The Automatic Earth

Elliott Erwitt National Congress Building by Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia, Brazil 1961

Empire

"The American empire is over," Richard D. Wolff, U.S. professor of international affairs, tells Al Jazeera. Already the biggest economic power on the planet is not the US and its allies, but China and the BRICS. But no U.S. politician dares to tell the people: "It's over." pic.twitter.com/UOPTrN0974

— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) August 4, 2025

David Stockman: You are becoming a whirling dervish of unhinged nonsense.

Hey, POTUS, it's none of America's goddamned business who India buys oil from or who they resell it to. Full stop. And how stupid can you be—taxing hard-pressed workers in flyover America who buy goods from India—because why? Well, because you didn't stop the Ukraine war in…

— David Stockman (@DA_Stockman) August 4, 2025

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https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1952339589881860535
CNN
https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1952065006050369902

BIG
https://twitter.com/Deeplythough885/status/1952313875791265828

Slick lies

December 16, 2016. Obama does an hour long interview with NPR.

The entire interview is stunning for a few reasons.

1. Almost everything Obama says is in direct contradiction to the intelligence report on the election that he had just recently received. The majority of this… pic.twitter.com/HUm8vBnIxi

— MAZE (@mazemoore) August 4, 2025

“We have had a nearly incalculable gift in the form of 80 years of peace, which may yet be offset by the equally incalculable costs of the lunacies this peace has encouraged..”
– Eugyppius

“..do not report this as a legitimate investigation,” [Clinton lawyer Marc] Elias told MSNBC. “Do not report this as ‘They are opening an investigation into John Brennan’ … Report this as the misuse, the abuse, the authoritarian takeover of the Department of Justice. That should be the headline.”

• Russiagate Lies Are Being Exposed — Even Dems Are Watching (Miranda Devine)

Despite the best efforts of Russiagate-complicit media to dismiss as “Russian disinformation” the latest revelations in this escalating scandal implicating President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the treasonous “years-long coup” against President Trump, the public is paying attention and wants heads to roll. According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) are following declassified releases over the past month by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) “very closely” (32%) or “somewhat closely” (33%), repudiating the calculated media silence about the Obama administration’s fake narratives and manipulation of intelligence to frame Trump as a Kremlin stooge to cover up Clinton’s wrongdoing.

The poll of 1,172 likely voters, conducted July 29-31, shows 54% believe Obama administration officials committed serious crimes in “manipulating intelligence,” with 37% saying it’s “very likely” and 17% saying it’s “somewhat likely.” A staggering 69% agree it is critical that the perpetrators be held accountable “for the survival of our country.” Even more disturbing for Democrats is that it’s not just Republicans who are concerned. The poll shows 56% of Democrats are following the investigation, 32% believe serious crimes were committed and 59% agree the perpetrators must be “held accountable.” The respective Republican comparison is 75%, 83% and 86%. Hispanics are more cynical about the scandal than either black or white voters, with 66% saying serious crimes were committed and 74% wanting accountability, compared to 51% and 65%, respectively, for blacks and 53% and 69%, respectively, for whites.

Men are more concerned than women, with 74% vs. 59% following the revelations closely, 60% vs. 49% believing there is serious criminality, and 72% vs. 66% favoring accountability. It’s a demonstration of the impotence of Democrat-allied media, like the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC and CBS, which showered themselves with praise and Pulitzer Prizes for their since-debunked stories about Russiagate and are hoping their audience is willing to be duped again. But like the boy who cried wolf, no one is listening anymore. According to Gabbard’s office, ABC, CBS and NBC spent a total of 2,284 minutes covering Russiagate, yet they have devoted only 2 minutes and 17 seconds on the disclosures of the last couple of weeks. Even when they mention the story, it’s to try to debunk it.

Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan and DNI James Clapper and Clinton lawyer Marc Elias have fanned out across their favorite media outlets, desperately trying to extinguish public interest. “I am imploring, like honestly, I’m just imploring the media, do not report this as a legitimate investigation,” Elias told MSNBC. “Do not report this as ‘They are opening an investigation into John Brennan’ … Report this as the misuse, the abuse, the authoritarian takeover of the Department of Justice. That should be the headline.” Hah! Too bad for Elias, it’s no longer 2016. The public — and Trump — are wiser and more determined to put heads on pikes.

The renewed scrutiny of the “Obama administration’s conspiracy to subvert Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency,” as Gabbard puts it, began early last month, when CIA Director John Ratcliffe released a bombshell review of the Intelligence Community Assessment, ordered by Obama on Dec. 9, 2016, that falsely claimed Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump. The review found Brennan, Clapper and then-FBI Director James Comey were “excessively involved” in the ICA drafting, rushed its completion before Trump took office and forced the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier, over the objections of the CIA’s Russia experts, suggesting a “potential political motive.” That ICA was the genesis of Russiagate, casting doubt over the legitimacy of Trump’s 2016 election and sabotaging his first term, with Obama the “ringleader,” says Trump, and Democrat-allied media were crucial to its success.

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“If Russia were really losing 14x as many men as Ukraine (as Trump’s figures suggest), one would figure military-age Russian men would be hiding from conscription squads..”

• Trump Is Getting Bad Intel On The Russia-Ukraine War (PA)

On Friday, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he had “just been informed” that 112,500 Russian troops had been killed since the beginning of this year, versus 8,000 Ukrainian troops killed over the same time frame. These numbers strain credulity for at least two reasons:

1) During recent casualty exchanges, the numbers have been lopsided in the other direction, with Ukraine handing over the remains of fewer than 50 Russian troops while receiving the remains of hundreds or over a thousand of their soldiers in return.

