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Debt Rattle May 16 2025

May 162025
 
 May 16, 2025  Posted by at 9:23 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  47 Responses »


Marc Chagall The soldier drinks 1912

 

• ‘Nothing’s Gonna Happen Until Putin And I Get Together’ (JTN)
• Putin-Trump Meeting ‘Imminent’ – White House Official (RT)
• Trump Team Has ‘Made The Impossible Possible’ – Putin Envoy (RT)
• Istanbul 2.0: Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em (Proud)
• Russia’s Top Negotiator Unveils Goal of Talks With Ukraine (RT)
• Ukraine Won’t Survive A Decade Of Conflict – Zelensky (RT)
• UK Sending Security Adviser To Work With Zelensky – Guardian (RT)
• Talk of Direct US-Russia Clash Contradicts Trump’s Policy –Scott Ritter (Sp.)
• Trump Tells Apple Not To Build In India (RT)
• Trump Touts 1.4 Trillion Investment In AI, Tech From UAE (ZH)
• Justice Thomas Destroys the Case for Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)
• Biden’s Autopen Pardons May Just Get Invalidated (Margolis)
• DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin To Review Biden’s Outgoing Pardons (JTN)
• DOGE Still Hard at Work Cutting Fraud and Waste (Salgado)
• Trump Admin Urges SCOTUS to Permit DOGE Access to Social Security Records (ET)
• The US Has Pushed The ICAO To Declare War On Russia (Helmer)
• “86 47” – Comey Posts-Then-Deletes Creepy Threat Aimed At Trump (ZH)

 

 

 

 

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US and Russia haven’t talked in 3 years. it takes a lot of groundwork talks first now to catch up, weeks, months of talking. That’s not what presidents do, they’re too busy. That said, the two should certainly meet asap. But Ukraine is just a side topic for that. And all the complaining about Putin not showing up for talks he initiated is empty blabber.

 

 

“And obviously, he wasn’t gonna go — he was gonna go, but he thought I was gonna go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together..”

“Why would he go if I’m not going?” “I wasn’t planning to go and I didn’t think he would if I didn’t.”

• ‘Nothing’s Gonna Happen Until Putin And I Get Together’ (JTN)

President Trump said Thursday regarding the Ukraine-Russia talks in Turkey that “nothing’s gonna happen until Putin and I get together.” The president made the comments as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Turkey for peace talks with Russia on Thursday regarding the ongoing war between the two countries, but Russian President Vladimir Putin chose not to attend and sent a lower-level delegation, Politico reported. “Look, nothing’s gonna happen until Putin and I get together, okay?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while heading to the United Arab Emirates.

“And obviously, he wasn’t gonna go — he was gonna go, but he thought I was gonna go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we’re gonna have to get it solved because too many people are dying.” Ukraine’s high-level delegation includes Zelensky, his top aide, and foreign and defense ministers in an effort to show Trump that Russia is the country against making peace. Ukraine was frustrated with the lower-level Russian delegation and doubted whether there would be any negotiations at all.

“The Russian chair in Turkey is de facto empty,” a Ukrainian diplomatic official told Politico on the condition of anonymity. “Because it makes little difference whether Mr. Nobody, sent by Putin, and his insignificant colleagues sit in their chairs or not. They are not the ones making decisions. And the person who does — Putin — is either afraid to come or does not take the U.S.-led peace effort seriously. “Still, we are considering sending someone at the appropriate level to at least hear what these people have to say and whether they are able to decide at least anything. If they are willing to have a serious conversion, we may engage in it. Otherwise, we will have the right to conclude that this is a Russian charade, not meaningful work for peace,” the official added.

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“Deals are all about timing. When the time is right, that’s when the president is in the room with Putin..”

Sebastian Gorka is always around. His curent job description is ‘senior director for counterterrorism’.

• Putin-Trump Meeting ‘Imminent’ – White House Official (RT)

US President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to help Russia and Ukraine finalize a peace agreement, a deputy assistant to Trump, Sebastian Gorka, has said. The meeting between the two leaders is “imminent” he told a security summit organized by Politico. “Deals are all about timing. When the time is right, that’s when the president is in the room with Putin,” he stated, while maintaining that the right moment is “imminent.” He did not elaborate and did not provide any further details about a possible meeting between Putin and Trump. Trump is currently on a tour through Middle East, and has mulled going to Türkiye on Friday “if something happened.”

Moscow’s and Kiev’s delegations were expected to hold discussions there after Putin suggested resuming the Istanbul talks which were broken off three years ago. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky responded to Putin’s call by declaring that he would personally fly to Türkiye and demanded that the Russian president do the same. The Kremlin answered by saying that the Russian president had no plan to travel to the country. Trump then said on Thursday that Putin had no reason to go, since the US leader himself had not committed to going.Moscow has said that its core agenda for the Istanbul talks remains unchanged from 2022, as it believes that a lasting peace can only be achieved by addressing the conflict’s root causes, including Ukraine’s desire to join NATO.

Zelensky initially insisted on Putin personally coming to the talks before deciding to send a delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to Istanbul. According to TASS, the meeting between the two sides is now expected to start on Friday. The Trump administration has been actively pushing both sides to engage in peace negotiations since he took office in January. The US president has recently expressed frustration over the slow pace of the process and demanded both sides engage in direct talks.

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Kirill Dmitriev is Putin’s ‘investment envoy’. Russia’s Witkoff.

• Trump Team Has ‘Made The Impossible Possible’ – Putin Envoy (RT)

US President Donald Trump and his team have “made the impossible possible” by bringing Moscow and Kiev to the cusp of their first direct negotiations since 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, has said. Dmitriev complemented Washington’s mediation efforts ahead of much anticipated talks in Istanbul on Thursday. The meeting is set to happen “against all odds/fierce resistance,” he said on X, adding that if “not derailed last-minute, this could be a historic step to peace. ”Dmitriev specifically named US Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as major contributors to the mediation effort. Putin suggested Thursday as the day direct engagement between Russia and Ukraine could happen in a televised address last Sunday.

Moscow has indicated that negotiations could continue from where they left off in 2022, when Kiev pulled out and tried to score a victory on the battlefield with Western military assistance. The U-turn came after then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Kiev to discard a draft peace treaty, which had been pre-agreed in Istanbul.At the moment of writing, there was no certainty that a new round of negotiations would commence as expected. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, who is currently in the country to meet Turkish President Recep Erdogan, said the Ukrainian government had yet to make a final decision on how to proceed. Zelensky announced his intention to go to Türkiye in response to Putin’s proposal, claiming that the Russian leader must reciprocate to prove his seriousness.

Zelensky and leaders of European NATO nations supporting him have threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia unless Moscow agrees to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire – an idea that Russian officials have called a ruse to give Kiev time to regroup. The initial deadline on Monday has been postponed until the end of the week, pending the outcome of talks.While Moscow has stated that it will seek a path towards lasting peace in Istanbul, which it says will require addressing the root causes of the conflict, Kiev has been vague about its goals. Some media reports have suggested that the Ukrainian delegation will focus on the proposed ceasefire first. Previously, Kiev insisted that no direct talks could happen without a truce.

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Former UK envoy Ian Proud has, like so many, also lost his thread. It’s not easy.

• Istanbul 2.0: Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em (Proud)

The biggest achievement of today’s Istanbul talks is that they are even taking place. U.S. engagement will remain vital to getting a peace deal over the line. Russia’s desire for a reset with Washingtonmay keep them on track. I have a sense of déjà vu as I contemplate these long-overdue peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul. In April 2022, Ukraine and Russia were close to agreeing a peace treaty, less than two months after war started. However, this came crashing down amid claims that western governments, in particular the United States and the United Kingdom encouraged Ukraine to keep fighting. It’s worth recapping very briefly what was close to having been agreed. By far the best summary of negotiations between both sides was produced by the New York Times in June 2024. Those negotiations ranfor almost two months. The talks started with Ukrainian officials being spirited over the border into Belarus on February 29, 2022 while the fighting raged around Kyiv, and eventually led to the now famous talks in Istanbul in March and April.

What has changed since then? Ukraine will enter the Istanbul talks in a weaker position that it held in 2022. Western support for Ukraine financially and economically is not as sound as it was then. No big ticket economic aid and assistance has been made available since the G7 agreement of a $50 billion package of loans, in June 2024. While European states scratched together new economic aid to Ukraine in April, this cannot make up for the reduction in US support. In territorial terms, Russia withdrew from Kyiv as a concession to the first Istanbul talks and lost ground in Kharkiv and in Kherson in late 2022. However, Russia has gone on steadily to gain further territory in the Donbas since the end of 2023. So while both sides have scores on the board, Russia now maintains the military upper hand on the battlefield and that seems unlikely to change. These two factors in particular were behind President Trump’s February assertion that Ukraine has no cards to play.

What has stayed the same? NATO membership is still off the table. The verified documents shared by the New York Times last June confirmed that Ukraine’s neutrality and non-membership of NATO was the central issue agreed upon in 2022. Ukraine was ready to become a “permanently neutral state” that would never join NATO or allow foreign forces to be based on its soil.There seems no route for Ukraine to resile from that given its currently weakened negotiating position and President Trump’s stated view that NATO membership for Ukraine is not practical. Although Germany’s new foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul recently repeated the line that Ukraine’s path to NATO is irreversible, most have agreed, privately and publicly, that Ukraine’s path to NATO is a fraught if not impossible one. Right now, just having the talks is a huge breakthrough

The Istanbul talks would not be happening had the Trump administration not pushed for it so hard. We don’t need to rehash the “did they or didn’t they” debate around why Ukraine abandoned the Istanbul agreement in April 2022. What is clear, is that Ukraine became entrenched, not only in not negotiating with Russia, but in excluding Russia from all discussions on peace in Ukraine from then onward. Having agreed in principle for Ukraine to accept neutral status Zelensky was pushing his own ten point peace plan. This included, among other things, Russia withdrawing its troops to the pre-2014 border, i.e. giving up Crimea and the Donbass and creating a Euro-Atlantic Security Architecture, by which he meant Ukraine joining NATO. Peace summits were organized in various countries that explicitly excluded Russia, culminating in the Switzerland event on June 15, 2024.

At this event, President Zelensky was dug in deeper on resisting any engagement with Russia until a full withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine, which was a completely unrealistic proposal. “Russia can start negotiations with us even tomorrow without waiting for anything – if they leave our legal territories,” he said. Even after President Trump was elected, European leaders clung to the line that “only Ukraine can decide what peace means.”’ I see no circumstances in which a Kamala Harris presidency would have cajoled President Zelensky to enter into negotiations. Tomorrow’s talks wouldn’t be happening unless the Trump administration broke a whole load of Ukrainian and European eggshells to get to this point. The biggest issue now is territory.

Even though he was wrongly derided at the time by mainstream media, Steve Witkoff correctly pointed out in his March interview with Tucker Carlson that the territorial issues in Ukraine will be most intractable. Russia’s decision in October 2022 to formally annex the four oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk changed the calculus. However, Russia does not have full territorial control of any of those oblasts, which are cut through the middle by a hotly contested front line. Resolving the line of control when the war ends is, by some margin, the most problematic challenge. This will be a hugely sensitive topic, and European allies will shoot down any major concessions to Russia, as they did when the idea surfaced that the U.S. might de jure recognise Russia’s occupation of Crimea.

The most obvious settlement is a de facto recognition of occupation, a Cyprus-style scenario, that does not stand in the way of Ukraine’s future membership of the European Union. Even that will require detailed agreement on issues around demilitarization of the line of control and enforcing any ceasefire. Sanctions are probably tricky, but also tractable. As I have said before, there is enormous scope to a plan that allows for the immediate lifting of the bulk of zero-impact measures, phasing out the remainder at points agreed to by both sides. The toughest issue remains the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, mostly held in Belgium. Russia has shown a willingness to concede this funding to support reconstruction in Ukraine, including those parts that Russia occupies.

But there is texture here. Freeing up those funds for reconstruction would immediately remove the source of interest payments that are meeting Ukraine’s obligations on its $50 billion in debt to the G7, agreed to in June 2024. But the more general policy question arises, how much of the freed up funding would be spent in Ukraine itself and how much in Russian-occupied Ukraine, where most of the war damage has occurred? The U.S. must keep the pressure on to ensure the talks stay on track. A U.S. presence in Istanbul will be vital, to prevent, in particular, Ukraine from bailing on the talks. That’s why sending Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg makes sense.

The former is trusted by the Russian side while the latter has built relationships in Ukraine. Their presence serves to keep the process moving forward until a deal can be pushed over the line and the fighting can stop. Bear in mind that the 2022 talks ran for a month and a half and the circumstances have materially changed as I have indicated above. While there has been speculation that President Trump might drop into Istanbul, I am not sure that this is necessary if President Putin doesn’t himself attend. Knowing the Russians, I assess that Putin will want his own “‘meeting moment” with the U.S. President on terms that the Russian side can better choreograph. Indeed, that may be a prize for Russia’s engagement in the process, given its desire for a more comprehensive reset of relations with the U.S.

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Lots of talk of Putin sending a lightweight crew, but he didn’t. He sent those, led by Medinsky, who were stiffed by Zelensky (+ Boris Johnson?) 3 years ago. They know the territory better than anyone.

• Russia’s Top Negotiator Unveils Goal of Talks With Ukraine (RT)

Moscow seeks to engage Ukraine in direct negotiations in Istanbul to secure a lasting peace, Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, told journalists on Thursday. The current effort represents a revival of the peace process he took part in that Kiev broke off three years ago, he added. Both Russia and Ukraine have sent delegations to Türkiye following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer last week to resume direct talks aimed at resolving the conflict. Moscow’s team is prepared to work constructively towards viable solutions. “It possesses all necessary qualifications and authority to conduct negotiations,” the presidential aide said in Istanbul. The Russian delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin and the head of Russia’s military intelligence, Igor Kostyukov. They are joined by several senior military and civil officials, as well as diplomats.

Here is Vladimir Medinsky’s speech in full:

“Dear colleagues. Last night, as previously reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a special meeting to prepare our delegation for the upcoming negotiations in Istanbul. The meeting was attended by the leadership of the Russian Security Council, the Russian government, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as the heads of state security, intelligence, and the commanders of all Russian armed forces groups participating in the military operation [against Kiev]. Members of the delegation present here also took part in the meeting.

Foreign policy and security matters were discussed, with additional reports presented on the state of the economy and the defense industry. The Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, and all commanders of Russian army groups involved in the military operation [against Kiev] reported on the situation in the combat zone. A detailed joint discussion followed. Based on the participants’ reports, the president issued instructions and outlined the negotiation position for the Russian delegation in Istanbul.

We view these talks as a continuation of the peace process in Istanbul, which was unfortunately interrupted by the Ukrainian side three years ago. Our official delegation has been approved by presidential order and possesses all necessary qualifications and authority to conduct negotiations. The delegation is adopting a constructive approach, focused on finding viable solutions and areas of common ground. The aim of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is ultimately to secure lasting peace by addressing the fundamental root causes of the conflict.

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“..Zakharova has also stressed that there was never any talk of Putin travelling to Türkiye for the talks and branded Zelensky a “clown” ..”

• Ukraine Won’t Survive A Decade Of Conflict – Zelensky (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky has said that although he does not know how long the conflict with Russia will last, his country would not be able to survive another ten years of fighting. Speaking to the French newspaper Liberation, the Ukrainian leader conveyed his insistence on a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Türkiye to discuss an exchange of all prisoners and establishing a ceasefire.On Sunday, Putin proposed restarting direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which were unilaterally abandoned by Kiev in 2022. The president stated that Moscow would send a delegation to Istanbul to engage with the Ukrainian side, stressing that Russia is set on “serious negotiation” that would contribute to a “long-term sustainable peace” and address the root causes of the conflict.

Zelensky, who had previously ruled out any negotiations with Moscow, welcomed the proposed talks in Istanbul and has personally traveled to Türkiye to potentially take part in the meeting. Ahead of the talks, he admitted to Liberation that Ukrainians have been growing tired of the conflict and that talks on ending the fighting have given people some hope. Asked if he should instead be preparing his citizens for another ten years of war, Zelensky stressed that “Ukraine wouldn’t survive” another decade of conflict. “I look at the morale of the population, what people want. I look at our economy… It’s costly for everyone,” Zelensky said. “In fact, this war can’t last very long,” he predicted. At the same time, the Ukrainian leader has dismissed the delegation sent by Russia to the talks as “props,” insisting on personally meeting with Putin. Moscow has slammed Zelensky’s position, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov calling Zelensky a “pathetic person.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has also stressed that there was never any talk of Putin travelling to Türkiye for the talks and branded Zelensky a “clown” with no right to dismiss professionals in any field as “props.” Meanwhile, Medinsky, who is leading Moscow’s delegation in Istanbul, has stated that Russia is ready for dialogue with Ukraine and is prepared for “possible compromises” in reaching a peace deal. “We are in a working mood,” the presidential aide said. On Thursday, after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Zelensky stated that he would have “nothing to do” at the talks without Putin’s participation and said that Ukraine’s delegation in Istanbul would instead be led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. He added that Kiev is engaging in the negotiations “out of respect for [US President Donald] Trump and Erdogan.”

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“..Powell’s advice is expected to focus on making sure that Zelensky does not do “anything that alienates Trump”.

So his job is to stoke up the fire whenever Trump mentions peace.

• UK Sending Security Adviser To Work With Zelensky – Guardian (RT)

London is reportedly sending an adviser to Istanbul to give its recommendations to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky ahead of talks with Russia, the Guardian reported on Wednesday. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to restart direct negotiations with Kiev to find a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict. While Zelensky had previously ruled out talks with Moscow, he welcomed the proposal and agreed to personally travel to Türkiye to take part. Moscow has barred Western European leaders from participating in the negotiations, accusing them of a biased approach to the conflict and trying to prolong the fighting. Nevertheless, the UK is reportedly sending Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s security adviser, Jonathan Powell, to meet with Zelensky ahead of the talks to provide “background advice” on how he should handle the meeting.

The Guardian reported that Powell’s advice is expected to focus on making sure that Zelensky does not do “anything that alienates Trump” and equip him to persuade the US president that Putin is the “obstacle to peace.” The meeting is set to become the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since Kiev unilaterally aborted peace negotiations with Moscow in 2022 after being advised to do so by London. At the previous talks, shortly after the pre-approval of a draft treaty, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson personally traveled to Kiev and persuaded Zelensky to abandon peace efforts and continue fighting, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation David Arakhamia.

Ahead of Friday’s discussions, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has stated that they will have to take into account the points that were already worked out by both sides in 2022, plus the “real situation” on the ground that has developed since then. In his announcement of the talks, Putin stated that Russia is set on “serious negotiations” with Ukraine and is seeking a “long-term, sustainable peace” that would address the root causes of the conflict. He also suggested that Friday’s meeting could yield “a new ceasefire” that could pave the way for a comprehensive peace settlement, depending on the decisions of “the Ukrainian authorities and their supervisors.”

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True enough, but I haven’t heard such talk recently.

• Talk of Direct US-Russia Clash Contradicts Trump’s Policy –Scott Ritter (Sp.)

There are “several plausible pathways” for the Ukraine conflict to escalate into a direct US-Russia war, claimed Gen. Gregory Guillot, head of US Northern Command, who labeled Russia as one of the US’ “principal adversaries.” Is this a veiled threat – or just the Pentagon beating the drums of war again? This statement signals brewing tensions within the Pentagon, military analyst and former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter tells Sputnik. However, it’s just a “speculative pronouncement,” not reflective of Trump-era defense policy, according to the pundit. Ritter was struck by the fact that: • Guillot is speculating on a conflict beyond his remit, which belongs to US strategic command. • His stance contradicts Trump’s, who acknowledged Russia’s special military operation was provoked by NATO expansion:

“We had Trump say that there was justification for Russia’s actions, that they understood that the expansion of NATO served as a provocation,” Ritter stresses. What else rings the alarm bells of the Pentagon’s warmongering? Guillot also claimed the US could be drawn into a “direct military conflict” with Iran, China, or North Korea. He went even so far as to claim that “war with one adversary could quickly expand into war with an enemy coalition.”

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“..Trump’s latest directive to Apple to cease manufacturing in India oversimplifies the complexities of global supply chains and risks unintended economic consequences..”

i.e. $3,000 iPhones.

• Trump Tells Apple Not To Build In India (RT)

US President Donald Trump has advised Apple CEO Tim Cook to avoid expanding the company’s manufacturing operations in India, according to reports. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump was cited as saying in Doha on Thursday by CNBC. “I said to him, ‘my friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India.’ I don’t want you building in India.” The US president added, “I said to Tim, I said, ‘Tim look, we treated you really good, we put up with all the plants that you build in China for years, now you got build us. We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves … we want you to build here.’” Trump claimed that as a result of his conversation with Cook, Apple would increase its production in the US, according to CNBC.

Apple has been expanding its operations in India, where it is ramping up its local production. Reuters reported in April that Apple planned to manufacture the majority of iPhones sold in the US in India by the end of 2026. Earlier this month, local media reported that Apple told India’s Ministry of Communications that it planned to move the assembly of all iPhones to the country from China. Industry watchers believe Trump’s latest directive to Apple to cease manufacturing in India oversimplifies the complexities of global supply chains and risks unintended economic consequences. Establishing iPhone manufacturing in the US, where Apple lacks existing facilities, would require significant time and investment, Sonam Chandwani, managing partner at KS Legal & Associates, told RT.

On Tuesday, India approached the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a proposal to impose retaliatory duties against the US over American tariffs on steel and aluminum.The move comes after the US imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports in March, which was an extension of measures initially introduced in 2018 during Trump’s first term as president. New Delhi is currently putting the finishing touches to a bilateral trade deal with Washington. US Vice President J.D. Vance announced last month that the two countries have agreed on terms for bilateral trade negotiations, calling it a roadmap to a final deal.

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AI is the only game in town.

• Trump Touts 1.4 Trillion Investment In AI, Tech From UAE (ZH)

After the several massive announcements and deals to come out of Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, developments during the last leg of the US President’s Gulf tour in United Arab Emirates actually seem a bit humdrum by comparison. But the visuals and spare no expenses official welcome and ceremonial events have certainly been interesting…

Among the more notable statements has been Trump’s touting a 1.4 trillion… yes that’s trillion… investment in AI and other tech sectors from the Emirates. The White House had previewed this longtime in the works deal as related to artificial intelligence infrastructure, semiconductors, energy and manufacturing.Further, Emirates Global Aluminum will “invest in the first new aluminium smelter in the United States in 35 years, which would nearly double US domestic aluminium production.”

According to more developments out of the UAE:
• The White House said that Trump and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani signed agreements that would “generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion”.
• The agreements are said to include a $96bn deal with Qatar Airways to buy up to 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aeroplanes, and a statement of intent for $38bn in investments at Qatar’s Al Udeid Airbase and other air defence capabilities.
• A meeting is scheduled for later today of US, Turkish and Syrian officials to discuss details of Trump’s announced dropping of sanctions against Syria.
• Trump’s three-country tour of the Gulf state region will conclude in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

Amid lots of awards ceremonies, accolades, and a state dinner…Trump has also been filling in more details of fresh arms deals inked with Qatar. “Yesterday we signed an agreement for Qatar to purchase $42bn-worth of the finest American military hardware including THAAD missile batteries,” he said Thursday while speaking to US troops at Al Udeid airbase.The commander-in-chief further detailed that the deal includes “Pegasus refueling aircraft, Desert Vipers, light armored vehicles, amphibious combat vehicles, the MQ-9B and the Sky Guardian drones.” As for Qatar, the president says he’s still ready to accept a donated jet from the tiny oil and gas rich country, a flying palace of a future Air Force One, which Dems have been warning would be a violation of the US Constitution’s prohibition on foreign gifts. Certainly he’ll come back to Washington awaiting immense controversy and backlash from the corporate media and his political enemies.

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“So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” he asked.

• Justice Thomas Destroys the Case for Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)

During Supreme Court oral arguments in the Trump v. CASA, Washington, and New Jersey cases, Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a surgical takedown of the legal rationale for nationwide injunctions, using just one line. The case centers around whether lower courts can issue sweeping injunctions that block federal policies nationwide, even when only a handful of plaintiffs are before the court. Representing the United States, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that such broad orders violate established legal norms and Supreme Court precedent. “We believe that the best reading of that is what you said in Trump against Hawaii, which is that Wirtz in 1963 was really the first universal injunction,” Sauer told the Court. “There’s a dispute about Perkins against Lukens Oil going back to 1940. And of course, we point to the Court’s opinion that reversed that universal injunction issued by the D.C. Circuit and said it’s profoundly wrong.”

Sauer continued, listing key precedents that have rejected expansive injunctive relief. “If you look at the cases that either party cite, you see a common theme. The cases that we cite — like National Treasury Employees Union, Perkins, Frothingham, and Massachusetts v. Mellon, going back to Scott v. Donald — in all of those, those are cases where the Court considered and addressed the sort of universal — well, in that case, statewide — provision of injunctive relief.” He emphasized, “When the Court has considered and addressed this, it has consistently said, ‘You have to limit the remedy to the plaintiffs appearing in court and complaining of that remedy.’” That’s when Justice Thomas stepped in and cut through the legal weeds with a devastatingly simple observation. “So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” he asked.

Sauer didn’t hesitate: “That’s exactly correct. And in fact, those were very limited, very rare, even in the 1960s.” He went on to explain that nationwide injunctions didn’t truly explode until 2007. “In our cert petition in Summers v. Rhode Island Institute, we pointed out that the Ninth Circuit had started doing this in a whole bunch of cases involving environmental claims.” Thomas’s concise question — “So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” — hit the heart of the issue. With that simple question, he challenged the idea that such drastic judicial remedies were historically essential, even during one of the most tumultuous and morally urgent periods in American history: the civil rights era, a time when federal courts began issuing broader remedies to dismantle Jim Crow laws and enforce desegregation.

In other words, if the courts managed to confront segregation, enforce Brown v. Board of Education, and make tremendous progress for civil rights without needing to impose blanket nationwide injunctions, then why are they supposedly necessary today over what amounts to policy disputes? In just one sentence, Thomas accomplished what pages of legal briefs failed to do. He exposed the historical and constitutional weakness of the left’s favorite legal tactic.

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“When these people, like the January 6 Committee and particularly Adam Schiff, are charged and try defending their bogus pardon, then we will start to learn who was really running the White House..”

• Biden’s Autopen Pardons May Just Get Invalidated (Margolis)

Ed Martin, the new DOJ pardon attorney and head of the Weaponization Working Group, isn’t wasting time. This week, he announced a review of the shady “autopen” pardons Joe Biden’s team rushed through in its final days. “These deserve some scrutiny,” he said. That’s an understatement. As PJ Media has previously reported, Biden’s White House frequently used an autopen to sign executive orders and pardons, which raised serious doubts as to whether Biden was even involved in the process. In March, the Oversight Project dropped a bombshell memo detailing 32 instances where the Biden White House used an autopen to sign off on clemency warrants — pardons and commutations that impacted thousands, including preemptive pardons for members of the January 6 Committee. The report raises a chilling question: Were these acts of mercy issued by a president or by a rogue staffer who had no constitutional authority to do so?

“They need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter, and to be accepted, and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did,” Martin said. The Blaze has more:”The Justice Department’s probe could spell trouble for controversial Biden pardonees such as Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee — including Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), whom President Donald Trump and other Republicans have faulted for various alleged crimes and improprieties. For instance, Trump has suggested that Milley may have committed “treason.”

While previously serving as Trump’s most senior uniformed adviser, Milley called his communist Chinese counterpart, communist Gen. Li Zuocheng, on two occasions — four days before the 2020 election and on Jan. 8, 2021 — to reassure Zuocheng that he would provide him with actionable warnings should Trump decide to attack. Milley received a pardon just hours before former President Joe Biden left office. Fauci, the fifth director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received a “full and unconditional” pass for possible federal crimes going back to Jan. 1, 2014 — around the time the Obama administration supposedly halted funding for dangerous gain-of-function research. “The American people were promised accountability, and I think Ed Martin is our best shot at it,” Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told The Blaze.

“These pardons are fake and invalid, and the president has already said that is his view.” He’s right. Martin’s investigation may be the first serious step toward cleaning up the mess that Biden left behind. “When these people, like the January 6 Committee and particularly Adam Schiff, are charged and try defending their bogus pardon, then we will start to learn who was really running the White House,” Howell added. “We need to answer the question everyone is asking: Who was running the government the last four years?” The presidential autopen has been around since the 1950s, but its use has always raised legal eyebrows. In 2013, Barack Obama became the first president to sign a bill into law with an autopen while vacationing in Hawaii. His office leaned on a 30-page memo from George W. Bush’s legal team claiming it was fine as long as the president authorized it. But Biden’s situation is far murkier. What no one seems to know is who was operating the autopen and whether Biden even knew it was being used.

Read more …

“On Biden’s last day in office, he pardoned his brother Jim, his sister-in-law Sara, his sister Valerie and her husband, John Owens, his brother Francis, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House Jan. 6 committee.”

• DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin To Review Biden’s Outgoing Pardons (JTN)

Ed Martin, who is leaving his Trump appointment as interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., to become the Justice Department’s U.S. pardon attorney, said that he will review former President Biden’s outgoing pardons. “I do think that the Biden pardons need some scrutiny,” Martin told ABC News on Tuesday. “And they need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did. “If they’re null and void, I’m not sure how that operates, but I can tell you we’ve had already, I’ve had in my current position, or my position as US Attorney, we had been taking a look at some of the conduct surrounding the pardons and the Biden White House.”

In addition to the pardon attorney post, Martin will be the director of the department’s Weaponization Working Group. President Trump pulled Martin’s nomination for U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., because Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he would not support it, over Martin’s involvement in the defense of people who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to NBC News. Tillis is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was overseeing Martin’s nomination. His no vote would have effectively prevented Martin’s from getting a final confirmation vote. The DOJ attorney said that he doesn’t believe that Biden’s use of “auto-pen” for pardons is a problem, despite Trump suggesting that it makes them invalid. On Biden’s last day in office, he pardoned his brother Jim, his sister-in-law Sara, his sister Valerie and her husband, John Owens, his brother Francis, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House Jan. 6 committee.

Read more …

The amounts are less spectacular, but the work must be done.

• DOGE Still Hard at Work Cutting Fraud and Waste (Salgado)

The Department of Government Efficiency is still continually occupied investigating fraud, waste, and abuse in our federal government. Now, if only Congressional Republicans would agree on a budget that includes all these necessary cuts. On May 12, DOGE’s X account provided a contract update: “Since Friday, agencies terminated 242 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $646M and savings of $200M, including a $118k USDA contract for the ‘Democratic Republic of Congo youth climate corps coordinator’, and a $23.5k USAID contract for the ‘garden landscaping and pool services at official mission director’s residence’ of South Africa.” Obviously important uses of our taxpayer dollars. On May 14, DOGE added an update:

“Current year non-defense federal obligations are down 20.5% as compared to 2024. Cash outlays will follow as obligations come due. Persistent government wide contract reviews for wasteful spend, consistent with the DOGE Cost Efficiency Executive Order, are bearing fruit.” It seems review of federal contracts has been a DOGE priority lately. Earlier this month, DOGE shared, “Over the last two days, agencies terminated 522 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $285M and savings of $110M, including a $181k @USDA contract for a ‘technical climate advisor for central Africa’.” The grift is endless. DOGE has been investigating federal credit cards, too. Earlier this month, DOGE announced, “The program to audit unused/unneeded credit cards has been expanded to 32 agencies. After 10 weeks, more than 500K cards have been de-activated. As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do.”

No wonder we are over $36.8 trillion in debt. Of course, DOGE also partners with multiple agencies, and the Department of Energy “has announced 47 deregulatory actions for an estimated $11 billion of savings to Americans. Previously, this quantity of deregulation would take years to initiate,” per DOGE. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued his own proud statement on May 12, explaining his department “assembled a task force to work on the BIGGEST deregulatory push in modern history. The idea was simple: get a bunch of smart people in a room & work through the problem. We cut through the red tape to deliver 47 deregulatory actions on behalf of the American people!” What a novel idea — government actually working for We the People!

Read more …

Crazy that someone can block the elected government from scrutinizing its largest expenditures.

• Trump Admin Urges SCOTUS to Permit DOGE Access to Social Security Records (ET)

The Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court on May 13 to let the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have access to Social Security data after lower courts blocked that access.President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14158 on Jan. 20, implementing DOGE, an advisory body that recommends cost-cutting measures. The order directed the entity to “implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the new filing that the lower courts have overreached and are attempting to turn themselves into “the human resources department for the Executive Branch.”

The filing came after Ellen Lipton Hollander, a Maryland-based federal district court judge, issued an order on March 20 preventing DOGE from viewing Social Security Administration (SSA) records because such access “violates” the federal Privacy Act.The lawsuit was brought in February by labor unions and retirees represented by the Democracy Forward Foundation.“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack,” the judge wrote in granting a temporary restraining order against the federal government.

DOGE’s team at the Social Security Administration has had “unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers’ license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses,” Hollander wrote. Hollander directed DOGE to delete any personally identifiable data in its possession. On April 17, Hollander upgraded the temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction. On April 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit voted 9–6 to maintain Hollander’s order while the appeal process continues. On May 2, the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court, asking the justices to pause the preliminary injunction.

In the May 13 filing, Sauer argued that the district court erred in preventing “the 11 members of the Social Security Administration (SSA) DOGE team—from accessing data … for purposes that are unquestionably lawful.” The district court “dictated to the Executive Branch which government employees can access which data and even prescribed necessary training, background checks, and paperwork for data access,” Sauer wrote. “When district courts attempt to transform themselves into the human resources department for the Executive Branch, the irreparable harm to the government is clear,” he wrote. When the courts “stymie the government’s initiatives to modernize badly outdated systems and combat rampant fraud—leaving those initiatives on a litigation track that may halt them for months or years—the irreparable harm is even clearer.”

Reviewing Social Security Administration data is important because the agency has “one of the largest documented histories of improper payments,” Sauer stated. In a brief in opposition filed on May 12, the lead respondent, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, said that after years of honoring “its data security obligations,” the Social Security Administration “now seeks to throw open its data systems to unauthorized (and often unvetted) personnel who have no demonstrated need for the personally identifiable information … they seek.”The April 17 preliminary injunction should be left in place because it is “narrow and, contrary to the government’s assertions, permits SSA to disclose both anonymized and non-anonymized data to DOGE Team members,” the brief said.The Supreme Court could rule on the government’s emergency application at any time.

Read more …

How to spell “inside job”.

