Tucker Carlson Of Working For Vladimir Putin (JTN)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday accused former Fox News host Tucker Carlson of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin, after he supposedly parroted the Kremlin’s talking points.Carlson, who published an extensive exclusive interview with Putin last year, appeared to defend Russia in an appearance on Piers Morgan’s show “Piers Morgan Uncensored” last week, where he claimed Zelensky was a dictator and that Russia had a right to try and control the Crimea. Zelensky claimed that Carlson merely repeated Putin’s words, even though he allegedly knew better, according to Mediaite. Carlson had recently appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored, during which he criticized Zelensky for what he called his persecution of political opponents and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, according to the outlet.

“Regrettably, this blogger or journalist, whatever he wants to call him, he unfortunately fully repeats words of the Putin,” Zelensky said. “He works for the Putin because he wants to lower me to the level of Putin. This is what he wants. He wants us to be equals.” The Ukrainian president stated that Carlson needed to “stop working” for Putin and learn more about what was happening in Ukraine. “Honestly, it seems to me very important. It seems to me that the person, no matter where he lives, must understand things,” Zelensky continued. “When he simply says something, you know, just throwing the words. Has he for one time in his lifetime lost his close ones?

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Read the whole thing.

• Why China Would Win A War With The United States (Unz/Whitney)

Is the western media even-handed in its coverage of China? And how has this impacted public perception of China in America?

Ron Unz — I think the Western media has been overwhelmingly biased against China, a bias that stretches back for decades but has steadily grown worse during the 2010s and especially the last few years. Coverage has recently become so extremely dishonest and distorted that it reminds me of how the old Soviet media portrayed the West even as the USSR went into severe decline and eventually collapsed, and I think that unfortunate analogy is a very relevant one. Furthermore, much of our academic world has followed this same pattern of totally distorting the reality of China and its relationship with the U.S. Some of the worst examples of these media falsehoods only came to my attention during the last decade.

For more than 35 years the American media has annually denounced the Chinese government for its supposed 1989 massacre of protesting students at Tiananmen Square, but there seems overwhelming evidence that incident never happened, and was just a Western propaganda-hoax, endlessly repeated by our media. For example, the former Beijing bureau chief of the Washington Post personally covered those events at the time, and he later published a long article setting the record straight, but his account has always been ignored. Articles published in the New York Times by its own Beijing bureau chief said much the same thing, but these also had no impact. Numerous other sources, including secret American diplomatic cables disclosed by Wikileaks have confirmed these facts, but our biased, lazy, or ignorant journalists have never paid any attention and for decades continued to promote the myth of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Last year I published a long article summarizing all of this evidence. Another egregious example was the 1999 American bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, an illegal attack that killed or wounded nearly two dozen Chinese. Our government and media have always described this as a tragic accident, while denouncing and ridiculing China for claiming that the bombing was deliberate. But once again, there is overwhelming evidence that the Chinese government was entirely correct and our own government was lying, with our dishonest media endorsing and amplifying those lies. Indeed, a NATO officer was even quoted in a leading British newspaper as bragging that the guided bomb had struck exactly the intended room in the embassy.

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One of the first things Bondi did was freezing funding for sanctuary cities.

• Pam Bondi Is Your New Attorney General (Victoria Taft)

Former Florida attorney general and former attorney for Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, sailed through her confirmation hearings. Then, all of a sudden, Democrats dammed up the vote. Upset over President Trump doing what he promised to do as president, they decided to hold Bondi’s AG appointment hostage until he did their bidding. But the floodgates opened up on Tuesday night when Bondi won Senate confirmation 54-46. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to cross the aisle to vote for Bondi. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but the Democrats’ limp-wristed take-their-ball-home strategy isn’t working. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) promised Democrats that if they didn’t allow a vote, he’d make sure their next few nights and weekends would be spent cooling their heels and knocking back cold-brew crack coffee.