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1932783924062634004?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1932783924062634004%7Ctwgr%5E0ac2b7cdc471e4ebaf48c9fd358b3af7d5ea2703%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2025-08-02%2Ftrump-getting-bad-intel-russia-ukraine-war

2) Russia’s combat troops tend to be well-paid volunteers, while Ukraine has had to resort to grabbing men off the street to fill its military’s ranks. If Russia were really losing 14x as many men as Ukraine (as Trump’s figures suggest), one would figure military-age Russian men would be hiding from conscription squads, rather than casually walking around Moscow, enjoying a summer evening.

Bad Intel Helps Explain Trump’s Frustration With Russia. As Sergei Witte pithily explains below: Trump figures that given such lopsided casualty figures, Russia ought to be eager to make a deal.

https://twitter.com/witte_sergei/status/1951397622700441947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1951397622700441947%7Ctwgr%5E0ac2b7cdc471e4ebaf48c9fd358b3af7d5ea2703%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2025-08-02%2Ftrump-getting-bad-intel-russia-ukraine-war

Lack Of Understanding Russia’s Position Explains It Too. Trump doesn’t seem to understand that Russia views the Ukraine conflict as existential, and as such, won’t deviate from its main terms: that Ukraine must be neutral, and not host NATO troops or weapons, and that it must be largely demilitarized, and that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and the four oblasts it annexed. So, as Professor Mearsheimer summarizes in the video clip embedded below, there’s really no deal to be made with Russia: either we agree to their terms, or the conflict gets settled on the battlefield.

Russia’s terms of peace have remained the same since the beginning. There’s only two choices: accept those demands or the war continues. This back and forth for a ceasefire or efforts to change it are meaningless. There’s a risk Trump becomes Biden #2…1/2pic.twitter.com/xbNVJyj9w4 https://t.co/Ul66NUFBkC

— Mearsheimer Jr (Fan) (@Real_Politik101) July 17, 2025

Given that Russia appears to be slowly winning the war, and Ukraine can only expect to get worse terms the longer the war goes on, the logical thing to do would be to agree to Russia’s current terms now–and if the Ukrainian government prefers not to, let them fight the war on their own dime. So We Get More Pointless Brinksmanship. One wonders why Trump listens to Lindsay Graham at all, a Senator who has long opposed the interests of Trump’s base on immigration as well as his warmongering.

https://twitter.com/e_l_g_c_a/status/1951375776781123636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1951375776781123636%7Ctwgr%5E0ac2b7cdc471e4ebaf48c9fd358b3af7d5ea2703%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2025-08-02%2Ftrump-getting-bad-intel-russia-ukraine-war

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“We have a panic cycle, and it’s not just for war in 2026. Go to our site and look at the euro, and there is a panic cycle for 2026. It’s everywhere. Why the computer has been correct is you cannot forecast any market in isolation. You can’t. It’s all connected.”

• Gold Signals War – Martin Armstrong (USAW)

Less than two weeks ago, legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong warned his “Socrates” predictive computer program showed a “100% Chance of Nuclear War.” Since then, a war of words has flared up between President Trump and Russia, and he said Russia “has entered very dangerous territory.” President Trump then, “Orders US nuclear subs repositioned over statements from ex-Russian leader Medvedev.” “After Trump sends nuclear subs near Russia, Putin responds with hypersonic threat — what Oreshnik missiles can do.” If this is not enough to confirm some sort of nuclear exchange is coming soon, add what Secretary of State Marco Rubio just warned this past week. Rubio said, “In case of war with the US, Russia will rely on tactical nuclear weapons due to the weakness of its army.”

A top Russian official also “Issues nuclear annihilation warning” and said Russia would “hit back with a devastating blow.” Keep in mind, all this happened in the last few days. On Friday, “gold signaled war” by exploding up $73 an ounce, up more than 2% in a matter of hours. Is the gold market seeing this nuke war talk and responding? Armstrong says, “Oh, yeah! You look at gold, and you see what is happening. Oil is pointing more towards September. . . . Gold keeps trying to get through the highs. This is not the major high. Hate to tell you, it’s not. Gold is showing, Up. Every market I look at, it’s the same thing. We have a panic cycle, and it’s not just for war in 2026. Go to our site and look at the euro, and there is a panic cycle for 2026. It’s everywhere. Why the computer has been correct is you cannot forecast any market in isolation. You can’t. It’s all connected.”

Armstrong says you won’t have to wait until 2026 for his “Panic Cycle” to begin. His computer has long pointed to August 18, 2025, and that is about two short weeks away. Armstrong says, “Honestly, this is turning into a grade school fight. I don’t know what Trump expects. He’s hurling insult after insult, and there is no possibility of peace anymore. It’s one thing to do tariffs and sanctions against Russia. Now, he is saying we are going to put sanctions on anybody that even deals with Russia. This is economic war. It’s as simple as that. . .. We don’t even have anyone to negotiate on behalf of the West. It’s dead, completely dead.”

Armstrong thinks neocons have built a wall around President Trump so nobody with different advice regarding NOT starting a nuke war can get through. Is Martin Armstrong being blocked by the neocons surrounding President Trump now? Armstrong says, “I believe so. I even wrote to AG Pam Bondi, and I did not get a response. I have written to presidents and heads of state, and I get responses. Not this time. . .. This is escalating, and he (Trump) is not in a good position. I don’t know what the hell he is doing. He seems to have crossed to the other side.”