Helmer is an expert on MH17.

• The US Has Pushed The ICAO To Declare War On Russia (Helmer)

On Monday, May 12, the United States pushed the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the aircraft safety watchdog, to vote behind closed doors to adopt a secret resolution convicting Russia of shooting-down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014. Unlike the Dutch show trial which in November 2022 convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian of the same crime, the ICAO reached its verdict without the appearance of an open proceeding or of openly tested evidence. It’s a put-up job.William Raillant-Clark, the ICAO communications chief at the Montreal headquarters, was asked to provide a text of the resolution and identification of the countries voting for, against, abstaining, and absent. Raillant-Clark replied: “In accordance with the Council’s Rules of Procedure, the vote was taken by secret ballot.” He refused to disclose the resolution itself; the numbers of votes without the names of the countries; or the reason for keeping everything but the conviction of Russia secret. He answered: “The Council’s considerations based on reason of law and fact, will be issued in the coming weeks.”

The spokesman was then asked for a copy of ICAO’s Rules of Procedure. He refuses to answer. The decision of ICAO to go to war with Russia, using its aviation safety mandate to cover up the evidence of what really happened to MH17, destroys the organization for the future. It follows the destruction of the global organization for the safety of nuclear power generation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW); the International Committee of the Red Cross; and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.

The downing of MH17 on July 17, 2014, with the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew, was a Ukrainian government operation, backed by the Obama Administration led by then-Vice President Joseph Biden, to start the economic sanctions war against Russia; US and NATO military preparations for the Ukrainian attack on the Donbass; it almost led to a NATO military intervention. Read the full story of what happened, and the subsequent faking of evidence in the Dutch trial, in the book. This new ICAO fatality, weaponizing aviation safety into war against Russia, was inflicted by the US, the dominant member state on the 36-member Council of the ICAO. Collaborating with the State Department’s delegate at the Council, Anthony Clare, the Dutch and Australian governments promoted the resolution and pushed for adoption by the allied states.

The list of permanent and elected member states on the ICAO Council can be viewed here. The ICAO session on May 12 does not appear in the advance schedule of meetings for the ICAO this month. The Council vote which took place on May 12 is not listed in the Council proceedings for the month. An internal notice of the Council for the May 12 meeting shows the text of the resolution is “restricted”. Raillant-Clark has refused to explain. As soon as the vote was taken, the Dutch Government and Foreign Ministry issued a press release. The Australian Foreign Ministry followed. The Netherlands and Australia, whose nationals comprised the majority of the 298 victims on board MH17, sponsored the ICAO resolution. Both governments are fighting Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield. The Dutch may now attempt to divert Russian state funds frozen in The Netherlands to pay compensation to the families of the victims.

Only after the two government releases had appeared, and Raillant-Clark was questioned personally, did ICAO reveal its press release.

The Russian government issued its response on May 13. “Russia,” the Foreign Ministry said, “is not part of the ICAO Council. In its press release, this body alleges that the responsibility for downing this flight rests with the Russian Federation. However, the text of the ruling, including its reasoning part, is not available. Therefore, this amounted to a blind vote – it is quite obvious that this decision does not hold water. Once again, the ICAO Council demonstrated its political bias. It takes its decision while guided by momentary considerations. This is not the way it must operate.” “Russia withdrew from these proceedings last year, on June 17, 2024, in view of the multiple procedural violations by the Council and the ICAO Secretariat, which made an impartial fact-finding effort all but impossible. That said, Moscow’s principled position remains relevant to this day – Russia was not involved in the MH17 crash, while all the claims to the contrary coming from Australia and the Netherlands are at odds with reality.”

“The ICAO Council is not an independent body. It includes 36 ICAO member states out of 193. They get their voting instructions from their respective capitals. Most of the countries represent the West and their immediate satellites. This makes the way the Council operates a matter of arithmetic. There was simply nobody to tackle this matter in a professional manner and on its merits.”

“There is nothing new about using the ICAO Council against countries which are viewed as being undesirable by the West. This can hardly come as a surprise to anyone these days. Suffice to recall the investigation of the landing of a Ryanair flight at the Minsk airport on May 23, 2021. At the time, the interested Western countries were not satisfied with the preliminary report by the Investigative Team. They used their majority within the Council to force the team to re-write the report to ensure that it condemns Belarus. Moreover, the ICAO Council ruled that it was competent to review the Great Britain, Sweden, Ukraine, Canada v. Iran case regarding the crash of a Boeing aircraft near Tehran after a vote held behind the curtain. There was also a recent example when the Council refused to take up Venezuela’s claims in its dispute with Argentina regarding unilateral restrictions in civil aviation.”

Read more …

NB: the chance that a former FBI director doesn’t know what 8647 stands for is zero.

• “86 47” – Comey Posts-Then-Deletes Creepy Threat Aimed At Trump (ZH)

Former FBI Director James Comey posted a photo of sea shells arranged into the numbers “86 47” on his Instagram account today, before shortly deleting the post.The immediately preceding post shows Comey lounging at the beach while pretending to read his own crime novel, his presence at the beach lending to the fact that this was not a hack. Many are blasting Comey for issuing a not-so-thinly-veiled threat at sitting President Donald Trump, including the President’s son and Congressman Andy Biggs:

And here is his explanation for the ‘shells’ and the deletion……you simply cannot make this shit up!!!

[..] As covered previously in a ZeroHedge piece titled “From Epstein To Diddy: Spotlight Shines On James Comey’s Prosecutor Daughter”, Comey’s offspring smell a little swampy as well. From the piece: In a thinly covered news story from December that’s suddenly relevant again (read on), New York Prosecutor Maurene Comey – whose father James Comey famously refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information & then participated in the Russia collusion hoax – joined the prosecution against Combs. The younger Comey has previously worked as lead prosecutor on both the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, as well as that of former Epstein cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione.
…
Maurene Comey became a US attorney in the Southern District of New York in 2015. In 2019, when she was just 30-years-old, Comey became one of the lead prosecutors in the Jeffrey Epstein case before he was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019. Two years later, she became one of three lead prosecutors in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner in crime and daughter of suspected Mossad operative Robert Maxwell.

Before becoming a US attorney, Comey clerked for US District Court chief judge Loretta Preska of the SDNY – who notably oversaw a long-running defamation case filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell. Comey was also involved in the case of Nicholas Tartaglione, a former NYPD officer who was convicted of killing four men in 2016, and who was briefly Epstein’s cellmate in the Manhattan Metro Correctional Center. Tartaglione claims to have helped Epstein after ‘finding him unconscious’ (and totally not trying to kill him) prior to Epstein’s actual death. In 2016, Tartaglione suspected a man named Martin Luna had stolen money from him – for which “Tartaglione tortured Martin and then forced one of Martin’s nephews to watch as he strangled him to death with a zip-tie,” according to a statement by the US Attorney’s Office.

Two days after Epstein’s death, NY Times reporter James B Stewart, who had spent 90 minutes with Epstein a year prior, wrote “The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Mr. Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it. He also claimed to know a great deal about these people, some of it potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use. And so, whether this is just a case of ‘it’s a small world’ or something a little (or a lot) less innocent, James Comey’s daughter is now involved in a second case where high-profile celebrities and politicians may have been secretly filmed engaging in sexual activity with minors. Comey’s deep state tentacles make the cryptic Instragram post that much more unsettling. Might there be some hints in Comey’s shitty novel? Donald Barr’s Space Relations anyone?

Read more …

 

 

 

 

CHD
https://twitter.com/NicHulscher/status/1922833502430450150

Xifaxan

Missing link

Mad honey

Escape

Dance

Camel

Mercury and Aluminum

Pop
https://twitter.com/TansuYegen/status/1922749376956444819

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle March 18 2025

Mar 182025
 
 March 18, 2025  Posted by at 11:01 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  51 Responses »


Robert Campin Portrait of a woman 1430-35

 

• Trump-Putin To Hold Tuesday Call On Ending War In Ukraine (ZH)
• Judge Demands DOJ Reveal Classified Information On Deportation Flights (ZH)
• Trump Slams Federal Judge’s ‘Dangerous’ Ruling on Fired Federal Workers (DS)
• Welcome to FAFO-Land (Kunstler)
• Trump Says Biden’s Autopen-Signed Pardons “Null and Void” (ZH)
• The Brilliance Behind Trump’s Move Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’ (Margolis)
• Trump Says JFK Files Will Be Released Tuesday Without Redactions (JTN)
• Key to Uncovering Truth About MLK Assassination Lies With Congress (DS)
• The Strongest Case for Trump’s Tariffs I’ve Heard Yet (Margolis)
• Why Has Trump Finally Pulled The Plug On Deep State Propaganda? (Amar)
• NATO ‘Peacekeepers’ in Ukraine Would Snatch War From the Jaws of Peace (Sp.)
• Musk: Feds’ “Magic Money Computers” Issue Payments “Out Of Thin Air” (ZH)
• Bukele: New Partnership With US Advances Fight Against Organized Crime (JTN)
• Celebrate Saint Patrick by Chasing Censors Out of Ireland (Turley)
• Study Destroys Basis of EPA Climate Regulations (Jayaraj)
• People Becoming More Stupid (RT)
• Federal Judge Orders Astronauts Be Returned To Space Station (BBee)

 

 


© AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta (I like this photo)

 

 

https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1901305613721702854

NASA

14

Isaacson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today: Putin-Trump call, JFK files release (80,000 pages), the astronauts come home.

Call starts at 9AM EDT. Putin doesn’t have a lot of room to move. And he will demand suspension of all weapons deliveries to Ukraine. Not an easy call for Trump.

• Trump-Putin To Hold Tuesday Call On Ending War In Ukraine (ZH)

Both the US and Russian sides have confirmed that Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will hold another phone call on Tuesday. Trump previewed that he plans to continue discussions to end the war in Ukraine, and he cryptically referenced negotiators having already discussed “dividing up certain assets.” “I’ll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work’s been done over the weekend,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One while en route back from Florida to Washington.n “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance,” Trump said. The US is still proposing a 30-day temporary ceasefire, which Putin has already questioned as a likely means by which Ukrainian forces can simply rearm, replenish, and regroup.

“We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” Trump said when asked by a reporters about concessions. “I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We are already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.” Trump’s special envoy who met with Putin in Moscow last week, Steve Witkoff, has said that the Russian president “accepts the philosophy” of Trump’s ceasefire. Still, the Kremlin has repeatedly said it will not accept anything that’s a short-term solution. Putin and Trump had an initial phone call spanning 90-minutes less than a month after Trump was inaugurated, to talk about moving toward a potential Ukraine peace plan. The Russian Defense Ministry has meanwhile indicated that Moscow will demand Kiev’s neutral status and that NATO can never accept Ukraine for membership.

This appears to be Moscow’s only and main ‘security guarantee’ that it wants in place: “Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of Nato countries to accept it into the alliance,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said Sunday. Of course, this is to include a ban on NATO building up military infrastructure in Ukraine as well. But other Western allies are challenging the progress made, and are likely even trying to sabotage any potential deal. “If Ukraine requests allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them,” French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Read more …

A district judge issues orders to the President and his government. Well, Boasberg is all over. Tanya Chutkan, Jack Smith, J6, etc. This is not an accident, it’s the lawfare machine. The only way to stop it is to cut off the money: NGOs. And the Magic Money Computers (see below).

• Judge Demands DOJ Reveal Classified Information On Deportation Flights (ZH)

US District Judge James Boasberg on Monday held a hearing after the Trump administration refused to turn two plane-fulls of criminal migrants around mid-flight, and may have allowed a third plane to depart following his Saturday order halting the deportations of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members. Boasberg on Saturday temporarily halted the Trump administration from using the 1789 Alien Enemies Act to deport the illegal immigrants, however DOJ lawyers told the judge that there were already two planes in the air – one headed for Honduras, and the other headed for El Salvador. While the judge verbally ordered the planes to be turned around, the directive was not included in his written order. As journalist Julie Kelly reports, Monday’s hearing was a complete power play by Boasberg. Kelly documented the exchange on X:

Boasberg: I have scheduled this hearing for fact finding on government’s response to my order. Focus on timeline involved and get a sense of numbers of people here. I just want “facts” not planning to issue any ruling about the government’s conduct.
Boasberg asks DOJ if it’s still true that the 5 individual plaintiffs are in the US. DOJ says yes.
“How many planes departed the US on Saturday under the proclamation?” DOJ says flights complied with his order but won’t disclose more to anyone.
Boasberg: “Anyone including me?”
DOJ: “Yes.”
Boasberg: “Based on what?”
DOJ cites national security concerns, flight patterns.
Boasberg: “You’re saying it’s classified? I can receive classified information. Or there is some other basis? Why are you showing up today without answers?”

Nothing but a power play.
“I’m just asking how you think my equitable powers do not attach to a plane that has departed the U.S., even if it’s in international airspace,” Boasberg said.
Boasberg then demanded the DOJ answer a list of questions, including;
How many planes left at any time Saturday based solely on the proclamation.
How many people were on each plane.
In what country did the planes land.
What time did they take off and land.
When were they in air space.
What time were individuals on the plane transferred to custody.

As Kelly notes further, “There are three flights at issue: two that left before any written order (and that DOJ says did not include individuals covered under the Alien Enemies Act) and one that might have departed after Boasberg’s minute order posted around 7:30pm on Saturday,” adding “ACLU wants a sworn statement that third flight did not include illegals covered by proclamation. Boasberg tells DOJ he will order the govt to file a sworn declaration as to the third flight.” Boasberg then made the argument that the DOJ should not have allowed any planes to take off on Saturday because they knew Boasberg had a hearing scheduled for 5pm… In other words, he’s arguing that the Trump administration should not have executed the President’s lawful order because he (Boasberg) was going to hold a hearing, and maybe stop the government from deporting the immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act.”This is batshit crazy,” said Kelly, adding that she would “love to see Boasberg’s comms with ACLU before lawsuit was filed Saturday morning.”

Miller

Read more …

Different case, same principle.

“..it’s a judge that’s putting himself in the position of the president of the United States, who was elected by close to 80 million votes,” Trump said. “That’s a very dangerous thing for our country..”

• Trump Slams Federal Judge’s ‘Dangerous’ Ruling on Fired Federal Workers (DS)

President Donald Trump said it’s “ridiculous” that a federal judge ruled that the government must rehire fired government employees. “I don’t think that’s going to be happening, but we’ll have to see,” he told The Daily Signal aboard Air Force One on Sunday. A judge appointed by President Bill Clinton ruled Thursday that the Trump administration must reinstate some fired probationary government employees. He ruled that six agencies must give jobs back to thousands of recently hired employees who President Donald Trump fired in an effort to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse” from the federal government by cutting the federal workforce.

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous, absolutely, it’s a judge that’s putting himself in the position of the president of the United States, who was elected by close to 80 million votes,” Trump said. “That’s a very dangerous thing for our country,” the president continued, ”and I would suspect that we’re going to have to get a decision from the Supreme Court, but that’s a very dangerous decision for our country.” U.S. District Judge William Alsup said employees the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, and Treasury must get their jobs back. “These are people, in many cases, they don’t show up for work,” Trump said. “Nobody even knows if they exist, and a judge wants us to pay them even if they don’t know they exist.”

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“Where did we get the idea that federal judges can just act with impunity, jerking around the public interest like some show-off with a yoyo?”

• Welcome to FAFO-Land (Kunstler)

It’s as simple as this: the orgy of judicial lawfare put on by blob-adjacent Democratic Party seditionists trying to make the USA ungovernable is looking to get swatted. Hubris is a harsh mistress, but Nemesis is more like the gods’ re-po man, and he comes to the door with attitude, meaning bidness. Blob judges will get flushed out of their humid conclaves naked and find themselves, astoundingly, in the FO zone of FAFO-land. Do you think AG Bondi is playing tiddlywinks in Main Justice or that Kash Patel is just sitting there buffing his nails over at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW? Where did we get the idea that federal judges can just act with impunity, jerking around the public interest like some show-off with a yoyo? Case in point: Judge James Boasberg, head honcho of the DC federal district court stepped into the FAFO waiting room over the weekend when he ordered two planeloads of deported toxic human trash known as Tren de Aragua, bound for jail in El Salvador, to return to the USA.

Mr. Trump’s White House refused, saying the planes were already over international waters, outside the judge’s jurisdiction. Dem-blob lawyer Mark Zaid made the predictable next move, claiming that the matter will be grounds for Impeachment No. 3 against Mr. Trump post the 2026 midterm election. But, of course: strategery! The general purpose in this latest phase of lawfare is to choke the federal courts with so many restraining orders and injunctions that the White House lawyers find themselves locked into an endless Chinese fire drill of counter-filings, motions, writs, and appearances. It’s all that the so-called “resistance” has left, what with DOGE breaking up the racketeering operation that has funded the Dem’s defense of the blob for a decade. By which I mean the government funding of non-governmental orgs (ha!) to distribute payola to Dem foot-soldiers who do all the dirty work of protecting the rogue bureaucracy in a circle-jerk of power and payoffs. This includes the dirty work of Dem-blob lawyers such as Mark Zaid, Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, Marc Elias, Barbara McQuade, Joanna Lydgate et al.

The history of Judge Boasberg in particular presents a disturbing picture of a tool covering-up every act of the shadowy blob’s war against American citizens. Boasberg presided in the FISA court that fraudulently enabled the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane operation to attempt ousting newly-elected Donald Trump in 2017, and the many RussiaGate pranks that followed. As chief judge of the DC District, he oversaw the Jack Smith Special Counsel op and all the cases associated with it, including the Mar-a-Lago raid and the J-6 case in Tanya Chutkan’s crooked court. Boasberg allowed the prosecution of J-6ers under the unlawful use of the corporate fraud obstruction statute, 18USC§1512c2, a.k.a. the Enron law. He presided over the trial of Ray Epps, the shady character recorded on video repeatedly urging J-6 protestors to “go into the Capitol.” Boasberg gave Epps a suspended sentence while grandmothers who merely “paraded” through the rotunda between velvet ropes that day got sent to jail.

What can be done about judges like Boasberg? The prevailing view is: not much. I’m not so sure that’s true. While Rep. Brandon Gill (D-TX) announced last week that he will file articles of impeachment against Boasberg, a two-thirds majority would be required to convict him in any eventual Senate trial, so fuggeddabowdit. But federal judges are not immune from criminal investigation and prosecution, which is where AG Bondi and FBI Director Patel ought to come in. What’s probably standing in plain sight is a RICO conspiracy involving the aforesaid lawfare artists — Norm Eisen & Co — and the federal judiciary to deliberately bury the executive branch under burdensome fraudulent process, impede the executive branch’s ability to carry out its constitutional duties, and to obstruct justice.

Would you like to know if correspondence exists between these parties? Mr. Patel can ask them to produce it, and if they fail to, there’s a strong possibility that DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard can root it out of the NSA’s server farm. Depositions can be demanded. The lawfare lawyers will have to hire lawyers — just as all the targets of “Joe Biden” and Merrick Garland were obliged to lawyer-up when they were systematically persecuted from January, 2021 to January, 2025. The meters will run, ka-ching, ka-ching. It will be interesting to see who is footing the bill for that. You can be sure that it will be found out. Reid Hoffman? George and Alex Soros? Note: Dan Bongino was sworn in as Deputy Director of the FBIat 8:00 o’clock this morning. Nemesis is open for bidness. The lawfare gang would love all of this to ramp into a king-hell constitutional crisis. Could happen. Let them try. They don’t hold any of the levers of power the way they used to. A lot could go wrong for them. Welcome to FAFO-land.

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To be precise, he didn’t “declare” it: “It’s not my decision — that’ll be up to a court — but I would say that they’re null and void,.”

• Trump Says Biden’s Autopen-Signed Pardons “Null and Void” (ZH)

Ten days or so after the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project disclosed that nearly every document bearing former President Biden’s signature during his first term had been signed by an autopen—except for one—questions arose over whether executive orders and pardons could be deemed invalid, as we noted that Biden’s staff likely leveraged his rapid cognitive deterioration to sign those documents via autopen. Overnight, President Trump declared that the 11th-hour pardons, including those given to members of Congress who investigated the January 6 insurrection, were “void, vacant, and of no further force or effect, because of the fact that they were done by autopen.” Some of those last-minute pardons include Deep Staters, such as former Representative Liz Cheney, retired General Mark Milley, and government scientist Anthony Fauci.

“The “Pardons” that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Sunday night. The president continued: “In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime.”

He went on to say that members of that House committee are “subject to investigation at the highest level”… “Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!”

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late last night: “It’s not my decision — that’ll be up to a court — but I would say that they’re null and void, because I’m sure Biden didn’t have any idea that it was taking place, and somebody was using an auto pen to sign off and to give pardons.”

https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1901530391598555271?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1901530391598555271%7Ctwgr%5Eb15225da52c37de9c468fe65a7fe74f6bab0c219%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Ftrump-declares-bidens-autopen-signed-pardons-void

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“This isn’t about political parties anymore; it’s about the integrity of the highest office in our land.”

• The Brilliance Behind Trump’s Move Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’ (Margolis)

President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell Sunday evening. As my PJ Media colleague Catherine Salgado reported, Trump declared Joe Biden’s pardons void due to the suspicious use of an autopen and serious questions about whether Sleepy Joe even knew what he was rubber-stamping. “The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. But here’s what’s really fascinating — and telling. Biden’s social media team remains suspiciously silent. Not a peep from his X account disputing the autopen accusations. These are serious allegations that merit a response, yet we got nothing. Really makes you think, doesn’t it?

Trump’s second Truth Social post cuts right to the heart of the matter: “The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime.” This isn’t just about pardons; it’s about who was really running our government. How is this going to play out? Proving that Biden wasn’t aware of these pardons might be an uphill battle. But something tells me that’s not the point. While I suspect that it will be virtually impossible to prove that Biden didn’t authorize those pardons, I still think this may have been a brilliant move by Trump. Here’s why. Every legal challenge, every court filing, every public statement will keep this scandal front and center.

Even if the pardons ultimately stand, the damage to Biden’s legacy and the Democratic Party will be done. Why we’ve been reporting on this scandal for several days, mainstream media coverage of the scandal has been virtually nonexistent. However, I’m starting to see reports from mainstream outlets trickle out. So far, I’ve seen reports from NBC News, Axios, Bloomberg, The Hill, USA Today, NewsNation, and ABC News. The story is out there now, which means that the American people will see exactly how the Deep State operates behind the scenes with its cognitively challenged puppet, Biden.

Why focus specifically on pardons and not Biden’s executive orders or judicial nominations? Because Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. By challenging these pardons, he’s forcing several sitting Democrats who received preemptive pardons from Biden to publicly defend their get-out-of-jail-free cards and attack Trump for declaring Biden’s pardons void. The mainstream media can’t ignore this story when their favorite Democrats are squirming under the spotlight. The mere fact that we’re having this conversation about whether the President of the United States actually knew who he was pardoning should terrify every American. This isn’t about political parties anymore; it’s about the integrity of the highest office in our land.

As I’ve pointed out in previous coverage of the scandal, the use of an autopen isn’t unprecedented in presidential actions, but using one to sign executive orders and pardons while serious questions exist about the president’s mental faculties and consent? That’s a whole different ballgame. The Trump administration hints at having evidence to support these claims, and given its track record of exposing Democratic corruption, I wouldn’t bet against it. Will that be enough for them to be declared legally void? I’m skeptical, but again, that may not be the actual point. The Democrats thought they could quietly slip these pardons through without scrutiny. Thanks to President Trump’s strategic move, the American people will get to see exactly how the sausage is made in Biden’s White House, and it’s not pretty.

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“..It’s approximately 80,000 pages..”

• Trump Says JFK Files Will Be Released Tuesday Without Redactions (JTN)

President Donald Trump announced on Monday at the Kennedy Center that the files regarding former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination will be released on Tuesday without redactions. “We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files,” Trump said. “So people have been waiting for decades for this, and I’ve instructed my people that are responsible, lots of different people, put together by Tulsi Gabbard, and that’s going to be released tomorrow.” The release will happen Tuesday afternoon, The Daily Wire reported.

“We have a tremendous amount of paper. You’ve got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything. I said, just don’t redact. You can’t redact,” Trump added. “But we’re going to be releasing the JFK files, and that would be tomorrow.” “It’s approximately 80,000 pages,” he said. “So it’s a lot of stuff, and you’ll make your own determination.” Trump said that the documents will be released without summaries so the public and media could drawn their own conclusions.

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“..because these were congressional records, the president lacked the authority to release them to the public without the assent of the House of Representatives.”

• Key to Uncovering Truth About MLK Assassination Lies With Congress (DS)

Since his return to the White House, President Donald Trump is close to signing 100 executive orders. The deluge has put the corporate media, and sometimes Congress, on their heels. Nevertheless, Congress is coming alongside Trump to keep one of his more interesting campaign promises: to declassify records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., recently announced the formation of a congressional task force whose purpose is to examine declassified material in the public interest. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., will lead the task force, which will examine the government records that are declassified pursuant to Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order, among other things.

Luna explained that the “mission” of the task force is “to ensure these documents are released swiftly and in their entirety, giving the American people the truth they deserve.” As Luna has repeatedly noted on social media, the task force itself has no declassification authority, which is the exclusive prerogative of the president. Nonetheless, it can support the declassification of government records related to these assassinations by holding government officials accountable for any attempts to obstruct the timely release of these records to the public.Indeed, in a recent post on X, Luna stated, “If @POTUS’ executive order to declassify these files is obstructed, we won’t hesitate to hold those responsible accountable. Remember: [Attorney General] Pam Bondi is at the DOJ [Department of Justice] now. If Congress votes to hold someone in contempt, she’ll back us.

”While it is true that Congress has no declassification authority over records of the executive branch, this does not mean that Congress has no role to play in the complete declassification and public release of government records related to these assassinations. This is particularly true with respect to the assassination of King. In 1977, the House of Representatives established the Select Committee on Assassinations, which was tasked with reinvestigating the assassinations of President Kennedy and King. Two years later, the committee released its findings. Albeit couched in highly tentative terms, the committee concluded that both Kennedy and King were assassinated “as a result of a conspiracy.”

Per House rules at the time, all records associated with these investigations were sealed from public access for 50 years—until Jan. 3, 2029. With the passage of the JFK Records Act in 1992, however, the timeline for the public release of the committee’s records related to the Kennedy assassination was superseded and became subject to immediate release with only the most sensitive records being withheld until Oct. 26, 2017. Although some of these records required declassification by executive agencies prior to public release, the vast majority did not. More importantly, because these were congressional records, the president lacked the authority to release them to the public without the assent of the House of Representatives.

Thus, if Trump intends to declassify and publicly release “all records in the federal government’s possession” pertaining to the assassination of King, he will need the House of Representatives to assent to the release of all its records relating to the committee’s investigation of the assassination in advance of its original Jan. 3, 2029, deadline. Accordingly, Luna and her colleagues can strike an immediate blow for full government transparency by requesting that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., instruct the House Clerk to make these records available immediately to the public. Undoubtedly, the House Clerk will determine that some of these records require a declassification review by the president, but that doesn’t mean the public has to wait for declassification to see the rest of the evidence committee investigators relied upon to support their conclusion that King was assassinated “as a result of a conspiracy.”

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Independence.

• The Strongest Case for Trump’s Tariffs I’ve Heard Yet (Margolis)

Donald Trump’s tariff policies remain a lightning rod for debate. Democrats are sounding the alarm, warning of dire economic fallout and painting a picture of looming catastrophe. Batya Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor of Newsweek, made one of the strongest, most effective cases yet for former President Donald Trump’s tariffs during the latest episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher.” She broke down exactly why these tariffs are necessary, and by the end, she left Bill Maher flustered. Ungar-Sargon’s explanation couldn’t have been clearer: manufacturing jobs and economic nationalism are crucial for the American middle class.When the conversation turned to the economy of the 1970s, Ungar-Sargon wasted no time explaining why so many Americans look back on that era with nostalgia. “In the ‘70s, the largest share of our GDP was in the middle class,” she said. “And that was not separate from the fact that 25% of our economy was in manufacturing.”

Maher sought clarification, asking if that meant “most of what was produced came from the middle, and now it comes from the rich.”“Now, the top 20% controls over 50% of the GDP,” Ungar-Sargon confirmed, highlighting how economic power has been funneled away from the working class. “That manufacturing is still being done; it’s just being done in other countries.”Maher interjected, noting that the jobs have moved overseas for “wages we will not work for.”This, of course, is true, but it also proved Ungar-Sargon’s point. “Yes, that’s exactly right. You’re right, Bill,” Ungar-Sargon responded. “That’s what the tariffs are for. They are to make American workers more competitive in the global market.” She then challenged the defeatist attitude that has allowed China to dominate industries once vital to the American workforce.

“Why are we accepting that there should be a race to the bottom? You know, China, what is its competitive advantage over us? It’s that it pays slave wages. Why should we accept that?” She laid out Trump’s argument for protecting key industries, explaining that his trade policies aren’t just about economics but national security. “Trump says there are five industries that we cannot have any kind of national security without having a stake in them—pharmaceuticals, lumber, steel, aluminum,” she said, adding that she had momentarily forgotten the fifth. “These are really important, that we have a stake in the manufacturing of the things that we need as a nation. So that when China decides that it wants to go to war against us, we’re not relying on them for steel and aluminum in order to fight them.”Maher, clearly caught off guard by the well-reasoned argument, could only muster a flustered response: “Okay, well, at least that’s an answer.”And it was an answer—one the left refuses to confront, because deep down, they know she’s right. Maher certainly seemed to. He had no rebuttal. Why? Because there isn’t one.

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“..what made them “radical” and “crazy” is actually how very American-as-applepie they were.”

• Why Has Trump Finally Pulled The Plug On Deep State Propaganda? (Amar)

He’s done it again. Or rather, they have. As part of their curious slash-and-burn crusade to dismantle – for better or worse – large swathes of the American state from the top, President Donald Trump and his bestie-in-chief Elon Musk with his gang of enforcers at DOGE have put the axe to yet another seven government agencies. Carried out by presidential executive order, this particular blitz is aimed at offices busy with things as diverse as labor dispute mediation and the mitigation of homelessness. The method of Trumpist attack is simple and already familiar: The targeted agencies are not literally shut down, which Trump cannot legally do by decree. Instead, their budgets and staff are pruned so aggressively that they have to cease operations. Yet, tellingly, there is only one kind of cut that has really made centrists, liberals, and the mainstream media furious. Nope, not the hit on the homeless; and not the one on labor relations either.

What caused a ruckus instead is that Trump and Musk have gone after state propaganda. To be precise, state propaganda for the rest of the world. For one of the offices that has been given the Trumpist flamethrower treatment this time is the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). And that is, in reality, the US ministry for propaganda abroad. While it’s a fairly new (2018) label, USAGM’s roots reach deep into the fetid soil of the last century’s Cold War. Originally, there were Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty. Voice of America was founded during World War II and was quickly retooled afterwards to be used as a Cold War propaganda weapon by the CIA. Its younger cousins, Radio Free Europe, founded in 1950, and Radio Liberty (1951) were, literally, CIA fronts.

But that “involvement was kept secret until the late 1960s for fear of Soviet retaliation,” as Encyclopedia Britannica puts it with fine British understatement as well as a whopping portion of brute disinformation: The fact that the CIA remained in hiding was, of course, not due to the big bad Russians (the Soviets at the time) being so terribly scary. It was simply a means to manipulate publics in the East and the West and present what was geopolitically driven propaganda as ‘independent news’. After 1971, the CIA (officially) ended its (direct) control. If you believe that means an agency specializing in lying – and so much worse – was no longer pulling the strings, I have a Ukrainian ‘democracy’, complete with ‘civil society’ and all the fixings, to sell you. Formally, the Board for International Broadcasting took over. It was appointed by the president, which tells you all you need to know about how important this global propaganda machine was to Washington.

Finally, after further label changes, the board morphed into the USAGM. It ended up controlling not just Voice of America, as well as Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty – long merged into RFE/RL – but a host of other outlets, including Radio Free Asia, and the very honest-sounding (not) Office of Cuba Broadcasting. According to USAGM’s own website, it was reaching an audience of 427 million per week in 64 languages, and via traditional broadcasting as well as the internet. Those lucky viewers, listeners, and readers were fed an unhealthy diet corresponding to the US “national interest” (in USAGM’s own terms) of “more than 3,000 hours of original programming each week.”

Say what you will about this American ministry of foreign propaganda, but it was bigger and richer than anything comparable the poor old Soviets ever managed to rig up. And that is the organization that Trump and Musk have just cut down. The Cold War, of course, has long been over. Any reasonable person’s response to this overdue move would be: ‘What took you so long?’ Elon Musk had a point when posting that the propaganda outlets are “just radical crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1bn/year of US taxpayer money.” Except, they were by no means only talking to themselves, unfortunately. And what made them “radical” and “crazy” is actually how very American-as-applepie they were.

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“..peacekeeping and NATO are actually incompatible things..”

• NATO ‘Peacekeepers’ in Ukraine Would Snatch War From the Jaws of Peace (Sp.)

Russia’s demands for “ironclad” guarantees on Ukraine include a firm rejection of NATO “peacekeeping forces” on Ukrainian soil, no matter the “nameplate” the alliance may try to insert them under, Deputy Foreign Minister Grushko has said. What are the uncertainties Russia faces amid peace talks with the US? We asked a top political risk consultant. “Any so-called ‘ironclad’ guarantees for Russia will likely come down to one thing: keeping Ukraine out of NATO. That, along with a promise that Western powers will stop meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, would be the only realistic foundation for any lasting settlement,” foreign affairs analyst, political risk consultant and lawyer Adriel Kasonta explained.

“But here’s the problem —when has the West ever been good at keeping its promises to Russia? Time and again, Western leaders have made commitments only to walk them back when it suits their interests. NATO expansion was never supposed to reach Russia’s doorstep, yet here we are. Obama and Bush both spoke of ‘resets’ with Moscow, only for relations to deteriorate further,” Kasonta told Sputnik. “Now, Trump is pushing for a deal with Russia, not out of goodwill, but because he sees China as the bigger threat,” the observer said. “The question is, what happens after him? What stops a future U.S. administration from reversing course once again? If history is anything to go by, Russia has every reason to stay on high alert.” “If we’re talking about NATO peacekeeping forces, peacekeeping and NATO are actually incompatible things,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with Russian media on Sunday.

