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Debt Rattle November 5 2023

Nov 052023
 
 November 5, 2023  Posted by at 10:31 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  31 Responses »


Hieronymus Bosch St. Jerome in Prayer 1482

 

• The US and Hezbollah Want The Same Thing From Israel-Hamas War (Scott Ritter)
• Iraqis Warn Of Western Plan To Move Gazans To Anbar Desert (Cradle)
• Ireland’s Most Popular Party Wants Israeli Ambassador Expelled (RT)
• Gaza Conflict ‘Taking Away Focus’ From Ukraine – Zelensky (AFP)
• US Plans Reshuffle of Ukrainian Elites Due to Corruption – Putin (Sp.)
• West Nudges Ukraine Towards Peace Deal With Russia (Sp.)
• We Won’t Talk To Russia – Zelensky (RT)
• NATO’s Backfired Ukraine Strategy Built on Ideology, Bribery & Blackmail (Sp.)
• Ukraine Aid Drying Up – White House (RT)
• Long Read (Kim Dotcom)
• There Is Only One Putin – Kremlin (RT)
• Tony Bobulinski Issues A Challenge To The Biden Family (DM)
• Can Jack Smith Convict Trump For Being Lured By Bad Lawyers’ Advice? (Turley)
• Tucker Carlson Visits Assange In Prison (RT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

WCNSF

 

 

Gideon Levy

 

 

 

 

Obama

 

 

Russell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long excerpt for a complex issue.

• The US and Hezbollah Want The Same Thing From Israel-Hamas War (Scott Ritter)

[..] both the US and Hezbollah were, and are, implementing a model of conflict management known as the ‘escalation ladder’. And while this reality might prove frustrating for those on either side of this conflict who seek a decisive, one-sided victory, it is the only responsible path that can be taken to avoid turning a local conflict into a regional war that could have global ramifications. The escalation ladder process focuses on how the parties involved escalate and de-escalate against competitors, measuring these actions against the different levels of escalation, which equate to the ‘steps’ on the ‘ladder’ used to visualize the model. By assessing the possible upward or downward trajectory of escalation at each level, based upon the actions of each party and their outcomes, the model helps participants to predict plausible outcomes and, as such, plot future scenarios.

The most popular expression of the escalation ladder is what is known as ‘linear escalation’, where a sequential line of actions is plotted from lowest to highest, and the relationship between two competing powers assessed accordingly. Linear escalation as a model works if there are only two participants to the crisis in question. The problem with the ongoing Gaza conflict is that there are many parties to the conflict, all of which have differing goals and objectives. As such, the escalation model that is most applicable to this scenario is what is known as horizontal escalation, where within a given escalation vector, differing participants can be segregated based upon their respective goals and objectives, allowing a sub-set of comparative escalatory calculations to take place, which in turn can be subjected to factors that influence their specific escalation, de-escalation, and maintenance issues separate from other parallel escalation management trajectories.

By way of example, one can speak of a ‘horizontal escalation’ model, where a US/Israeli track is paired off against a Hamas/Hezbollah track. However, the US/Israeli track is also paired off against itself, since the US and Israel are at odds over ceasefire options, the provision of humanitarian air, and specific military tactics. The same applies to Hamas/Hezbollah, where the Palestinian-specific goals of Hamas may clash with the regional aspirations of Hezbollah. Moreover, the specific actions of the US and Israel, when competing, can impact the Hamas and Hezbollah escalation calculations differently, causing these two tracks to lose their equilibrium by having one party escalate when the other may be seeking either maintenance and/or de-escalation. The horizontal escalation model becomes even more complex when other tracks, such as the United Nations, the international community, Iran, Yemen, and the Iraqi and Syrian Shia militias become involved.

When seen in this light, the horizontal escalation model becomes horribly complicated, requiring all parties to be cognizant about the competing interests of everyone involved, and develop a sound understanding of the intricacies associated with every facet of the cause-effect relationships involved. When deciphering the presentations given by both Blinken and Nasrallah, the casual observer might be compelled to be highly critical of the less-than decisive content provided. But a careful parsing of the language used by both men shows that each, in his own way, is cognizant of the complexity of the issues at play, and the absolute need to manage the pressures generated by the emotions of all parties involved so that a crisis that could easily expand into a regional war remains localized.