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A string of policy failures going back decades. Now bring it all back home; but not to Big Pharma.

• America Faces A Supply Chain Crisis For Basic Drugs (JTN)

[..] “This is a horrible situation,” Sen. Roger “Doc” Marshall, R-Kan., a medical doctor now serving in the Senate, told Just the News. “America makes only about 10% of our active pharmaceutical ingredients. These are the simple things: antibiotics, penicillin, ampicillin, Keflex. Think about insulin or monoclonal antibodies. These are real simple things.” Marshall said the efforts of drugmakers to drive down costs through globalization moved the production of ingredients and finished drugs overseas to China, a competitor, and India, an ally with a history of quality control issues with drugmaking. “What China does is they steal our technology, then they replicate it, they bring it up to scale,” Marshall explained.

“Then after they’re up to scale, what they’ll do is they’ll enter the market with a product and undercut all their competition. And after they corner the market, they create an artificial shortage of that particular drug, and then they raise their prices. That’s their model.” Trump administration officials acknowledged to Just the News that shortages of basic drugs like antibiotics and antivirals have worsened over the last decade and the COVID-19 pandemic created an alarm moment when the U.S. found itself unable to secure masks, gowns and antibiotics. But when the pandemic ended, the Biden administration failed to take any substantive actions to re-source America’s drug supply chain. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, who served as a nurse and physician in the U.S. Army for 24 years, said she was alarmed by what she observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We saw that the Chinese Communist Party was sequestering or hoarding PPE (personal protective equipment) and also antivirals, antibiotics,” she said. “And they’re one of the prime manufacturers of those medications that we need…ibuprofen, hydrocortisone, they make those as well our generic medications.” President Donald Trump began his presidency with an executive order pressuring drugmakers to lower the costs of their products to Americans to closer to the levels they sell the same products overseas. The order had an instantaneous impact. Now Trump’s top medical officials say they are feverishly working on a plan to fix the supply chain system, first by stockpiling basic ingredients for key drugs inside the United States over the next couple of years and then creating a solution to make the ingredients and finished drugs back in America over the next decade.

“The problem is that we do not have sufficient domestic manufacturing of these basic medical items,” newly appointed NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya told Just the News. “And so any sort of stress at all in the system, and basic medications that Americans should be able to have if they get sick may not be available. “That’s something that the Trump administration is really deeply concerned about and working hard to fix,” he added. The immediate focus is on the basic staples of medicine like Insulin, antibiotics and antivirals but officials said the problem extends even to America’s most modern medical inventions. Even in cell therapies that treat sickle cell anemia, “you take the cells out of American patients, send them to China where the Chinese edit them, and then bring them back and give it to Americans,” Bhattacharya explained. “There’s no reason why America shouldn’t be the hub of this.”

Another nation, though less adversarial, that is causing U.S. concern is India. India’s pharmaceutical industry has struggled with maintaining consistent quality, highlighted by the 2022 contaminated cough syrup incidents tied to child fatalities in Gambia and Uzbekistan, which drew international attention. Weak regulatory oversight and uneven compliance have led to subpar drugs slipping into markets, with many firms blacklisted in 2023 for quality violations. Bhattacharya said the solution could be as easy as allowing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspector to be present at manufacturing operations.”That kind of collaboration will result in more oversight and better regulation of the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing firms, so that we can have confidence that if you have something manufactured in India and is brought to the United States that it’s safe enough for use in America.”

The recently-signed One Big Beautiful Bill offered another early solution to the supply chain crisis. It includes tax provisions that incentivized domestic manufacturing, such as full expensing for research and development and capital investments for new factories, which could indirectly affect foreign pharmaceutical manufacturing by encouraging companies to prioritize U.S.-based production. Bhattacharya also praised Trump’s executive order in May, “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.” “The same manufacturer, often even American companies, will charge Europeans ten times less, five times less, two times less for the same drug that they charge Americans for,” he noted. “That’s what the President’s executive order says, the U.S. is saying enough of that. We’re going to demand that the drug companies treat Americans fairly.”

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“We have had a nearly incalculable gift in the form of 80 years of peace, which may yet be offset by the equally incalculable costs of the lunacies this peace has encouraged..”

“A brief primer on why the American empire exists, how it works, and Europe’s place in it.”

• Trump’s Tariffs and those Goddamned Freeloading Europeans (Eugyppius)

Whenever I talk about things like tariffs, Trump supporters appear in my comments to tell me that Europe has gotten a free ride for long enough and that it is time we learned to pay our way. I find it a little frustrating to read this, because in Europe it does not feel like we are getting a free ride at all. In fact it seems like the opposite: The most common complaint on the populist German right is that our political class refuses to represent our interests and will not stop carrying water for the Americans.

I recognise that I’ll never be able to put this right, but it’s worth trying, because it is important to understand the world as it is. The truth is that the United States is an imperial power. Generally speaking, it does not give foreign nations free rides and it does not hand out unearned favours. There is however a lot of confusion here, because hardly anybody bothers to describe honestly the geopolitical strategy pursued by the United States or the nature of the American empire. Western liberalism cannot conceptualise imperial politics, and while empire generally benefits political elites on both sides of the Atlantic, it is not necessarily or always in the interests of ordinary Americans or ordinary Europeans, which is yet another reason not to talk about it.