“We know the history of NATO, and although they boast very much about being a defensive alliance, the real history of NATO consists of military operations, aggression against unarmed states without justification, just to emphasize once again its hegemony in global and regional affairs,” Grushko said. “Therefore, all these conversations” about NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine “are absolutely inappropriate. They are absurd. And I think that even the average person in the West understands the real cost of this kind of deployment…We absolutely do not care under which nameplate NATO contingents could be deployed on the territory of Ukraine, whether the EU, NATO or in a national capacity. In any case, if they appear there with the consent of Ukraine, that means they are located in the conflict zone, with all the consequences” this entails, Grushko stressed.

“Moscow already views Western involvement in Ukraine—whether through arms shipments or foreign fighters—as an indirect war,” Kasonta said, commenting on the deputy foreign minister’s remarks. “Sending NATO troops would remove any ambiguity, risking escalation on a whole new level.” As for the UK, whose government is reportedly prepared to deploy peacekeeping troops of its own to Ukraine “for years,” “London is just following Washington’s lead,” the observer said.“The UK doesn’t have the military capacity or public support to play a serious role in Ukraine. No one in Britain is eager to send troops to die in a war that doesn’t concern them. The only people who seem to care are politicians who have spent years hyping up the conflict and now can’t admit they were wrong. Rather than face reality, they double down, pretending that the war is still winnable.” Kasonta summed up.

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Another way to feed the lawfare machine: print money wherever and whenever you want.

• Musk: Feds’ “Magic Money Computers” Issue Payments “Out Of Thin Air” (ZH)

Elon Musk says that DOGE has discovered the US government has “magic money computers” that make payments “out of thin air.” Sitting down with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his podcast that was recorded at the White House, Cruz said: “One of the things you told me about is what you called, ‘Magic Money Computers.’ So tell us about it, ’cause I never heard of that ’til you brought it up.”

Musk: “Okay, so, you may think like the government computers all talk to each other, they synchronize, they add up what funds are going somewhere. And, that they’re coherent … And that the numbers that you’re presented as a Senator are actually the real numbers.”
Cruz: “One would think!”
Musk: “One would think – they’re not … I mean they’re not totally wrong, but they’re probably off by five percent or 10 percent in some cases. So, I call it ‘Magic Money Computer’: any computer that can make money out of thin air. That’s magic money.”
Cruz: “So how does that work?” Cruz asked.
Musk: “It just issues payments.”
Cruz: “And you said there’s something like 11 of these computers at Treasury that are sending out trillions in payments?”
Musk replied that they’re mostly at the Department of Treasury, and others are at the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Department of Defense.
Musk: “We’ve found now 14 ‘Magic Money Computers. They just send money out of nothing.”

Musk also told Cruz that DOGE will save taxpayers $1 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2026… “If you look at DOGE now, you look at the government and what you’re finding, what percentage have you guys even gotten to and how much of it is ‘mars’ where you haven’t even gotten there yet because there’s so much you’re finding out here,” asked co-host Ben Ferguson. “You seem like a timeline guy – when you say ‘I want to get in there and get numbers and things’ – how far are we from the endgame, where you’ve seen it all – you know, to process it all, and fix it. Are we years away? Months away?” Musk: “Not years. I’m reasonably confident that we’ll be able to get a trillion dollars of waste and fraud out, meaning that it will have, we’ll have a net savings of FY26 of a trillion dollars, provided we’re allowed to continue and our progress is not impeded.”

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Very tough and dehumanizing. But the gang members appear dehumanized anyway.

• Bukele: New Partnership With US Advances Fight Against Organized Crime (JTN)

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said it’s partnership with the U.S. on transferring illegal immigrants linked to gang activity to prison in El Salvador helps both countries crack down on crime. Under Bukele, the homicide rate has dropped to its lowest point since the civil war in El Salvador in 1992.”The first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable). The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us,” Bukele wrote on X.”Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable. As of today, it costs $200 million per year,” he added.

Bukele said the partnership is helping dismantle the MS-13 gang. “On this occasion, the U.S. has also sent us 23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice, including two ringleaders. One of them is a member of the criminal organization’s highest structure. This will help us finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors,” he said. “As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime. But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action. May God bless El Salvador, and may God bless the United States,” he added.

Bukele

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“..before he became associated with green beer and leprechauns, Saint Patrick was a symbol of freedom of speech.”

• Celebrate Saint Patrick by Chasing Censors Out of Ireland (Turley)

With the arrival of Saint Patrick’s Day, our nation’s close affinity to Ireland was on full display in the White House as President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin. We are two countries joined by blood and tradition. Of course, there are tensions over trade conflicts with the European Union and Ireland, which quickly came to the surface in the meeting. In the end, however, we are likely to resolve those trade problems. The fact is that we need each other, both economically and culturally. Yet, there is one chasm between the two countries that not only remains wide but is widening: the gap between how each country handles free speech. And Martin would much prefer to talk about Irish socks than Irish censorship. Ironically, before he became associated with green beer and leprechauns, Saint Patrick was a symbol of freedom of speech.

Although there is no evidence beyond pious legend that he chased snakes out of Ireland (there likely never were snakes in Ireland), he did chase slavery and human sacrifice out of the country, despite the initial unpopularity of his reforms. A former slave himself, St. Patrick’s public statements against slavery, paganism and longstanding traditions were viewed as harmful to social tranquility and harmony. Does that sound familiar? Today, Ireland, like many of our European allies, is shredding free speech with laws criminalizing viewpoints and regulating speech by its content. “Irish eyes [may be] smiling,” but Irish tongues are increasingly silent in the face of government investigations and prosecutions. The growing conflict between the U.S. and the Irish could not be more telling.

Irish immigrants, including some of my relatives, came to this country to live freely, and many soon became lawyers fighting for individual rights. Just before Martin’s arrival in Washington, his government was hammering Elon Musk and conservative sites in the latest crackdown on free speech. The most recent flashpoint was a small pro-life platform called Gript, a rallying point for many in his Catholic country who oppose abortion. The government demanded that X turn over Gript’s data on sources and users. An Irish court on June 13, 2024, sought the data on private accounts as well as IP addresses and messages linked to Gript coverage of the April protests against Ireland’s housing of documented migrants. The violence in those protests gave the Irish government another justification to curtail free speech.

In yet another defining moment for Musk on free speech, he not only resisted but informed Irish citizens what the government was doing. That transparency and opposition sent the Irish government into a full-on rage. After the arrest of 34 people and extensive property damage in the anti-immigration protests, the government moved to expand on its already draconian anti-free-speech laws. A new bill was introduced criminalizing “preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics.” That includes any material concerning national or ethnic origin, as well as protected characteristics including “transgender and a gender other than those of male and female.”

The bill included crimes relating to “xenophobia” and can be committed merely by the “public dissemination or distribution of tracts, pictures or other material.” Then-Prime Minister Leo Varadkar declared his intent to “modernize laws against hatred” by criminalizing speech that his government decides is “incitement.” He stated an intention to not only stop those engaged in violence but those who say things that might arouse their anger. The powerful Irish Green Party was all-in with censorship and speech prosecutions. As Green Party Sen. Pauline O’Reilly admitted, “We are restricting freedom, but we’re doing it for the common good.”

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“This incomplete picture painted a grim outlook of crop yields declining with only modest warming..”

“The additional information showed “positive average output gains for all crop types across the warming scenarios even up to 5 degrees Celsius..”

• Study Destroys Basis of EPA Climate Regulations (Jayaraj)

For two decades, the public has been bombarded with dire warnings of an impending climate-induced agricultural apocalypse. The claim is that a climate warmed excessively by the carbon dioxide emissions of human activity will ravage the food supply and plunge humanity into famine and chaos. For many reasons, none of this ever made sense. Now, a new study published in Scientific Reports has turned this narrative of catastrophe on its head, revealing that a global temperature rise of even 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) would not reduce crop yields—and might even increase harvests. The paper, written by economist Ross McKitrick, dismantles a key pillar of the Biden administration’s always-suspect upward revision of the “social cost of carbon”—a metric used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to quantify the supposed economic damage of carbon dioxide emissions.

The fivefold increase of the social cost of carbon—from $51 per ton of carbon dioxide to more than $250—was based partly on the assumption that warming would devastate agriculture. The new findings aren’t just a minor correction to the scientific record; they are a reversal of dangerous conclusions drawn from sloppy—perhaps even fraudulent—analyses. Everything we’ve been told about climate change and food security is wrong. How did the EPA arrive at a social cost of carbon that equates with mass starvation? In 2014, a widely cited meta-analysis of crop-model studies claimed that a warming climate would slash global crop yields, an assertion that fed into subsequent models that influenced the Biden EPA’s social cost of carbon hike.

That original dataset, however, was flawed—crippled by missing variables. Of its 1,722 records, nearly half lacked critical data, such as changes in CO2 concentrations, leaving only 862 usable entries. This incomplete picture painted a grim outlook of crop yields declining with only modest warming. McKitrick, undeterred by what had become climate orthodoxy, dug deeper. By revisiting the source material, he recovered 360 additional records, bringing the total to 1,222—about a 40% increase in usable data. The additional information showed “positive average output gains for all crop types across the warming scenarios even up to 5 degrees Celsius”—a temperature jump far beyond warming predictions of the U.N.’s International Panel on Climate Change. This isn’t cherry-picking; it’s what happens when the full scope of evidence is examined.

“If over the next 100-200 years, yields of all crop types increase, it does not stand to reason that a global trade model could generate global welfare reductions,” writes McKitrick in his concluding remarks. McKitrick’s findings, grounded in a more comprehensive dataset, suggest the doomsday assumption was built on sand. Far from heralding a collapse, the data show crop yields at least holding steady and even improving with significant warming. Moreover, plants are not too frail for a warming world. They’re built to thrive in the contemporary temperatures of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Most crops fall into two categories: C3 and C4 plants, so named to reflect their different photosynthetic processes. C3 crops, such as wheat, rice, and soybeans, flourish in elevated CO2 conditions characteristic of the 21st century.Carbon dioxide is food to plants, necessary for the process of photosynthesis—a process where oxygen is a byproduct. Higher levels of CO2 act like a supercharger, boosting photosynthesis and water-use efficiency. Studies have long shown that CO2 enrichment in greenhouses can increase C3 yields by 20% to 40%. C4 crops—like corn and sorghum—are less responsive to CO2 but do well in hotter, drier conditions. In summary, if crop yields don’t crash—if they hold steady or grow—the rationale for a sky-high social cost of carbon disappears.

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“..possibly due to increased exposure to visual media..”

• People Becoming More Stupid (RT)

Human intellectual abilities such as reasoning and problem-solving are diminishing, possibly due to increased exposure to visual media, the Financial Times (FT) has reported. Human intelligence appeared to peak in the early 2010s and has been in decline since, the FT added, citing PISA, an international benchmarking test for 15-year-olds that includes reading, mathematics and science, and adult cognitive evaluations. The reported trend comes amid a rise in artificial intelligence (AI) which, by some estimates, may surpass human IQ in a matter of years.The recorded spike in the share of high school students who reported difficulties in PISA tests coincides with a broad change in people’s relationship with information, such as the transition away from reading and towards visual content, the publication explained.

While active, intentional use of digital technologies can often be beneficial, being passively exposed to infinite content on social media coupled with frequent context-switching has been shown to negatively impact attention span, memory, and self-regulation. The documented decline in reading among Americans reportedly comes alongside a decrease in numeracy and other forms of problem-solving in most countries. Human intellectual capabilities, such as critical thinking, have also been impacted by generative AI, according to recent research by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University. Outsourcing thoughts to AI leaves people’s minds “atrophied and unprepared,” which can lead to “the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.”

Companies and governments have poured billions into AI research, focusing on areas such as machine learning, natural language processing, and automation. Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have introduced increasingly sophisticated models, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, capable of performing complex cognitive tasks.AI could become smarter than humans in the next three years, tech billionaire Elon Musk warned in December, shortly after his AI company, xAI, launched its first image generation model, Aurora.

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Sums up the day.

• Federal Judge Orders Astronauts Be Returned To Space Station (BBee)

A district judge has issued a ruling saying Trump lacked the Constitutional authority to pick up two astronauts who have been stranded at the International Space Station for several months. SpaceX has been ordered to return the astronauts immediately. “I will not stand by while Donald Trump abuses his power like a dictator,” said Judge Earl Flanders in his ruling. “Trump has no authority to pick up these astronauts, and I can say that because I’m a federal judge, and no one is allowed to argue with me, and everyone has to do what I say.” Eyewitnesses say the judge then donned a Keffiyeh and spray painted a Cybertruck while screaming “Black Lives Matter.”

Sources in Washington say Trump plans to brazenly ignore the lawful order and bring the astronauts home anyway. “This is just the kind of wanton lawlessness we should expect from a dictator who is literally Hitler,” said one legal analyst. The SpaceX craft docked at the ISS on Sunday and was preparing for the return journey to Earth when the orders stopped the process short. “Please bring us home, I just want a cheeseburger and a nap in a horizontal bed,” said one of the crew. At publishing time, Trump was polling at 100% approval among the stranded astronaut demographic.

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Extremism

 

 

Feynman
https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1901604907519467850

 

 

 

 

Scent
https://twitter.com/Yoda4ever/status/1901267216043024582

 

 

Mozart

 

 

Scott

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle January 22 2025

Jan 222025
 
 January 22, 2025  Posted by at 11:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  61 Responses »


Salvador Dali Remorse – Sphinx Embedded in the Sand 1931

 

• Biden Family Pardons ‘Unfortunate’ – Trump (RT)
• Was Biden China’s Manchurian Candidate The Entire Time? (ZH)
• Joe Biden Delivers the Final Blow to Mainstream Media (Turley)
• Trump Roars Back Into Office: Why US Vassals Are Panicking (Marsden)
• Trump Orders to Rename Gulf of Mexico into Gulf of America (Sp.)
• Ukraine Conflict ‘Needs To End’ – Rubio (RT)
• The Ukraine Conflict Is Reshaping The Global Order (Sushentov)
• Zelensky Demands At Least 200,000 ‘Peacekeepers’ On Ukrainian Soil (RT)
• Dmitri Rogozin On Fighting and Finishing The War Differently (Helmer)
• Trump Renames US Landmarks (RT)
• Trump Starts US Withdrawal From WHO – Again (RT)
• Trump Delivered His J6 Pardons, Now Congress Must Decide (JTN)
• Joe Biden’s Absolute Destruction of Freedom of Speech (Jay)
• How the Justice Department Made the Case for the J6 Pardons (Turley)
• 2025: The Year the Global Order Unravels (Nick Giambruno)

 

 

 

Mearsheimer
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881478190130147743

Tucker

YMCA

UK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881369794324365376

Pre-emptive
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881441726101160141

Raskin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881542560759660709

 

 

 

 

The perfect term in the circumstances.

• Biden Family Pardons ‘Unfortunate’ – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump criticized his predecessor Joe Biden on Monday for pre-emptively pardoning his family members as one of his last acts in office. Biden granted clemency on Monday to his relatives, including his brother James Biden, who has been accused by Republicans of influence-peddling and making false statements to Congress. In early December, the former president issued a controversial blanket pardon to his son Hunter, expunging his criminal record of a gun crime conviction. Following his inauguration, Trump commented on Biden’s final order of leniency at an executive order-signing ceremony, saying “it was unfortunate that he did that.”

The president made similar remarks at Capital One Arena in Washington shortly after taking office, where he also reiterated his intention to pardon hundreds of people convicted for their roles in the 2021 Capitol riot. Trump claimed he had followed the advice of his aides not to mention Biden’s use of clemency powers during his inauguration address. ”I finished my speech, and they said, ‘Sir he pardoned his whole family’. I said: ‘Oh, can I go back out there and talk about it?’,” Trump told cheering supporters, adding: “We have plenty of time to talk about it.” Biden has also shielded from prosecution former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and members of the congressional committee, which investigated the Capitol riot.

In a text cited by NBC anchor Kristen Welker, Trump reportedly called the order “disgraceful”, adding that “many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES.” Biden has emphasized that his “issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing.” Democrats have reasoned that Trump could abuse his presidential power in order to pursue a personal vendetta. Critics, including Milley, denounced Trump as a “fascist” during his second presidential campaign. The Republican accused his opponents of conducting a political “witch hunt” against him. Trump’s campaign victory has set a precedent, as he became the first US president to be elected after being convicted of a felony, stemming from a case in New York involving hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

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Billions for the Biden family.

• Was Biden China’s Manchurian Candidate The Entire Time? (ZH)

“Was Biden China’s Manchurian candidate the entire time?” David Asher, an expert on illicit financing who previously worked at the US Defense and State Departments, asked on X, following the last-minute pardons that former President Biden issued on Monday morning for family members, including his brother, James Biden; his sister-in-law, Sara Jones Biden; his sister, Valerie Biden Owens; his brother-in-law, John T. Owens; and his youngest brother, Francis Biden. Asher said, “Biden just pardoned his family, not just Hunter. It’s a clear indication that they have a secret to cover up. Bohai (aka BHR) is worth billions. Via beneficial interest, Biden family may own up to 27%.” Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, Hunter Biden’s “sugar brother,” purchased Hunter’s 10% stake in the China-backed investment firm BHR Partners during President Biden’s first year in office. The move allowed the Biden family to declare they had divested from foreign business interests. Asher noted, “Hunter says he sold his shares in 2021 to his lawyer/landlord Smith but if that truly happened he would received several billion dollars,” adding, “No evidence of that. All signs are he owns at least 18.8%.”

“Bohai appears to own China defense company, Zhongkui Group as well. So potential direct ties to the People’s Liberation Army and domestic/foreign Chinese intelligence. WTF??” Asher emphasized. [..] Asher questioned: “Are their associates (Bulger, Morris, et al.) “beneficial shareholders” and have been the whole time? What did they do to be given “golden” founders shares, to begin with, if not for the Biden’s?” He continued, “Their shares apparently were worth hundreds of millions and possibly billions, at least on paper? So they received this from a Chinese Communist Party company – it is apparently the oldest private equity fund in all of China. While Biden was Vice President and then President? Why are Hunter’s buddies still on the board and or “supervisors.” What’s the deal between Whitey Bulger’s family and the Bidens? Was Biden a Manchurian candidate for the ChiComms?” Asher reposted a clip of Peter Schweizer, who said the Biden family pardons are merely “an extension of Joe Biden himself and his role in the family’s dealings.”

Earlier, the former president said blanket pardons to family members do not acknowledge wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be viewed as an admission of guilt. They cover all nonviolent offenses beginning on Jan. 1, 2014. This comes as various Biden family members have been under investigation for influence peddling. [..] Speaking with The Hill on Monday, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY.) said the pardons “validated” the investigations into Biden family members. “We finished our investigation, we published a very detailed report, and I think the pardons validate everything in that report,” Comer said, adding, “Now it’s Pam Bondi’s.” Asher continued, “Trump is making history on day one. We are going to end the BS in the USG and make things in government and for the people more than great again. Trump’s better than he’s ever been before. Even old line conservatives need to get on board.”

“If I get back in, the deep State will be upended and we will make the Department of State great again under Secretary Rubio— who is a total genius and tremendous leader under the president. China will pay for COVID and fentanyl. Iran will not be forgiven for attempting to kill the president and many others while it moves to build nukes to destabilize the Middle East and threaten the US and Europe. We can do a great deal without resorting to kinetic force. Peace through strength!” he concluded. The key takeaway is that the last-minute pardons for various members of the Biden family prompted Asher to conduct a public forensic analysis, which raises more questions than answers—particularly about whether Hunter still has ties (potentially beneficial interest) to BHR despite allegedly divesting several years ago.

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“It was done in the final minutes because it was raw and obvious. There is no pretense or apology. Just good old-fashioned corruption Biden-style.”

• Joe Biden Delivers the Final Blow to Mainstream Media (Turley)

At 11:45 am, the media felt the final sting of the Biden scandal. It was delivered by President Joe Biden, who shattered any pretense of principle in pardoning family members allegedly implicated in the influence-peddling corruption scandal. According to an old fable, a scorpion convinced a leery frog to carry him across a river, noting that he could not sting him since they would both drown. Halfway across, the scorpion struck and the frog asked why he would doom them both. The scorpion replied “I am sorry, but I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s in my nature.” For those of us who have written about the corruption of the Biden family for decades, the pardons were crushingly predictable. The President simply couldn’t resist the urge.

In a city where corruption is a cottage industry, the Bidens have long been in a league of their own, from nepotism to influence peddling to illicit lobbying. In the influence-peddling scandal, millions were generated from foreign sources in virtual plain view. There were the luxury hotel rooms, a diamond, a sports car, and massive payments called “loans. In the summer of 2019, one Chinese businessman wired Hunter Biden $250,000 using Joe Biden’s Delaware home as the beneficiary address.” The sense of absolute impunity came out in shake-down communications. For example, there was the WhatsApp message to a Chinese businessman openly threatening the displeasure of Joe Biden if money was not forked over without delay. In the message, Hunter warned:

“I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.” That sense of impunity was due to mainstream media forming a protective shell around the family. The media refused to pursue the scandal despite the Hunter Biden laptop and clear evidence of influence peddling.

In 2020, CBS News’s Lesley Stahl literally laughed mockingly at then-President Donald Trump when he raised the Hunter Biden laptop and what it revealed about the Bidens. (Yet Stahl still recently expressed confusion and alarm that people were abandoning legacy media for new media.) Reporters assured citizens that the laptop was presumptive “Russian disinformation.” Even after the media belatedly acknowledged that it was authentic, MSNBC and Washington Post analysts were still making the claim last year. After Republicans in the House detailed millions in payments, the media shifted to claiming that there was no real scandal unless it was shown that Joe Biden actually received money directly. It was a ridiculous claim since courts have long treated money going to family members as the same as going directly to a principal as criminal conduct.

The media continued to protect Biden, as evidence showed that Biden had repeatedly lied about not meeting with Hunter’s clients or not having knowledge of his foreign dealings. As the media narrative continued to collapse, it latched on the promise of Biden that he would never pardon his son – proof that the President was willing to let the criminal justice system run its course.

Biden then was shown to be lying about the pardon promise. After he was forced out of the election, Biden signed a pardon for any crimes over a decade committed by his son. The media gave muttered “harrumphs” and moved on. Many said that it was understandable for a father of a son who struggled with drugs. Now, in the final minutes of his presidency, Biden pardoned his other allegedly implicated family members, including James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens, and Francis Biden. James Biden was previously referred for criminal charges for lying under oath to Congress as part of its investigation into the corruption scandal. The pardons were clearly timed to avoid media scrutiny and questions. While he described the act as one of “conscience,” it was an almost mocking act of corruption.

In a strange way, it passed in Bidenworld as an honest moment. There were no claims of supporting an addicted son or dealing with a pending case. It was done in the final minutes because it was raw and obvious. There is no pretense or apology. Just good old-fashioned corruption Biden-style. It was as honest a moment as when Biden told a friend that “no one f**ks with a Biden.” There was nothing revealing in this about Biden. He could shrug and say, “It’s in my nature.” The sting instead fell on the media, which trusted Biden not to demean it further with such an unethical and disgraceful final act. The funny thing is that Biden made it across the river. He boarded his final flight with his family (and himself) protected by the misuse of his presidential authority. However, if he looked out the window, he could see his media allies slipping stunned beneath the waters.

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“You didn’t have to dedicate bandwidth to navigating lunacy like which pronouns you should be using when you meet someone. Or whether to chop off your kid’s junk before the school demands it for his mental health..”

• Trump Roars Back Into Office: Why US Vassals Are Panicking (Marsden)

It’s shock and awe time for Uncle Sam’s allies in the clown car who have mindlessly gone along for the ride. Not only is freshly re-minted US President Donald Trump reversing course at breakneck speed but, if his newly declared priorities are any indication, he seems to be headed, pedal to the metal, all the way back to the 80s. One has to look back about 40 years to find a “simpler” time in Western society. Life was straightforward. You worked, earned a commensurate livable wage, and focused on your life and that of your family. Period. You didn’t have to dedicate bandwidth to navigating lunacy like which pronouns you should be using when you meet someone. Or whether to chop off your kid’s junk before the school demands it for his mental health and suggests you be re-educated if you object. Or whether your neighborhood soon risked looking like it was transplanted, in toto, from a foreign country.

Or whether there was stuff hidden inside your food that would only make its presence known once it had latched onto your inexplicably ever-widening backside. You knew about the foreign wars, and that they were a boon to the military industrial complex, but you didn’t get the impression that the country that was being invaded was like a foster child, commanding so many resources and attention that they were considered a big reason why your own life sucked. You figured that the folks in charge at least had enough sense to put the oxygen mask on their own people first. Now, it’s like Westerners in general are just supposed to embrace the martyrdom, gasping away and accepting to make the best of it. Americans ultimately rejected it all when they elected Trump. And if his recent executive orders within hours of taking office are any indication, he isn’t wasting any time on setting the Time Machine to a return to the pre-woke era.

With a stroke of the presidential pen, he’s now brought back the two-gender reality, deprived men of the opportunity to excel in women’s sports, and terminated government-sponsored diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. As a woman who has championed first- and second-wave feminism, the kind that ended by the 80s before being hijacked by lunacy that perverted the interests of women and minorities – it’s about damn time. The Democrats have had a long run at corrupting the once honorable struggle for equality. “This war against women started a long time ago with old Democrats who took over the Republican Party, which was, before that, the very first to support the Equal Rights Amendment,” second-wave American feminist icon and “Ms.” Magazine founder, Gloria Steinem, explained to The Humanist in 2012.

“Even when the National Women’s Political Caucus started, there was a whole Republican feminist entity. But beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, right-wing Democrats like Jesse Helms began to leave the Democratic Party and gradually take over the GOP,” she said. Democrats ultimately ensured that everyone would become paralyzed by self-censorship in standing up against divisive and woke left policies, for the fear or being cancelled at best and officially sanctioned at worst. Trump has now taken that threat and others off the table, ordering that “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” He’s also made it illegal to use any government resources to infringe on free speech.

Trump also made a long anticipated presidential pardon and commutation order that effectively places the January 2021 Capitol Hill rioters on par with the much less stigmatized and prosecuted antifa counterparts on the other side of the ideological coin. And he’s tasked the armed forces with actually defending the US by placing them at the border, and slapping the terrorist label on cartels endangering the US rather than on a group on the other side of the world in a country targeted for the “liberation” of its natural resources. Trump has now pulled the US out of the Paris Climate straitjacket, er, agreement. You know, the one that was such a brilliant idea that it’s proven to be a total failure. Maybe next time don’t try to legislate the temperature of the entire planet, and make it seem like citizens could do their part by yelling at their neighbor to recycle his Coke cans.

Trump also ordered a withdrawal from the World Health Organization, citing costs and its “mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.” He’s basically doing everything that he figures will make the US wealthier, from lifting the ban on Alaskan oil drilling to declaring a national energy emergency. And he doesn’t seem too interested in continuing or starting wars unless he can see a clear net return on investment for the hassle. “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” Trump said in his inaugural address.

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Much more yet to come.

• Trump Orders to Rename Gulf of Mexico into Gulf of America (Sp.)

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered renaming the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America, according to an executive order published by the White House. “Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall… take all appropriate actions to rename as the “Gulf of America” the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico,” the order read. The secretary will also have to remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database to reflect the change.

Pardoning Capitol Rioters
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to pardon approximately 1,500 people who took part in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The order was the first one Trump signed upon arrival at the White House as the 47th President of the United States. More than 1,570 defendants have been federally charged with crimes related to the January 6 attack, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Vice President Joe Biden’s victory.

Plans to Rebuild US Military
US President Donald Trump has said he is planning to rebuild the US military, as he did during his first presidential term. “We totally rebuilt the United States military in 2017-2019 … now, we are going to do it again,” Trump said during the inaugural ball. He also added that the US military will be so strong “that we don’t have to use it.”

Withdrawing from the World Health Organization
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). The president criticized the organization’s funding policies, namely the fact that the US is being demanded to pay more than China, whose population is bigger. In May 2020, Trump, during his first presidential term, announced that the country would withdraw from the WHO following his criticism of the organization’s coronavirus response. His successor, Joe Biden, retracted Trump’s decision on his first day in office.

Foreign Aid Suspension
Trump has signed an executive order to suspend foreign development aid for 90 days to assess these programs’ compliance with the US foreign policy. “By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered … (a) 90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy,” the order said, as quoted by the White House.

Declaration of Emergency
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to declare a national emergency at the country’s southern border. “This is a proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border of the United States,” an announcer said during a ceremony. On Monday, Fox News reported that Trump would sign 11 executive orders to deploy the military to the southern border, immediately resume construction of the border wall and direct federal agencies to reinstate the Remain-in-Mexico policy, among other things.

Boosting US Energy Market Standing
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order boosting energy production in the US. The order provides for easing “permitting processes and other regulatory systems” to ensure effective drilling in the country.

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Wonder if Rubio and Trump realize how little wiggle room Russia has left after incorporating Crimea and the 4 regions. They can’t just make them subject to negotiations.

• Ukraine Conflict ‘Needs To End’ – Rubio (RT)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that US President Donald Trump will begin working on a ceasefire agreement for Ukraine “almost immediately.” Rubio was the first high-level cabinet member of the new Trump administration to be confirmed by the Senate on Monday following Trump’s inauguration. Speaking to journalists shortly afterwards, Rubio said Ukraine will be a “top priority” for Trump and that efforts to reach a ceasefire will begin straight away, but did not give a specific timeframe for ending the conflict with Russia. Some of the groundwork has “already been laid,” Rubio said, adding that it will be a complicated process. “I mean, it’s a complex conflict and a bloody one, and it needs to end,” CNN quoted him as saying.

Rubio insisted that both Ukraine and Russia will have to concede “something” as part of any deal, but he did not elaborate on what such concessions might be. Asked for specifics, Rubio said negotiations with such high stakes “are best conducted through diplomacy” rather than public forums. “Obviously the countries involved, both the Russians and the Ukrainians, will have to make ultimate decisions about what they agreed to,” Rubio said. During his campaign for president, Trump had repeatedly promised to resolve the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours” if returned to the White House. Asked on Monday following his inauguration whether he would keep that promise, Trump joked that he had “half a day left.” Trump also reiterated his willingness to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with a view to finding a diplomatic settlement of the crisis, saying that he wants to get it done “as quickly as possible” and that the conflict “should never have started.”

CNN reported on Monday that Trump has instructed aides to set up a phone call with Putin within the first few days of his term. The call is expected to lay the groundwork for meetings aimed at ending the conflict over the coming months, CNN said. Responding to that report on Tuesday, Putin’s foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow had not been contacted by the White House yet. Putin extended good wishes to Trump ahead of his inauguration on Monday, saying he “welcomes” the new president’s comments about wanting to restore relations with Moscow and “the need to do everything to prevent World War Three.” Moscow remains committed to its principles and believes that dialogue must be built on an “equal and mutually respectful basis,” Putin said.

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“Ukraine has become both a key instrument and a weak link in the American strategy.”

• The Ukraine Conflict Is Reshaping The Global Order (Sushentov)

The era of monolithic “Atlantic solidarity” is over, and Russia has been a major catalyst for this erosion. The United States has emerged as the primary beneficiary of the Ukraine crisis. Relations between Russia and Western Europe have been disrupted, energy infrastructure has been undermined, and the EU has been compelled to overpay Washington for military and energy supplies. However, the Americans will derive limited benefit from a deep normalization of relations: ties with Moscow will remain distant, and the tools for pressuring its European NATO allies will weaken. The interaction between the US and its European “friends” has long been viewed as a unified “transatlantic project,” based on a shared vision of security and common values. But the rise of incoming US President Donald Trump exposed fractures within this construct.

His November election win was warmly welcomed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who anticipated economic gains for his country. In contrast, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns and urged EU partners to consolidate against the unpredictability of Trump’s foreign policy, calling for a more united and sovereign Western Europe. Trump’s provocative actions, such as the proposal to annex Greenland, part of NATO ally Denmark, or his threats to withdraw the US from the bloc if European countries do not increase their financial contributions, were not mere eccentricities. These statements represented a departure from the traditional American strategy of acting in cooperation with allies and offering a framework of engagement where loyalty to Washington came with shared benefits for all parties.

It has become clear that the US now prioritizes its national interests above the collective goals of the Euro-Atlantic community. For decades, the West pursued the idea of an expanding “golden billion,” where the transatlantic project sought to absorb more states through economic integration and the spread of liberal democratic values, or military alliances. The goal was to showcase a high standard of living, ideological greatness, and technological superiority to the rest of the world, gradually integrating them into the Western order. Russia’s “red lines” and its push for a multipolar world order – rooted in cooperation with countries of the “world majority” – significantly limited this expansion. A clash became inevitable: the West’s support for nationalist forces in Kiev was aimed at swiftly integrating Ukraine into Euro-Atlantic structures. Moscow, however, saw this as a direct threat to its security.

Today, Trump’s rhetoric has reinforced a “every nation for itself” mentality among European leaders, pushing them toward national self-interest. Political forces in Germany, Italy, and Hungary are increasingly questioning the unconditional support for Washington’s policies. Western Europeans are becoming less enthusiastic about sanctions and military aid to Kiev, while major EU players are calculating how to ensure their own security and economic stability. Although these sentiments are not yet mainstream among Western elites, voices are growing louder that blame the West for deepening the Ukrainian crisis and advocate for rapprochement with Russia. The era of monolithic “Atlantic solidarity” is undeniably over, and Moscow has played a key role in this transformation.

Meanwhile, Kiev itself has refused to negotiate with Russia and rejected the settlement formula discussed during the Istanbul talks. Vladimir Zelensky’s political survival depends on continuing the war, regardless of the toll it takes on Ukraine. This impasse, coupled with America’s strategic gains from the conflict, makes a meaningful resolution unlikely in the near term. The root of the Ukrainian crisis lies in the collision of two grand geopolitical projects: the rigidly homogeneous transatlantic solidarity of the West and Russia’s vision of a multipolar world that embraces the natural diversity of national identities.

Ukraine, especially after the 2014 Maidan coup, has become the central battleground for this competition, a test of which system is more durable and adaptable and which vision better understands global realities and offers the most effective solutions in a world growing increasingly complex and diverse. These questions remain unresolved. Ukraine has become both a key instrument and a weak link in the American strategy. Washington’s attempt to use Kiev as leverage against Moscow has faced staunch resistance from Russia and growing divisions within the transatlantic alliance. The outcome of this struggle may lead to a broader transformation of international relations, with a shift toward a multicentric world order and a rethinking of the US role in Europe.

Read more …

Trump has suspended all foreign aid for now. Zelensky can’t be happy with that.

“..Putin would field a military force of some 2 million against the West..”

“..Putin will certainly return with an army ten times larger than the force he had in early 2022..”