However, one cannot escape the reality that, at the end of the day, there cannot be a solution that is satisfactory to all parties. Israel seeks the destruction of Hamas as a military and political entity. Hamas seeks a Palestinian homeland built in its image. These two visions of victory are mutually incompatible. Both parties will seek to manipulate the escalation ladder in a way that best promotes their respective desired outcome. The key to the other parties is how to prevent this inherent incompatibility from spinning out of control, and to manage defeat as well as victory. It is this aspect of the escalation management process where Hamas has the advantage. As Nasrallah repeatedly noted in his presentation, the most important aspect of the anti-Israeli resistance is its ability to persevere.

Israel finds itself in an increasingly untenable situation, where the political and military methodologies undertaken are increasingly rejected by its supporters. The friction between the US and Israeli positions was evident in Blinken’s address. This friction will only increase if the conflict between Israel and Hamas is maintained on its current trajectory. The only chance Israel has to break this paradigm is if the conflict escalates, forcing the US to reevaluate its conflict resolution model with larger geopolitical concerns, such as a war with Iran. Blinken has made it clear that the Biden administration is not seeking such an outcome. Neither is Hassan Nasrallah. It is in this light that one must examine the totality of Nasrallah’s speech, and the complexity of his argument. There is not a single facet of the Israeli-Hamas conflict he left unexamined. Moreover, he not only discussed each of these matters in isolation, but also in respect to how they relate overall. Nasrallah’s speech was the embodiment of how to manage a complex horizontal escalation model and achieve a desired outcome.

Let there be no doubt – Hamas is on the trajectory toward victory, though not the kind of victory a casual observer might imagine as its end goal. When the definitive history of the Hamas-Israeli conflict is finally written, rest assured that the speech given by Hassan Nasrallah will be recorded as one of the critical moments in shaping the conflict so that it avoided exploding into a wider war, and instead allowing the various parties to focus on the more limited, although admittedly complex, issues relating to the core matters as defined by Hamas – a prisoner exchange, freedom of religion at the Al Aqsa Mosque, and Palestinian statehood. These limited objectives, and not the destruction of Israel, are the likely outcomes of this conflict. And for that we can all thank Hassan Nasrallah, a man who knows how to effectively manage the complexities of the horizontal escalation model.

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A new dimension.

• Iraqis Warn Of Western Plan To Move Gazans To Anbar Desert (Cradle)

The settlement of Palestinians in the Anbar desert, western Iraq, has become a topic of renewed discussion among Iraqis, thanks to the US-championed “Deal of the Century.” As far back as February 2020, Iraqi MP al-Baldawi, the representative of the al-Fatah coalition in Iraq’s parliament, was alleging: “The US is plotting to keep out Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units, or PMU) from the western provinces of Iraq, specially al-Anbar province, in a move to provide a proper ground for sheltering the Palestinians inside Iraq.” But now, the renewed interest in the topic coincides with the recent, unpublicized visit of the British ambassador to Iraq to Anbar Governorate. Since the unveiling of the Trump era peace plan in 2019, reports have surfaced suggesting that the continued US presence in western Iraq has broader intentions beyond establishing military bases.

It is speculated that the goal is to create an “alternative homeland” for Palestinian refugees in the Anbar desert. This notion might have remained confined to the realm of “conspiracy theories” if it weren’t for suggestions made by Israeli leaders following the 7 October Al-Aqsa Flood resistance operation, and their unprecedented genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip. Israeli media leaked a document issued by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence, proposing the displacement of 2.4 million Palestinians from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and other regions, a proposal strongly rejected by both Cairo and Amman. The leaked plan has renewed serious Iraqi interest in the potential project to displace Palestinians to Anbar. Concerns of another Nakba have been echoed in statements from Iraqi political and religious leaders, including leading figures like Muqtada al-Sadr and Qais al-Khazali, as well as representatives of the Iraqi parliament – particularly those hailing from Anbar Governorate.