The Americans and the British before them expended enormous effort to preempt the emergence of a dominant power on the European Continent that might challenge their successive naval empires. They fought two world wars to stop Germany from becoming just such a power. This great struggle ended in 1945 with Western Europe as a fully subjugated imperial province. Since then, the Americans have coordinated the NATO alliance and guaranteed the security of European countries not out of charity, but because Europe is their provincial possession. As a rule, they have not wanted Europe to assume full responsibility for its own defence, because a world in which America no longer guarantees the security of Europe is a world in which Europe is no longer an American province. It’s that simple. To fend off the Soviets, the Americans nevertheless rebuilt and rearmed the nations of Western Europe. Everyone involved in this project had to come up with a way to allow the Germans to become a dominant economic power again,

without displacing the United States or provoking the hostilities of wary postwar neighbours like France. One solution here was the European Union, which promoted economic interdependency as a counterweight to nationalist concerns. Another solution came at the cultural level, where Germany sought to allay European anxieties over possible Teutonic aggression by developing a national cult of historical guilt for World War II, which steadily blossomed into a full-blown civic religion. This exercise in self-effacement has grown more and not less extreme over time, in part as a response to nervousness about the consequences of German reunification. Many voices on the right like to portray Germans as victims of an externally imposed guilt regime, but the truth is that we did most of this to ourselves. The German left in particular has profited from and encouraged this mindset from the beginning.

German political self-effacement had one unexpected feature, in that it proved to be contagious. Within a generation of 1945, many of the victorious allied powers were striving to develop their own historical guilt cults after the German example, in each case centred around a national original sin like slavery or colonialism. Just as the German political class found it expedient to foreground collective European concerns at the expense of a more narrowly construed German nationalism, so did the broader West develop an overarching obsession with global issues and the plight of the developing world. This has caused the proliferation of a lot of silly people in our political culture, a lot of profoundly stupid organisations, and at least two cancerous ideological systems in the form of climatism and migrationism. We have had a nearly incalculable gift in the form of 80 years of peace, which may yet be offset by the equally incalculable costs of the lunacies this peace has encouraged.

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“..and all the stuff Durham was not allowed to review. Just the stuff they know looks bad, really bad. Yet, that’s the tip of the Iceberg…. AND that my friends is the problem.”

• Stephen Miller Is Outraged at Latest Russia Hoax Evidence (CTH)

White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor, Stephen Miller, appears for an interview with Maria Bartiromo. Mr. Miller is outraged at the latest declassified evidence that provides evidence of how the intelligence apparatus was weaponized against Donald Trump 2016 through 2020 and beyond. The outrage of Miller is righteous; however, the outrage of Miller also breaks down along partisan lines. “One outrageous felony after another,” Mr. Miller explains. WATCH:

The non-pretending take. Tulsi Gabbard was not really paying attention in ’17/’18 when each Trump-Russia granular detail was discovered. What she knew of it was surface level and suspect. Fast forward… Tulsi Gabbard in 2025 is paying close attention. However, she (like almost all others) still has an overall information deficit; but the stuff she is discovering today seems enough by itself. Think about what they don’t know: The SSCI stuff, the John McCain stuff, the Wolfe stuff, the Mueller/Weissmann stuff, the Waldman stuff, the Deripaska stuff, the Mifsud stuff, the Mary McCord stuff, the Michael Atkinson stuff and all the stuff Durham was not allowed to review. Just the stuff they know looks bad, really bad. Yet, that’s the tip of the Iceberg…. AND that my friends is the problem.

Bartiromo has been trying to position herself outside the collateral damage blast circle for 3 weeks. She knows the “accountability” part will not happen, and she doesn’t want to go down with the ship of outrage sellers. Her current presentation style is strategic. I don’t blame her. All three branches of govt. (Legislative, Judicial and Executive), and the leadership of both political parties, actively, willfully and purposefully participated. You cannot parse this one. In 2016, Obama hated Trump and the professional Republicans hated Trump. Just like the 2010-2012 Tea Party targeting, both the Democrat and Republican apparatus benefited. The Trump-Russia conspiracy, took an all of government approach – including the Robert Mueller coverup. AND THAT reality is exactly why no one will be held accountable for it!

Remember, Democrats thirst for POWER. Republicans thirst for MONEY. Democrats use money to get power. Republicans use power to get money. Now, insert Russiagate. Dems used money to create fraud. Republicans use the fraud to create money (current status). That’s the frustrating circle we are stuck in. We need a different approach. Replace the truth managers. Keep Tulsi, indict the system. A much more confrontational approach. A group of people who will stand up and call the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch out for their duplicity. The system needs to be indicted, using very specific evidence. Confront Republicans and Democrats by name, by committee, with intensity and purpose.

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“New Delhi has defended its decision to ramp up purchases of Russian oil despite enormous pressure from the West, by arguing that it has helped global markets avoid sharp increases in crude prices.”

• India ‘Financing’ Ukraine Conflict – Stephen Miller (RT)

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has accused New Delhi of “effectively” financing Russia’s conflict with Ukraine by purchasing oil from Moscow. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Miller addressed Washington’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on imports from India, plus impose an undisclosed penalty on the South Asian nation for its defense and trade ties with Russia. ”What he (Trump) said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” Miller told Fox News. “People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact.”

Last week, Trump attacked New Delhi for its ties to Moscow in a post on his Truth Social account. “I don’t care what India does with Russia,” he said. “They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world.” The US president has also threatened 100% tariffs on exports from countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine. Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized India for continuing to import the discounted oil despite Western sanctions, claiming New Delhi was “helping to sustain the Russian war effort.”