• Zelensky Demands At Least 200,000 ‘Peacekeepers’ On Ukrainian Soil (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has reportedly urged European nations to deploy at least 200,000 troops in his country to enforce a potential ceasefire agreement with Russia. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, he said a lower number of foreign “peacekeepers” would amount to “nothing,” according to Reuters. The remark came after Zelensky’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Previously, several media outlets claimed the UK and France were considering sending troops to Ukraine, in the event that the hostilities are suspended. Zelensky’s attendance at the gathering of international business and political elites coincided with the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the US. Trump’s administration has already paused all foreign aid programs pending review, and has pledged to ensure a swift resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In public remarks on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader urged Western leaders to double down on supplying Kiev with weapons and financial support, warning that if they fail to do so they could face a Russian attack on NATO in the foreseeable future. Russian President Vladimir Putin would field a military force of some 2 million against the West, Zelensky said, offering no evidence for his assertion. ”Unless we have strong security guarantees, be it NATO [membership], or a military contingent and long-range weapons deployed on the Ukrainian territory, Putin will certainly return with an army ten times larger than the force he had in early 2022,” he claimed. Zelensky estimated the number of Russian troops involved in the Ukraine conflict at 200,000 in February 2022, compared to 608,000 at present.

Ukraine has consistently portrayed its army as a bulwark protecting Europe from Russia. Zelensky and other senior figures in Kiev have argued that Western powers are obliged to provide foreign aid, as Ukrainian soldiers are dying in place of Western troops. Moscow has characterized the hostilities as a Western proxy war against Russia, in which Ukrainians are being used as ‘cannon fodder’. Russian officials contend that Washington pushed the tensions to boiling point while ignoring Russian security concerns stemming from NATO’s expansion in Europe, and increasing cooperation with Ukraine. Addressing these issues, Moscow insists, is an essential step towards a lasting resolution to the crisis.

Read more …

“Rozogin’s principles of war policy are acceleration on the offensive; decapitation of Vladimir Zelensky; and comprehensive militarization of the Russian domestic economy..”

• Dmitri Rogozin On Fighting and Finishing The War Differently (Helmer)

In anticipation of the start of end-of-war negotiations between President Donald Trump’s retired general Keith Kellogg and the Kremlin, Dmitri Rogozin has proposed three fresh principles for the Russian outcome – acceleration, decapitation, mobilization. Since 1996 Rogozin is the longest running contestant for the Russian presidency — longer running than Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev, Sergei Glazyev, or Alexei Kudrin; only the serial loser, Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party, has been running for longer. At 61, Rogozin is eleven years younger than President Putin, two years older than ex-president Medvedev, and more than ten centimetres taller than both of them. If sources for Kremlin election strategy are to be believed, the most likely vote-getter to succeed if Putin retires in 2030 will be recruited from the Time of Heroes legion who are being placed into political circulation each December since the Special Military Operation (SVO) began.

With a family of Russian military leaders extending from the 13th and 17th centuries to his father, two doctorates, and state service as Putin’s ambassador to NATO, deputy prime minister for the military industrial complex, and head of the Russian space conglomerate Roskosmos, Rogozin is a unique figure in current politics. As the sitting senator for Zaporozhye region engaged in running an active military unit on the front, Rogozin is combining the military and civilian qualifications for the succession. He has also remained relatively free of oligarch ties; his line on domestic economic planning and investment priorities is anti-oligarch and war mobilizational alongside Glazyev and Mikhail Delyagin. Not even the hit jobs organized by political rivals like Alexei Navalny and the Kiev regime, have been able to silence or kill him.

Rozogin’s principles of war policy are acceleration on the offensive; decapitation of Vladimir Zelensky; and comprehensive militarization of the Russian domestic economy. Last week in a nationally circulated press interview, he called for “victory so that the armed conflict ends faster, so that we can begin a peaceful life faster…The war changes every three months. It becomes impossible to fight in the old way. New means of destruction are emerging. We must keep in mind that here we are fighting against the entire military-industrial complex of the Western countries — they are testing their weapons on us. Therefore, not only do we have no right to lag behind, we must be ahead of the curve.”

“We need solidarity of the rear and the front. Moscow, St. Petersburg, other major Russian cities should stop living their carefree life, pretending that nothing is happening. We will never return to the state that was until 2022. Never. Everyone needs to understand that. Society must understand the depth of the problem and help the army with everything it can. Only victory will bring an end to the conflict. The war cannot be frozen. Or else the war will be inherited by our children and grandchildren.”

Read more …

“McKinley himself never visited Alaska.”

• Trump Renames US Landmarks (RT)

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order renaming Mount Denali, the tallest mountain in the US, and the Gulf of Mexico. The text of the order was released by the White House on Monday. According to the document, titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” the purpose of the renaming is to promote American heritage. Trump had announced the changes in his inaugural speech on Monday. ”The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past,” executive order reads. The mountain in Alaska will once again be called Mount McKinley, its name from 1917 to 2015, when then-US President Barack Obama returned the peak to its original native name.

’McKinley’ bears the name of the 25th US President William McKinley, who led the US to victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898. As a result of the peace treaty, Spain relinquished its claim to Cuba, and ceded sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the United States. The US also annexed the independent state of Hawaii during the conflict, thus expanding its territory. McKinley himself never visited Alaska. The executive order changes the official US term for the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.” The body of water, located in the southeastern region of North America and bordered by the US, Mexico and Cuba, “has long been an integral asset” of the nation and is “an indelible part of America,” the executive order states.

It adds that the gulf’s natural resources and wildlife “remain central” to the national economy. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, first introduced in his 2016 presidential campaign, has been a cornerstone of his latest political initiatives, with the new executive order emphasizing “American greatness” in its title and linking the restoration of historic names to Trump’s broader vision of national pride. The renaming moves are part of a flurry of executive orders that Trump signed on Monday. Among them are a ban on government officials violating freedom of speech under the guise of fighting misinformation, a reversal of protections for transgender rights, and a suspension of foreign aid.

Read more …

With Covid, Tedros, Bill Gates, what choice is left?

• Trump Starts US Withdrawal From WHO – Again (RT)

President Donald Trump has announced that the US will exit the World Health Organization (WHO). On Monday, his first day in office, he signed an executive order to initiate the process of withdrawing, declaring that the US would leave the UN global public health agency within 12 months. The move marks the second time Trump has ordered his country’s withdrawal from the WHO. He took steps to exit the organization in 2020, accusing it of assisting China in efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of Covid-19. His successor Joe Biden would then reverse the decision, in his own inauguration-day move. Trump’s order on Monday stated that the US was withdrawing “due to the organization’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

It also cited the WHO’s alleged “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.” The president also argued that the organization imposed “unfairly onerous payments” on the US, which were disproportionate compared to contributions from other, more populous countries, such as China. ”World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing of the executive order, according to media. The WHO, as a coordinating authority on international health issues, relies on funding from dues-paying member states and on voluntary contributions. The US has for decades been one of the organization’s largest donors.

During the Biden administration, the US remained the largest contributor to the WHO, which has a budget of $6.8 billion for the current fiscal year. In 2023, nearly one-fifth of its funding was provided by the US. The US has been a member of the WHO since its inception in 1948, and the withdrawal would make the country the only major power absent from the 194-member organization. In a statement released on Tuesday, the WHO expressed “regret” over Washington’s decision to withdraw, emphasizing its critical role in global health and security. The agency underscored its recent reforms aimed at enhancing accountability and efficiency, urging the US to reconsider its decision for the benefit of global health.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing would continue supporting the WHO. “The role of the WHO should only be strengthened, not weakened,” Guo said. In November, Trump nominated long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy to become US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). RFK Jr. was among the vocal critics of the WHO-recommended Covid-19 response measures imposed by governments around the world, namely strict lockdowns and the introduction of rapidly developed vaccines. Kennedy’s nomination has yet to be approved by the Senate.

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“What did an official panel of Congress do that was so bad it needed to be absolved by an act of presidential clemency?”

• Trump Delivered His J6 Pardons, Now Congress Must Decide (JTN)

President Donald Trump wasted no time Monday night delivering the pardons he promised Jan. 6 defendants – 1,500 in all. And in so doing, he upped the pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to repudiate the findings of a Democrat-run panel whose findings have been factually challenged and whose conduct required an act of clemency. The conduct of the Democrat-run Select House Committee on the Jan. 6 attack garnered new scrutiny Monday when departing President Joe Biden issued sweeping pardons for all lawmakers and staffers on that committee as well as a handful of police officers who testified to the panel. It was a stunning act – some lawmakers who served on the committee also called it unwelcomed – that begged a provocative question: What did an official panel of Congress do that was so bad it needed to be absolved by an act of presidential clemency?

“You don’t forgive somebody of something unless they have potentially done something,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who took over the Jan. 6 probe from Democrats two years ago and exposed major factual flaws with the original investigation’s findings. “I mean, to me, this is basically, if not an actual admission, it’s truly the perception of admitting that there was wrongdoing done,” Loudermilk told Just the News. Loudermilk has pushed for months for Congress to vote on whether the findings of the Jan. 6 committee that Democrats ran should be repudiated for history’s sake. His request is rooted in his own investigative finding showing the committee misled the American public, held exculpatory evidence and possibly colluded with federal prosecutors.

Read more …

“Blinken thanked those present for asking difficult questions, when in fact, none had really been asked in 4 years.”

• Joe Biden’s Absolute Destruction of Freedom of Speech (Jay)

Sometimes the internet seems to be overbrimming with video clips showing hilarious examples of what a failed state actually looks like. One of the most common is MPs, or ‘deputies’ actually fighting in their own parliaments against one another. The irony of these clips is that they are usually uploaded by westerners who use to them as a tool to boost or gentrify the reality of western countries’ democratic models. But no more. Thanks to Joe Biden’s genocidal maniacs club, the last days of his rule gave us a gem in the form of a press conference where the limit of just how America is anything but a functioning democracy was stretched to breaking point in what appeared to both be deeply sad yet comical at the same time.

As the odious Anthony Blinken gave his patronizing speech to the so-called journalists amassed before him which felt a little like an aristocrat who had gathered the servants in the library to congratulate them on finding an item of lost jewelry of her ladyship’s, we witnessed in real time what America and what these State Department’s press briefings really are: a fraud. Blinken thanked those present for asking difficult questions, when in fact, none had really been asked in 4 years. Why? Because that is not part of the unwritten rules of how these press briefings work. But the moment he had mentioned the “difficult questions” he was, perhaps appropriately, delivered a series of difficult questions by the Jewish American journalist Max Blumenthal.

What was not so surprising was how none of those questions were answered as Blinken, being a smart operator, knew if he kept composed and didn’t rise to the bait it would probably anger Blumenthal even more allowing the tirade to look on camera at least like a rant which had got out of control. Seconds passed and Blumenthal was ushered away by officials which he didn’t offer any resistance to. Moments passed before the veteran arab journalist Sam Husseini also asked more difficult questions to an increasingly startled Blinken before we see the extent of how far America has abandoned its own free speech doctrine which it used to espouse to the rest of the world: Husseini was actually physically removed by overweight, armed police officers who you can see quite clearly feel uncomfortable about what they are doing, which most people would associate with a tin pot West African country’s ruling junta and not the American government at a press conference.

But the really shocking part of this story was yet to come: the absolute refusal by colleagues in the press room to even verbally object will have stunned journalists all over the world. It provokes many questions about journalism and what these individuals in the room think they are actually doing. We were given though a clue to quite how far journalism has died in the West and been replaced by a cheaper, easy wipe brand called ‘pseudo journalism’ – where actors take one function of journalists but who effectively work for the ruling elite rather than previously for the masses who used to fund the model by buying the actual publications. CNN reporting of the fiasco was very telling. They lost no time putting the boot into Blumenthal, who, naturally they must despise as he functions as a real journalist and they have long forgotten what this entails years ago, opting for the new model of fake news operator. They referred to Blumenthal as an “activist” – a typical slur from big media to individual journalists who carry out stellar work.

The truth about this incident is that such press conferences at the state department or indeed in the European Commission in Brussels are entirely staged. They are a theatre concocted by the elite and the press themselves as part of a dirty deal whereby the journalists ask the softball questions which allow the top figures to deliver the prepared spiel. The so-called journalists sign up to this and in return get access to individuals and scoops – although it’s important to note that the scoops are nearly always new items which serve the state’s purpose. It’s a game which has been going on for a long time and the humble masses don’t understand how they are being taken for a ride by the magicians’ allusion of something which might look credible. In these press gatherings some journalists are even asked to present certain questions which are even suggested by those holding the conference, something I witnessed myself a lot in Brussels.

It was not that the questions put to Blinken were so harsh, or even unconventional. The point is that both Blumenthal and Husseini broke the house rules when they went rogue and did what most people would view to be the role of real journalists: ask unscripted questions. Look what happens when journalist do this. We are treated to a debacle which we would expect to see in the global south, or certainly in Nazi Germany in the 30s. And this is America? The cat is out of the bag. The whole world can see now how America has lost all its links with the democratic model and become an autocracy, run, financed and ruled by Israel’s cash. Netanyahu and his cronies must have had a really good laugh watching those journalists being removed like that.

Presumably their press accreditations will be removed and certainly the worry that both of them will have is that they now mysteriously find themselves being investigated for tax irregularities, theft, fraud or even having child porn on their computers. Journalists like Blumenthal are the biggest threat to the deep state as they will never be part of the establishment and therefore will always be the most dangerous guy to tackle. The one who has nothing to lose is your biggest threat. I don’t imagine Trump and his cabal will be any kinder to him despite The Grayzone taking a more grown-up approach to Russia and how the Ukraine war is reported, as opposed to CNN’s stenographic reproduction of the State Department’s narrative, seasoned by fake news on occasion.

The real enemy for western elites is the feral truth. All pretense of a functioning democracy were eradicated in a matter of minutes with this press conference calamity which has now replaced those MPs in that central European country throwing chairs at one another in their own parliament. Great job, Joe.

Read more …

“For the Justice Department, it must feel like the Visigoths arriving at the gates of Rome . . . only to be let in by the citizens.”

• How the Justice Department Made the Case for the J6 Pardons (Turley)

On January 20, 2025, the “shock and awe” campaign of the Justice Department came to an end as President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 January 6th defendants. Four years ago, the Justice Department set out to send a chilling message to the nation. In an interview with CBS News a year later, Justice Department official Michael Sherwin indicated that they wanted to send a message with the harsh treatment of defendants. Sherwin explained that “our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe … it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they’re, like, ‘If we go there, we’re gonna get charged.’ … We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did.” The awe is gone but the shock remains at the Justice Department.

If Sherwin and his colleagues hoped to “Trump proof” the nation, they failed in spectacular fashion. While there was ample basis for criminal charges, the excessive treatment of some of the January 6th defendants undermined the credibility of their prosecutions for many. That is no easy feat. Most of us denounced the January 6th riot as a desecration of our constitutional process. Those who engaged in the rioting, and most importantly the violence, needed to be punished. However, what followed left many increasingly uneasy. The Justice Department rounded up hundreds and, even though most were charged with relatively minor crimes of unlawful entry or trespass, the Justice Department opposed the release of many from jail and sought absurdly long sentences in some cases. It also sought restrictions on defendants that raised troubling first amendment concerns.

In my recent book, “Indispensable Right,” I discuss these cases and their troubling elements. A good example is the handling of the most well-known case of the so-called QAnon Shaman. Bare-chested, wearing an animal headdress, horns, and red-white-and-blue face paint, Jake Angeli Chansley became the iconic image of the riot. Seeking to make examples of these defendants, the Justice Department took special measures in hammering Chansley. He was held in solitary confinement and denied bail. Chansley was treated more harshly because of his visibility. It was his costume, not his conduct, that seemed to drive the sentencing. In the hearing, Judge Royce Lamberth noted, “He made himself the image of the riot, didn’t he? For good or bad, he made himself the very image of this whole event.” Lamberth hit Chansley with a heavy 41-month sentence for “obstructing a federal proceeding.”

However, long withheld footage, showed recently that Chansley (like hundreds of people that day) simply walked into the Capitol past police officers and was then escorted by officers through the Capitol. At one point, two officers not only appear to guide him to the floor but actually try to open locked doors for him. Chansley is shown walking unimpeded through a large number of armed officers with his four-foot flag-draped spear and horned Viking helmet on his way to the Senate floor. Does that make Chansley’s actions acceptable, let alone commendable? Of course not. He deserved to be arrested and punished. However, what many saw was a troubled individual being made an example for others. In my book, I discuss how, in history, “rage rhetoric” was allowed to become “state rage.” This is one such case.

Trump ran on the promise to pardon these defendants and secured not just the White House but the popular vote. It was not just the public that rejected the narrative of January 6th as an “insurrection.” In the recent Supreme Court decision in Fischer v. U.S. to reject hundreds of charges in January 6th cases for the obstruction of legal proceedings, the Court left most cases as simply a mass trespass and unlawful entry. The shock may be gone for these defendants, but it may only be beginning for the Justice Department and the FBI. When the campaign of Hillary Clinton secretly funded the infamous Steele Dossier to launch the Russian conspiracy investigation, it was the Justice Department that was not just the willing but eager partner. The “insurance policy” described by former FBI official Peter Strzok was redeemed in investigations that derailed much of Trump’s first term.

Later, it was the Justice Department again that pursued a no-holds-barred effort to convict Trump before the election. The Justice Department is the hardest of silos in Washington to reform. Unlike most departments, it is largely homogenous, with thousands of lawyers who share professional and cultural ties. It is a department composed of people who are by their very definition, litigious. Trump insisted on selecting an Attorney General, nominee Pam Bondi, who has no past ties or identification with the department. For the Justice Department, it must feel like the Visigoths arriving at the gates of Rome . . . only to be let in by the citizens. According to polling, the public ultimately found the “barbarians” less threatening than those who have insisted that Rome would fall. That must certainly be shocking for many in Washington, but the record of the Justice Department showed how the awe can become awful when officials feel the license of state rage.

Read more …

“..he threw over 500,000 Iraqi soldiers at the Iranian meat grinder, had the backing of the US AND the Soviet Union, and used chemical weapons on a scale not seen since WW1… and he barely made a dent in Iran.”

• 2025: The Year the Global Order Unravels (Nick Giambruno)

With Iran’s allies across the Middle East suffering devastating blows in 2024, the US, Israel, and their allies have the most favorable conditions to attack Iran that have existed in decades. I suspect they will not let this window of opportunity close without taking advantage of it. It could happen in 2025. If an attack on Iran does happen, I believe it will be the defining battle of WW3. But it will not be a cakewalk… Unlike most other nation states in the Middle East, Iran (known as Persia before 1935) is not an artificial construct. By race, religion, and social history, it is a nation. European bureaucrats didn’t dream up Iran by drawing zigzags on a map. The map reflects the geographic reality of a country with natural, fortress-like mountain borders. In the east, the Roman Empire generally ended where the Persian Empire began.

The US and its allies have tried to overthrow Iran’s government for over 46 years. They’ve tried pretty much everything short of a full-scale invasion. In short, NATO & Friends have few other cards to play against Iran. If the US really wants to decapitate the BRICS+ agenda in the Middle East, it would need to overthrow the Iranian government. That would require waging a full-scale regional war against all of Iran’s allies and launching a ground invasion of Iran. Remember, during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)—back when Saddam was a “good guy”—he threw over 500,000 Iraqi soldiers at the Iranian meat grinder, had the backing of the US AND the Soviet Union, and used chemical weapons on a scale not seen since WW1… and he barely made a dent in Iran.

The reality is that if the US is serious about invading Iran, it would likely require total mobilization and bringing back the draft. That is not likely to happen, but even if it did, it would not guarantee US victory. If Iran thought the US was going to invade, it could also develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent within a matter of weeks or less. It might also already have a couple of secretly obtained nukes. Given those unfavorable prospects, NATO & Friends could decide to use nuclear weapons on Iran preemptively. Iran is well aware that the US or Israel could use nuclear weapons against it. It has contingency plans for that outcome to ensure the survival of its government. Iran’s plans also likely include making a dash for developing its own nuclear arsenal to be able to respond in kind.

Further, it’s doubtful that Russia and China would just sit back and do nothing if NATO & Friends looked like they might nuke Iran. For example, Russia could decide to station nuclear weapons and Russian soldiers on Iranian soil as a deterrent. In short, NATO & Friends using nukes on Iran could lead to an unpredictable series of events that could quickly spiral out of control, so I don’t view it as a likely outcome. The Bottom Line: NATO & Friends don’t have any attractive options when it comes to dealing with Iran. However, with the sun about to set on the US-led unipolar world order and the most favorable conditions to attack Iran that have existed in decades, they may think it’s their last best chance and go for it in 2025.

What will happen, and who will prevail? Of course, no one can know that with certainty. That being said, I think we can count on escalating tensions that could culminate in war with Iran in 2025. The implications of that are difficult to overstate. War with Iran would undoubtedly destroy all models for the energy market and cause a global economic collapse. Most people don’t appreciate how close we are to the precipice of a historical disaster.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Hair

Eucalyptus

Eagle

Mama
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881367789539356802

Illusion
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881464655631274137

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Godspeed, DJT

Jan 202025
 
 January 20, 2025  Posted by at 6:23 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  28 Responses »


Johannes Vermeer The art of painting 1666-8

 

I was going to write something happy and positive and optimistic, about a future that looks brighter after spending 4 years out in the wilderness. But then I saw that the Democrats have pardoned the worst amongst themselves, and thereby every single one of them, for everything they’ve done over these 4 years, and before it. The entire Democratic party has been placed above the law, along with their Republican friends. The USA is now officially a lawless state.

That is something to think hard about. Because why would you still maintain a judicial system, with courts and judges and prosecutors, if that system doesn’t apply to a large group of people? I can’t think of a good reason. The rule of law in America is now an abstract idea that belongs in the past. What might be good about this is that the Dems have lost any and all future rights to go after any and all Republicans. But it still doesn’t sit well.

You can forgive someone for something they’ve done, but you can’t pardon them for what they might have done, or perhaps even still might do. That is literally a licence to kill. And that has to be illegal. Even if you are the President. It also violates the Constitution, and in too many ways to count. Ergo: the US is no longer a constitutional republic. It’s now all bananas all the way down.

Biden’s pre-emptive pardons have changed the country forever, though of course nobody realizes it at the moment it happens. From now on in, anything goes. Lying to Congress? No problem. Murder? Don’t give it a second thought. Just as long as you get along with whoever is President, or who functions as such, you will be pardoned.

The American people have long seen this coming. We know this because of the Nov. 4 election result, but perhaps even more because of the plummeting “attendance” numbers of the media the Dems use to spread their – often lying- messages. WaPo, NYT, CNN, MSNBC, they’re all on their deathbeds. And they owe it to themselves. They all had the option to tell the truth, and they all chose not to. But for them there is no presidential pardon. I’m watching CNN’s coverage of the inauguration as I write this, and they haven’t learned a thing.

Eventually, there will be new forms of “news”. But people won’t place their full trust in one or two sources anymore. Perhaps they will find what they need at X, but it’s too early to tell. What we know for sure is it won’t be at WaPo or MSNBC. And anyway, news about what? A banana republic.

 

So how is Donald Trump going to turn this mess into a viable nation again? Perhaps the only way is to sue Joe Biden for issuing his pardons the way he did. And Joe’s about the only one who’s not yet been pardoned (at the very last moment he just pardoned his entire family as well). But that is not Trump’s style. Still, how do you officially forgive someone for blowing up the Republic?

Yes, Trump at any point in the next 4 years can pardon anyone for anything, but that’s all Biden’s left for him. He didn’t leave him a constitutional republic. This blanket pardon power is handy when you surround yourself with people who habitually break the law, but not if you respect the republic. Then it turns against you.

We all wish Trump all the best. But he doesn’t only need to govern his country better, he has to completely rebuild it, the trust in it. And that’s only if he can, and if it is at all possible.

When you say “God bless the USA”, what exactly are you asking him to bless? The nation the Founders meant to build, or the empty shell the Democrats today left you with?

There are great hopes for Trump and the exceptional team he brings to the tasks ahead, but do they really understand what those tasks are?

 

Godspeed, DJT.

 

 

Debt Rattle December 18 2024

Dec 182024
 
 December 18, 2024  Posted by at 10:22 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  72 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Woman in an armchair (Olga) 1922

 

• Trump Says He Wants To Talk To Putin (RT)
• Trump Could End US-Supported Long-Range Strikes on Russia (Antiwar)
• Assad’s Overthrow An ‘Unfriendly Takeover’ By Türkiye – Trump (RT)
• Trump Threatens To Fire Federal Employees Working From Home (JTN)
• Trump Sues Des Moines Register, Pollster For Brazen Election Interference (ZH)
• House GOP Accuses Liz Cheney Of Tampering With J6 Witness (JTN)
• The Danger of White Knight Pardons (Turley)
• An Open Letter To Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (AmG)
• Will Putin Fight or Surrender? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Finland Warns Against Peacekeepers In Ukraine (RT)
• Slain Russian General Worked Fearlessly To Expose Western Crimes – Moscow (RT)
• Which Western Politician Will Flee Their Sinking Ship Next? (Marsden)
• Musk Accuses ‘Deep State Traitors’ Of Targeting Him (RT)
• Boeing’s Failed Plea Deal: What Happens Next (ET)
• World Gripped By Mental Health ‘Pandemic’ – FT (RT)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1868707860504625322

Trump Xi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868830594991636722

Kash
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868831906881794387

Jennings
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868863814256431386

Mike Benz

Tucker Sachs

 

 

 

 

“It’s a carnage that we haven’t seen since the Second World War,” he continued. “It’s got to be stopped. And I’m doing my best to stop [it].”

• Trump Says He Wants To Talk To Putin (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has said that he will speak to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in a bid to stop the “carnage” between Moscow and Kiev. During a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, Trump refused to comment when asked whether he had spoken to Putin since he won last month’s presidential election. However, Trump said that he intends to do so. “We’ll be talking to President Putin and we’ll be talking to the representatives, Zelensky and representatives from Ukraine,” he said. “We’ve got to stop it. It’s carnage,” he added, referring to the almost three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “It’s a carnage that we haven’t seen since the Second World War,” he continued. “It’s got to be stopped. And I’m doing my best to stop [it].”

Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end the conflict within a day of taking office, although he has since admitted that doing this may be “more difficult” than he previously thought. The incoming president met with Zelensky in Paris earlier this month, and said immediately after last month’s election that he will likely speak to Putin in the near future. Trump and his prospective cabinet officials have refused to comment on media reports claiming that they have been in contact with Moscow, while the Kremlin last month denied a report by the Washington Post suggesting that Trump reached out to Putin by phone immediately after the election. Putin has said that Trump’s statements on ending the conflict “deserve attention,” and that he is open to talks with the president-elect. “It wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself,” the Russian president said at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi last month.

As Trump has not revealed any details on the kind of settlement he intends to propose to Putin and Zelensky, his plans have remained the subject of media speculation. Most American news outlets have predicted that Trump will push for the conflict to be frozen along the current line of contact, with Ukraine abandoning its aspirations of NATO membership in exchange for security guarantees from the West. Trump has explicitly said that the US will leave the enforcement of such a deal up to NATO’s European members. Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved.

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“He should be prepared to make a deal. That’s all. Too many people being killed..”

• Trump Could End US-Supported Long-Range Strikes on Russia (Antiwar)

President-elect Donald Trump suggested at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Monday that he could reverse President Biden’s decision to support long-range missile strikes on Russian territory. Trump said it was a “big mistake” for the Biden administration to greenlight the escalation without asking him what he thought. When asked if he might reverse the decision, the president-elect said, “I might, yeah. I thought it was a very stupid thing to do.” The comments mark the second time in recent days that Trump expressed his concern over the long-range strikes that Ukraine has launched using US ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow missiles. In an interview with Time Magazine that was published last week, Trump said that he “vehemently” disagreed with Biden’s decision. The Kremlin noted Trump’s comments and said Russia agreed with the president-elect.

“The statement in itself is fully in harmony with our position. That is, our visions of reasons behind the escalation coincide. And, of course, we like that,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Biden signed off on long-range strikes in Russia despite Moscow making it clear the escalation would risk nuclear war. In response to the step, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally changed Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. At his press conference, Trump also said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be ready to make a deal with Russia to end the war. “He should be prepared to make a deal. That’s all. Too many people being killed,” he said. Trump campaigned on ending the proxy war but hasn’t articulated how he will do that. When asked if he would pressure Ukraine to cede territory, Trump wouldn’t give a direct answer.

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“[Türkiye] wanted [Syria] for thousands of years, and he got it… Türkiye did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost..”

Again, Trump doesn’t want the killing.

• Assad’s Overthrow An ‘Unfriendly Takeover’ By Türkiye – Trump (RT)

Türkiye is behind the regime change in Syria, US President-elect Donald Trump claimed on Monday in his first press briefing since the November election. Trump called the overthrow of Bashar Assad and his government an “unfriendly takeover” by Ankara. The situation in Syria has changed drastically over the past two weeks after militants led by the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group launched an offensive against the country’s troops, taking over major cities, including the capital Damascus. After the collapse of the Syrian military, the armed opposition seized power, forcing President Assad to flee to Russia, where he was granted political asylum. “Those people that went in are controlled by Türkiye, and that’s OK,” Trump stated. He added that he considers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “smart” and “very tough” guy for succeeding in the overthrow of the Syrian leadership.

“[Türkiye] wanted [Syria] for thousands of years, and he got it… Türkiye did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost,” Trump added. He also praised what he described as Türkiye’s “major military force” which “has not been worn out with war.” According to Trump, Türkiye will also play a significant role in Syria’s future. “Nobody knows what the final outcome is going to be in the region. Nobody knows who will rule in the final… Right now, Syria has a lot of indefinites, but I think Türkiye is going to hold the key to Syria,” the president-elect predicted. Türkiye shares its longest land border with Syria, over 900km, and had been a main backer of opposition groups aiming to topple Assad since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. Despite listing the jihadi HTS, which initiated the current unrest, as a terrorist organization, Ankara is thought to have significant influence over the group.

Türkiye also backs the Syrian National Army (SNA), which earlier this month launched its own offensive in the eastern part of the country, hoping to capitalize on the collapse of Syrian government forces. Days prior to Assad’s overthrow, Erdogan voiced support for the insurgency in Syria, urging the armed opposition to continue their march to Damascus. Since Assad’s ouster, Washington and Ankara, which both back various rebel groups in the region, have held talks on ways to stabilize the situation and counter the potential resurgence of Islamic State militants in Syria. At a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan last week, the two agreed to continue working together on preventing terror groups from abusing the current instability in the country and on bringing peace to the region, starting with efforts to establish an interim government.

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“Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency..”

That’s the exact opposite of what DOGE says.

• Trump Threatens To Fire Federal Employees Working From Home (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump blasted federal “work from home” policies Monday, calling them “ridiculous” and stirring up pushback from federal employee unions. “If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump told reporters during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago. The issue has been thrust to the forefront in part by the incoming Trump administration’s emphasis on government efficiency, spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. But the issue has also gained national attention because Biden administration officials like outgoing Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley negotiated a deal with union leaders to entrench the policies, keeping telework in place for his 42,000 employees until 2029.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, threatened legal action against the incoming Trump administration if the president-elect tries to upend previously bargained union deals that let federal employees work from home. “Collective bargaining agreements entered into by the federal government are binding and enforceable under the law,” Kelley said. “We trust the incoming administration will abide by their obligations to honor lawful union contracts. If they fail to do so, we will be prepared to enforce our rights.” According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, there are nearly 3 million federal employees. Kelley argued that the extent to which federal employees work from home has been exaggerated.

“Rumors of widespread federal telework and remote work are simply untrue,” Kelley said. “More than half of federal employees cannot telework at all because of the nature of their jobs, only ten percent of federal workers are remote, and those who have a hybrid arrangement spend over sixty percent of working hours in the office.” Critics have shot back saying that effectively means that 40% of federal work hours are remote. If you remove certain workers like post-office employees and maintenance workers from the equation, the percentage of federal remote work is much higher. In particular, workers in the federal agencies in and around Washington, D.C. have largely grown accustomed to at least partially working remote. Kelley argued the policies help the government recruit and keep “top talent.”

“Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency, maintain continuity of operations, and increase disaster preparedness,” Kelley said in a statement Monday. “These policies also assist agencies across the government, including the Social Security Administration, in recruiting and retaining top talent.

Waiver
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868832325548838914

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No way that was an honest mistake. Career over.

• Trump Sues Des Moines Register, Pollster For Brazen Election Interference (ZH)

On Monday afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump told reporters at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago Club in South Florida that his team was preparing to file a “major lawsuit” against the Des Moines Register and its top pollster, J. Ann Selzer for election interference and fraud over their final polling data in the days before the presidential election. Trump followed through on his word, as Fox News reports that his team filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and Selzer overnight in Polk County, Iowa, under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act and related provisions. The lawsuit seeks “accountability for brazen election interference committed by” the local paper and Selzer “in favor of now-defeated former Democrat candidate Kamala Harris through use of a leaked and manipulated Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted by Selzer and S&C and published by DMR and Gannett in the Des Moines Register on Nov. 2, 2024.”

The lawsuit also targets Gannett, the parent company of the Des Moines Register, which owns USA Today and several other local papers across the US. “Contrary to reality and defying credulity, defendants’ Harris Poll was published three days before Election Day and purported to show Harris leading President Trump in Iowa by three points; President Trump ultimately won Iowa by over thirteen points,” the filing stated. Selzer was once considered the “gold standard” of polling, but after Trump swept the state by a 13-point margin, winning the actual vote 56-43%, she later acknowledged her poll was a “big miss” and suggested that it might have “actually energized [d] and activated [d] Republican voters who thought they would likely coast to victory,” according to our previous report. Following the public opinion polling blunder, Selzer wrote in a guest column in the Des Moines Register just a little more than a week after the election that her days advising the paper’s famed Iowa Poll was over, and she would be “transitioning to other ventures and opportunities.”

Selzer’s exit—and now her legal troubles with Trump’s team—reflects a broader shift: trust in mainstream polling has plummeted to historic lows. Those accused of waging an information war on the minds of the people are now being held accountable. “The Harris Poll was no ‘miss’ but rather an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election,” the lawsuit said, adding that “defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.” The era of misinformation and disinformation by the Democratic Party, propped up by fake news, fake polls, and a government-sponsored censorship complex (and billionaire-funded: Soros), has infuriated the American people. At the same time, prediction markets like Polymarket have emerged, which offer one of the best insights into electoral outcomes and signal a new tool in political forecasting.