The leader of the National Resolution Alliance, Jamal al-Karbouli, condemned “the suspicious projects that attempt to displace the Palestinians out of Palestine,” and warned “everyone who dares to go too far with the people of Anbar and donate its land to please his masters.. Karbouli’s statements prompted Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, the representative of Anbar in the council, to emphatically reject any attempt to implement the Deal of the Century in Iraq. But observers like political analyst Mohsen al-Amiri believe that Karbouli’s claims forced Halbousi into issuing a denial: “It seems as if Anbar’s representative in parliament Al-Halbousi, who has close relations with foreign countries, especially the United Arab Emirates (the UAE has led the Arab normalization process with Israel), was trying to distance himself from these accusations.”

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Ireland’s next PM?!

• Ireland’s Most Popular Party Wants Israeli Ambassador Expelled (RT)

Israeli ambassador Dana Erlich “should no longer enjoy diplomatic status in Ireland,” Sinn Fein party leader Mary Lou McDonald said on Friday. McDonald’s party, which has deep historical ties to the Palestinian cause, has repeatedly condemned Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. “[The Israel Defence Forces] are engaged in a ferocious military offensive against a civilian population; breaking international law by targeting civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, forcing mass population displacement and cutting off vital supplies of water, food, medicines and fuel,” McDonald told reporters. Erlich’s presence in Ireland has become “untenable,” McDonald continued, adding that the ambassador should “no longer enjoy diplomatic status in Ireland while Israel refuses the imperative for ceasefires and as the suffering and death toll grow.”

Earlier on Friday, McDonald discussed the conflict with diplomats from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Israel’s embassy in Dublin criticized the Sinn Fein leader for not inviting Erlich to the meeting, accusing her of “only [seeking] to isolate Israel, rather than offer a forum for constructive engagement.” “To exclude Israel from such a forum is quite telling of Sinn Fein’s position on the conflict,” the embassy said in a statement. Sinn Fein is Ireland’s most popular political party, with a 13-point lead on its closest rival, the centrist Fine Gael. Sinn Fein is excluded from power, however, by a coalition agreement between Fine Gael and historical rivals Fianna Fail, as well as the Green Party.

As the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Sinn Fein’s support for the Palestinian cause is long-standing. The party’s supporters, particularly in Northern Ireland, view their own struggle against British colonialism as analogous to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. While the IRA has laid down its arms, Sinn Fein has remained in contact with Hamas; former party leader Gerry Adams met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza in 2009, while McDonald hosted an online conference with the militant group’s foreign relations head, Dr Basem Naim, in 2020. Sinn Fein “will never rule out meeting or talking to anybody, because that doesn’t serve any purpose” in securing peace in the Middle East, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, Matt Carthy, said last month.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has adopted a more neutral stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, declaring on Friday that Israel “has a right to defend itself [and] has the right to go after Hamas, so they can not do this again.” Varadkar also condemned Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 attack, stating that it “isn’t just self-defense, it resembles something more approaching revenge.” Ireland voted last month for a UN resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and opposed a now-scrapped EU plan to suspend aid payments to the enclave. However, Varadkar told reporters on Friday that he is “not sure [the Israelis] listen very closely to what we have to say, quite frankly.”

Sinn Fein

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“Zelensky said the war between Israel and Hamas had also drawn attention away from Ukraine, and said that this was “Russia’s goal”.

Excuse me, how does this work?

• Gaza Conflict ‘Taking Away Focus’ From Ukraine – Zelensky (AFP)

The sprawling frontline between the two warring sides has barely moved in almost a year, with one senior Ukrainian official warning this week that the conflict was deadlocked. “Time has passed, people are tired… But this is not a stalemate,” Zelensky told a press conference in Kyiv with EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. The Ukrainian leader also rejected the idea Western countries were putting pressure on Kyiv to enter negotiations with Russia, amid reports US and EU officials had discussed what such talks would entail. “No one among our partners is pressuring us to sit down with Russia, talk to it, and give it something,” he said. With the war now in its 20th month and Ukraine struggling to gain ground in its counteroffensive, Zelensky has routinely met Western leaders in a bid to stave off fatigue with the conflict.