Rubio, in a Fox Radio interview on Thursday called India’s energy trade with Russia “a point of irritation” in Washington’s relationship with New Delhi. New Delhi has defended its decision to ramp up purchases of Russian oil despite enormous pressure from the West, by arguing that it has helped global markets avoid sharp increases in crude prices.

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`The government is committed to prioritizing the welfare of Indian consumers. Our energy purchases will be based on price, availability and market conditions..’

• Russian Oil Red Lines: The EU and US Are About To Push India Too Far (Vaid)

With American rhetoric against India becoming more openly coercive, and top officials warning New Delhi about the consequences of its energy trade with Russia, the pressure is becoming multidirectional. Recent remarks by former US President Donald Trump have further complicated this recalibration. Alongside a 25% tariff on Indian exports, imposed last week, Trump issued pointed warnings over India’s sustained energy and defense trade with Russia, accusing New Delhi of indirectly supporting America’s adversaries through continued oil purchases. Trump went as far as to suggest that India and Russia could “take their dead economies down together,” framing their economic engagement as contrary to US interests.

Trump’s statements were not just emotional reactions – they were followed by a series of other statements from US officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday claimed India’s purchase of Russian oil is a ”point of irritation.” “India has huge energy needs and that includes the ability to buy oil and coal and gas and things that it needs to power its economy like every country does, and it buys it from Russia, because Russian oil is sanctioned and cheap and – meaning they have to – in many cases, they’re selling it under the global price because of the sanctions,” he stated. ”And that – unfortunately that is helping to sustain the Russian war effort. So it is most certainly a point of irritation in our relationship with India – not the only point of irritation.”

On Sunday, a top aide to President Donald Trump accused India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying oil from Moscow. “What he [Trump] said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” said Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of the US president’s most influential aides. “People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact,” Miller said on Fox News. This marks a significant hardening of tone, signalling that bipartisan pressure on India s Russia policy may persist regardless of the administration in power.

The Indian government issued a stern response, saying Delhi would keep purchasing oil from Moscow if it is in line with national interests. Its foreign ministry stated that [the] country’s energy purchases are guided by market dynamics and national interests.`The government is committed to prioritizing the welfare of Indian consumers. Our energy purchases will be based on price, availability and market conditions, the statement read.Despite Trump’s claims that India had stopped buying Russian oil after his threats, the Indian government said it is not aware of any pauses in imports. People in the oil and gas industry have confirmed that the government has not issued any officials requests to refiners to stop purchasing Russian oil.

As global energy flows are increasingly weaponized, India’s path is becoming tougher, but also more clearly defined. This is no longer merely a question of compliance with sanctions; it is about resisting the politicization of trade and asserting agency in a fragmented global order. The message to the West at large: India s energy decisions will not be dictated by external red lines. India’s response is not retreat, but recalibration, through diversification, industrial pivoting, and legal safeguards. It signals the emergence of a new energy diplomacy: one that is agile, layered, and unapologetically sovereign.

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“..trade between the EU and Russia dropped from €417 billion ($482 billion) in 2013 to €60 billion ($69 billion) in 2023 and is now “approaching zero.”

• Cutting Russia Ties Has Cost EU €1 Trillion – Moscow (RT)

The EU’s decision to reduce energy and trade cooperation with Moscow over the Ukraine conflict has cost the bloc more than €1 trillion ($1.15 trillion), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has said. In an interview with Izvestia on Monday, Grushko said the figure is based on various expert estimates of the economic consequences of the EU’s decision to impose unprecedented sanctions on Russia, adding that it accounts for lost profits from energy and trade cooperation. According to Grushko, trade between the EU and Russia dropped from €417 billion ($482 billion) in 2013 to €60 billion ($69 billion) in 2023 and is now “approaching zero.” He added that Europe’s economy has subsequently taken a hit and is losing competitiveness.

“Natural gas in Europe is four to five times more expensive than in the US, and electricity is two to three times higher,” he said. “That is the price Europe has to pay for ending all economic contacts with Russia.” In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that refusing Russian gas supplies had cost EU countries around €200 billion ($231 billion). In late 2024, Russian officials also estimated that total EU losses tied to sanctions against Russia had reached $1.5 trillion. Meanwhile, Moscow has said it has acquired a “certain immunity” to Western sanctions. Grushko’s comments come after the EU agreed a trade deal with the US, which commits the bloc to purchasing large volumes of American energy – which Moscow says will come at a much steeper cost than that provided by Russia – and imposes 15% tariffs on key EU exports.

Numerous EU politicians have described the agreement as lopsided and damaging to the bloc’s interests. Commenting on the US-EU deal, Putin claimed that the EU had essentially lost its political sovereignty, and that this directly leads to losing economic independence. The EU began imposing sanctions on Russia in 2014, following the start of the Ukraine crisis, and expanded them drastically in 2022. Measures have targeted banking, energy exports, and other industries. Moscow considers the sanctions illegal, saying they violate international trade rules and harm global economic stability.

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“..the wait time for Patriot battery deliveries could reach around seven years..”

• EU To Wait Years To Replace Patriots Sent To Ukraine – NATO (RT)

Some EU countries providing US-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine may have to wait until 2032 for replacements due to a significant production backlog, a senior NATO official has said. Ukrainian officials have for months pleaded for more US-made Patriots and ammunition. Vladimir Zelensky has said he hopes to receive ten more Patriot systems, with cost estimates for each battery and interceptor running as high as $1 billion and $4 million, respectively. Several European countries have shown interest in a deal proposed by US President Donald Trump, under which they would transfer Patriot systems to Ukraine and be resupplied by Washington.