The lawsuit noted that Selzer’s more than three-decade run in the industry has led to her retirement “in disgrace from polling less than two weeks after this embarrassing rout.” The lawyers argued that “left-wing pollsters have attempted to influence electoral outcomes through manipulated polls that have unacceptable error rates and are not grounded in widely accepted polling methodologies.” [..] The lawsuit Monday night comes days after far-left ABC News and its top anchor, George Stephanopoulos, reached a $15 million defamation suit with Trump. Trump also filed a lawsuit against far-left CBS News, demanding $10 billion in damages over “deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news” for the election interference surrounding Harris’ questionable interview in October.

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“Federal law criminalizes witness tampering of varying degrees, and subjects a defendant to as many as 20 years in prison..”

• House GOP Accuses Liz Cheney Of Tampering With J6 Witness (JTN)

The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk on Tuesday released an interim report on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, concluding the attack was preventable and also asking for an investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney for criminally tampering with a witness during the Democrat-led congressional inquiry of the tragedy. “Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report released by the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk stated.”Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.,” it added.

“This secret communication with a witness is improper and likely violates 18 U.S.C. 1512. Such action is outside the due functioning of the legislative process and therefore not protected by the Speech and Debate clause.” Federal law criminalizes witness tampering of varying degrees, and subjects a defendant to as many as 20 years in prison.The report also took direct aim at former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Cheney’s star witness at the nationally televised hearings, alleging that Cheney encouraged false testimony about a handwritten document and noting her sensational claim that former President Donald Trump tried to commandeer his presidential limousine that day to take it to the Capitol was directly refuted by the Secret Service.Loudermilk’s report suggested Cheney also bore responsibility for Hutchinson’s testimony.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury,” the report said. ”Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, Hutchinson committed perjury when she lied under oath to the Select Committee.”The report delivers a second bombshell, revealing Loudermilk’s team uncovered “evidence of collusion” between Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney. When Smith released a trove of documents in October that were used in his filings in the Trump case, present in the batch was an unredacted transcript from one Jan. 6 Select Committee interview with a witness.

“Given that the Select Committee did not archive, or otherwise destroy this transcript, and that the White House refused to provide an unredacted version to the Subcommittee, the only remaining explanation is that Special Counsel Smith received the unredacted version from one of the two institutions which did not cooperate fully with the Subcommittee,” Loudermilk’s committee concluded.

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“Biden’s pardon list has replaced the usual Inauguration Ball lists as the “must-have” item this year..”

• The Danger of White Knight Pardons (Turley)

There are growing indications that President Joe Biden is about to fundamentally change the use of presidential pardons by granting “prospective” or “preemptive” pardons to political allies. Despite repeated denials of President-elect Donald Trump that he is seeking retaliation against opponents and his statements that he wants “success [to be] my revenge,” Democratic politicians and pundits have called for up to thousands of such pardons. While there is little threat of any viable prosecution of figures like the members of the January 6th Committee, the use of “White Knight pardons” offers obvious political benefits. After many liberals predicted the imminent collapse of democracy and that opponents would be rounded up in mass by the Trump Administration, they are now contemplating the nightmare that democracy might survive and that there will be no mass arrests.

The next best thing to a convenient collapse of democracy is a claim that Biden’s series of preemptive pardons averted it. It is enough to preserve the narrative in the face of a stable constitutional system . Indeed, Biden’s pardon list has replaced the usual Inauguration Ball lists as the “must-have” item this year. Pardon envy is sweeping over the Beltway as politicians and pundits push to be included on the list of presumptive Trump enemies.The political stunt will come at a cost. Preemptive pardons could become the norm as presidents pardon whole categories of allies and even themselves to foreclose federal prosecutions. It can quickly become the norm in what I recently wrote about as our “age of rage.” It will give presidents cover to wipe away any threat of prosecution for friends, donors, and associates. This can include self-pardons issued as implied condemnations of their political opponents.

It could easily become the final act of every president to pardon himself and all of the members of his Administration. We would then have an effective immunity rule for outgoing parties in American politics. Ironically, there is even less need for such preemptive pardons after the Supreme Court recognized that presidents are immune for many decisions made during their presidencies. Likewise, members have robust constitutional protections for their work under Article I, as do journalists and pundits under the Constitution’s First Amendment. We have gone over two centuries without such blanket immunity. In my book The Indispensable Right, I discuss our periods of violent political strife and widespread arrests. Thomas Jefferson referred to John Adams’s Federalist government as “the reign of the witches.” Yet, even presidents in those poisonous times did not do what Joe Biden is now contemplating.

Moreover, presidential pardons have a checkered history, including presidents pardoning family members or political donors. Bill Clinton did both. Not surprisingly, Clinton last week attempted to add his own wife’s name to the sought-after Biden pardon list. He added, however, “I don’t think I should be giving public advice on the pardon power…It’s a very personal thing.” That is precisely the point. The power was not created to be used for “very personal things,” like pardoning your half-brother and a fugitive Democratic donor on your last day in office. Yet, despite that history, no president has seen fit to go as far as where Biden appears to be heading.

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“..as Big Tobacco began buying off the TV news more than 70 years ago, Big Pharma is doing that today..”

• An Open Letter To Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (AmG)

Dear Mr. Kennedy,

Of the many issues you will tackle as Secretary of Health and Human Services, we implore you to work with FCC Commissioner Brenden Carr and immediately put an end to pharmaceutical companies advertising prescription drugs on television. This should be one of your earliest moves in the Trump administration. Why is this so timely? The sheer amount of dollars being spent on TV advertising by “Big Pharma” should raise suspicion among those who care about accuracy in media and information being consumed by the public. It is an old trick for an industry to buy off the news media for favorable coverage. When evidence of the dangers of smoking cigarettes began to emerge in the 1950s, news organizations were reluctant to expose “Big Tobacco” because it was responsible for an abundance of media ad revenue. The same synergistic relationship exists today with “Big Pharma” and television news.

Similarly, as Big Tobacco began buying off the TV news more than 70 years ago, Big Pharma is doing that today. The incessant drumbeat of COVID boosters, RSV injections, and flu shot ads is run alongside news reporters covering up vaccine side effects, including increased cases of myocarditis, anaphylaxis, psychosis, and/or early death. Nowhere is this more evident than with Novo Nordisk A/S’s type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic. While this drug may offer benefits to the millions of Americans who suffer from type 2 diabetes (some surveys place the number of Americans afflicted with type 2 diabetes at nearly 10%, with more than 30% considered pre-diabetic), at what cost? If your insurance doesn’t cover Ozempic, your monthly cost will be nearly $1,000. And you will be “hooked” for life.

Concurrently, what about the shameless promotion of Ozempic as an aid for weight loss? Can you watch a program on the nightly news on one of the alphabet networks or cable news without seeing ads for Ozempic touting its benefits to lose weight? And what about the genre of late-night so-called comics like vax-shill Stephen Colbert? The late-night TV category is dying, with Colbert (CBS), Jimmy Fallon (NBC), and Jimmy Kimmel (ABC) suffering historic low ratings. If not propped up by “Big Pharma” ad dollars, will a ban on ads for prescription drugs be the final nail in their coffins? Let’s hope so, as all three ceased being funny years ago. We know you are already on the record as having intentions of outlawing Big Pharma ads for prescription drugs on television. Today, among high-income countries, only the U.S. and New Zealand allow for such advertising. Almost all other countries are fully knowledgeable of the conflict between ad dollars and news reporting.

The longer this obvious conflict persists, the more the public will be misled and lied to about the real dangers of prescription drugs and the intentions of Big Pharma to buy off the news media to hide these dangers. A ban on this type of advertising will go a long way toward keeping the news media honest—or perhaps putting the worst of them out of the misinformation business altogether. Among the many items on your agenda, once you take office, this is probably the easiest of them. Our broadcast news outlets operate under a license from the FCC and are obligated to serve the public interest at all times. Taking money from Big Pharma to cover up or lie about the potential damage the public will suffer through the use of their products cannot be tolerated any longer. We both applaud your passion to Make America Healthy Again. Count us in.

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PCR just keeps going. Little self-reflection.

• Will Putin Fight or Surrender? (Paul Craig Roberts)

In his meeting the other day with the Russian Defense Ministry Board, Putin discussed the accomplishments of the past year and measures needed to ensure Russia’s security from Washington’s aspirations for world dominance. “We see the US administration and the collective West relentlessly trying to preserve their dominance, pushing their rules on the global community and manipulating them as they see fit.” Washington, Putin said, is engaged “in an effort to weaken our country and inflict a strategic defeat.” That is true, but why is Putin helping Washington succeed? Putin complains about the growing instability and violence in the Middle East. Does he realize that he contributed to it by withdrawing Russia’s defense of Syria? Did Putin forget “seven countries in five years”? Did Putin forget “Greater Israel”? Did Putin forget Turkey’s ambition against the Kurds?

Putin complains about the West’s participation with Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. Why did Putin make this possible by dragging out a limited military operation for 3 years? How could Putin fail to understand that Washington would test the intervention waters step by step to see if there are any real red lines. The absence of red lines has reached the point of Washington and NATO firing missiles into Russia, and Putin, despite his warnings to the West, retaliates only against Ukraine. Indeed, Putin’s retaliations are measures that should have been conducted on the first day of Russia’s intervention in Donbas. Putin has prevented Russian military action that would have made it impossible for Kiev to continue the conflict. What purpose is served by dragging out the conflict? Certainly not the preservation of lives.

The Russian population is hurting not so much from the West’s sanctions as from Putin’s central bank director’s 21 percent interest rates. Sooner or later the population is going to blame the war for the economic deprivation, and support for a war without end will decline. The same central bank director left Russia’s central bank reserves where they could be stolen by Washington. I suspect the central bank director’s warnings that Russia cannot afford war is the reason the Russian military remains too small for effective deployment, thus forcing Russian reliance on nuclear weapons. The West has just imposed more sanctions on Russia, and Russia continues to supply energy to Poland and Romania, NATO members hosting US missile bases on their borders with Russia. It is extraordinary how the Russian government helps Russia’s enemies to work against Russia.

It is not only Putin who seems unable to get his mind around reality. The leader of the terrorist group HTS used by Turkey, Washington, and Israel fo overthrow Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sharaa, complains that Israel has no excuse for continuing military strikes on Syria. Apparently, al-Sharaa has never heard of “Greater Israel.” Israel is clearing the way for Syria’s absorption into “Greater Israel,” just as Turkey intends the absorption of the Kurdish area of Syria to become incorporated into Turkey. As Israeli strategist Oded Yinon wrote, the Muslim world is too disunited to stand as an obstacle to “Greater Israel.” Perhaps that is the reason Putin abandoned his ally. But by sacrificing Syria Putin has left the road open to Iran and Lebanon. If Iran becomes the mess that Washington has created elsewhere in the Muslim world, the Russian Federation will be open to infiltration by jihadists to cause disruption in Russia’s Muslim areas.

Meanwhile Washington continues to operate against Russia in the former Russian provinces of Georgia and Armenia. How long before there are American missile bases in Georgia and Armenia? It is unclear why US missile bases on Russia’s border with Ukraine are a reason for Russian military action, but not US missile bases on Russia’s borders with Poland and Romania. It was impossible for Putin to stand aside while the US created a Ukrainian army to destroy the Russian populations of Donbas. The world should appreciate that Putin has not attacked Russia’s tormenters outside of Ukraine. Putin has also accepted sanctions without adequate response. The question is whether Putin’s determination to avoid a larger war presents as weakness and indecision that encourages the West to further provocations that eventually lead to a wider war. The big question in the coming year is whether Putin surrenders or fights.

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“Peacekeeping missions are based on international law and require a peace settlement and a UN mandate..”

EU wants EU peacekeepers. But they’re a party to the war. Of course they deny that, but…

• Finland Warns Against Peacekeepers In Ukraine (RT)

EU countries should avoid making hasty decisions about sending a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine, Finnish President Alexander Stubb has warned. He was speaking at a defense cooperation summit in Tallinn, where the conflict between Moscow and Kiev was top of the agenda.Some EU leaders have previously floated the idea of a possible peacekeeping operation in Ukraine after peace with Russia is eventually achieved. According to Stubb, however, a peacekeeping operation is not currently a realistic option, as it could result in an escalation, and it would also require hundreds of thousands of troops. “We should not get ahead of ourselves,” Stubb warned before the start of the discussions on Tuesday, as quoted by Finnish news outlet Yle. Peacekeeping missions are based on international law and require a peace settlement and a UN mandate, he noted.

“The operation cannot be launched on a shaky foundation,” he added. According to the Finnish president, a peacekeeping mission would require at least 150,000 soldiers. “In rotation, that means three times that, or 450,000 peacekeepers per year. So perhaps this discussion has gone off the rails, so to speak,” he added. Stubb was speaking during a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). The military group is made up of the Netherlands, Iceland, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The latter five nations share a border with Russia and have been among the most outspoken critics of Moscow and its military operation in Ukraine.Before the meeting, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur stated that “no option can be ruled out,” even before there is peace in Ukraine, according to Yle.

At an EU leaders’ summit on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron plans to raise the issue of deploying a UN peacekeeping mission to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire and peace deal, various media outlets reported last week. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said earlier that the bloc was not considering sending peacekeepers to Ukraine as hostilities between Kiev and Moscow are far from over. Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said on Monday that it was “premature” to discuss a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine because Kiev refuses to hold peace talks with Moscow.

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Are we sure Ukraine killed him? And not some NATO country? They seem to have had more reason.

• Slain Russian General Worked Fearlessly To Expose Western Crimes – Moscow (RT)

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was assassinated in Moscow on Tuesday, had for years systematically exposed Western crimes involving chemical weapons and did so fearlessly, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Kirillov, the commander of the Russian Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, was killed along with his aide by an explosion in southeastern Moscow in the early morning. A number of media outlets have since reported that the murder was carried out on the orders of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), which had labeled Kirillov as an “absolutely legitimate target” for assassination.

Writing on Kirillov’s passing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said that throughout his career he had repeatedly exposed the crimes of the “Anglo-Americans” such as “NATO provocations with chemical weapons in Syria, Britain’s manipulations with prohibited chemical substances and provocations in Salisbury and Amesbury, the deadly activities of American biolabs in Ukraine, and much more.” “He worked fearlessly. He did not hide behind people’s backs,” Zakharova wrote. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of the national Security Council, also expressed his condolences to Kirillov’s colleagues, family, and friends, and stated that the attack in which he was killed was “the agony of the Bandera regime.”

“With its last strength, it is trying to justify its worthless existence before its Western masters, to prolong the war and death, to justify the catastrophic situation at the front. Realizing the inevitability of its military defeat, it is inflicting cowardly and vile blows in peaceful cities,” Medvedev said. State Duma Defense Committee chairman Andrey Kartapolov described Kirillov as a “worthy Russian general” and a “real officer,” stating that had done “a lot to bring the US to justice,” particularly with regards to Washington’s activities in setting up laboratories around the world, including in Ukraine.

“We caught them there, and Kirillov’s role in this is greater than anywhere else,” Kartapolov said. He added that Kirillov’s revelations have “caught too many people” and that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if figures outside of Kiev also had a hand in his assassination, including the son of US President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden. Kartapolov stressed that those who organized and carried out Kirillov’s murder will be found and punished, “whoever they are and wherever they are.” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin also condemned Kirillov’s assassination, stating that it once again highlights “the criminal nature of the Kiev regime.” “It is a terrorist state headed by an illegitimate president – a Nazi. All those guilty must receive the punishment they deserve,” Volodin was quoted as saying by the Duma press service.

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Pick ’em off one by one.

• Which Western Politician Will Flee Their Sinking Ship Next? (Marsden)

I have a confession to make. I really suck at cooking. I have no idea what I’m doing in the kitchen. And my best efforts usually end with a trip to the ready-made meal section of the local grocery store. But that said, I know my limits. You won’t catch me trying to get a job at in Parisian fine dining, for example, or even at a local diner. But the people currently cooking up the Western establishment’s shared agenda? They’ll just burn down the whole kitchen, and then eject out. Or at least some of them will do the latter. Not nearly enough of them yet. But it seems to be a promising new trend in the absence of their inability to just stay out to begin with. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a no-confidence vote against himself on Monday, officially asking the parliamentarians of the Bundestag whether they might wish to do him the honor of taking a foot to his arsch.

It’s basically a case of political suicide-by-cop. Scholz wanted them to put his current mandate out of its misery because he’s totally impotent, politically speaking. Why? Because the yellow light centrists of his traffic light coalition bailed on him and he no longer has the majority needed to ram things through parliament.All this came about because Scholz’s finance minister, Christian Lindner, from the centrist Free Democratic Party, decided back in November that he wasn’t interested in a career as a magician attempting to work miracles with Scholz’s spending priorities. Germany virtue-signaled itself right into economic devastation following along with EU sanctions to impress their girlfriend Vladimir Zelensky. Then Scholz told his finance minister to just lift his foot up off the debt brake a bit so he can go on another €15 billion ($15.7 billion) spending joyride for Ukraine.

And Lindner was like, nope, how about you just dust off some of those long-range Taurus missiles in the closet and give those to your girlfriend instead? Yeah, they’re dangerous, but they’re also just sitting there like an apartment exercise bike with laundry hanging off it, so it’s a win-win – well, except for that World War III risk. Scholz didn’t want to do that because it would mean babysitting Kiev so it didn’t start a third world war against Russia. It would also mean sending German troops to Ukraine so Zelensky could sit on their lap and pretend to drive the Tauruses. And it’s never the toddler who gets blamed for those accidents. So Scholz and Lindner had a falling out over a month ago that ultimately led to a breakup, with Lindner and his yellow light centrists walking away from Scholz’s coalition table like a teenaged clique in the school cafeteria.

German lawmakers welcomed the opportunity to kick Scholz in the lederhosen and out of the Biergarten. One down, one more to go. Because next up (probably) is Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz, currently topping the polls ahead of an expected February election. He seems keen on giving Washington and Brussels even more power over German decision-making. Yeah, maybe Washington can advise Berlin on nail placement for its economic coffin, too? As if that’s really Germany’s big issue right now – that it wasn’t sycophantic enough under Scholz, with Merz saying how it was “embarrassing how Scholz acted in the European Union.” Scholz shrugged off Nord Stream being blown up, putting the German economy at the mercy of pricy American gas, and Merz doesn’t think Scholz was enough of a team player?

Scholz apparently just wanted to keep feeding more taxpayer cash into the German military industrial complex under the pretext of helping Ukraine, but doesn’t seem too keen on actual war. But Merz isn’t even capable of understanding how that grift works, apparently. Sounds promising.Meanwhile, across the pond in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, bailed right out of the job, just hours before she was set to deliver the latest budget statement. That’s always a good sign. Kind of like calling in sick before a big test that you know you’re about to fail. The $62 billion deficit that was set to be announced – $22 billion more than Freeland’s projected target – might have had something to do with it.

She says that she was pushed out first, though, writing in her resignation letter to Trudeau, “On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the cabinet.” Freeland says that she rejected “costly political gimmicks” like sales tax holidays and onetime cash handouts, presumably, which she herself had spent months relentlessly promoting. She makes it sound like she was a sudden voice of reason, and referred to “strenuous efforts this fall to manage our spending in ways that will give us the flexibility we will need to meet the serious challenges presented by the United States.”

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“I’m going to find out who’s making these accusations and nuke them.”

• Musk Accuses ‘Deep State Traitors’ Of Targeting Him (RT)

US federal agencies have initiated at least three reviews into whether Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, complied with security reporting protocols designed to safeguard state secrets, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke with the New York Times. Elon Musk currently holds a top-secret security clearance at SpaceX, the highest level granted by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. This clearance allows him access to highly sensitive classified information, including advanced US military technology, but he is required to report details of his private life under the “continuous vetting” rules. The investigations were triggered by alleged repeated failures to report crucial details about Musk’s travel and other activities, including meetings with foreign leaders, the NYT reported on Tuesday.

SpaceX employees responsible for ensuring compliance have allegedly raised concerns about lax reporting practices within the company since at least 2021. But according to the publication, complaints reached a “tipping point” following Musk’s public support for President-elect Donald Trump and his growing potential “influence” in the upcoming US administration. ”Deep state traitors are coming after me, using their paid shills in legacy media. I prefer not to start fights, but I do end them…” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday, responding to the NYT allegations. The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General opened its review this year, while the Air Force and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security began separate investigations last month, the NYT reported. The agencies have declined to officially confirm or deny the existence of these reviews and have not accused the South African billionaire of disclosing classified material.

Last month, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire and a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations, expressed concern about Musk’s potential to inadvertently disclose sensitive information. In a letter to the Pentagon Inspector General and the US Attorney General, Shaheen and Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island cited an October article in the Wall Street Journal claiming that Musk had multiple conversations with Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin in 2022. The newspaper relied on anonymous sources, and provided no evidence to support the assertions. Musk has dismissed those claims, referring to the senators as “puppets” and questioning who was behind the letter. “Who actually wrote this and made those knuckleheads sign it?” he wrote on X at the time. ”There will be consequences for those who pushed foreign interference hoaxes,” he vowed last month, threatening to take action against officials and politicians making baseless accusations. “I’m going to find out who’s making these accusations and nuke them.”

The allegations of links between Musk and Russia echo similar accusations leveled against Donald Trump during his first term in office. Those widespread claims, fueled by media reports and inconclusive investigations, were used to undermine his presidency but were later found to be without basis. The Kremlin has also denied claims that Musk frequently communicated with Putin, calling the allegations another ingredient “tossed into” the US political struggles. Musk has actively supported the president-elect and has become an increasingly influential figure among his team. Trump appointed Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new initiative tasked with reducing government waste and streamlining the federal bureaucracy.

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“..diversity and inclusion” trumps people’s lives.

• Boeing’s Failed Plea Deal: What Happens Next (ET)

Months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) offered Boeing a plea deal to avoid criminal fraud charges, a U.S. judge threw a curveball in the case, rejecting the deal after taking issue with a “diversity and inclusion” provision in selecting a monitor to supervise the company’s safety practices, along with how the court would participate in that process.The United States charged Boeing with fraud on Jan. 7, 2021, following the 2018 and 2019 737 MAX 8 crashes, which killed all 346 people onboard both flights. The DOJ accused the aerospace company of deliberately hiding its Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System software, which caused both planes to stall midair and fall to the ground, from Federal Aviation Administration regulators.To avoid criminal charges, the DOJ offered Boeing a deferred prosecution agreement: a criminal settlement that required the plane manufacturer to pay a total of $2.5 billion in damages, including a $243.6 million penalty and a $500 million fund to compensate families of the 737 Max crash victims.

Boeing had to remain in compliance for three years after the agreement was signed—which ended on Jan. 7. But, two days prior, a door panel ripped off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight midair, changing the company’s fortunes overnight and thrusting its safety practices back into public scrutiny. After the DOJ wrote in a May 14 court filing that Boeing had violated the criminal settlement, which the company denied, Boeing then pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States over the 737 MAX 8 crashes. The plea deal would have required Boeing to pay an additional $243.6 million fine, invest $455 million into safety and compliance programs, and submit to three years of independent monitoring over its safety and quality control. Now that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor has rejected the deal, the aerospace giant faces several possible outcomes, aside from appealing the ruling, aviation and legal experts told The Epoch Times.

“[The DOJ] can sit down with Boeing and rework the plea deal so that the monitor selection process is more acceptable to the court. Or they can take Boeing to trial on the conspiracy charge,” Erin Applebaum, a partner at Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, which represents 34 families who lost loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, told The Epoch Times. “I have no doubt that the first option is what will happen. I fully expect that DOJ and Boeing will rewrite the plea so that its terms are more favorable to the court.” O’Connor wrote in a Dec. 5 order that he had concerns about a diversity and inclusion provision in Boeing’s plea deal with the DOJ. He targeted a single sentence in the plea agreement that referenced the DOJ’s diversity policy in selecting an independent monitor to monitor Boeing’s safety compliance practices.

“In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency,” O’Connor wrote. “The parties’ DEI efforts only serve to undermine this confidence in the Government and Boeing’s ethics and anti-fraud efforts.” Shawn Pruchnicki, aviation safety expert and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Center for Aviation Studies, said the monitor had an “amazingly important task” of supervising the company’s safety compliance practices. “I stand fully behind [diversity], but I think many of us in aerospace and certainly in aviation, just like we do on the flight deck … we want someone who is qualified, that can meet the same requirements that we get,” Pruchnicki told The Epoch Times.

Applebaum said she and the victims’ families are very appreciative of the court’s mandating that the DOJ and Boeing improve the monitor selection process. “Though there is still much work to be done, the imposition of a highly qualified monitor who will hold Boeing’s feet to the fire is a good first step towards strengthening aviation safety and ensuring that there are no more Boeing crashes,” she said. In rejecting the deal, O’Connor also criticized how the DOJ positioned the court in the monitor selection process. “At this point, the public interest requires the Court to step in,” he wrote in his order. “Marginalizing the Court in the selection and monitoring of the independent monitor as the plea agreement does undermines public confidence in Boeing’s probation, fails to promote respect for the law, and is therefore not in the public interest.”

Read more …

Social media.

• World Gripped By Mental Health ‘Pandemic’ – FT (RT)

A mental health crisis is unfolding in workplaces worldwide, with financial services emerging among the hardest-hit sectors, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing recent research. Burnout, depression, and anxiety are the main issues that significantly undermine productivity, economists, business leaders, and health advocates have warned. A survey by global consultancy firm Deloitte revealed that 17% of finance and insurance workers in the UK experience exhaustion, declining performance, and mental distancing, compared to a 12% average across all sectors. The report noted that the annual cost of poor mental health per employee in financial services amounts to £5,379, more than double that in any of the 14 other industries examined.

Startling statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) show that around 12 billion work days are lost annually to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy an estimated $1 trillion each year. “The scale of the problem is hugely worrying, particularly among young people,” Kate Pickett, professor of epidemiology at York University, told the FT. “The increase has been so huge that there is something real going on,” she said, dismissing suggestions that the rise in reported cases is merely due to greater awareness.

Researchers from Deloitte said the wellbeing of young people is particularly alarming, with one in five UK children having a probable mental health disorder in 2023, compared to one in nine in 2017. Among the factors contributing to the global “mental health pandemic” are the cost-of-living crisis and the pervasive use of social media, according to the researchers. The decline in mental health was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which global depression cases surged by 25% between 2020 and 2021, according to the WHO. The organization said that mental health levels have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, with some individuals continuing to experience a “massive hangover from the pandemic.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Elon work

 

 

Andreessen

 

 

Eva

 

 

Betrayal

 

 

Squirrel

 

 

Baby elephant

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle December 13 3024

Dec 132024
 
 December 13, 2024  Posted by at 10:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  60 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Women running on the beach 1922

 

• Marc Andreessen Gives Insider Peek At DOGE Decisions (ZH)
• ProPublica Pats Itself On Back After Hegseth Hitpiece Humiliation (ZH)
• Trump Says He Will Not ‘Abandon’ Ukraine (RT)
• West Will ‘Betray’ Ukraine – Fico (RT)
• Strikes Deep Into Russia ‘Big Mistake’ – Trump (RT)
• Trump Wants EU To Send Troops To Ukraine – WSJ (RT)
• Six Major NATO States Sign Document On Ukraine’s Accession Plans (RT)
• The Centrists Cannot Hold (Patrick Lawrence)
• Trump Invites Xi To His Inauguration – CBS (RT)
• Trump Says RFK Jr. Will Study Link Between Childhood Vaccines and Autism (ET)
• Meta Donates $1Mln to Trump’s Fund as Part of Effort to Mend Ties (Sp.)
• Biden Pardons 39, Commutes Nearly 1,500 Sentences (JTN)
• Argentina’s First Budget Surplus in 123 Years (Martin Armstrong)
• The Kremlin’s Oprichniki Versus The General Staff’s Prigozhniki (Helmer)
• Netanyahu’s Trial: Corruption, War Crimes, And An Israel In Crisis (Cradle)
• Vultures Feed On The Carcass Of Syria (Pepe Escobar)
• The US and Israel Destroyed Syria and Called it Peace (Jeffrey Sachs)

 

 

Lavrov

No, it’s time to leave the wartime mindset behind.

Kash


https://twitter.com/i/status/1867191997871841365

Rogan

AI

Van Jones

Inauguration

 

 

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1867357433493872874

 

 

 

 

Marc Andreessen fuels the optimism about the process that will lead to Trump II. Formidable people galore.

“He will happily talk to distinguished visitors about who the Vice President should be, and then he’ll ask the caddy.”

• Marc Andreessen Gives Insider Peek At DOGE Decisions (ZH)

Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen gave a wide-ranging interview to Free Press’s Bari Weiss, confirming his involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and sharing behind-the-scenes insights on working with President-elect Donald Trump. Andreessen discussed his role in assisting Trump with assembling the next administration and provided a glimpse into what it’s like to spend time with the incoming commander-in-chief. During the two-hour conversation, Andreessen also revisited his experience with Biden administration officials, claiming the government expressed the orwellian desire to take “complete control” over AI development in the United States.

“I’m an unpaid volunteer,” Andreessen said when asked by Weiss about his reported involvement. A recent report from The Washington Post revealed that Andreessen, along with fellow Silicon Valley titans Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, is contributing to the ambitious program. Andreessen outlined DOGE’s two chief objectives: slashing spending and reducing regulations. “There’s basically two big parts to it,” Andreessen explained. “One is they’re going to do a top-to-bottom review of government spending, and they’re going to cut as much cost as they possibly can. They have a whole theory and strategy on that.” “In conjunction with that and related to it, they’re going to do the same thing for regulations,” the billionaire continued. “They’re going to do a top-to-bottom review of the regulatory—what they call the regulatory state or the administrative state.”

“The connective tissue there, that they don’t talk about in public, is actually quite important. A lot of the reaction of the Doge from institutional Washington is like, well, that’s impossible, you can’t do that; there are all these laws, statutes, and regulations,” he added. Andreessen, along with his A16z co-founder Ben Horowitz, endorsed Trump during the final stretch of the 2024 election. Since Trump’s victory, Andreessen revealed to Weiss that he has spent a great day of time at Mar-a-Lago and the Palm Beach area, assisting the 47th leader of the free world with assembling his administration. While Andreessen said he has spent “maybe half [his] time” at Mar-a-Lago since the election, he is quick to clarify his position: “I’m not claiming to be in the middle of all the decision-making, but I’ve been trying to help in as many ways as I can,” the tech titan told Weiss.

Andreessen explained that his contributions focus on areas where his expertise aligns with Trump’s agenda, including tech policy, business, and economic development. “When I talk about these things, it’s around, as I said, tech policy, business, economics, and then, you know, the health of the country, the success of the country,” he noted. Andreessen shared his observations of Trump’s warm personal approach, highlighting qualities that he believes are often overlooked by his Democrat critics. “Everybody says this who meets with him, but he’s an incredible host,” Andreessen remarked. “For however people think, whatever, he’s an incredible host. He runs his own private worlds.” What stood out most to Andreessen was Trump’s ability to connect with people from all walks of life.

“He treats everybody the same and talks to everybody,” Andreessen said. “He will happily talk to distinguished visitors about who the Vice President should be, and then he’ll ask the caddy.” Reflecting on his involvement in the transition process, Andreessen noted the exceptional caliber of candidates he encountered. “The caliber of a lot of the people that I’ve met has been very high,” he said, adding that recent appointments, particularly at the next level down in staff positions, have included “very impressive people.” Addressing concerns about whether qualified individuals might hesitate to join a Trump administration due to the controversies surrounding his previous term, Andreessen said he has observed the opposite trend: “I think the flow of qualified people from outside the system now is actually much stronger.”

Yet another mainstream media narrative busted. Addressing also reiterated that his support for Trump stemmed from a series of “horrifying” meeting in which Biden officials expressed plans to control AI. “They said, look, AI is a technology basically that the government is going to completely control,” Andreessen revealed. The officials explicitly discouraged the idea of entrepreneurial ventures in AI, stating, “Don’t start, don’t do AI startups… it’s not something that we’re going to allow to happen.”

Read more …

The last gasp of the anti-Pete move?

• ProPublica Pats Itself On Back After Hegseth Hitpiece Humiliation (ZH)

Leftist attack dog ProPublica seemed unfazed by the widespread ridicule it faced on social media after its botched attempt at a smear campaign against Pete Hegseth backfired. The publication had plotted to accuse Hegseth of falsely claiming he was accepted into West Point. In response, Hegseth got ahead of the publication and shared his acceptance letter confirming that he had been accepted into the military academy—though he declined the offer. In a now-viral tweet, Hegseth wrote, “We understand that ProPublica (the Left Wing hack group) is planning to publish a knowingly false report that I was not accepted to West Point in 1999.” Hegseth also shared his letter of acceptance signed by Army Lieutenant General and then-West Point Superintendent Daniel Christman.

As criticism mounted against ProPublica, its editor, Jesse Eisinger, attempted to defend the outlet but inadvertently made the situation worse. He claimed West Point had falsely informed the publication that Hegseth was never admitted to the military academy. “We asked West Pt public affairs, which told us twice on the record that he hadn’t even applied there,” Eisinger wrote on X. “We reached out. Hegseth’s spox gave us his acceptance letter. We didn’t publish a story. That’s journalism.” Despite Eisinger’s attempt to save face, Hegseth’s defenders said the real story ProPublica should have published was that West Point had incorrectly discredited Hegseth. Initially, ProPublica quoted West Point as stating, “According to the admissions office – Hegseth had not applied for admission to the U.S. Military Academy.”

After being pressed for clarification, West Point admitted: “A review of our records indicates that Mr. Peter Hegseth was offered admission to West Point in 1999 but did not attend West Point.” West Point confirmed Hegseth had been offered admission for the class of 2023, issuing a statement to correct the record. “An incorrect statement involving Mr. Hegseth’s admission to the United States Military Academy was released by an employee on December 10, 2024,” the academy said. “Upon further review of an achieved [sic] database, employees realized this statement was in error.”

The academy added it was taking “this situation very seriously” and issued an apology “for this administrative error.” ProPublica’s failed attempt to smear Hegseth appeared to be part of a broader campaign aimed at thwarting his nomination as the next secretary of the Department of Defense. Trump announced his decision to nominate Hegseth following his landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election. Despite relentless media attacks on Hegseth’s personal life, the president-elect has stood by his side. “He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense,” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month, later adding: “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”

Geraldo

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“I disagree with the whole thing because it should have never happened..”