Zelensky said the war between Israel and Hamas had also drawn attention away from Ukraine, and said that this was “Russia’s goal”. “Of course, it’s clear that the war in the Middle East, this conflict, is taking away the focus,” Zelensky said. “We have already been in very difficult situations when there was almost no focus on Ukraine,” he said, but added: “I am absolutely sure we will overcome this challenge.” Ukraine’s backers, including the United States, have maintained they are ready to support Kyiv with military and financial support for as long as it takes to defeat Russia. Zelensky’s comments came as EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s progress toward joining the 27-member bloc.

Kyiv received EU candidacy status several months after Russia invaded last year, but analysts have warned it faces a long and difficult path to membership. “You have reached many milestones,” von der Leyen told Zelensky. “Reforming your justice system. Curbing the oligarchs grip. Tackling money laundering and much more,” she said. “We should never forget you are fighting an existential war, and at the same time you’re deeply reforming your country,” she added. She said she was “confident” Ukraine would progress with the accession process when these reforms were implemented. The EU Commission has proposed an additional 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in funding for Ukraine until 2027, von der Leyen said.

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“..every political move in Ukraine has a kind of fixed price..”

• US Plans Reshuffle of Ukrainian Elites Due to Corruption – Putin (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that corruption in Ukraine is almost legalized and the West will not be able to fight it. He added that this is why he was not surprised by reports about Ukrainian weapons in the Middle East. “There [in Ukraine] this corruption, it is actually legalized. Why are Americans trying to fight this corruption and nothing is working? I think it will not work,” Putin said at a meeting with the new members of the Civic Chamber of Russia. Putin recalled that Ukrainian politicians and high-ranking government officials told him that every issue can be solved for a price, and that his “jaw dropped” when he heard this, meaning that he was shocked by the blatant corruption.

He stressed that every political move in Ukraine has a kind of fixed price. Putin added that the US is plotting a change of political and economic elites in Ukraine, but he believes that this will not solve the problem and that “everything will remain the same.” He emphasized that this should not be the case for Russia and instead, Russia must implement its own legal standards in the new regions. He referenced the progress made in ushering in the legal framework in Crimea and stated, “It is not an easy task, but we are going to do it, and we are already doing it.” Putin concluded.

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“..There’s a growing sense that it’s too late, and it’s time to do a deal..”

• West Nudges Ukraine Towards Peace Deal With Russia (Sp.)

As Kiev flounders with its counteroffensive, political support for propping up the Volodymyr Zelensky regime gradually wanes in some US political circles; meanwhile, Israel’s war on Hamas takes center stage, prompting speculation as to how swiftly Ukraine fatigue will gather momentum, and what it may spill out into. Quiet conversations are already reportedly taking place between US and European officials on the one hand, and the Ukrainian government on the other, about possible peace negotiations with Russia. The discussions have touched upon concessions Ukraine might need to agree to if any deal is to be possible, according to current and former senior Washington officials cited in a US report.

A meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations, including NATO members supporting the Kiev regime, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, held in October, purportedly served as a venue for some of these “delicate” talks, as per the report. “…There’s a growing sense that it’s too late, and it’s time to do a deal,” one former senior Washington official was quoted as saying. As to why these talks have been gathering momentum, the outlet’s sources acknowledged that they have been triggered by both, military dynamics on the battlefield, where Ukraine faces a botched counteroffensive, and the political situation in the US and Europe. First of all, there is growing acknowledgement that no amount of military assistance to Ukraine has helped its efforts to break through Russia’s defense lines.

Even a top Ukrainian general, Valery Zaluzhny, admitted that despite “NATO’s textbooks” and “calculations,” Kiev needed to take a massive technological leap to break the current “stalemate” in its counteroffensive against Russian troops. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,” he underscored in an interview with the UK’s Economist magazine. Moscow, however, understandably took issue with the word “stalemate,” denying there was a battlefield impasse, and vouching for the fact that Russia consistently continues to conduct the special military ops to achieve its set objectives.