However, French Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, told Euractiv that the wait time for Patriot battery deliveries could reach around seven years. A second Euractiv source offered a more upbeat assessment, noting the shipments could not be expected sooner than “a couple of years” at best. The lengthy backlog has sparked concern and hesitation in the EU ranks, with one unnamed diplomat admitting that giving up the air defense system was “scary” – even for the sake of Ukraine, which he claimed to be “defending” the bloc. Germany, which has recently committed to transferring three Patriot systems to Kiev, has reportedly demanded “watertight” guarantees that replacements from the US would arrive within eight months.

Meanwhile, the US push to prioritize NATO’s internal backfill has already impacted non-EU buyers. Switzerland, which ordered five Patriot systems in 2022 and expected the complete delivery by 2028, confirmed last month that it would be delayed for an unspecified timeframe due to US reallocation. Moscow has consistently condemned Western arms shipments to Ukraine, warning they only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome. It has also accused European NATO of pursuing “reckless militarization” and portraying Russia as an “enemy” to justify a hike in weapons spending.

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“America voted to end “fighting foreign wars” when it elected Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene has said..”

• US Funding of Kiev Is ‘Betrayal To Majority of Americans’ – MTG (RT)

US politicians who back funding for Kiev risk losing the support of their voters, US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has warned. Continued financial assistance for the Ukrainian government in its conflict with Russia is a “complete betrayal” of the American people, the Georgia Republican has said. Her comments came just a day after a group of US senators introduced a bill to allocate $54.6 billion in aid to Ukraine over the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. President Donald Trump has repeatedly opposed more US aid to Kiev, arguing that European nations should cover those costs.

“Funding, fueling, and ultimately fighting Russia in Ukraine would be a complete betrayal to the majority of Americans,” Greene wrote in a post on X on Saturday, adding that “America voted to end funding and fighting foreign wars” in the 2024 presidential elections that Donald Trump won. US taxpayers do not want to pay to murder people “in some foreign land over a foreign conflict that has absolutely zero effect on our lives,” the congresswoman stated, adding that Republicans supporting such policies could “lose the younger generation of voters and may never get them back.” Americans under 50 are “beginning to feel completely unrepresented by both parties,” particularly because of various initiatives funded by taxpayer money that have already “made life unaffordable and the future bleak for the vast majority of average Americans,” she warned.

The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed concerns about the potential misuse of US aid to Ukraine. Trump himself has claimed on several occasions that billions of dollars allocated by the Biden administration may have been embezzled. Former Trump adviser Steve Cortes has also criticized continued aid, calling Ukraine “corrupt” and cautioning that its leadership “cannot be trusted” following a recent crackdown on anti-corruption bodies. Greene herself has previously labelled Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky a “dictator” and called for his removal, accusing him of blocking peace efforts. Russia has consistently warned that military and financial assistance to Kiev only fuels the conflict and leads to more bloodshed.

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“It was a coup, and I’m using that term literally … One egregious felony after another.” — Stephen Miller

• Suspicious Minds (James Howard Kunstler)

America is tired of being driven insane, of having absurdities crammed into our collective consciousness. Reality is an agreement about what is going on in the world. That act of faith requires such an agreement be based on what is demonstrably true. Without it, society dissolves into chaos and failure. The RussiaGate psychodrama is about an agreement based on lies. It started with Hillary Clinton’s desperate ploy to save her foundering 2016 election campaign. Her emails somehow got sent to Wikileaks, a radical news org dedicated to revealing government secrets, implicating misconduct. It was easy to declare the Russians did it, by hacking — when it was much more likely, in fact, proven by a forensic audit, that a Clinton campaign insider downloaded the info on a thumb drive, perhaps one Seth Rich, found murdered on a DC sidewalk soon thereafter.

Every lie after that met the kind of skepticism among the public that generates heat, controversy, scandal, and fire. Hillary managed to enlist President Barack Obama and his executive agencies into her project, and the party apparatus with it, because the Clinton Victory Fund had paid the DNC’s debts and took over its management. Soon, the Russia collusion project grew into a gigantic scaffold of flaming lies. The big newspapers and the TV news networks bought the story, and came along for the ride. They were all sure Hillary would win the 2016 election. All the heat and fire would get flushed away. The polls all said so. The agencies and the parties would pick up and go on as before, run the show, make careers, get wealthy, be important!

They miscalculated. They lost. But they decided to keep building the scaffold of lies in order to protect themselves from the danger it represented — because they lived in that scaffold, it was the party’s house. And the scaffold of lies needed massive fortification. The house that the party lived in had to be protected at all costs, or they would all be cast out, homeless, a whole party on street, lost, broke, ruined, dying, like the pitiful tweakers bent over out on Kensington Avenue in Philly, in every Democrat-run city, really. And so, they undermined the winner of the election at every turn, worked furiously to drive him from office, made a plague happen, subverted the 2020 election, and spent four years under a fake president jamming absurdities into the public arena, turning it into a freak show, one drag-queen story hour after another, from sea to shining sea.

All to defeat the return of a public consensus about reality based on what is demonstrably true — starting with the fact that there are men and there are women, and that the primary interaction between them keeps society going by producing offspring. This enormous, drawn-out insurrection, composed of serial felony crimes, amounts to the greatest insult against the republic — the res publica, in Latin, the public thing — in the nation’s history. And now it is coming apart as an overwhelming majority of citizens, including now many Democrats, can’t avoid discovering what has happened in the country. Because lies are weak and the truth is sturdy and eventually truth prevails, even after an arduous struggle.