• Trump Says He Will Not ‘Abandon’ Ukraine (RT)

The US will not cut all aid to Ukraine as part of brokering peace with Russia, President-elect Donald Trump has claimed. Time magazine published an extensive interview with Trump on Thursday, after naming the former-and-upcoming US president its 2024 Person of the Year. Among the many topics they touched on was Ukraine, with the outlet repeatedly asking whether Trump would “abandon” Kiev by cutting off Washington’s aid. “I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon. You understand what that means, right?” Trump replied. The unnamed interviewer apparently did not understand, and repeated the question. “Well, I just said it. You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon, in my opinion,” the president-elect said. Trump also explained why he was reluctant to get into any details of his peace proposal.

“The reason that I don’t like to tell you this is that, as a negotiator, when I sit down and talk to some very brilliant young people… when I start I think I have a very good plan to help, but when I start exposing that plan, it becomes almost a worthless plan,” he told Time. The US Congress has approved over $180 billion in military, humanitarian, and economic aid to Ukraine. Washington also provides targeting and intelligence information to Kiev, while insisting that none of this makes it a party to the conflict with Russia. Moscow has repeatedly warned the West against such escalation, to no avail. “I disagree with the whole thing because it should have never happened,” Trump said about the conflict. He has maintained for years that the Russia-Ukraine conflict would not have escalated had Joe Biden not replaced him in the White House in 2021 and allowed things to get out of hand.

“It’s crazy what’s taking place. It’s crazy,” Trump said about the fighting, lamenting the large number of casualties on both sides. “We’re just escalating this war and making it worse.” Last week, the Pentagon announced another $1 billion in military aid to Kiev, while the US Treasury sent $20 billion in loans, intended to be written off and secured by frozen Russian government assets. Moscow has called the move blatant theft and announced there would be consequences.

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“..Ukraine “has allowed itself to be dragged into this adventure that cannot end well for the country.”

• West Will ‘Betray’ Ukraine – Fico (RT)

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has claimed that the West will betray Ukraine by agreeing to a redrawing of the country’s borders. Attempts to weaken Russia through economic sanctions have also failed, he added. While Slovakia is a member of both the European Union and NATO, its government has consistently dissented from the blocks’ policies on the Ukraine conflict since Fico assumed office, after which he froze Bratislava’s military aid to Kiev. In May, Fico was shot multiple times at close range by a man who later told police that he was motivated by the prime minister’s refusal to send arms to Ukraine. In an interview on Tuesday with Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo daily, Fico said that the West had hoped to weaken Russia by means of the Ukraine conflict but had failed. “The Russians are gaining more and more territory [and] the sanctions are not working,” he argued.

According to the official, Ukraine “has allowed itself to be dragged into this adventure that cannot end well for the country.” Fico claimed that Kiev “will lose territory,” possibly up to a third of its land, and “will not be invited to NATO.” The Slovakian head of government added “I believe that the Ukrainians will be betrayed.” The official also predicted that some sort of security guarantees would be offered to Kiev, “such as the presence of foreign troops” in Ukraine. The official also predicted that some sort of security guarantees would be offered to Kiev, “such as the presence of foreign troops” in Ukraine. Addressing Kiev’s NATO aspirations, Fico insisted that on his watch, Bratislava would oppose its accession to the US-led military bloc. The prime minister noted, however, that he has nothing against Ukraine joining the EU.

Fico insisted that there can be no military solution to the Ukraine conflict, with Kiev and Moscow needing to negotiate at last. He also noted that it is unrealistic to expect Moscow to give up Crimea or the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics at this point. The official went on to express cautious optimism regarding US President-elect Donald Trump’s “constructive approach” toward ending the bloodshed. Fico told Brazilian reporters that he wants to “bring relations with Russia back to normal,” emphasizing the need to restore dialogue with Moscow. “And I assure you, once the war is over… it will be ‘business as usual.’ Everyone will go there [Russia], everyone will want to buy and sell,” the Slovakian prime minister concluded. Fico claimed that he supported the ‘Friends of Peace’ initiative led by China and Brazil, and pledged to “offer all our modest capabilities to be able to support this plan in various forms.”

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“..such attacks are “just escalating this war and making it worse.”

• Strikes Deep Into Russia ‘Big Mistake’ – Trump (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has criticized Ukraine’s strikes deep into Russia using Western-supplied weapons, saying that they only escalate the conflict between Kiev and Moscow. Trump made the statement on Thursday in an interview with Time magazine, which named him the 2024 Person of the Year. “I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that?” he asked rhetorically. According to the president-elect, such attacks are “just escalating this war and making it worse.” “That should not have been allowed to be done… And I think that is a very big mistake, very big mistake,” he said of strikes deep into Russia’s internationally recognized territory.

Trump returned to the issue later in the interview, saying that “the most dangerous thing right now” is the fact that “[Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky has decided, with the approval of, I assume, the President [Joe Biden], to start shooting missiles into Russia.” “I think that is a major escalation. I think it is a foolish decision,” he stressed. The US president-elect’s comments came a day after the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces had fired six US-supplied ATACMS missiles at a military airfield near the southern city of Taganrog. Two of them were shot down and the rest were diverted using electronic warfare during the attack, the ministry said. The fallen debris resulted in some injuries and minor damage to two buildings and several vehicles, it added.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia’s response to the strike on Taganrog “will follow at the time and in the way that will be deemed appropriate. But it will definitely follow.” In late November, Russia used its new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile system for the first time, striking the Yuzhmash military plant in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr. According to Moscow, the deployment of the state-of-the-art weapon was a response to Washington and its allies allowing Ukraine to target internationally recognized Russian territory with the long-range weapons they supply to Kiev. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at the time that if Ukraine’s attacks deep inside Russia continue, Moscow reserves the right “to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow the use of their weapons against our facilities.”

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No can do.

• Trump Wants EU To Send Troops To Ukraine – WSJ (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has proposed that EU members send peacekeepers to Ukraine to monitor a potential ceasefire with Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Trump ran for the White House on the promise of negotiating a swift end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but has been reluctant to reveal any specific proposals since winning the election. Speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last Saturday, Trump argued that “Europe” should play the main role in monitoring a ceasefire and that no US troops would be involved, the Journal reported, citing “officials briefed on the meeting.” The Journal’s sources claimed that the proposal “started as quiet discussions between British and French officials about the possibility,” before including Trump, Zelensky and other governments.

According to one source, Trump also pushed the EU to demand that China pressure Russia to end the conflict, suggesting the use of tariffs as leverage. Discussions are still at such an early stage, according to the Journal, that the questions of which countries would be involved, with how many troops, and any US role in supporting the mission, remain unresolved. The hypothetical peacekeeping or monitoring mission in Ukraine would not be under NATO command but would involve troops from member countries of the US-led bloc, according to the unnamed officials, who admitted this was something they were not sure Russia would accept. It was likewise unclear whether Washington’s European allies would be able to spare the soldiers or have the political support at home for such a mission.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has invited the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland to meet with Zelensky in Brussels to discuss security guarantees for Kiev, two officials told the Journal. According to unnamed aides, however, Trump is not “wedded” to any particular plan for ending the conflict and “hasn’t thought deeply about the issue” as he prepares the handover of power on January 20. Russia has repeatedly said that Ukraine’s association with NATO would be a threat to its national security. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has described Ukraine’s membership in the bloc as “categorically unacceptable” to Moscow, citing it as one of the major causes of the current conflict.

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The EU is a warmonger cabal.

• Six Major NATO States Sign Document On Ukraine’s Accession Plans (RT)

Six European members of NATO have released a joint statement backing Ukraine’s plan to join the US-led bloc, and promising to support the peace terms offered by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to Russia. Moscow has previously rejected Zelensky’s insistence on restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders as unacceptable. The foreign ministers of the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Poland signed a declaration after meeting with the Ukrainian leader in Berlin on Thursday. “The goals of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine and durable security for Europe are inseparable. Ukraine must prevail,” the statement said. The countries pledged to support an end to the conflict in accordance “with full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” “We reaffirm our commitment to President Zelensky’s Peace Formula, as a credible path towards a just and lasting peace,” the statement read.

Kiev’s backers vowed to “support Ukraine on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership,” as well as “its path towards accession to the European Union.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga thanked the six nations and the EU for “candid discussion and readiness to take concrete steps.” He called for additional sanctions, targeting Russia’s metals sector, shipping, and banks. “We are closely monitoring the increase in trade with the countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia,” Sibiga said. The meeting in Berlin took place amid uncertainty over whether US President-elect Donald Trump will continue the previous administration’s unconditional military and financial aid to Kiev. Trump, who takes office on January 20, has described Zelensky as “the greatest salesman on Earth” and promised to do his best to quickly end the conflict through diplomacy.

Although he has not yet produced a concrete plan, during the presidential campaign he appeared open to pressuring Kiev to start negotiations with Moscow. Trump has also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for allowing Ukraine to use American-made missiles for strikes deep into internationally recognized Russian territory. “I think that is a very big mistake,” he told Time magazine in an interview published on Thursday. Russia has rejected Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’ outright, insisting that a peace agreement could only be reached on its terms. Moscow has stressed that Ukraine must renounce claims on Crimea and four other regions, which voted to join Russia in 2014 and 2022. The Kremlin has also said Ukraine should drop its plan to join the US-led military bloc in favor of becoming a permanently neutral country. President Vladimir Putin has cited NATO’s expansion eastward and military cooperation with Ukraine as one of the root causes of the current conflict.

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“..it is difficult to overstate the arrogance of a president who operates with so profound an indifference to his electorate.”

• The Centrists Cannot Hold (Patrick Lawrence)

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”

A lot of us are familiar with these lines from Yeats’s thoroughly anthologized and often-quoted The Second Coming. How can they not come to mind as the French government of Emmanuel Macron, the centrist par excellence, falls in a heap of high-handed hubris? Everyone in Paris is blaming everyone since the Macron government’s energized opposition in the National Assembly forced Premier Michel Barnier from office with a vote of no confidence last week. The truth is that Barnier is a casualty of his own political camp — an arrogant “center” that is not, in fact, the center of anything. It is composed of neoliberal ideologues who hold themselves as high as falcons above voters, refuse to hear them and wage war to remain in power even when they are voted out of it.

What is unfolding now in France is unfolding one or another way across those Western powers that form the walls of the neoliberal fortress. You see variants in Germany, Britain and, understood properly, in the United States. The center is not holding but the center insists on holding. Neoliberalism, after decades during which it has prevailed without effective challenge, is now critically threatened on all sides. And its defenders are fighting a ferocious battle to preserve its ideological primacy. In effect, the Emmanuel Macrons and Michel Barniers of the Atlantic world are destroying what remains of democracy in the name of defending it. It is important to understand this in the clearest possible terms, given what is at stake. It cannot lead anywhere other than some form of authoritarianism unless the Macrons, the Barniers and their kind are turned back or otherwise subdued.

Isn’t this already evident? It can lead, to look at the question another way, to what could easily turn into political anarchy, and this will not be so “mere” as Yeats imagined a century and a few years ago. Macron, a former merchant banker, “president of the rich” as the French call him, is a laboratory specimen for his imperious insistence on the neoliberal orthodoxies. He decided to risk snap elections last summer after his Renaissance Party was trounced in European Parliament polls. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National won 30 seats, with 31% of the vote. La France Insoumise, France Unbowed, Macron’s leftist challenger, took nine more seats. Renaissance went home with 13 seats, 14.6% of the vote. Macron, ever out-of-touch, calculated that snap legislative elections would restore the balance of power in his favor.

In the National Assembly elections last June and July, Macron was outdone once again. The Nouveau Fronte Populaire, a leftist alliance formed just weeks before the polls, won 188 seats, Le Pen’s National Rally 142 and Macron’s centrist alliance 161. In sum, no party had the 289 seats required to achieve a legislative majority in the 577–seat Assembly. The leftist front was the surprise winner, and National Rally had the most votes of any single party. Both then demanded, altogether rightfully, the president name a new premier from their ranks. So did Macron’s anti-democratic defense of French democracy begin — or continue more pointedly, better put. He refused for two months to name anyone to Matignon, the prime minister’s residence and office.

And his eventual choice of Barnier, a conservative dedicated to neoliberal austerity and the European Union’s technocracy, was an in-your-face rejection of last summer’s election results. It is interesting to consider what Macron charged Barnier with accomplishing. In the Assembly he faced hostility to Macron’s centrist regime over both shoulders — either from the left (the Nouveau Fronte Populaire) or from the populist right (Le Pen’s Rassemblement). Barnier’s job was to navigate this stony political terrain while sustaining Macron’s neoliberal economics. I would have called this a mission impossible, a fool’s errand, given the two opposition blocs held 330 seats between them. But it is difficult to overstate the arrogance of a president who operates with so profound an indifference to his electorate.

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Good move.

• Trump Invites Xi To His Inauguration – CBS (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration on January 20, CBS News reported on Wednesday. The offer was made in early November, shortly after Trump’s election victory, multiple sources told the media outlet. It remains unclear whether Xi has accepted. In a recent NBC News interview, Trump said he “got along very well” with Xi and that they had communicated the previous week. Trump’s team has suggested hosting other leaders at the Capitol on January 20, in addition to Xi. While ambassadors and diplomats are typically invited, State Department records since 1874 indicate that no foreign leader has ever attended a transfer-of-power ceremony. The apparent olive branch to China comes despite Trump’s incoming administration featuring several hawks on Beijing, including Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

The president-elect has vowed to hit the country with an “additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs” unless it takes action against the trafficking of fentanyl, a major contributor to the opioid crisis. During his campaign he threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on US imports from China.On Tuesday President Xi Jinping warned that neither side will emerge victorious in the event of a trade war. Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US, read a letter from Xi at a US-China Business Council gala in Washington on Wednesday, emphasizing the importance of dialogue over confrontation, and calling for mutually beneficial cooperation rather than zero-sum games. Xie urged against decoupling supply chains, while US Ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns cautioned that Beijing sometimes tries to “sugar coat” the competitive nature of the bilateral relationship.

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Of course he will. Good on him.

• Trump Says RFK Jr. Will Study Link Between Childhood Vaccines and Autism (ET)

President-elect Donald Trump said on Dec. 8 that he will give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the freedom to investigate the potential link between vaccines and autism if the latter gains Senate confirmation to become secretary of health and human services (HHS). Kennedy has said for years that autism is likely tied to childhood vaccines. He was nominated to serve as HHS secretary by Trump last month and has promised sweeping changes to agencies under the HHS department, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The NIH supports and funds research into autism, as well as potential new vaccines. Kennedy told The Epoch Times in September that he would revamp the NIH to focus on the causes of autism, autoimmune diseases, and neurodevelopment diseases instead of developing drugs and serving as an incubator for pharmaceutical products.

In a Dec. 8 interview on “Meet The Press,” Trump noted that autism cases have increased in recent decades. When asked if Kennedy would explore the issue, Trump said he is “open to anything.” “When you look at some of the problems, when you look at what’s going on with disease and sickness in our country, something’s wrong,” Trump said. “I think somebody has to find out. If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it.” CDC information shows that about one in 36 American children today has an autism diagnosis, compared to one in 150 in the year 2000. Fighting chronic disease, improving children’s health, and addressing corporate influence on government agencies were vital parts of Kennedy’s campaign platform when he ran for president as a Democrat and then as an independent.

Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and backed Trump in August. He told The Epoch Times that it was a “heart-wrenching decision” and a necessary step toward achieving his mission of saving Americans from the chronic disease epidemic. Under the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, Kennedy intends to curtail what he calls the chronic disease epidemic by addressing the so-called corporate capture of federal health agencies and removing toxic chemicals from the nation’s food supply, among other objectives.

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That’s $1 million for Zuck vs $260 million for Elon Musk.

• Meta Donates $1Mln to Trump’s Fund as Part of Effort to Mend Ties (Sp.)

Meta* has confirmed a $1 million donation to US President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, signaling a significant shift in CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s approach to the incoming administration, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The donation is a notable departure from Zuckerberg’s previous stance, especially considering his contentious relationship with Trump during the election campaign. Trump had previously threatened to retaliate against tech giants he perceived as undermining his campaign. The paper also reported that as Republicans prepared to take control of both the White House and Congress, tech CEOs were recalibrating their strategies in anticipation of new regulations that could impact their businesses. However, Zuckerberg’s outreach to Trump was not an isolated incident.

The report also noted that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has been critical of Trump in the past, had recently congratulated him on his victory and expressed optimism about the new administration. The report said Zuckerberg’s efforts to forge a stronger connection with Trump included a private dinner at Mar-a-Lago. During the two-day event, Meta’s senior policy executives engaged with key figures in Trump’s administration, including his nominee for secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio. The tech industry has often found itself at odds with Republican leadership, particularly under Trump’s administration, which frequently criticized social media platforms for perceived bias against conservative viewpoints. In the wake of the 2020 election and the January 6 unrest, the tech entrepreneur banned Donald Trump and some of his supporters on Facebook. In October 2020, both Facebook and Twitter censored the much-talked-about story of Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell.”

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What a mess.

• Biden Pardons 39, Commutes Nearly 1,500 Sentences (JTN)

Just days after pardoning his son Hunter in a widely unpopular move, President Joe Biden on Thursday issued the most sweeping one-day clemency in modern U.S. history by pardoning 39 Americans and commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 others. The actions were announced in an early morning statement from the White House that signaled more acts of clemency could be coming before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20. “As the President has said, the United States is a nation of second chances,” the statement said. “The President recognizes how the clemency power can advance equal justice under law and remedy harms caused by practices of the past.” Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities for at least one year.

The pardons went to 39 nonviolent offenders, including some convicted of drug crimes. “These actions represent the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history,” the White House said. The sweeping grant came just 11 days after Biden erased the felony tax and gun convictions of his son Hunter with an unpopular pardon opposed by a majority of Americans, including some prominent Democrats. It also comes as some around the president urge he issue preemptive pardons for members of his party, his administration, or federal bureaucrats who might face prosecution in the next Trump administration. According to the White House statement, those receiving clemency Thursday included:

A decorated military veteran who now assists fellow church members who are in poor health;
A nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters and helped spearhead vaccination efforts during the pandemic;
An addiction counselor who “volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose, make better choices, and refrain from destructive behaviors and gang involvement.”

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“Imagine inflation cooling in February at 276% — the situation was dire..”

• Argentina’s First Budget Surplus in 123 Years (Martin Armstrong)

Argentina has posted its first budget surplus in 123 years after President Javir Milei took office and demanded an abrupt halt to government spending. Governments worldwide should carefully take note. Milei proudly announced: “The deficit was the root of all our evils — without it, there’s no debt, no emission, no inflation. Today, we have a sustained fiscal surplus, free of default, for the first time in 123 years. This historic achievement came from the greatest adjustment in history and reducing monetary emission to zero. A year ago, a degenerate printed 13% of GDP to win an election, fueling inflation. Today, monetary emission is a thing of the past.” Economic emissions should become a coined phrase as it is far more harmful than anything government is currently trying to conquer.

Argentina was forced to stop printing money back in 2022 after inflation surpassed 60% in July of that year, and their currency became utterly worthless. The central bank raised rates to nearly 70% to no avail as government continued borrowing. The problem with socialism is that they eventually run out of other people’s money. The government was spending over $6 million daily on social programs, but the poverty rate continued to rise, and around 57% of the working population could not find jobs. There were mass strikes since their money could not fund basic goods. Even if they could find employment, what incentive would the people have when the currency is worthless? Since they had no way to pay off their debt, the government simply continued to print more and devalued its own currency in the process. Javir Milei was called a right-wing extremist for denouncing socialism and promising to curtail government spending and social programs.

He understood that socialism COULD NOT WORK. It took President Javier Milei of Argentina a mere two months to push his nation into a surplus. The Economy Ministry declared that the government posted a $589 million surplus back in April, the first surplus in a decade. Milei referred to the government as “a criminal organization,” and recognized that the public sector needed to shrink as 341,477 people were on the government payroll when he took office. Referred to as the “gnocchi” after the Italian pasta dish that is commonly served on the 29th of the month, the same day as payday, are the individuals in Argentina on the government payroll who do absolutely nothing. They were installed by politicians in exchange for favors. Critics claim he is firing at random, but the Milei Administration has assured the public that selecting those who will be laid off will be an “extremely surgical task, done so as not to make mistakes.”

Milei has already eliminated useless agencies such as the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, and Ministry of Social Development. In his words, Argentina is currently a poor country and cannot afford these departments that do absolutely nothing to improve the nation’s economic conditions. He has cut the Cabinet in half and no one has noticed a difference. Milei removed price controls and devalued the currency by 54%. Transport and fuel subsidies were eliminated. It was noted that these measures would at first hurt PPP before the economy could begin to heal. Imagine inflation cooling in February at 276% — the situation was dire. The International Monetary Fund awarded Argentina a $44 billion credit program. The nation is beginning to stabilize very slowly, and it took decades of deteriorating economic conditions for someone to come in and clean house.

He has called his measures a form of “shock therapy” for Argentina’s economy. Milei agreed to devalue the nation’s peso from around 350 to 800 pesos per USD. He has eliminated quotas on imports and exports and removed the licensing that was difficult to obtain. There is a temporary rise in taxes for non-agricultural trade that brings it on par with industry standards. Transportation and energy subsidies have been eliminated. Milei is the same man who stood before the crowd at Davos and criticized their glorification of socialism. “The main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism,” Milei said to a hostile crowd at Davos. “We’re here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world—rather they are the root cause.”

Those in charge want us to believe that capitalism equates to greed while collectivism is seen as a form of social justice but, of course, requires the money of others. Free enterprise is under constant attack, and Milei is one of the only world leaders fighting for its existence. “Social justice is not just. It doesn’t contribute to the general well-being,” Milei said to Davos, citing that socialism is “intrinsically unfair” and forces the state to attack the people for taxes. “Can any of us say that they voluntarily pay taxes?” he asked the crowd. He was once called the Donald Trump of Argentina. We can hope that Donald Trump will take swift action to reduce government spending. DOGE appointee Elon Musk congratulated Argentina’s president when news of the budget surplus broke. Unfortunately, America is too far in the hole to recover by slashing programs or cutting government. It would be a massive step forward but our deficit has been permitted to run wild for too long to be tamed.

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“..the situation can be redeemed in the Ukraine. This means the complete and comprehensive defeat of the enemy there.”

• The Kremlin’s Oprichniki Versus The General Staff’s Prigozhniki (Helmer)

The defeat of the Russian army in war discredits, not the soldiers who fought and died, but the commander-in-chief and the generals who were in command. Defeat on the battlefield also destroys Russian military honour as a political force in the country, just as its opposite, victory on the battlefield, threatens the civilian commander-in-chief with his replacement by a soldier hero. To protect himself from his triumphant, and also from his disgruntled officers, the commander-in-chief may make his generals scapegoats for the defeat. Joseph Stalin had begun shooting scapegoat officers before the German invasion of June 21, 1941, and then accelerated his purge in the weeks which followed. In 1946, in the aftermath of the Red Army’s victory over Germany, Stalin neutralized Marshal Georgiy Zhukov (for the second time), stripping him of his command powers and sending him into internal exile, all for purely political reasons. Stalin had allowed Zhukov to lead the victory parade in Red Square but only after Stalin had tried himself and failed to stay in the saddle of the white horse.

Stalin’s jealousy of Zhukov’s domestic popularity was compounded by his (not unreasonable) fear of a military putsch and of the Caligula Cure. For most Russians – and this has been a consistent finding of public opinion polling by the independent Levada Centre of Moscow – the President’s popularity, public trust, and approval of his performance run about 10 points ahead of the Russian trust in the Army. However, the two support each other on the upswing in the polls when there are victories to celebrate; and then on the downswing when there are defeats, rising casualties, and war fatigue across the countryside. Between 2022 and now, for example, Russian approval of Putin has risen to the 80% level; for the Army approval has also risen to about 70%. It is the conclusion of the Kremlin and of the General Staff, therefore, that they should either hang together or if not, they will hang each other.

Having opposed but obeyed Putin’s orders forbidding them to fire on Israeli aircraft attacking Syria, or on Turkish ground operations in and around Idlib, Moscow sources believe the General Staff have now told Putin much more than the refrain, he’s heard many times before, “We told you so”. This time the General Staff assessment of the invasion of Syria, refusal of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to fight, and the replacement of the Assad regime in Damascus is that grave damage has been done to the protective alliances which Russia has been promoting in Africa, the Americas, China, and North Korea.

“We just have to accept that Iran and Russia have been comprehensively defeated in their non-fight, “a well-informed Moscow source says. “It is the worst defeat of Russia by the Turks in history. If Putin goes on now to make significant concessions in an Istanbul II negotiation with [President Donald] Trump, that will be the cherry on top of the Turkish halva. We are thinking this; no one is saying it. In the end, a defeat in Ukraine is all we care about. If Putin fails to deliver that, then he has a much bigger problem than the one he has just retreated from. Yes, this is a huge dishonour for us, but nothing is served by talking of it. Still, the situation can be redeemed in the Ukraine. This means the complete and comprehensive defeat of the enemy there.”

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“..domestic and international pressure had escalated so much that Netanyahu ran out of excuses by the time he attended yesterday’s hearing..”

• Netanyahu’s Trial: Corruption, War Crimes, And An Israel In Crisis (Cradle)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s entrance into a Tel Aviv courtroom yesterday was anything but understated. Facing trial as the first sitting prime minister prosecuted for corruption, Netanyahu seized the moment to brand his ordeal a “witch-hunt.” Outside the courthouse, tensions simmered as some 100 protesters gathered, blaming him for the deaths of Israeli war prisoners in Gaza, while an equal number of staunch supporters faced them across a police barrier. The embattled premier, set to testify over three days before facing cross-examination, continues to vigorously deny attempts to evade trial since his 2019 indictment on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Accused of accepting gifts from wealthy businessmen and granting favors to media moguls in exchange for positive coverage, Netanyahu had ignored his lawyer’s advice to step away from politics at the time.

Declaring on the eve of his hearing that he had “waited eight years for this moment to say the truth as [he] remember[s] it,” Netanyahu launched a preemptive attack on the judiciary, police, and media in a televised press conference on Monday. His critics, however, swiftly countered. Opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned Netanyahu’s self-serving focus amid mounting war casualties, calling his press conference “a shameful collection of lies.” Lapid accused Netanyahu of deploying “every trick possible” in his delay tactic to avoid facing justice, saying the prime minister had prioritized personal survival over the country’s security and stability. He even blamed him for the 7 October Palestinian resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, “the [subsequent] war, and the fact that the kidnapped people have not yet returned.”

For nearly five years, Netanyahu maneuvered to postpone this judicial reckoning, citing COVID-19 disruptions, procedural delays, and political gridlock during repeated elections as reasons to delay the hearings. After securing a hardline coalition in December 2022, he intensified efforts to undermine and politicize the judiciary system, proposing “reforms” that sparked mass protests throughout 2023. Those protests dwindled only after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, when Netanyahu’s response – an unprecedented and brutal military campaign – rightfully drew accusations of genocide and war crimes from the International Criminal Court (ICC). By the time he entered the underground, secured courtroom, the prime minister was under mounting pressure at home and abroad. Together with his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, he faces the allegations of war crimes – the first of their kind within the western alliance of states – along with the repercussions of a collapsing economy and the mass “displacement” of settlers in the north due to Hezbollah’s early involvement in the regional conflict.

But domestic and international pressure had escalated so much that Netanyahu ran out of excuses by the time he attended yesterday’s hearing to spin his side of the story in Tel Aviv. The Israeli prime minister walked into the courtroom with an ICC arrest warrant hanging over his head for war crimes in Gaza, and a broad international consensus that Israel is guilty of apartheid and genocide that has left nearly 45,000 Palestinians killed, the majority of them women and children. Yet, of more concern to Israelis has been the fleeing of nearly half a million Israeli Jews from the occupation state, the potentially permanent displacement of a quarter of a million from the Gaza and Lebanese border since October 2023, tens of billions of dollars in economic losses, and the shuttering of up to 60,000 businesses in 15 months of war.

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“..this is the NATO/Israel combo demilitarizing the former Syria – with not as much as a peep from anybody in the Arab world and the lands of Islam..”

• Vultures Feed On The Carcass Of Syria (Pepe Escobar)

The standard modus operandi of the Hegemon is always Divide and Rule. Cornered by the inexorable rise of the multi-nodal (italics mine) reality, they saw an opening for an imperial reboot, betting everything on establishing the “Greater Middle East” outlined still during the Cheney era. The iron axis of Straussian neocons, Zio-cons and Old Testament psychos in Tel Aviv is no-holds-barred obsessed on destroying the Axis of Resistance, using their transnational network of bloody killers to extend chaos and sectarian civil war all across West Asia. Throughout this ideal scenario they dream of mortally hitting the head of the snake: Iran. Sultan Erdogan, playing the role of useful patsy, has proclaimed:”A “bright period” for Syria has begun.” Indeed. A bright period for Black Flag head-choppers and Tel Aviv bombers and land grabbers – feeding on the carcass of Syria.

The Old Testament psycho-pathological killers, via over 350 strikes, have totally destroyed all the military infrastructure of the former Syrian Arab Army (SAA); weapons factories, munitions, bases, fighter jets, including the Mezze air base in Damascus, Russian anti-ship systems, ships themselves (in Lattakia, close to the Russian naval base) and air defense positions. In a nutshell: this is the NATO/Israel combo demilitarizing the former Syria – with not as much as a peep from anybody in the Arab world and the lands of Islam, starting with the Black Flag killers that have taken Damascus. Couple that with trademark land invasion/grabbing, and Tel Aviv officially declaring a definitive annexation of the Golan – which legally belongs to Syria and whose restitution has been demanded by the UN after the 1967 war.

In parallel, Turkish aviation bombed the former Russian-Syrian base in Qamishli, in the extreme northeast. The pretext: prevent that weapons would be grabbed by U.S.-backed Kurds and assorted Arab tribes. For the Russians this may not have been a big deal – as there was enough time to evacuate precious assets from the East of the Euphrates. Russia has given asylum to formidable, and crucially uncorruptible, Suheil al-Hassan – a serious candidate to top military tactician and strategist in the world today. Russians bet on him as early as in 2015 – and provided for his personal security. Nobody in Syria enjoyed Russian bodyguards – not even Assad. He was the only commander who won de facto battles during the 10 days of the Fall of Syria.

Amidst a torrent of doom and gloom, what’s taking place, fast as lightning, is NATO/Israel feeding on the carcass and dividing a dead nation with a gaggle of useful idiots and puppets – from fake woke Salafi-jihadis to Americanized Kurds. Obviously a collective IQ lower than any room temperature prevent this mob from realizing they are fighting for the same Suzerain. Tel Aviv goons have advanced their blitzkrieg across the Damascus countryside and may be as close as 15 km to the south of the capital; a classic lebensraum gambit, part of their colonial project, coupled with obtaining maximum leverage on the Lebanese flank. This is absolutely crucial, and extremely worrying for the Axis of Resistance: now all of southern Lebanon is exposed to a massive attack by the Israeli occupation – as the fertile plains between Chtoura in the Beqaa valley and Aanjar not only hold precious natural resources but provide a direct drive to Beirut.

In parallel, Black Flags have taken over Damascus. There are massacres all across the spectrum – including religious leaders and scientists but mostly former Army officials, former members of Syrian counter-espionage, even civilians accused of being former military. His Eminence, Sheikh Tawfiq al-Bouti, son of the famous sheikh Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti, a former imam of the venerable Umayyad mosque, was assassinated in his Damascus madrassa. Scorpions are predictably turning on each other; rival terror gangs to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) demand that Jolani’s goons liberate their members imprisoned in Greater Idlibistan, and now threaten to attack HTS. In Manbij, Turk-backed terrorists openly kill Americano-Kurds in hospitals. Syria’s north and northeast are mired in total anarchy.

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“..Before the U.S.-Israel campaign to overthrow Assad began in earnest in 2011, Syria was a functioning, growing middle-income country..”

• The US and Israel Destroyed Syria and Called it Peace (Jeffrey Sachs)

In the famous lines of Tacitus, Roman historian, “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” In our age, it is Israel and the U.S. that make a desert and call it peace. The story is simple. In stark violation of international law, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers claim the right to rule over seven million Palestinian Arabs. When Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands leads to militant resistance, Israel labels the resistance “terrorism” and calls on the U.S. to overthrow the Middle East governments that back the “terrorists.” The U.S., under the sway of the Israel Lobby, goes to war on Israel’s behalf. The fall of Syria this week is the culmination of the Israel-U.S. campaign against Syria that goes back to 1996 with Netanyahu’s arrival to office as Prime Minister.

The Israel-U.S. war on Syria escalated in 2011 and 2012, when Barack Obama covertly tasked the CIA with the overthrow of the Syrian Government in Operation Timber Sycamore. That effort finally came to “fruition” this week, after more than 300,000 deaths in the Syrian war since 2011. Syria’s fall came swiftly because of more than a decade of crushing economic sanctions, the burdens of war, the U.S. seizure of Syria’s oil, Russia’s priorities regarding the conflict in Ukraine, and most immediately, Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah, which was the key military backstop to the Syrian Government. No doubt Assad often misplayed his own hand and faced severe internal discontent, but his regime was targeted for collapse for decades by the U.S. and Israel. Since 2011, the Israel-U.S. perpetual war on Syria, including bombing, jihadists, economic sanctions, U.S. seizure of Syria’s oil fields, and more, has sunk the Syrian people into misery.

Before the U.S.-Israel campaign to overthrow Assad began in earnest in 2011, Syria was a functioning, growing middle-income country. In January 2009, the IMF Executive Board had this to say: Executive Directors welcomed Syria’s strong macroeconomic performance in recent years, as manifested in the rapid non-oil GDP growth, comfortable level of foreign reserves, and low and declining government debt. This performance reflected both robust regional demand and the authorities’ reform efforts to shift toward a more market- based economy. Since 2011, the Israel-U.S. perpetual war on Syria, including bombing, jihadists, economic sanctions, U.S. seizure of Syria’s oil fields, and more, has sunk the Syrian people into misery.

In the immediate two days following the collapse of the government, Israel conducted about 480 strikes across Syria, and completely destroyed the Syrian fleet in Latakia. Pursuing his expansionist agenda, Prime Minister Netanyahu illegally claimed control over the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights and declared that the Golan Heights will be a part of the State of Israel “for eternity.” Netanyahu’s ambition to transform the region through war, which dates back almost three decades, is playing out in front of our eyes. In a press conference on December 9th, the Israeli prime minister boasted of an “absolute victory,” justifying the on-going genocide in Gaza and escalating violence throughout the region:

“I ask you, just think, if we had acceded to those who told us time and again: ‘”The war must be stopped”– we would not have entered Rafah, we would not have seized the Philadelphia Corridor, we would not have eliminated Sinwar, we would not have surprised our enemies in Lebanon and the entire world in a daring operation-stratagem, we would not have eliminated Nasrallah, we would not have destroyed Hezbollah’s underground network, and we would not have exposed Iran’s weakness. The operations that we have carried out since the beginning of the war are dismantling the axis brick by brick.”