After senators inexplicably took the weekend off, on Monday night, Bondi’s nomination was sent to the Senate floor after a vote to limit further debate, setting the stage for Tuesday night’s vote. Before Bondi was even AG, there were high-level (and some not-so-high-level) firings at the Department of Justice. At the FBI, Kash Patel hasn’t even been confirmed, and all of a sudden, the 7th-floor executive wing has taken on the look of a ghost town. That’s all happened without Bondi, who is now the boss of both after the Senate vote on Tuesday night. Imagine what will happen when she takes the helm. Bondi has never described herself as the president’s “wingman,” as terrorist defense attorney Eric Holder described his role as Barack Obama’s AG. But her proximity to Trump World was a sore spot for Democrats, who presumably preferred to have an attorney general who hated the president as one of his top legal advisors.

That’s apparently what Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had in mind when he pretended to be upset about Bondi being too “faithful” to Donald Trump. “I fear Ms. Bondi will only protect and remain faithful to one person throughout this whole experience, and that’s the president who’s given her this opportunity,” said the oily Durbin, who’d apparently forgotten Bondi’s successful public legal career long before she’d ever met Donald Trump. Is there a misogyny hotline where we can report the Illinois Democrat? Durbin said with a straight face that he worried somehow Trump’s AG office would fail to be a “nonpartisan” department, like, you know, Merrick Garland’s weaponized law enforcement arm that spied on Catholics, parents at school board meetings, and—hey, are all the January 6 trespassers out of the Gulag yet?

Shockingly, no Republican senators laughed in his face, but Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) came close. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman pinned the Democrats’ ears back on this point when he noted, “Some of my colleagues also suggest that Miss Bondi’s loyalty to President Trump is somehow disqualifying. It is not persuasive in any way.” Grassley explained, “There’s nothing wrong with President Trump appointing someone who seriously defended him to a high position.” He told Democrats, as if they didn’t know, “Ms. Bondi publicly supported President Trump, just like 77 million Americans who voted him back into office in November. So this, too, is not a disqualifying attribute.” Bondi cleared the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote last week. Now that Bondi’s been confirmed, let’s get going—we’ve got a country to save.

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Apple’s trying to safeguard its money maker: “In 2022, Google’s revenue share payment to Apple was an estimated $20 billion…” About 20% of Apple’s operating profit.

• Court Denies Apple’s Request to Intervene in Google Search Monopoly Case (ET)

Apple’s attempt to intervene in litigation related to Google’s search engine monopoly was denied by a district court on Sunday when a judge refused to stay the remedial proceedings in the case.Back in October 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and a coalition of state attorneys filed a case against Google, accusing the tech company of engaging in anti-competitive practices.Google was accused of establishing exclusive agreements with browser developers, mobile device manufacturers, and wireless carriers which prohibited them from pre-installing rival search engines. This resulted in most U.S. devices coming preloaded with Google search, negatively affecting competitors in the market.

In August 2024, Judge Amit Mehta from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the plaintiffs, ruling that Google violated antitrust laws. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” he wrote, saying that the default search engine setting “is extremely valuable real estate.” A hearing on remedies in the case was scheduled for April 2025. In December, Apple filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in the case, aiming to take part in the remedial phase of the litigation. However, the motion was denied by Mehta, who called the request “untimely.”Apple then filed an emergency motion seeking to stay the remedial proceedings pending its appeal of Mehta’s order denying the intervention request. On Feb. 2, Mehta denied the stay request as well.

“First, Apple has not established a likelihood of success on the merits” for the stay, Mehta wrote. The company also failed to show it stands to suffer “irreparable harm absent a stay,” he said. “Because Apple has not satisfied the ‘stringent requirements’ for obtaining the ‘extraordinary relief’ of a stay pending appeal, its motion is denied.” Apple claims the December motion was filed to protect the company’s existing contract with Google and its ability to enter into future contracts with the search engine giant. Google pays the company to keep its search engine default on Apple’s Safari mobile and desktop browsers, according to a court document from the August 2024 monopoly decision.
“In 2022, Google’s revenue share payment to Apple was an estimated $20 billion,” said the document. “This is nearly double the payment made in 2020, which was then equivalent to 17.5 percent of Apple’s operating profit.”