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Well, someone will..

• We Won’t Talk To Russia – Zelensky (RT)

Ukraine is not willing to hold any talks with Russia, President Vladimir Zelensky said on Saturday during a joint press conference with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. He also denied recent media reports that Kiev’s Western backers are pushing it to engage in negotiations. “Now, none of the EU, US leaders, our partners are putting pressure on us in terms of sitting down [at the negotiating table] with Russia, talking to it or surrendering something to it,” he told journalists. “This is not going to happen,” he added. Zelensky then said he “does not know” who even publishes such reports. He did admit, however, that he had “got an impression”that the Ukrainian media and Ukrainians themselves are speculating about the idea of potential talks with Russia and about Western nations allegedly pushing Kiev towards such a decision.

The president went on to say that he was “surprised” by such sentiments. Earlier on Saturday, NBC reported that Western officials were holding behind-the-scenes talks with Kiev about the possibility of negotiating with Russia and were even exploring potential concessions Ukraine might agree to in order to end the conflict. The report also said that the Western nations were concerned about a potential “stalemate” in the conflict and Ukraine “running out of forces” in the future. Russia has repeatedly signaled its readiness to engage in negotiations with Kiev but has insisted that such talks should take Moscow’s security interests and the “reality on the ground” into account. In autumn 2022, four former Ukrainian territories, including the two Donbass republics, officially joined Russia following a series of referendums.

Kiev never accepted their results, branding the votes a “sham” and seeking to restore its control over the four territories, as well as Crimea, which joined Russia in 2014 following another referendum. In October 2022, Zelensky also signed a decree banning Ukraine from holding any talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This past September, Putin said that if Kiev is willing to end the conflict it should demonstrate its intentions publicly, including by revoking the 2022 decree. “If their wish to achieve something through negotiations is genuine, let them do that,” he said at that time. “Let the Ukrainians themselves say it… announce it publicly,” the Russian president added.

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“Everyone is ready for that except for Zelenksy, Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, Senator Graham, and Congressman Schiff..”

• NATO’s Backfired Ukraine Strategy Built on Ideology, Bribery & Blackmail (Sp.)

Moscow was swift to shoot down Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny’s claims earlier in the week of a battlefield impasse as being far from the truth, emphasizing that Russia fully intends to reach all the objectives of its special military operation. The US-led Western master plan implemented in Ukraine backfired because it was “not fact-based”, with Washington dipping into its playbook of utilizing both “bribery” and “blackmail”, Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik. NATO’s “strategy” was “ideology and domestic interest-based – in some cases based on financial bribery and energy blackmail by the US. It was a strategy of finance and military aid/contracts rather than an actual strategy”, pointed out Kwiatkowski.

Earlier, the Ukrainian army’s Commander-in-Chief General Valery Zaluzhny admitted that Kiev needed to take a massive technological leap to break the current “stalemate” in its counteroffensive against Russian troops. “There will, most likely, be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,” he highlighted in an interview with the UK’s magazine ‘The Economist’. “In a world with well-informed, logical and humanitarian leadership in Kiev and Washington, we would indeed consider Valery Zaluzhny’s evaluation as a precursor to immediate negotiations with Russia. Everyone is ready for that except for Zelenksy, Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, Senator Graham, and Congressman Schiff,” said the pundit. Espressing himself in both an article and then an interview, Zaluzhny conceded that “NATO’s textbooks” and “the math” that Kiev used in planning its much-heralded counteroffensive had failed to stop Russian forces from tackling Ukrainian troops.