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Buffalo herd

 

 

Graze

 

 

Baby hippo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1867194441934479796

 

 

Cat?

 

 

Orca
https://twitter.com/i/status/1866933591050985706

 

 

Not good
https://twitter.com/i/status/1867001407112466699

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle January 18 2021

Jan 182021
 
 January 18, 2021  Posted by at 10:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  40 Responses »


Jean-Léon Gérôme Slave market 1866

 

• Thousands Of Troops Dig In For Inauguration (Hill)
• FBI Vetting Guard Troops In DC Amid Fears Of Insider Attack (AP)
• The Senate’s Cadaver Synod: The Trial Of Citizen Trump (Turley)
• Trump Social Media Ban Sparks Calls For Action vs Other Populist Leaders (G.)
• Trump To Issue Around 100 Pardons And Commutations Tuesday (CNN)
• Despair, Depression, And The Inevitable Rise of Trump 2.0 – Greenwald (RT)
• Biden Team Already Holding Talks With Iran On US Return To Nuclear Deal (ToI)
• Biden May Cancel Keystone XL Pipeline Permit On First Day In Office (R.)
• 3rd of Recovered Covid Patients Return To Hospital In 5 Months, 1 In 8 Die (Y!)
• Parler Resurfaces On Web, Promises Platform To Be Revived Soon (JTN)
• Prepare For A Surge In Global Inequality (RWER)
• Anteroom of Our Own Extinction (Steppling)

 

 

Benefits of boosting your vitamin D levels.


click to enlarge in new tab

 

 

UK Parliament: David Davis Vitamin D

 

 

A lot of all this appears to be fear-mongering blown up to 11. I’ve so far seen reports from Connecticut, Utah, Florida, Mass. state capitols, and everything’s more than quiet.

• Thousands Of Troops Dig In For Inauguration (Hill)

The National Guard is playing a leading role as the country confronts a domestic terrorism threat following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The Capitol is now crawling with more troops than in the United States’s main theaters of war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria combined as the National Guard fortifies key areas around Washington, D.C., for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. The Secret Service is even referring to the new perimeter around the Capitol as the “Green Zone” — the same name used for secure zones in Iraq and Afghanistan’s capital cities. And it’s not just D.C. Amid FBI warnings of the potential for violence at all 50 state Capitols, governors in roughly a dozen states have called up their National Guards to bolster law enforcement.

But there are also worries the military is part of the problem, as several veterans have been arrested in connection with the Capitol riots. And at least one person arrested is a current member of the National Guard in Virginia. Following heavy criticism of the Guard’s response to last summer’s racial justice protests in the city, D.C. and Pentagon officials had originally sought to minimize its role in security surrounding the inauguration. In June, hundreds of guardsmen from around the country poured into the nation’s capital at President Trump’s request, despite objections from local authorities. A National Guard helicopter also hovered over protesters in the way the military does to insurgents overseas as a show of force, a move that drew widespread scrutiny and rebuke.

After that, as officials anticipated protests when Congress met to certify Biden’s electoral victory, D.C. officials requested and the Pentagon approved just 340 unarmed guardsmen to help the city with traffic control. Defense officials have said Capitol Police turned down offers of Guard help before the riots. That all changed after the Capitol siege. As of Friday, more than 7,000 guardsmen from across the country were in Washington, D.C., with up to 25,000 from all 50 states, three territories and D.C. expected to be in the city by Inauguration Day. Troops have erected 7-foot “non-scalable” fences around the Capitol and other nearby government buildings and set up checkpoints with military vehicles and concrete barriers on streets throughout the area.

Sacredest place

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Tweet: “The beauty of this claim is it’s perfect. If something happens, no matter how small, they can use it to target Trump supporters. And if nothing happens, they can credit their vigilance and… use it to target Trump supporters.”

• FBI Vetting Guard Troops In DC Amid Fears Of Insider Attack (AP)

U.S. defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, prompting the FBI to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops coming into Washington for the event. The massive undertaking reflects the extraordinary security concerns that have gripped Washington following the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters. And it underscores fears that some of the very people assigned to protect the city over the next several days could present a threat to the incoming president and other VIPs in attendance.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press on Sunday that officials are conscious of the potential threat, and he warned commanders to be on the lookout for any problems within their ranks as the inauguration approaches. So far, however, he and other leaders say they have seen no evidence of any threats, and officials said the vetting hadn’t flagged any issues that they were aware of. ”We’re continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,” McCarthy said in an interview after he and other military leaders went through an exhaustive, three-hour security drill in preparation for Wednesday’s inauguration. He said Guard members are also getting training on how to identify potential insider threats.

About 25,000 members of the National Guard are streaming into Washington from across the country — at least two and a half times the number for previous inaugurals. And while the military routinely reviews service members for extremist connections, the FBI screening is in addition to any previous monitoring. Multiple officials said the process began as the first Guard troops began deploying to D.C. more than a week ago. And they said it is slated to be complete by Wednesday. Several officials discussed military planning on condition of anonymity. “The question is, is that all of them? Are there others?” said McCarthy. “We need to be conscious of it and we need to put all of the mechanisms in place to thoroughly vet these men and women who would support any operations like this.”

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“He pulled Formosus out of his tomb, propped him up in court, and convicted him of variety of violations of canon law. Formosus was then taken out, three fingers cut off, and eventually thrown in the Tiber River.”

• The Senate’s Cadaver Synod: The Trial Of Citizen Trump (Turley)

With the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, the Congress is set for one of the most bizarre moments in constitutional history: the removal of someone who has already left office. The retroactive removal would be a testament to the timeliness of rage. While it is not without precedent, it is without logic. The planned impeachment trial of Donald Trump after he leaves office would be our own version of the Cadaver Synod. In 897, Pope Stephen VI and his supporters continued to seethe over the action of Pope Formosus, who not only died in 896 but was followed by another pope, Boniface VI. After the brief rule of Boniface VI, Pope Stephen set about to even some scores. He pulled Formosus out of his tomb, propped him up in court, and convicted him of variety of violations of canon law. Formosus was then taken out, three fingers cut off, and eventually thrown in the Tiber River.

While some may be looking longingly at the Potomac for their own Cadaver Synod, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have stated that their primary interest is in the possible disqualification of Trump from holding future federal office. Disqualification however is an optional penalty that follows a conviction and removal. It may be added to the primary purpose of removal referenced in the Constitution. The Trump trial would convert this supplemental punishment into the primary purpose of the trial. This did happen before but that precedent is only slightly better than the Cadaver Synod. That case involved William Belknap who served as Secretary of War to President Ulysses S. Grant. Belknap resigned after allegations of corruption — just shortly before a House vote of impeachment.

The Senate held a trial but acquitted him. Twenty nine of 66 voting senators disagreed in a threshold motion that Belknap was “amenable to trial by impeachment . . . notwithstanding his resignation.” In fairness to the Democrats, I have long rejected the argument that there comes a point when it is too late to impeach a president while he is in office. As I said in both the Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings, the House is under a duty to impeach if it believes that a president has committed a high crime and misdemeanor. If that occurred on the last day of a term, it would still be warranted.

My objection to this second impeachment was that it proceeded without any deliberation of the traditional impeachment process. It was a snap impeachment, which is to the Constitution what Snapchat is to conversations. It reduces the process to a raw, brief and partisan vote. This could have been avoided. A hearing could have been held in a day to allow the language of the article to be amended and the implications of the impeachment considered. It would also have allowed for a formal demand for a response from the president. Instead, the impeachment was pushed through on a partisan muscle vote with only ten Republicans supporting the single article.

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This is exactly what Merkel doesn’t want. It has to be done according to laws, not political preferences.

• Trump Social Media Ban Sparks Calls For Action vs Other Populist Leaders (G.)

“I do not celebrate or feel pride,” the Twitter boss Jack Dorsey said this week after banishing Donald Trump. But for many around the world the decision brought hope: might similar action soon be taken against other populist provocateurs they accuse of using social media to stir chaos? “I have to follow YouTube’s rules when I post my videos, or I get banned. Journalists have to obey their outlet’s rules when they publish a story. So why shouldn’t presidents have to obey any rules when they publish something online?” wondered Felipe Neto, one of Brazil’s most famous and politicized online celebrities. “It’s as simple as that.” From Rio to Delhi, activists and academics have been asking similar questions following the US president’s suspension from platforms including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.

Calls for action have been particularly loud in Brazil, which has been led since 2019 by Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right tweeter-in-chief who basks in portrayals as the “tropical Trump”. “Twitter has put a muzzle on Trump. We’ll need another for Brazil,” tweeted Marcelo Freixo, one of several political rivals urging sanctions. Critics accuse Bolsonaro of repeatedly using social media to undermine democracy and incite violence. In an incendiary YouTube broadcast on the eve of his 2018 election he promised a historic “cleanup” of “red” rivals. In office, Bolsonaro has refused to moderate, using social media to encourage anti-democratic protests and urge “upstanding” supporters to buy guns to avoid being “enslaved”. In recent months Bolsonaro has questioned Brazil’s electronic voting system, convincing many that if he loses the next election he will reject its results as Trump has done – with unpredictable consequences for a young democracy.

“His obsession with arming the greatest possible number of his followers has an obvious goal,” warned Neto, who has 41m YouTube followers. “Bolsonaro and his family are preparing the ground not to accept election defeat – and things promise to be far worse than in the US [Capitol invasion].” Pedro Doria, a technology columnist, said he felt uneasy that unelected big tech bosses had the power to silence presidents. But he was also deeply troubled by Bolsonaro’s unchecked use of social media to preach political rupture. “If Trump was expurged from Twitter because he incited a mob against the Capitol, well, Bolsonaro is preparing himself to do the same … It makes no sense to wait for him to actually act on trying to overthrow the Brazilian democratic regime.”

In India, many have called for similar sanctions against the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and figures from his ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While Modi’s regular use of Twitter is largely anodyne and uncontroversial, numerous senior and mid-level BJP politicians have been accused of politically motivated hate speech on their social media accounts.

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One last chance for Julian.

• Trump To Issue Around 100 Pardons And Commutations Tuesday (CNN)

President Donald Trump is preparing to issue around 100 pardons and commutations on his final full day in office Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter, a major batch of clemency actions that includes white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and others but – as of now – is not expected to include Trump himself. The White House held a meeting on Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, two sources said. Trump, who had been rolling out pardons and commutations at a steady clip ahead of Christmas, had put a pause on them in the days leading up to and directly after the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, according to officials Aides said Trump was singularly focused on the Electoral College count in the days ahead of time, precluding him for making final decisions on pardons.

White House officials had expected them to resume after January 6, but Trump retreated after he was blamed for inciting the riots. Initially, two major batches had been ready to roll out, one at the end of last week and one on Tuesday. Now, officials expect the last batch to be the only one — unless Trump decides at the last minute to grant pardons to controversial allies, members of his family or himself. The final batch of clemency actions is expected to include a mix of criminal justice reform-minded pardons and more controversial ones secured or doled out to political allies. The pardons are one of several items Trump must complete before his presidency ends in days. White House officials also still have executive orders prepared, and the President is still hopeful to declassify information related to the Russia probe before he leaves office.

But with a waning number of administration officials still in jobs, the likelihood that any of it gets done seemed to be shrinking. The January 6 riots that led to Trump’s second impeachment have complicated his desire to pardon himself, his kids and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. At this point, aides do not think he will do so, but caution only Trump knows what he will do with his last bit of presidential power before he is officially out of office at noon on January 20. After the riots, advisers encouraged Trump to forgo a self-pardon because it would appear like he was guilty of something, according to one person familiar with the conversations. Several of Trump’s closest advisers have also urged him not to grant clemency to anyone involved in the siege on the US Capitol, despite Trump’s initial stance that those involved had done nothing wrong.

“There are a lot of people urging the President to pardon the folks” involved in the insurrection, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on Fox News. “To seek a pardon of these people would be wrong.” One White House official said paperwork had not yet been drawn up for a self-pardon. Still, Trump is expected to leave the White House on January 20 and could issue pardons up until noon on Inauguration Day. Other attention-grabbing names, like Julian Assange, are also not currently believed to among the people receiving pardons, but the list is still fluid and that could change, too.

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“Greenwald warned that Biden could set the stage for a “smarter, more stable version” of Trump to take power.”

• Despair, Depression, And The Inevitable Rise of Trump 2.0 – Greenwald (RT)

“I don’t think it’s particularly difficult… to know what to expect from the Biden administration,” the acclaimed American journalist told Chris Hedges, host of RT’s On Contact, on Sunday. Biden, Greenwald continued, has enjoyed a five-decade career in Washington and made his policy priorities well known over these years. Biden is “somebody who has repeatedly supported militarism and imperialism” and “one of the crucial leading advocates of the invasion of Iraq,” he said. On the domestic front, Biden is “a loyal servant of the credit card and banking industry” and the “architect of the 1994 crime bill,” the latter of which has been blamed for dramatically upping the incarceration rate of black men in the US.

That leftists involved in Black Lives Matter protests rallied around Biden, given his involvement in passing the crime bill (he was one of 61 senators who voted for it) is “ironic,” Greenwald told Hedges, but also serves as an example of how the Democratic Party operates. “Democrats are very good at creating a brand that is radically different than the reality, but essentially the Democratic party serves militarism, imperialism, and corporatism,” he said. “That’s who funds them, that’s what they believe in. It’s why you see neocons migrating so comfortably back to the Democratic Party, why you see Bush and Cheney operatives cheering for Joe Biden, why Wall Street celebrated when he picked Kamala Harris.”

Biden’s campaign didn’t only draw support from the left – who Biden then spurned by packing his cabinet with Obama administration alumni while giving progressives like Bernie Sanders the cold shoulder. The former vice president was also supported by Republican hawks like Bill Kristol and Max Boot, as well as the much-maligned ‘Lincoln Project’ Republicans, who fundraised $67 million to shoot attack ads against Trump in the runup to November’s election. The rallying of the establishment – Democrat and Republican alike – behind Biden could have far-reaching consequences, Greenwald warned. “It’s not a coincidence that after eight years of Obama and Biden, we got Donald Trump,” he said. “Obviously, if you go back and do exactly the same thing that the ‘Obiden’ administration did for 8 years, which is what Biden’s preparing to do, any rational person has to expect the same outcome.”

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Is this legal? How about the Logan Act? What about Michael Flynn?

• Biden Team Already Holding Talks With Iran On US Return To Nuclear Deal (ToI)

Officials in the incoming Biden administration have already begun holding quiet talks with Iran on a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, and have updated Israel on those conversations, Channel 12 News reported Saturday. The network gave no sourcing for the report, and no details on what was allegedly discussed. US President-elect Joe Biden has indicated his desire to return to the accord, while Israel is pushing for any return to the deal to include fresh limitations on Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for terror and destabilization around the world. On Wednesday, Walla News reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is assembling a team to strategize for the first talks with the Biden administration on Iran’s nuclear program.

The team will include officials representing national security elements, the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the military, the Mossad spy agency, and the Atomic Energy Commission, the report said, citing unnamed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office. Netanyahu is considering appointing a senior official to head the team and to serve as an envoy in talks with the US on the Iranian nuclear program, the report said. A possible candidate to head the team is Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, the report said. Channel 12 reported Saturday that Cohen was in Washington this week to meet with officials in the outgoing and incoming administrations.

US President-elect Joe Biden is expected to take a more conciliatory approach to Iran than the Trump administration and has said that if Iran returns to the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement, he too would rejoin, removing the crushing economic sanctions that have wreaked havoc on the Iranian economy over the past two years. The US president-elect has indicated that he wants to negotiate more broadly with Tehran if Washington returns to the deal, notably over its missiles and influence across the Middle East. Iran has said it could welcome the return of the Americans to the agreement, but only after they lift sanctions. It has rejected negotiation on other issues. Former US president Barack Obama, with Biden as his vice president, signed the Iran nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.

The Trump administration withdrew from the accord in 2018 and pressured Iran with crippling economic sanctions and other measures. Obama signed the agreement despite fierce protest from Israel, and had a rocky relationship with Jerusalem and Netanyahu, while the premier and Trump have been in lockstep on most Middle East policy issues. The prospect of the US reengaging with Tehran has drawn warnings and alarm from Netanyahu and his allies. Last week, speaking alongside US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in Jerusalem, Netanyahu warned against the US rejoining the nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “If we just go back to the JCPOA, what will happen and may already be happening is that many other countries in the Middle East will rush to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. That is a nightmare and that is folly. It should not happen,” Netanyahu said.

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Hardly a time to open new pipelinnes.

• Biden May Cancel Keystone XL Pipeline Permit On First Day In Office (R.)

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the permit for the $9 billion Keystone XL pipeline project as one of his first acts in office, and perhaps as soon as his first day, according to a source familiar with his thinking. President Donald Trump, a Republican, had made building the pipeline a central promise of his presidential campaign. Biden, who will be inaugurated on Wednesday, was vice president in the Obama administration when it rejected the project as contrary to its efforts to combat climate change. The words “Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” appear on a list of executive actions likely scheduled for the first day of Biden’s presidency, according to an earlier report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC).


Biden, a Democrat, had earlier vowed to scrap the oil pipeline’s presidential permit if he became president. Canada’s ambassador to the United States said she would continue to promote a project that she said fit with both countries’ environmental plans. “There is no better partner for the U.S. on climate action than Canada as we work together for green transition,” Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said in a statement. The project, which would move oil from the province of Alberta to Nebraska, had been slowed by legal issues in the United States. It also faced opposition from environmentalists seeking to check the expansion of Canada’s oil sands by opposing new pipelines to move its crude to refineries. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said on Twitter that cancellation would eliminate jobs, weaken U.S.-Canada relations and undermine American national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports.

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Covid triggers diabetes?

• 3rd of Recovered Covid Patients Return To Hospital In 5 Months, 1 In 8 Die (Y!)

Almost a third of recovered Covid patients will end up back in hospital within five months and one in eight will die, alarming new figures have shown. Research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there is a devastating long-term toll on survivors of severe coronavirus, with many people developing heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver and kidney conditions. Out of 47,780 people who were discharged from hospital in the first wave, 29.4 per cent were readmitted to hospital within 140 days, and 12.3 per cent of the total died. The current cut-off point for recording Covid deaths is 28 days after a positive test, so it may mean thousands more people should be included in the coronavirus death statistics.

Researchers have called for urgent monitoring of people who have been discharged from hospital. Study author Kamlesh Khunti, professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at Leicester University, said: “This is the largest study of people discharged from hospital after being admitted with Covid. “People seem to be going home, getting long-term effects, coming back in and dying. We see nearly 30 per cent have been readmitted, and that’s a lot of people. The numbers are so large. “The message here is we really need to prepare for long Covid. It’s a mammoth task to follow up with these patients and the NHS is really pushed at the moment, but some sort of monitoring needs to be arranged.”

The study found that Covid survivors were nearly three and a half times more likely to be readmitted to hospital, and die, in the 140 days timeframe than other hospital outpatients. Prof Khunti said the team had been surprised to find that many people were going back in with a new diagnosis, and many had developed heart, kidney and liver problems, as well as diabetes. He said it was important to make sure people were placed on protective therapies, such as statins and aspirin. “We don’t know if it’s because Covid destroyed the beta cells which make insulin and you get Type 1 diabetes, or whether it causes insulin resistance, and you develop Type 2, but we are seeing these surprising new diagnoses of diabetes,” he added.

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PanQuake looks more interesting. The roll-out is a bit chaotic, but some good people involved.

• Parler Resurfaces On Web, Promises Platform To Be Revived Soon (JTN)

The website of the social media platform Parler has resurfaced after going offline earlier this month. While the platform still has not become operational again, the message indicates that it will revive “soon.” “Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform,” the website says. “We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both. We will resolve any challenge before mli us and plan to welcome all of you back soon. We will not let civil discourse perish!”


The platform vanished earlier this month after a move by Amazon Web Services. Buzzfeed reported that in a letter to Parler, the AWS Trust and Safety Team had stated “we cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.”

Introducing PanQuake: Revealing Project X (full censored event) #TalkLiberation from PanQuake – Talk Liberation on Vimeo.

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Global AND national.

• Prepare For A Surge In Global Inequality (RWER)

The United States prepares for moving out of the Trump era with the incoming President promising more rounds of stimulus spending to revive an economy ravaged by Covid-19. Other members of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, a predominantly rich nation’s club, have also been generous with their spending and signalled that they are willing to keep their wallets open to spend more if necessary. The evidence clearly is that the Covid-crisis has upended the fiscal conservatism that has been the hallmark of the neoliberal era since the 1980s. However, not all nations seem to display this ability to depart from the prevailing orthodoxy. Where this weakness is most visible is the developing world, where governments, with very few exceptions, have not been loosening their purse strings to deal with the health emergency, throw out a safety net to protect devastated citizens, and stall and reverse the recession to restore livelihoods and normal economic activity.


Estimates from the World Bank in the January 2021 edition of its flagship Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report point to stark differences across countries at different levels of development in the level of fiscal support governments have provided in the wake of the Covid-shock (Chart 1). While planned and under-consideration measures in the advanced economies (AEs) are expected to have taken fiscal support spending to 22.6 per cent of their GDP, the comparable figures in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) as a group and low income economies (LICs) among them are placed at 6.2 and 2.4 per cent respectively (Chart 1). Government spending in 2020 was needed not just to address the immediate crisis, but to revive employment, investment and growth in the medium and long term.

If poorer countries have spent and are likely to spend less, while richer countries pump-prime their economies, the damage inflicted by the crisis is bound to worsen preexisting inequalities. Those inequalities are bound to increase, though the performance of a few exceptional cases like China, which influences the EMDE total, may conceal the magnitude of change in the aggregate figures. Underlying the difference in spending levels are the willingness and ability to resort to enhanced deficit spending, or expenditure financed with borrowing. Not that government debt has not risen in the poorer countries, albeit to a smaller extent than in their advanced counterparts. While the fiscal deficit in the AEs is estimated to have risen from 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2019 to 14.2 per cent in 2020, that in the EMDEs has moved from 4.8 per cent to 10.4 per cent and in the LICs from 3.3 to 5 per cent (Chart 2).

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“Almost one in three households suffers hunger, regularly. Almost half of black and hispanic households. Households with children are most vulnerable to the government policies. So half of the kids in the U.S. have inadequate nutrition.”

• Anteroom of Our Own Extinction (Steppling)

This is now about a year into the pandemic and there have still been no debates, no public roundtables and no referendums. Nothing. Just decrees by the government. I honestly have given up trying to make sense of statistics, really. But a couple of things have not changed; the fatality rate if you catch Covid 19 is under 1% (and yes, case fatality is different than infectious mortality and that in turn is different from mortality rate). And depending on how it is being counted, it is often a good deal less than that. And yet the entire planet has been subjected to severe restrictions on travel, and coerced to follow pseudoscientific behaviour like mask wearing and social distancing. Today in many places there is what amounts to martial law. Police or national guard patrol the streets after dark. Many countries have banned public events, closed restaurants and nightclubs, and limited any public gatherings. Many schools remain closed or only partially open.

The economic consequences of these non-debated government policies have been catastrophic. In the U.S. something like 60 million jobs have been lost, many never to return. A hundred and fifty thousand restaurants have gone bankrupt. Only one in three museums will ever reopen. In San Francisco they decided NOT to count the numbers of new homeless. No reason was given but one can guess. The homeless situation in the U.S., in big cities in particular, was critical even before the pandemic. Now the numbers are unprecedented. Not even during the ‘Great Depression’ was there anything like the current level of those without basic shelter. Food insecurity is at a crisis level. Feeding America, the largest hunger relief organization in the US, estimates over 50 million people go hungry every night including something close to twenty million children.

“Since mid-March 2020, numerous surveys have documented unprecedented levels of food insecurity that eclipse anything seen in recent decades in the United States, including during the Great Recession. Over the past five years, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates of food insecurity in the United States have hovered around 11% to 12%. As of March and April 2020, national estimates of food insecurity more than tripled to 38% In a national survey we fielded in March 2020 among adults with incomes less than 250% of the 2020 federal poverty level (based on thresholds from the US Census), 44% of all households were food insecure including 48% of Black households, 52% of Hispanic households, and 54% of households with children.” – American Public Heath Association (Dec 2020)

And yet, congress just passed another defense budget increase. According to Defense News… “..the final version of the 2020 defense appropriations bill, part of a broad $1.4 trillion spending deal to finalize federal spending for 2020 and avert a government shutdown. The defense bill would provide $738 billion.” Almost one in three households suffers hunger, regularly. Almost half of black and hispanic households. Households with children are most vulnerable to the government policies. So half of the kids in the U.S. have inadequate nutrition. Half will suffer long term developmental problems, almost guaranteed.

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Just the roads built by the Roman Empire

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle Christmas Eve 2020

Dec 242020
 
 December 24, 2020  Posted by at 10:23 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  16 Responses »


Paul Cézanne Forest 1902-04

 

• Asymptomatic Transmission Of COVID19 (BMJ)
• Makers of Successful COVID19 Vaccines Wrestle With Placebo Recipients (Science)
• France Reopens To UK, As EU Tackles New Coronastrain (EUO)
• Trump Pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, 23 Others (JTN)
• Why Trump Should Pardon Assange
• The Legacy Of President Donald Trump (Taibbi)
• Biden Threats Make Russia Discourse More Reckless, Dangerous (Greenwald)
• DNC Was “Directly Involved” In Iowa Caucus App Development (IC)
• Powerful Mobile Phone Surveillance Tool Operates In Obscurity (IC)
• Where In The World Is Kamala Harris? (DP)
• The Lancet Publishes German Doctors’ Report On Treatment Of Navalny (RT)
• 2020 Year in Review – Part 1 (Dave Collum)

 

 

 

 

How overrated is asymptomatic transmission, and why do we focus on it so much?

• Asymptomatic Transmission Of COVID19 (BMJ)

The UK’s £100bn “Operation Moonshot” to roll out mass testing for covid-19 to cities and universities around the country raises two key questions. How infectious are people who test positive but have no symptoms? And, what is their contribution to transmission of live virus? Unusually in disease management, a positive test result is the sole criterion for a covid-19 case. Normally, a test is a support for clinical diagnosis, not a substitute. This lack of clinical oversight means we know very little about the proportions of people with positive results who are truly asymptomatic throughout the course of their infection and the proportions who are paucisymptomatic (subclinical), presymptomatic (go on to develop symptoms later), or post-infection (with viral RNA fragments still detectable from an earlier infection).

Earlier estimates that 80% of infections are asymptomatic were too high and have since been revised down to between 17% and 20% of people with infections. Studies estimating this proportion are limited by heterogeneity in case definitions, incomplete symptom assessment, and inadequate retrospective and prospective follow-up of symptoms, however. Around 49% of people initially defined as asymptomatic go on to develop symptoms. It’s also unclear to what extent people with no symptoms transmit SARS-CoV-2. The only test for live virus is viral culture. PCR and lateral flow tests do not distinguish live virus. No test of infection or infectiousness is currently available for routine use. As things stand, a person who tests positive with any kind of test may or may not have an active infection with live virus, and may or may not be infectious.

The relations between viral load, viral shedding, infection, infectiousness, and duration of infectiousness are not well understood. In a recent systematic review, no study was able to culture live virus from symptomatic participants after the ninth day of illness, despite persistently high viral loads in quantitative PCR diagnostic tests. However, cycle threshold (Ct) values from PCR tests are not direct measures of viral load and are subject to error. While viral load seems to be similar in people with and without symptoms, the presence of RNA does not necessarily represent transmissible live virus. The duration of viral RNA shedding (interval between first and last positive PCR result for any sample) is shorter in people who remain asymptomatic, so they are probably less infectious than people who develop symptoms.

Viral culture studies suggest that people with SARS-CoV-2 can become infectious one to two days before the onset of symptoms and continue to be infectious up to seven days thereafter; viable virus is relatively short lived. Symptomatic and presymptomatic transmission have a greater role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 than truly asymptomatic transmission. The transmission rates to contacts within a specific group (secondary attack rate) may be 3-25 times lower for people who are asymptomatic than for those with symptoms. A city-wide prevalence study of almost 10 million people in Wuhan found no evidence of asymptomatic transmission. Coughing, which is a prominent symptom of covid-19, may result in far more viral particles being shed than talking and breathing, so people with symptomatic infections are more contagious, irrespective of close contact. On the other hand, asymptomatic and presymptomatic people may have more contacts than symptomatic people (who are isolating), underlining the importance of hand washing and social distancing measures for everyone.

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They have a control group to see if the vaccine is successful, but before the trial is even done, they already declare it successful. By now, we’d almost want it to fail spectacularly.

• Makers of Successful COVID19 Vaccines Wrestle With Placebo Recipients (Science)

Now that regulators around the world have begun to issue emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for COVID-19 vaccines—the United States authorized a candidate vaccine from the biotech Moderna on Friday—a theoretical debate that has simmered for months has become a pressing reality: Should ongoing vaccine efficacy studies inform their tens of thousands of volunteers whether they were injected with a placebo or the vaccine, and also offer an already authorized vaccine to those who got the placebo? Vaccinemakers must now quickly decide how to handle this issue, called unblinding. And if they do choose to unblind, they will also need to get regulatory approval. Adding to the pressure: The choice arrives as many trial participants in the United States who are now eligible for an authorized COVID-19 vaccine are dropping out of studies in order to make sure they get immunized.

At the heart of the dilemma is a balancing act. On the one hand, unblinding a vaccine efficacy trial compromises the ability to gather robust scientific data on important issues, such as how long a vaccine protects a person against COVID-19. On the other, withholding a working vaccine from a trial participant who could get it elsewhere is ethically dicey. Last week, those issues came to the fore at a meeting of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory committee, which was considering Moderna’s EUA request. Lindsey Baden, a principal investigator on Moderna’s vaccine efficacy trial, and Steven Goodman, an epidemiologist from Stanford University, presented two different schemes for handling the delicate matter. Both schemes differ from a third plan put forth by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, which are already distributing a COVID-19 vaccine authorized for use in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

Pfizer, which is still running trials of its vaccine, has already asked FDA for permission to unblind its study, and give volunteers who received a placebo the option of receiving its two-dose vaccine. But the offer would come with a catch. Given the limited supply of vaccine, national or local authorities have said they will first provide it to groups most at risk of becoming seriously ill or of transmitting the virus, such as front-line health care workers or the people living in nursing homes. The Pfizer plan would follow that plan by first unblinding only volunteers in one of the top-priority groups specified by authorities in their location and vaccinating those in the placebo group. (AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which jointly developed a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that has confusing efficacy results and does not yet have an EUA, reportedly want to offer a similar unblinding scheme.)

A different approach is advocated by Baden, an infectious disease specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He prefers an “open label” strategy, in which the Moderna trial is unblinded and the company offers everyone in the placebo group the vaccine regardless of eligibility in their location. Goodman, meanwhile, favors a “blinded crossover” option. In that approach, all trial volunteers would receive an additional pair of shots, with placebo recipients getting the vaccine and the vaccinated getting placebos. But the volunteers wouldn’t be told which arm they were in for some period of time.

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Too much panic.

• France Reopens To UK, As EU Tackles New Coronastrain (EUO)

France has resumed transport links with the UK, on condition travellers get a negative test result, as the EU tries to contain a new type of Covid-19. Flights, Eurostar trains, and ferries would restart services on Wednesday (23 December) morning, French transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebarri said after talks with his British counterpart late on Tuesday. “French nationals, people living in France, and those with a legitimate reason [to travel from the UK to France] will have to be carrying a negative test [result],” to be let through, he added, however. The deal “will see the French border reopen to those travelling for urgent reasons, provided they have a certified negative Covid test,” British transport minister Grant Shapps said.

France said travellers would need to show a negative test result less than 72 hours before departure. The UK said lorry drivers, thousands of whom were stuck near the British port of Dover, could get results within 30 minutes of taking a test, to help get them moving. France had sealed off the UK after the discovery of a mutated coronavirus strain that was apparently up to 70 percent more contagious in Britain on Sunday. Isolated cases of the new strain have already cropped up in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, and the Netherlands, prompting Sweden to also close its border with Denmark on Monday. Virologists said there was no need to panic, as the new strain was not more lethal or vaccine-resistant. But more than 50 countries worldwide, including the vast majority of EU states, also cut transport links to the UK in the past 48 hours.

And for its part, the European Commission, on Tuesday, indicated they had overreacted. “While it is important to take swift temporary precautionary action to limit the further spread of the new strain of the virus and all non-essential travel to and from the UK should be discouraged, essential travel and transit of passengers should be facilitated,” it said in a non-binding recommendation. “Flight and train bans should be discontinued given the need to ensure essential travel and avoid supply-chain disruptions,” it added, amid concern on shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables in UK shops. “Blanket travel bans should not prevent thousands of EU and UK citizens from returning to their homes [for Christmas],” EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders also said.

Read more …

Every president pardons people they maybe should not have. Calm down.

• Trump Pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, 23 Others (JTN)

President Trump pardoned 26 people on Wednesday, including Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The move comes one day after the president pardoned 15 other people, among them, George Papadopoulos and former Rep. Duncan Hunter. “Due to prosecutorial misconduct by Special Counsel Mueller’s team, Mr. Stone was treated very unfairly,” according to a statement from the press secretary about the latest executive grants. “He was subjected to a pre-dawn raid of his home, which the media conveniently captured on camera. Mr. Stone also faced potential political bias at his jury trial. Pardoning him will help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation.” Stone’s pardon from the president comes after Trump had commuted his sentence earlier this year.

“Today, President Trump has issued a full and complete pardon to Paul Manafort, stemming from convictions prosecuted in the course of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, which was premised on the Russian collusion hoax,” the statement said. “Mr. Manafort has already spent two years in prison, including a stretch of time in solitary confinement – treatment worse than what many of the most violent criminals receive. As a result of blatant prosecutorial overreach, Mr. Manafort has endured years of unfair treatment and is one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history. As Mr. Manafort’s trial judge observed, prior to the Special Counsel investigation, Mr. Manafort had led an ‘otherwise blameless life.’ Since May, Mr. Manafort has been released to home confinement as a result of COVID-19 concerns.”