Meanwhile, a potential breakup of Google’s business could be on the cards during the remedy phase of the litigation. In November, the DOJ together with 38 states and territories outlined a proposed remedy that would force Google to divest its Chrome browser. Regulators argued that Google uses the browser to reinforce its monopoly. At the time, the government was reportedly looking at potential divestiture of Google’s Android operating system. Google opposed these suggestions, saying the forced sale of Chrome and Android would “endanger the security and privacy of millions of Americans, and undermine the quality of products people love.” The move may end up chilling the company’s investment in artificial intelligence, it said.

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“..her current bleating is hardly surprising – that’s what stuck pigs do!”

• Why Has Hillary Clinton Declared War on Elon Musk? (Sp.)

Hillary Clinton’s outrage over Elon Musk’s overhaul of USAID and other government agencies stems from her fear of being exposed for multimillion-dollar fraud, according to Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel, speaking to Sputnik. “Hillary and her family could face jail time and massive financial penalties, so her current bleating is hardly surprising – that’s what stuck pigs do!” Charles Ortel says. Clinton has accused Musk of orchestrating a “blitzkrieg-style administrative coup of the US government” and expressed concern over his access to “everything from Social Security payments to private taxpayer information.” The Clinton Foundation became the largest single example – counting all of its known affiliates – of charity fraud, particularly involving illegal personal enrichment,” Ortel emphasizes.

Hillary Clinton’s attempt to rally public support against Donald Trump and Elon Musk will ultimately backfire on her and the Democratic Party, as many Americans are fed up with wealthy liberal grifters, according to the Wall Street analyst. “Average Americans who work in the private sector don’t own three mansions, secure off-market book and speech deals, or fund their personal lifestyles by using ‘charities’ to cover support staff, luxury offices, and extravagant travel,” Ortel says, referencing the bonanza Clinton has long enjoyed. Clinton-backed protests under the slogan “Nobody elected Elon” will instead push young voters toward Team MAGA, he argues. Clinton seems to have forgotten that “nobody elected Hillary” either, he stresses.

Will Hillary Clinton tell Musk Where Ukraine’s Money Went? Hillary Clinton and Olena Zelenskaya, the wife of Volodymyr Zelensky, positioned themselves to profit from Western aid to Ukraine, the analyst notes. “Perhaps ‘Saint’ Hillary could explain what happened to the funds that Zelensky recently claimed never reached Kiev?” Ortel asks, referencing Clinton’s 2023 deal with the Zelenska Foundation.

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“The design of the search engine and algorithms that ultimately evolved into Google was funded by CIA grants through a program aimed at enhancing mass surveillance capabilities.”

• How the CIA Spawned Google (Sp.)

American tech giant Google has faced regulatory scrutiny on numerous occasions amid accusations of antitrust violations. Google’s relationship with the CIA, ranging from early financial support to collaborative efforts have been decried as undermining privacy rights and free speech in the digital landscape. Google’s creation played a crucial role in the US intelligence community’s scheme to attain global dominance by controlling information.

How it Started
The Pentagon founded its private sector project the Highlands Forum during the Clinton administration in 1994, according to the INSURGE INTELLIGENCE project. Together with defense contractors, the group hammered out a strategy for “network-centric warfare.” The 9/11 terrorist attacks were seized upon by US spy agencies to justify not only military invasions across the Muslim world, but also mass surveillance of civilian populations.

CIA Steps In
The CIA’s Massive Digital Data Systems (MDDS) program, which originated in the 1990s, was designed to enhance query techniques and track users’ digital footprints. To better serve its goals, in 1999, the CIA established its own venture capital firm, In-Q-Tel, to invest in potentially useful technologies. Ph.D. students at Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were working on precisely such a tech start-up. The design of the search engine and algorithms that ultimately evolved into Google was funded by CIA grants through a program aimed at enhancing mass surveillance capabilities.