Read more …

“The new map could lead to the GOP gaining up to 5 seats..”

• Texas Governor Orders Arrest Of Fleeing Democratic Lawmakers (ZH)

[..] Update (1630ET): Promises made, promises kept… Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block a controversial vote on new congressional maps. “Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans,” Abbott said in a statement Monday. “I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the Republican nomination for US Senate, said he supported the speedy arrest of “jet-setting runaways” who left the state during the legislative session. “This is cowardice and dereliction of duty, and they should face the full force of the law without apology,” Paxton said in a tweet. …and cue the lawsuits.

TX
https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1952387626423476490

* * *
Absconding to — where else — Chicago, Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives fled the state on Sunday to break a quorum and prevent a vote on a redistricting plan that promises to boost the GOP’s share of seats in the US House of Representatives by five. In response, Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to remove them from office, replace them, and pursue felony charges against them, using extradition powers if need be. Their choice of exile location is positively drenched in hypocrisy, as Illinois arguably has the worst gerrymandering in America — to Democrats’ benefit, of course. In 2024, Democrats won 53% of the popular vote in Illinois House races, but took 82% of the seats (14 out of 17). A quorum is the minimum number of lawmakers present in order to conduct legislative business – a tactic they’ve used twice before in the 22 years since Republicans have controlled all of Texas state government (efforts which ultimately failed).

The Democrats plan to stay away for two weeks to run the clock on a special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in order to draw the new map. By state law, the Texas House can only conduct business when two-thirds of its 150 members are present, meaning at least 51 of the state’s 62 Democrats will stay away. So far, 57 have fled the state, according to State Rep. Jon Rosenthal (D), with members fleeing to Chicago, Boston and New York. All plan to remain out of the state until Aug. 19, when the special session concludes. “Our goal right now is to kill this session,” said Rosenthal.

Abbott said if the Democrats don’t return by 3pm on Monday, he will invoke a Texas attorney general opinion and “remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House,” and then pick their successors under power granted in the state constitution. Upping the ante, Abbott said many of the fleeing Democrats may have committed felonies, as they’re soliciting donations to cover fines they face under Texas House rules — arguing that they risk bribery charges for accepting money “to assist in the violation of legislative duties.” To bring them to justice, he said “I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.” Texas AG Ken Paxton (R), meanwhile, has threatened to arrest lawmakers who break quorum, though he won’t have jurisdiction over them outside of the state.

[..] In a separate development that could have profound implications for redistricting battles across America, the US Supreme Court last week said it will consider the constitutionality of redistricting that’s intentionally aimed at creating “majority-minority districts” with the goal securing power for blacks and Hispanics. In that Louisiana case filed by self-described “non-African American voters,” claiming a violation of the Equal Protection Clause, the high court said it will examine whether that kind of redistricting violates the 14th or 15th Amendments to the US Constitution.

In April 2024, a federal panel of judges in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ruled that purposefully creating a majority-black district was “an impermissible racial gerrymander in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” The 15th Amendment bars governments from denying or abridging the right to vote based on race or color.

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“Now that we have “One Big Beautiful Bill”, and we have a better sense of where the taxes are going, I think we’re going to see a much, we’re going to see more investment..”

• US Trade Rep Jamieson Greer Outlines Tariff Status (CTH)

MARGARET BRENNAN: I was reading some interviews you had given, and you said at some point the President’s view is maybe a tariff is better than a deal. Are you saying there are countries that just, they have no shot of avoiding a tariff? JAMIESON GREER: Well, I would say that, in fact, most countries in the world, they just have a tariff assigned to them, right? Whether it’s– MARGARET BRENNAN: It’ll be the 10 percent or 15 percent.

JAMIESON GREER: 10 or 15 or the higher level tariff. Because, again, when the President is looking at this, he looks at potential deals, and we bring him potential concessions from countries and the things they might want to do. And he compares that to the potential tariff that might be applied to try to get that deficit down. And then talking to his advisors, he makes a call on this. And you know, sometimes a country will come back and make additional concessions that, that make it more appropriate. He’s trying to get at the deficit. He’s trying to reshore manufacturing. And so those are the factors he’s looking at when he’s looking at when he’s determining whether he’s just going to have a tariff or he’ll take a deal.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Trying to reshore manufacturing, bring manufacturing jobs back to America. But we just saw in this unemployment data that while the level is pretty low overall, it’s pretty steady, good. Manufacturing in particular, we saw it contract for the fifth straight month in July, factory employment dropped to lowest levels in five years. What does that data indicate to you about the impact of your tariffs?

JAMIESON GREER: Yeah, I saw that and my own view is that I think a lot of companies were waiting to see if the tax bill was going to come through with the expensing for capital goods and things like that. And so I think now you know a lot of that data comes pre “One Big Beautiful Bill”. Now that we have “One Big Beautiful Bill”, and we have a better sense of where the taxes are going, I think we’re going to see a much, we’re going to see more investment, all the, all the commitments on investment we’ve seen countries making, that’s going to come through. And like you said, it’s a relatively small number. So I don’t, I don’t read tariff policy into that number. I think that is kind of pre-bill policy.

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Typically the kind of topic that CNN get all feisty about, claiming BLS numbers went uncontested for decades.