Charles Kushner, the father of Ivanka Trump’s husband Jared Kushner, also received a pardon from the president. “Since completing his sentence in 2006, Mr. Kushner has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes, such as Saint Barnabas Medical Center and United Cerebral Palsy,” the statement said. “This record of reform and charity overshadows Mr. Kushner’s conviction and 2 year sentence for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC.”

Read more …

Nifty little site that allows you to contact 1000 people close to Trump.

• Why Trump Should Pardon Assange

This website will show you 50 of the top 1,000 people who have influenced what Trump sees on Twitter in recent weeks. Should be random every time you refresh. Please use this tool to nicely request that people tweet support for pardoning Julian Assange.

This website makes it possible to contact people in President Trump’s political network and encourage them to support a pardon for Julian Assange. Here is how you can help convince Trump to pardon Assange:

1. Click “Tweet” or “Message”
Next to the person you want to contact. This will open a draft tweet on Twitter.

2. Write Message
Politely explain that Trump should pardon Assange. If you need inspiration, see Why Pardon Assange? for examples of what others are saying.

3. Send Message
Send the tweet or direct message that you crafted.

Read more …

“..like a social disease persisting beyond the usual course of medication, most of upscale America thought the Trump Show was a hoot.”

• The Legacy Of President Donald Trump (Taibbi)

Reports say Donald Trump has lost it. Unable to face the reality that he will no longer be president soon, stung by public repudiations from the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell, Vladimir Putin, Bill Barr, and other erstwhile pals, he is said to be canceling appearances left and right, retreating to a lonely schedule of golf and manic conspiracy theorizing on Twitter. He posted 550 times in just a few weeks of November, with three-fourths of that content, the New York Times for some reason calculated, made up of rants about a stolen election. Unlike past presidents, who with the exception of Dick Nixon were all feted on the way out no matter what crooked or blood-soaked record they left behind, Trump is being ridden out on a rail.

He exits politics as he entered it, as a human punchline, a ball of catnip to the commentariat, which gets to snicker now about his thinning schedule and “tiny desk” (the updated version of all those jokes about short fingers that drove him so crazy once). There is delight as “former close associates, longtime Trump observers, and mental health experts” whisper into the op-ed pages the cold final judgment that, as Politico put it, “Trump is a loser.” Which is fine — victori sunt spoila and all that — but it’s already safe to say the Trump years will be remembered as a brutal black comedy that made winners and losers alike look very, very bad. It was supposed to be a historic, norms-smashing catastrophe, but the reality is that almost nothing actually happened during the Trump years, except for a very long, exhausting story.

The major in-between change was a total loss of our collective grip on reality, beginning with the fact that most of the country thinks we just went to hell and back a thousand times, instead of making just one noisy trip in a circle, arriving just where we might have four years ago, if Joe Biden had run instead of Hillary Clinton. The tiniest conceivable step, but oh so much grief and self-deception to get there! They’ll deny it, but huge portions of the snickering chatterati rooted for Trump at first. When he jumped in the 2016 race, cultural icons laughed, big-money Democrats cheered, and rubbernecking cosmopolitan media audiences clicked and tuned in by the millions. Except for the more favored Republican primary opponents who learned early on to look on Trump with genuine alarm, like a social disease persisting beyond the usual course of medication, most of upscale America thought the Trump Show was a hoot.

Read more …

There’s only one thing that prevents the US from attacking Russia: their weapons are far more sophisticated.

• Biden Threats Make Russia Discourse More Reckless, Dangerous (Greenwald)

To justify Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss to Donald Trump, leading Democrats and their key media allies for years competed with one another to depict what they called “Russia’s interference in our elections” in the most apocalyptic terms possible. They fanatically rejected the view of the Russian Federation repeatedly expressed by President Obama — that it is a weak regional power with an economy smaller than Italy’s capable of only threatening its neighbors but not the U.S. — and instead cast Moscow as a grave, even existential, threat to U.S. democracy, with its actions tantamount to the worst security breaches in U.S. history.

This post-2016 mania culminated with prominent liberal politicians and journalists (as well as John McCain) declaring Russia’s activities surrounding the 2016 to be an “act of war” which, many of them insisted, was comparable to Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attack — the two most traumatic attacks in modern U.S. history which both spawned years of savage and destructive war, among other things. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) repeatedly demanded that Russia’s 2016 “interference” be treated as “an act of war.” Hillary Clinton described Russian hacking as “a cyber 9/11.” And here is Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on MSNBC in early February, 2018, pronouncing Russia “a hostile foreign power” whose 2016 meddling was the “equivalent” of Pearl Harbor, “very much on par” with the “seriousness” of the 1941 attack in Hawaii that helped prompt four years of U.S. involvement in a world war.

With the Democrats, under Joe Biden, just weeks away from assuming control of the White House and the U.S. military and foreign policy that goes along with it, the discourse from them and their media allies about Russia is becoming even more unhinged and dangerous. Moscow’s alleged responsibility for the recently revealed, multi-pronged hack of U.S. Government agencies and various corporate servers is asserted — despite not a shred of evidence, literally, having yet been presented — as not merely proven fact, but as so obviously true that it is off-limits from doubt or questioning.

Any questioning of this claim will be instantly vilified by the Democrats’ extremely militaristic media spokespeople as virtual treason. “Now the president is not just silent on Russia and the hack. He is deliberately running defense for the Kremlin by contradicting his own Secretary of State on Russian responsibility,” pronounced CNN’s national security reporter Jim Sciutto, who last week depicted Trump’s attempted troop withdrawal from Syria and Germany as “ceding territory” and furnishing “gifts” to Putin. More alarmingly, both the rhetoric to describe the hack and the retaliation being threatened are rapidly spiraling out of control.

Democrats (along with some Republicans long obsessed with The Russian Threat, such as Mitt Romney) are casting the latest alleged hack by Moscow in the most melodramatic terms possible, ensuring that Biden will enter the White House with tensions sky-high with Russia and facing heavy pressure to retaliate aggressively. Biden’s top national security advisers and now Biden himself have, with no evidence shown to the public, repeatedly threatened aggressive retaliation against the country with the world’s second-largest nuclear stockpile.

Read more …

Cut all machines and apps out of the election. It’s the only way.

• DNC Was “Directly Involved” In Iowa Caucus App Development (IC)

The Democratic National Committee refused to cooperate with investigators and was “directly involved in the development process” of the infamous Shadow app ahead of the 2020 Iowa caucuses. That’s the conclusion of the former U.S. attorney leading the investigation into what went wrong during the first-in-the-nation caucuses, as relayed to the Iowa State Democratic Party in a closed-session meeting last week, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by The Intercept. “The DNC was directly involved in the development process,” Nicholas Klinefeldt, a former federal attorney appointed by President Barack Obama, told the Iowa Democratic Party state steering committee in the December 12 meeting about the findings of an investigation he led alongside former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell.


Klinefeldt’s revelation about the committee’s involvement counters the DNC’s claim it made immediately after the Iowa caucuses. Back then, the DNC claimed it had “absolutely no involvement” in the development or coding of the Shadow app, which was supposed to record and report caucus results. When Third District state party member Kim Callahan asked investigators to expand on the DNC’s involvement, they failed to elaborate, simply confirming that the DNC wouldn’t cooperate with its investigation. Without the DNC’s cooperation in the probe, investigators were hamstrung. “There seemed to be a great deal of culpability by the DNC,” Jim Bunton, a Third District Iowa state party member, said to Klinefeldt in the meeting. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of cooperation from the DNC from what you’re saying. … How can we hope to have a better outcome next time around? Because the actor we can’t control is the DNC.”

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Sign of the times.

• Powerful Mobile Phone Surveillance Tool Operates In Obscurity (IC)

Until now, the Bartonville, Texas, company Hawk Analytics and its product CellHawk have largely escaped public scrutiny. CellHawk has been in wide use by law enforcement; the software is helping police departments, the FBI, and private investigators around the United States convert information collected by cellular providers into maps of people’s locations, movements, and relationships. Police records obtained by The Intercept reveal a troublingly powerful surveillance tool operated in obscurity, with scant oversight. CellHawk’s maker says it can process a year’s worth of cellphone records in 20 minutes, automating a process that used to require painstaking work by investigators, including hand-drawn paper plots.

The web-based product can ingest call detail records, or CDRs, which track cellular contact between devices on behalf of mobile service providers, showing who is talking to whom. It can also handle cellular location records, created when phones connect to various towers as their owners move around. Such data can include “tower dumps,” which list all the phones that connected to a given tower — a form of dragnet surveillance. The FBI obtained over 150,000 phone numbers from a single tower dump undertaken in 2010 to try and collect evidence against a bank robbery suspect, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU.

Police use CellHawk to process datasets they routinely receive from cell carriers like AT&T and Verizon, typically in vast spreadsheets and often without a warrant. This is in sharp contrast to a better known phone surveillance technology, the stingray: a mobile device that spies on cellular devices by impersonating carriers’ towers, tricking phones into connecting, and then intercepting their communications. Unlike the stingray, CellHawk does not require such subterfuge or for police to position a device near people of interest. Instead, it helps them exploit information already collected by private telecommunications providers and other third parties.

CellHawk’s surveillance capabilities go beyond analyzing metadata from cellphone towers. Hawk Analytics claims it can churn out incredibly revealing intelligence from large datasets like ride-hailing records and GPS — information commonly generated by the average American. According to the company’s website, CellHawk uses GPS records in its “unique animation analysis tool,” which, according to company promotional materials, plots a target’s calls and locations over time. “Watch data come to life as it moves around town or the entire county,” the site states.

Read more …

They’re for it if it enhances their careers.

• Where In The World Is Kamala Harris? (DP)

After Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar humiliated herself by throwing cold water on the idea during an MSNBC appearance, Democratic lawmakers from across the country seem to have finally woken up and realized that there’s an economic emergency unfolding and that “let them eat Federal Reserve lending facilities” is not a compelling message. But one unique and much-needed voice is bizarrely muted: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Before we get to the California lawmaker, it’s worth noting that her boss, president-elect Joe Biden, seems to have completely checked out of the current debate, after helping create a debacle. He reportedly convinced congressional Democrats to get steamrolled by Mitch McConnell and agree to provide just $600 in direct aid — which Georgia Democratic senate candidate Jon Ossoff rightly called “a joke.”


Biden has vaguely promised to push more aid in 2021, but he is not weighing in forcefully on the budget showdown that is unfolding right now. An austerian to the core, Biden took a dump in the middle of the process, and is now running away from the mess he helped create. Harris’s absence is more notable and perplexing considering that she is in a position to play a direct role in the legislative standoff. She isn’t just the vice president-elect and she isn’t just any old member of the U.S. Senate that could ultimately decide the fate of the stimulus bill. Harris also happens to be the lead author of legislation to provide $2,000 a month to individuals during the pandemic. This wasn’t some small initiative — this was Harris’s big headline-grabbing idea she was making her namepushing during the veepstakes. This was supposed to be a proof point illustrating her progressive credentials and her appreciation of the magnitude of the crisis America now faces.

Kamala May 8 2020

So where is Harris now? It’s hard to know what’s happening behind the scenes, but at least in public, she’s been quiet on the issue. Indeed, while she has made some generic comments about Congress needing to pass some form of stimulus, she has not been an aggressive leader on the question of direct aid in the current legislative package. Take a look at her social media feeds and peruse Google News for her mentions — there doesn’t seem to be much of anything from her in the middle of the central budget controversy of the entire crisis. Why? Perhaps she is just following Biden’s lead. Or maybe she believes some ridiculous 17-dimensional-chess theory that staying out of the fray will help secure a good outcome, in the same way Democrats always come up with rationales to live to never fight another day. Or maybe there’s a more innocent explanation — maybe she just hasn’t gotten around to it but is about to weigh in.

Pelosi 1994 M4A

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Do we have to keep on talking about this guy?

• The Lancet Publishes German Doctors’ Report On Treatment Of Navalny (RT)

Leading medical journal The Lancet has published a case report detailing Russian anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny’s treatment in Germany following his alleged poisoning with the lethal Novichok nerve agent. Wednesday’s article concludes that the actions of Russian doctors in Omsk, the Siberian city where he was first treated after falling ill on a flight to Moscow, were “presumably decisive,” noting that Navalny “had a very favorable outcome.” The Lancet also credits the protest leader’s good physical condition as another reason for his excellent recovery. Navalny, who is described by the journal as “a 44-year-old man who was previously healthy,” is said to have suddenly begun to sweat, before vomiting, collapsing, and eventually losing consciousness on the plane which was traveling from Tomsk.

According to a report, written primarily by doctors based at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, where Navalny spent more than a month being treated, the activist arrived with a wide range of symptoms, including a slow heart rate, hypersalivation, hypothermia, and heavy sweating, amongst others. After tests in a laboratory, he was found to have severe cholinesterase inhibition. This diagnosis was released to the public on August 24, four days after he fell ill and two days after arriving in Germany. The Russian clinic where he was first treated contradicted this finding, saying they found no cholinesterase inhibitors in his blood.

The report writes in great detail about the changes in Navalny’s condition, noting that “on day 12, the patient started to breathe spontaneously” and “could subsequently be weaned from mechanical ventilation completely by day 24.” He was released on day 33. On day 55, during his last follow-up appointment, doctors found a “near-complete recovery.” The Lancet also details that Novichok, the poison said to have been given to Navalny, is an organophosphorus compound – most commonly associated with pest control. “Organophosphorus nerve agents exert the same mechanism of action as do organophosphorus pesticides,” the article says, noting that South East Asia sees more than 100,000 annual deaths due to this type of poisoning.

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Oh no, not him again.

• 2020 Year in Review – Part 1 (Dave Collum)

Imagine, if you will, a man wakes up from a year-long induced coma—a long hauler of a higher order—to a world gone mad. During his slumber, the President of the United States was impeached for colluding with the Russians using a dossier prepared by his political opponents, themselves colluding with the FBI, intelligence agencies, and the Russians. A pandemic that may have emanated from a Chinese virology laboratory swept the globe killing millions and is still on the loose. A controlled demolition of the global economy forced hundreds of millions into unemployment in a matter of weeks. Metropolitan hotels plummeted to 10% occupancy. The 10% of the global economy corresponding to hospitality and tourism had been smashed on the shoals and was foundering.


The Federal Reserve has been buying junk corporate bonds in total desperation. A social movement of monumental proportions swept the US and the world, triggering months of rioting and looting while mayors, frozen in the headlights, were unable to fathom an appropriate response. The rise of neo-Marxism on college campuses and beyond had become palpable. The most contentious election in US history pitted the undeniably polarizing and irascible Donald Trump against the DNC A-Team including a 76-year-old showing early signs of dementia paired with a sassy neo-Marxist grifter with an undetectable moral compass. Many have lost faith in the fairness of the election as challenges hit the courts. Peering through the virus-induced brain fog the man sees CNBC playing on the TV with the scrolling Chiron stating, “S&P up 12% year to date. Nasdaq soars 36%.” The man has entered The Twilight Zone.

Read more …

 

 

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Debt Rattle April 19 2018

Apr 192018
 
 April 19, 2018  Posted by at 8:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  8 Responses »


Edgar Degas The laundress 1873

 

• Triffin Warned Us (Lebowitz)
• Global Debt Has Reached A Record High, And 3 Countries Are To Blame – IMF (MW)
• Dollar Bears Beware, Trump Tweets May Not Be Enough (Karamanlis)
• Facebook Says Users Must Accept Targeted Ads Even Under New EU Law (R.)
• Facebook To Put 1.5 Billion Users Out Of Reach Of New EU Privacy Law (R.)
• VIX Rigging Talk Erupts on Wall Street After Another Wild Swing (BBG)
• UK Government Loses Key Brexit Vote (CNN)
• Lawmakers Make Criminal Referral on Clinton, Comey, Lynch to DOJ (Carter)
• New York Attorney General Wants Power To Bypass Trump Pardons (R.)
• German Prosecutors Raid Homes Of Porsche Executives Over Dieselgate (Pol.)
• Turkey Disputes Sovereignty of 152 Greek Islets (GR)
• Top Greek Court To Rule Irrevocably On Asylum For Turkish Servicemen (K.)
• Americans Waste 150,000 Tons Of Food Each Day – A Pound Per Person (G.)

 

 

We sold our souls to the Debt Devil. There has been no growth for years. We borrowed it all.

• Triffin Warned Us (Lebowitz)

Folklore states that Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads in Rosedale, Mississippi and made a deal with the devil in which he swapped his soul for musical virtuosity. In 1944, the United States and many nations made a deal at the crossroads in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The agreement, forged at a historic meeting of global leaders, has paid enormous economic benefits to the United States, but due to its very nature, has a flawed incongruity with a dear price that must be paid. In 1960, Robert Triffin brilliantly argued that ever-accumulating trade deficits, the flaw of hosting the reserve currency and the result of Bretton Woods, may help economic growth in the short run but would kill it in the long run.

Triffin’s theory, better known as Triffin’s Paradox, is essential to grasp the current economic woes and, more importantly, recognize why the path for future economic growth is far different from that envisioned in 1944. We believe the financial crisis of 2008 was likely an important warning that years of accumulating deficits and debts associated with maintaining the world’s reserve currency may finally be reaching their tipping point. Despite the last nine years of outsized fiscal spending and unprecedented monetary stimulus, economic growth is well below the pace of recoveries of years past. In fact, as shown below, starting in 2009 the cumulative amount of new federal debt surpassed the cumulative amount of GDP growth going back to 1967. Said differently, if it were not for a significant and consistent federal deficit, GDP would have been negative every year since the 2008 financial crisis.

[..] In 1960, 11 years before Nixon’s suspension of gold convertibility and essentially the demise of the Bretton Woods Agreement, Robert Tiffin foresaw this problem in his book Gold and the Dollar Crisis: The Future of Convertibility. According to his logic, the extreme privilege of becoming the world’s reserve currency would eventually carry a heavy penalty for the U.S. Although initially his thoughts were generally given little consideration, Triffin’s hypothesis was taken seriously enough for him to gain a seat at an obscure congressional hearing of the Joint Economic Committee in December the same year. What he described in the book, and his later testimony, became known as Triffin’s Paradox.

Events have played out largely as he envisioned it. Essentially, he argued that reserve status affords a good percentage of global trade to occur in U.S. dollars. For this to occur the U.S. must supply the world with U.S. dollars. In other words, to supply the world with dollars, the United States would always have to run a trade deficit whereby the dollar amount of imports exceeds the dollar amount of exports. Running persistent deficits, the United States would become a debtor nation. The fact that other countries need to hold U.S. dollars as reserves tends to offset the effects of consistent deficits and keeps the dollar stronger than it would have been otherwise.

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The increase in Chinese debt is staggering. And worrisome.

• Global Debt Has Reached A Record High, And 3 Countries Are To Blame – IMF (MW)

Global debt has reached a record high, and three countries account for more than half of it, according to a new International Monetary Fund report released Wednesday. The IMF’s fiscal monitor said total debt reached $164 trillion in 2016, or 225% of global gross domestic product. That includes the debt of governments, households and companies. Compared with the previous peak in 2009, the world is now 12% of GDP deeper in debt, the IMF said. Just three countries — China, Japan and the U.S. — account for more than half of global debt, and China alone accounts for almost three-quarters of the increase in private debt since the financial crisis.

The IMF warns that countries with elevated government debt are vulnerable to a sudden tightening of global financing conditions, and it said advanced economies were resting on their laurels, with deficits remaining unchanged on average. It said the U.S. was the only advanced economy expecting an increase in debt-to-GDP ratio over the next five years. That’s due to the recently enacted tax cuts as well as the big increase in spending. The IMF said its U.S. forecasts are similar to those published by the Congressional Budget Office.

Read more …

Trump as currency manipulator?

• Dollar Bears Beware, Trump Tweets May Not Be Enough (Karamanlis)

The entrenched bearish dollar view has all the ingredients to become the pain-trade of the year. It has become super crowded based on occasional utterances from the White House while ignoring a fundamental shift at the Fed. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is hovering near a three-year low as uncertainties surrounding the Trump administration weigh on investor confidence. Be it verbal intervention toward a weaker currency, personnel changes or trade protectionism, the U.S. President has had a way of frustrating dollar longs. As a result, any rebounds in the U.S. currency this year have been short- lived. That’s led to a massive build in short-dollar positions. Hedge funds and other large speculators haven’t been more bearish on the greenback in more than five years, CFTC data show.

With less room for additional short exposure, dollar bears are going to need something more than the short-term turbulence generated by Trump. Those hoping for an assist from monetary policy are likely to be sorely disappointed. The Fed isn’t just retaining its bullish stance, it’s looking for a more aggressive rate-hike trajectory than the market anticipates. With almost half of Fed policy makers projecting at least four interest rate increases for 2018, upside risks prevail. Those risks may become more pronounced should the U.S. Senate confirm Richard Clarida as vice chairman. Clarida, no stranger to the notion of a total of four hikes this year, may spark another round of speculation on whether the FOMC could include a price-level target in its policy framework.

Soon-to-be New York Fed President John Williams also advocates such a shift, which Clarida said, in a Pimco commentary back in 2014, would – in theory – result in higher yields on longer-duration bonds. Given the dollar has been feeling the pressure of a flatter curve since late 2016, the all-new Fed may bring an end to fears that the curve’s shape portends a U.S. recession. After all, the composition of voting members this year has shifted from 2017’s dovish roster. Dollar pricing hasn’t reflected that. Even if Trump shifts away from weak-dollar rhetoric and the market catches up with the Fed’s dot plot, the dollar may struggle to gain the 6% needed to retest October’s highs. But that doesn’t mean we’ll see a slide to fresh, sustainable year-to-date lows.

Read more …

Users must leave instead.

• Facebook Says Users Must Accept Targeted Ads Even Under New EU Law (R.)

Facebook said on Tuesday it would continue requiring people to accept targeted ads as a condition of using its service, a stance that may help keep its business model largely intact despite a new European Union privacy law. The EU law, which takes effect next month, promises the biggest shakeup in online privacy since the birth of the internet. Companies face fines if they collect or use personal information without permission. Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman said the social network would begin seeking Europeans’ permission this week for a variety of ways Facebook uses their data, but he said that opting out of targeted marketing altogether would not be possible.

“Facebook is an advertising-supported service,” Sherman said in a briefing with reporters at Facebook’s headquarters. Facebook users will be able to limit the kinds of data that advertisers use to target their pitches, he added, but “all ads on Facebook are targeted to some extent, and that’s true for offline advertising, as well.” Facebook, the world’s largest social media network, will use what are known as “permission screens” – pages filled with text that require pressing a button to advance – to notify and obtain approval. The screens will show up on the Facebook website and smartphone app in Europe this week and globally in the coming months, Sherman said.

The screens will not give Facebook users the option to hit “decline.” Instead, they will guide users to either “accept and continue” or “manage data setting,” according to copies the company showed reporters on Tuesday. “People can choose to not be on Facebook if they want,” Sherman said.

Read more …

Time to get Facebook out of its misery?!

• Facebook To Put 1.5 Billion Users Out Of Reach Of New EU Privacy Law (R.)

If a new European law restricting what companies can do with people’s online data went into effect tomorrow, almost 1.9 billion Facebook Inc users around the world would be protected by it. The online social network is making changes that ensure the number will be much smaller. Facebook members outside the United States and Canada, whether they know it or not, are currently governed by terms of service agreed with the company’s international headquarters in Ireland. Next month, Facebook is planning to make that the case for only European users, meaning 1.5 billion members in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America will not fall under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect on May 25.

The previously unreported move, which Facebook confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday, shows the world’s largest online social network is keen to reduce its exposure to GDPR, which allows European regulators to fine companies for collecting or using personal data without users’ consent. That removes a huge potential liability for Facebook, as the new EU law allows for fines of up to 4 percent of global annual revenue for infractions, which in Facebook’s case could mean billions of dollars. [..] The change affects more than 70 percent of Facebook’s 2 billion-plus members. As of December, Facebook had 239 million users in the United States and Canada, 370 million in Europe and 1.52 billion users elsewhere.

[..] In practice, the change means the 1.5 billion affected users will not be able to file complaints with Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner or in Irish courts. Instead they will be governed by more lenient U.S. privacy laws, said Michael Veale, a technology policy researcher at University College London. Facebook will have more leeway in how it handles data about those users, Veale said. Certain types of data such as browsing history, for instance, are considered personal data under EU law but are not as protected in the United States, he said.

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If possible, it’ll be done.

• VIX Rigging Talk Erupts on Wall Street After Another Wild Swing (BBG)

The Cboe Volatility Index is how Wall Street measures anxiety. Lately it’s the gauge’s own plumbing that’s making people nervous. It’s a recurrent claim – the VIX is rigged. It got a fresh airing Wednesday, when the index swung wildly just as derivatives on it were expiring. Billions of dollars are earned or lost as VIX futures settle. The concern is that owners of those wagers are willing to spend a few million to make them pay off. The suspicions are only that, suspicions. Volatility markets are too complex for easy conclusions to be drawn, and reasonable explanations have been offered for the patterns. But strange-looking outcomes have happened enough on VIX settlement day that the debate keeps being revived.

Cboe Global Markets declined to comment. Last month, Cboe CEO Ed Tilly said at a conference that “the integrity of our VIX products and markets is paramount. And, if our regulatory team were to uncover any manipulation, it would be rooted out, swiftly and decisively. Period.” Evidence the VIX is anything less than a pure readout on trader nerves would raise thorny questions for its overseers, who have succeeded in making it a central piece of Wall Street wiring. Its ability to turn stomachs was on display in February’s stock correction, whose worst moments came when the VIX doubled and wiped out bets on calm.

“You have people watching and using it as a barometer for all sorts of trading decisions,” Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers in Greenwich, Connecticut, said by phone. “People take clues from what it’s doing as to what the market’s psychology is out there. But when the settlement time comes around, it can take on a life of its own.”

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Lost a second one as well, on throwing out Carribeans who’ve lived in Britain for 50+ years.

• UK Government Loses Key Brexit Vote (CNN)

The UK Government has lost a key Brexit vote, with the upper House of Parliament backing calls to remain in the EU customs union after Brexit. The House of Lords voted 348 to 225 to amend the government’s EU Withdrawal Bill, which will now return to the House of Commons where the defeat is likely to spur renewed opposition. The amendment requires the government to report to Parliament by October 31 on what steps it has taken to remain in the customs union, which allows goods to flow freely across the EU. The government opposed the amendment. Prime Minister May had previously said Britain will not remain in the customs union after Brexit takes effect. The House of Lords is now considering other amendments to the proposed legislation.

The customs union enables the 28 EU member states, and other countries such as Turkey that have signed up to its rules, to function as a single trading area. In practice, it means that cars made in France can be sent to Italy without facing tariffs or a customs check at the border. Goods made outside the union are allowed to circulate freely once they’ve gained initial entry. However, membership prevents a country from negotiating its own bilateral trade deals with other nations. The ability to agree new trade deals – with the United States or China, for example – is central to Prime Minister Theresa May’s vision for Britain after Brexit. In a speech in September, she ruled out staying in the customs union.

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The Empire strikes back.

• Lawmakers Make Criminal Referral on Clinton, Comey, Lynch to DOJ (Carter)

Congressional lawmakers made a criminal referral Wednesday to the Department of Justice Attorney General Jeff Sessions against former senior-level Obama administration officials, including employees of the FBI connected with the unverified dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as those involved in the warrants used to spy on a former Trump campaign volunteer, this reporter has learned. The lawmakers also made a criminal referral on former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and threats made by her DOJ against the FBI informant, who provided the bureau with information on the Russian nuclear industry and the approval in 2010 to sell roughly 20 percent of American uranium mining assets to Russia.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Florida, along with ten other colleagues sent the letter Wednesday to Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray criminally referring former FBI Director James Comey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for their involvement in the investigations into President Trump and alleged violations of federal law. FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and his paramour FBI lawyer Lisa Page, whose anti-Trump text messages obtained by the DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, were also included in the referral.

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Limiting presidential powers may not be such a bad idea in the US. But to do it through a single state governor?

• New York Attorney General Wants Power To Bypass Trump Pardons (R.)

New York’s attorney general on Wednesday asked Governor Andrew Cuomo and state legislators to give him and other local prosecutors power to bring criminal charges against people pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump. In a letter, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman urged Cuomo and legislative leaders to close a loophole in New York’s double jeopardy law shielding recipients of presidential pardons from state prosecution. A change could make it more difficult for Trump aides and others who might be pardoned to escape criminal prosecution, even if special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election were curbed or shut down.

The president has no constitutional power to pardon state crimes, but Schneiderman said the current law means defendants pardoned for serious federal crimes could be freed from “all accountability” under state criminal law. Schneiderman, a Democrat in his eighth year as attorney general, has made his office a central figure in blue state challenges to Trump, tangling with the Republican president on such matters as consumer finance, the environment, immigration and the 2020 census. Cuomo, a Democrat, is reviewing Schneiderman’s proposal, and “believes that the federal legal system should not provide a basis for any wrong doers to escape justice,” press secretary Dani Lever said in a statement.

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33 prosecutors alone were involved.

• German Prosecutors Raid Homes Of Porsche Executives Over Dieselgate (Pol.)

German police carried out raids at properties linked to three current and former executives at Porsche today in connection with allegations of emissions cheating by the Volkswagen subsidiary. The raids covered ten properties across the states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The Stuttgart prosecutors office said in a statement they were “in connection with the manipulation of the emission control system of diesel cars.” Two of the executives still work for the carmaker, with one former employee also investigated as part of the probe. The individuals were not named by the prosecutor.

Porsche confirmed that documents were taken as part of the raids, adding that an Audi facility in Ingolstadt was also visited by authorities on Wednesday. The two carmakers said they are cooperating with investigating teams. Previously, authorities in Stuttgart, where Porsche is based, and Munich have launched smaller raids on homes and offices connected with officials at Audi and BMW over alleged emissions cheating. Volkswagen was caught out by U.S. authorities in September 2015 for installing defeat device software in 11 million diesel vehicles sold worldwide. Since then, the carmaker has agreed to pay out some $25 billion in compensation and settlements in the U.S.

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Erdogan called a snap poll on June 24. Then he can really act as an emperor. Beware.

• Turkey Disputes Sovereignty of 152 Greek Islets (GR)

Ankara has issued a list of 152 Greek islets, disputing their sovereignty and the international treaties that have established the status quo in the Aegean. The list is called EGAYDAAK, the acronym for “Egemenligi Anlasmalarla Yunanistan’a Devredilmemis Ada Adacıkve Kayaliklar”, meaning “islands, islets and rocky islets the sovereignty of which was not granted to Greece under international agreements and treaties”. The list includes more than 20 islet formations belonging to the Fournoi Complex, a cluster of uninhabited islets between Ikaria, Samos and Patmos. Turkey’s aim is to bring Greece to the table and revise the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, the two international agreements that granted the islets to Greece, establishing the sea borders between the two countries in the Aegean.

The issue has been brought up again after Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the Turkish coast guard removed a Greek flag on the Mikros Anthropofas rocky formation. However, new photos show the flag is still flying. The two Anthropofas islets are between Ikaria, Lemnos, Samothraki, Lesvos, Chios and Samos; therefore they are included in Article 12 of the Treaty of Lausanne that says all the above belong to Greece. Turkey, however, claims that since the islets and rocky formations are not specifically listed by name in the two international treaties, their sovereignty is contestable.

The EGAYDAAK list is comprised of the Zourafas complex and the Oinousses complex of islets in the North Aegean; the Kalogeroi complex of islets in the Central Aegean; the Fournoi complex in the East Aegean; the Arkoi, Agathonissi, Farmakonissi, SE Nissyros, SA Astpalea, NW Karpathos complexes of islets in the South Aegean; and the Cretan Sea complex of islets.

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Independent judiciary.

• Top Greek Court To Rule Irrevocably On Asylum For Turkish Servicemen (K.)

Greece’s top administrative court is expected to rule on Thursday on whether the country can provide asylum to the eight Turkish officers whose extradition has repeatedly been demanded by Ankara. The Council of State carries the burden of resolving the asylum issue, in a high-profile case that has rattled relations between Greece and Turkey. The Supreme Court has ruled irrevocably against their extradition arguing they will not be given a fair trial in Turkey. The decision drew an angry rebuke from Ankara which accuses the eight of involvement in the country’s foiled coup attempt in July 2016.

If the court grants protection to “Turkey’s eight,” as they have become known, they will have to be immediately released from detention where they have remained for months while they wait for their application to be examined. An asylum appeals committee had ruled in favour of one of the servicemen in December 2017 but the government appealed the decision. If the court decides to reject their asylum request, then the government will have to issue documents that will allow them to remain in the country under a special status.

Whatever the ruling, the soldiers will have to be released at the end of May, when the maximum detention period of 18 months expires. Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis confirmed earlier this week the Turkish servicemen will be allowed to walk free when this period is completed. The eight men, three majors, three captains and two sergeant-majors, flew with a helicopter into northern Greece a day after the failed coup and sought asylum, saying they feared for their lives if they remained in Turkey.

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This is what our economies run on. Waste. Cutting the waste is an economic threat.

• Americans Waste 150,000 Tons Of Food Each Day – A Pound Per Person (G.)

Americans waste about a pound of food per person each day, with people who have healthier diets rich in fruit and vegetables the most wasteful, research has found. About 150,000 tons of food is tossed out in US households each day, equivalent to about a third of the daily calories that each American consumes. Fruit and vegetables were the most likely to be thrown out, followed by dairy and then meat. This waste has an environmental toll, with the volume of discarded food equivalent to the yearly use of 30m acres of land, 780m pounds of pesticide and 4.2tn gallons of irrigated water. Rotting food also clogs up landfills and releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Researchers at the US Department of Agriculture analysed eight years of food data, up to 2014, to see where food is wasted and also what members of the public say they do at mealtimes. The research has been published in Plos One. The study found that the healthiest Americans are the most wasteful, because of their high consumption of fruits and vegetables, which are frequently thrown out. Fruit and vegetables require less land to grow than than other foods, such as meat, but require a large amount of water and pesticides. Lisa Jahns, a nutritionist at USDA and co-author of the study, said: “We need a simultaneous effort to increase food quality as well as reduce food waste. We need to put both of those things out.”

Jahns’s study recommends educating consumers on fruit and vegetable storage in order to reduce food waste. She said: “Consumers aren’t connecting the dots, [and] they don’t see the cost when they throw food in the trash. At the same time, we don’t want to undermine legitimate food safety concerns and we need to be aware it’s not just the cost of food that’s the issue. It’s the time and energy required to prepare and store food, which often isn’t a priority in a busy household.”

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