PRISM
Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the NSA had direct access to Google’s systems through its secret PRISM program, enabling the agency to harvest vast amounts of data on American citizens, Washington’s allies, and foreign nationals. Ex-CIA spooks are employed in almost every department at Google, according to a 2022 report based on the analysis of employment websites. Google has been slapped with multiple lawsuits stemming from its history of data misuse and privacy violations.

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“..evade their own governments’ restrictions on domestic spying upon their citizens by tasking foreign partners to carry out such missions..”

• Did Closest US Intelligence Allies Spy on Trump? (Sp.)

Washington’s Five Eyes allies may have guilty secrets about the Russia collusion hoax – and fear US President Donald Trump’s government will find out, Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel tells Sputnik.”Years ago, Judge Andrew Napolitano revealed on Fox TV that he believed the US and the UK – possibly with other Five Eyes nations – had an understanding that members would cooperate to evade their own governments’ restrictions on domestic spying upon their citizens by tasking foreign partners to carry out such missions,” Ortel says. In March 2017, the White House accused British eavesdropping center GCHQ of spying on Trump. Napolitano claimed Obama used GCHQ to snoop on Trump, exploiting the Five Eyes partnership to flout domestic spying rules.

GCHQ’s NSA access could have enabled operatives to obtain transcripts of Trump’s conversations.”We do not yet know most of the truth, but it certainly seems to me that the US government and partisan operatives in media, academia and the corporate world are centrally involved in attempting to rig elections inside and outside America,” Ortel says.”We also know that UK elements have never stopped meddling in US affairs, likely from 1782 onwards. By comparison, Russian meddling in US politics, if any, seems minute.”

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Too late?!

• EU States ‘Fed Up’ With Von Der Leyen – Politico (RT)

EU member states are growing frustrated with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over her unilateral approach to foreign policy, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing diplomats. The latest criticism reportedly comes after von der Leyen announced a partnership agreement with Jordan.The deal was inked last week following talks between von der Leyen and King Abdullah II. It aims to assist Jordan in facing the socio-economic impact of the Syrian crisis and broaden avenues for investments and business opportunities in the Arab country. The deal will be complemented by €3 billion ($3.1 billion) in financial resources, comprising grants, investments, and macro-financial assistance.However, according to two sources who spoke to Politico, von der Leyen made the decision to allocate the funds to Jordan without consulting EU member nations.

“We were confronted with a fait accompli while we’re the ones footing the bill,” an EU diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity told the news outlet. “It’s not the first time von der Leyen pulls a stunt like this because she wants to make nice with world leaders. [Member countries] are increasingly fed up with it,” he added. The source did not mention other instances when the commission chief had failed to discuss her decisions with EU members. According to the report, there has been much discontent over von der Leyen’s power-grabbing tactics, especially in foreign policy – an area traditionally managed by the European Council and the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs.

“Ursula von der Leyen has been grabbing the [smallest] crumb of foreign power on every occasion,” MEP Nacho Sanchez Amor told the news outlet. He argued that the growing concentration of foreign policy decisions within the European Commission runs counter to the bloc’s foundational treaties, according to which foreign policy should remain under the purview of member states. “We have assumed uncritically that foreign policy is bending towards the commission, and this is not the treaties’ framework,” he said, calling for a formal debate on the issue.

Von der Leyen’s centralized approach has reportedly been a point of contention since her first term, resulting in strained relationships with former European Council President Charles Michel and the bloc’s former top diplomat, Josep Borrell. Prior to von der Leyen’s reelection for the top job last year, there were also reports that many EU states were dissatisfied with her excessive focus on climate and the weakening economy, along with nepotism and non-transparency of her policies. Von der Leyen has changed her agenda since being reelected in June, placing more emphasis on the bloc’s competitiveness and defense.

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