Zaluzhny speculated that the aforementioned NATO textbooks and the calculations had suggested that “four months should have been enough time for us [the Ukrainian army] to have reached Crimea, to have fought in Crimea, to return from Crimea and to have gone back in and out again.” He was referring to the peninsula which chose to split off from Ukraine after the February 2014 Euromaidan coup, voting overwhelmingly in a referendum in March 2014 to rejoin Russia. Ukraine boasted of plans to use its summer counteroffensive to seize Crimea. Zaluzhny also added that he was concerned about the fact that “sooner or later [Kiev] will realize that we simply don’t have enough people to fight”. Accordingly, he struck up the familiar tune of demanding more weapons from the West – one that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have perfected. Thus, warning that there were “heavier battles to come,” the Ukrainian top general solicited assistance for Ukraine’s missile and air defense, and offered “calculations” as to “how many tanks, artillery we need and so on and so on”.

In effect, however, no amount of sophisticated weaponry worth however many billions of dollars would be sufficient to help Kiev in its counteroffensive. The US-spearheaded Western strategy had been to use Ukraine as a pawn in its proxy war to attempt to “isolate Russia economically, to weaken Russia’s military capability, and to strengthen Ukraine as a potential EU and even NATO member,” Kwiatkowski emphasized. However, “in each of these publicly stated objectives, if there was a strategy to do these things, it backfired and failed in all cases,” added the retired Lieutenant Colonel. Such “across the board failures” can only mean that “either the strategy was so bad it should have never made it off the table, or the aim had been to fail be destroyed, just not publicly stated,” Kwiatkowski stressed.

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The White House can sneak out, and blame Mike Johnson. Perfect for them.

• Ukraine Aid Drying Up – White House (RT)

The White House is running out of funds to finance arms deliveries to Ukraine, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said, urging Congress to approve US President Joe Biden’s request for more aid that has been stonewalled by Republicans. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, the spokeswoman said that the Pentagon had announced new arms deliveries for Ukraine. The latest package, which is worth $425 million, includes HIMARS and NASAMS missiles, artillery rounds, and other military equipment. Of this sum, $300 million was from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which the Pentagon uses to contract new equipment for Kiev. The remaining $125 million came from the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the Biden administration to transfer weapons from US stocks without congressional approval in case of an emergency.

Jean-Pierre noted that this package “exhaust[s] the remaining USAI funds currently available to support Ukraine.” She added that while the White House still has PDA authorities to “fulfill Ukraine’s immediate battlefield needs,” the US is starting to provide Kiev with “smaller PDA packages in order to stretch out our ability to support Ukraine for as long as possible.” With this in mind, she urged Congress to approve Biden’s supplemental aid request and send “an important message” to the world that the US continues to stand with Ukraine. Last month, the Biden administration asked US lawmakers to greenlight a security package to the tune of more than $100 billion, including $61.4 billion for Ukraine, and $14.3 billion for Israel. But some Republicans have opposed aid to Ukraine, accusing Biden of lacking a strategic vision for the conflict and insisting on more accountability.

They have also insisted that the issues of aid to Israel and Ukraine be treated separately. On Thursday, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill on aiding Israel in its conflict with Hamas, to which Democrats voiced strong opposition, with some accusing their colleagues across the isle of politicizing the issue. Another provision listed in the legislation included defunding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), also a non-starter for Democrats. Meanwhile, Mike Johnson, the newly installed House speaker, has yet to reveal his plans for Ukraine funding, vowing that the relevant discussions “will come in short order.” Russia has repeatedly warned the West against sending weapons to Ukraine, arguing that doing so only prolongs the conflict while making it a direct participant in the hostilities.

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X thread.

• Long Read (Kim Dotcom)

The West is probing Zelenskyy on concessions to Russia. Russia and Ukraine were ready to sign a peace deal in 2022. It was blocked by Joe Biden. Since then 600k+ people died, the EU economy lost $1.5 trillion, Ukraine lost 20% of its territory and the US added 3 trillion in debt Russia is now in a much stronger position. It won’t trust any deal with Ukraine due to past treaty breaches instigated by the West. Ukraine is running out of money and forces. The US, EU and NATO have lost their proxy war and Russia can keep this conflict going for a long time thanks to failing sanctions. Low cost Russian arms production and artillery shells from partners cause the West to deplete their reserves and bleed billions more into the black hole that is Ukraine.