• Kevin Hassett On Why President Trump Fired BLS Commissioner (CTH)

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett appears on Meet the Press with the competitor for most dramatic political pundit, Kristen Welker. The first question surrounds President Trump firing Bureau of Labor and Statistics Commissioner Dr. Erika McEntarfer.

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“..we are confident that this award will incentivize Elon to remain at Tesla and focus his unmatched leadership abilities on further creating shareholder value..”

• Tesla Board Approves 96 Million Share Stock Award To “Retain” Elon Musk (ZH)

Tesla’s Board approved a special interim equity award for Elon Musk to compensate and retain him for “extraordinary work”. “As you know, Elon has not received meaningful compensation for eight years since the 2012 CEO Performance Award was last earned in 2017,” Robyn Denholm & Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Members of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors, wrote in a letter to shareholders on Monday morning. The Board continued, “Despite overwhelming support from you in 2018 and again in 2024, our legal efforts continue in the Delaware courts to reinstate the 2018 CEO Performance Award.” The equity award of restricted stock, totaling 96 million shares, is equal to about one-third of the compensation he earned under the 2018 CEO Performance Award.

The award provides the following conditions:
• 96 million restricted shares of stock, subject to Elon paying a purchase price upon meeting a two-year vesting term, to be delivered after receipt of antitrust regulatory approval;
• The purchase price will be equal to the split adjusted exercise price of the stock options awarded to Elon under the 2018 CEO Performance Award ($23.34 per share);
• A requirement that Elon serve continuously in a senior leadership role at Tesla during the two-year vesting term;
• A pledging allowance to cover tax payments or the purchase price;
• A mandatory holding period of five years from the grant date, except to cover tax payments or the purchase price (with any sales for such purposes to be conducted through an orderly disposition in coordination with Tesla); and
• If the Delaware courts fully reinstate the 2018 CEO Performance Award, this interim award will be forfeited or returned or a portion of the 2018 CEO Performance Award will be forfeited. To put it simply, there cannot be any “double dip.” Elon will not be able to keep this new award in addition to the options he will be awarded under the 2018 CEO Performance Award should the courts rule in our favor.

Tesla is at a critical inflection point with slumping sales and Musk pivoting the company to focus on robotaxis, cheaper EV platforms, humanoid robots, and AI. “While we recognize that Elon’s business ventures, interests and other potential demands on his time and attention are extensive and wide-ranging, including his leadership roles at xAI, SpaceX, Neuralink, X Corp., and The Boring Company as well as his other interests, we are confident that this award will incentivize Elon to remain at Tesla and focus his unmatched leadership abilities on further creating shareholder value for Tesla shareholders and attracting and retaining talent at Tesla,” the Board said.

Read more …

Time for Trump to say No Way?!

• Netanyahu Decides On Full Occupation of Gaza (RT)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told ministers that he will seek cabinet backing for a plan to fully occupy Gaza, despite objections from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), The Times of Israel reported on Monday. Israel controlled Gaza for 38 years, from 1967 until 2005. After the IDF and Israeli settlers withdrew from the enclave, it was left to be governed by the Palestinian Authority, which also controlled parts of the occupied West Bank. Hamas took control of Gaza after it won elections there in 2006. Since then, no elections have been held. Several ministers reportedly said Netanyahu referred to the term “occupation of the Strip” during private conversations, reflecting his vision for expanding military operations.

It marks a significant shift in tone as the government prepares to discuss the future of the campaign. “The die is cast – we are going for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip… There will be operations even in areas where hostages are being held. If the IDF chief of staff doesn’t agree, he should resign,” a senior official close to Netanyahu was quoted by Ynet as saying. The IDF currently claims to hold approximately 75% of the territory. Under the new plan, the military would be expected to occupy the remaining area as well, bringing the entire enclave under Israeli control.

The Times of Israel claims the IDF is against the idea of taking all of Gaza under control. The military believes it could take years to dismantle all Hamas infrastructure. Additionally, this approach could put hostages at risk of execution if troops move too close to where they are being held. The conflict between Hamas and Israel erupted in October 2023 with a surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel, leaving about 1,200 dead and 250 taken hostage. Around 50 hostages have not yet been returned, with fewer than half believed to be still alive. Israel’s counterattack has led to widespread destruction in Gaza, with the enclave’s health authorities estimating at least 60,000 deaths.

Read more …

flu

Cleveland Clinic bombshell: 2024-2025 flu vaccine linked to HIGHER flu risk in working adults! CDC admits just 33-60% effective overall—fails more than it works. Why inject junk science? Demand better! pic.twitter.com/sl5gvExUdR

— Camus (@newstart_2024) August 4, 2025

5G
https://twitter.com/newstart_2024/status/1952049701512999411

freeze

“Climate change,” the all-purpose scam… pic.twitter.com/cEZbyA18ze

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 3, 2025

47

47 Pesticides Found in U.S. Homes, Water, and People — As Congress Moves to Shield Manufacturers

Invasion of toxic herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides warrants action to protect public health — not shield the chemical industry from liability. @McCulloughFund @NathanMeadPhD… pic.twitter.com/inh0vuiJQf

— Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH® (@P_McCulloughMD) August 3, 2025

traffic
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1952368935690457554

CAF

"They put Trump in to get the control grid… [and he gets an] A+++. He's done a fabulous job… But… I don't think they need [him] anymore. That doesn't mean they're gonna get rid of him, but if they wanna get rid of him with Epstein, they can… by the end of the year…."… pic.twitter.com/znNhZRryJl

— Sense Receptor (@SenseReceptor) August 3, 2025

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