Russia will likely take more territory in Ukraine and turn it into a rump state without access to the Black Sea. Ukraine will not be allowed to become a NATO or EU member. Russia will ensure that the US coup in Ukraine will be reversed and that a pro-Russian Govt will be installed. Only then will the conditions improve for Ukraine. The NATO big-mouth alliance will crumble after this embarrassing defeat. The US and EU will fall into a deep recession and the BRICS alliance will grow in power and influence. The US dollar will lose reserve currency status and excessive US money printing will cause hyperinflation and devalue most US assets to junk status. The failure in Ukraine will be Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s legacy. They will be remembered as the most inept leaders of our time. Most of the EU leaders will be seen as failed US puppets who followed a dementia patient and a comedian into the sewer of history.

China is the big winner in all of this. They get the discounted Russian energy that made Europe a manufacturing powerhouse and the multipolar alliance of BRICS countries can turn decades of global wars and chaos into the most peaceful era of growth and prosperity for humanity. That’s how it should be. But the most likely outcome is that the evil empire of lies will not leave the stage quietly. The US Govt will smash the geopolitical chess board against the wall and go out in a tantrum of nuclear war that will end civilization as we know it. Only the American people could prevent this from happening but I wouldn’t bet my money on that. Most US brains have been fried by endless propaganda or dumbed down by a Neanderthal education system and TikTok 😉 The best insurance for your family is to have a Plan B in the far south of the southern hemisphere. That area will have the most survivors. May the force be with you.

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“..the Russian leader has “fantastic fitness for working” and can work nonstop for several days in a row..”

• There Is Only One Putin – Kremlin (RT)

The Kremlin has dismissed speculation that it could be using body doubles of President Vladimir Putin for some events. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov ridiculed such claims as “amusing.” “We have only one Putin!” Peskov said at the ‘Russia’ exhibition that opened in Moscow on Saturday. He said that many ridiculous, absurd, and amusing things appear in various news outlets and on social media, naming the rumors about the Russian president’s alleged body doubles as examples. The Kremlin spokesman joked that “experts” on the internet are now wondering how many doppelgangers Putin has and which ones they are seeing each day. “Today [the Russian officials and public figures led by Putin] laid flowers to the Minin and Pozharsky Monument… Was it [Putin’s] third or fourth body double? I have no idea,” the spokesman jokingly added.

On November 4, Russia celebrates Unity Day, a holiday that commemorates the end of the ‘Times of Troubles’ in the 17th century and the expulsion of the Polish-Lithuanian occupation forces from Moscow by a volunteer militia army led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and a merchant, Kuzma Minin. The Kremlin already laid to rest the rumors about Putin’s doppelgangers last week after the UK’s Mirror newspaper reported on the issue, citing an anonymous Russian Telegram channel called General SVR. The paper claimed that the president’s body doubles were even used for some public appearances, including foreign visits. It also cited a recent Japanese TV report claiming that Putin had doppelgangers.

Similar statements have also been made by the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov. Peskov had previously already dismissed reports about Putin’s doppelgangers, calling them “lies” back in April. He also said that the Russian leader has “fantastic fitness for working” and can work nonstop for several days in a row. The Kremlin spokesman added that he has experienced this firsthand while working directly under Putin’s leadership.

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“..Tony Bobulinski has challenged the Biden family to testify under oath beside him before Congress..”

• Tony Bobulinski Issues A Challenge To The Biden Family (DM)

Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski has challenged the Biden family to testify under oath beside him before Congress, after Hunter’s lawyer accused Bobulinski of lying. Bobulinski, a Navy veteran, worked with Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim – Joe’s brother – in 2017 to invest in China. Bobulinski in 2020 produced a May 2017 email detailing a proposed equity split for a Chinese investment, with the suggestion of ’20’ for ‘H’ and ’10 held by H for the big guy?’ Bobulinski has claimed that ‘the big guy’ was Joe Biden, who was vice president until January 2017. Joe Biden has always said he was not involved in Hunter’s business dealings. Hunter’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has written a letter to prosecutors claiming that Bobulinski has lied to the FBI. Bobulinski, in response, on Friday challenged the Bidens to provide public sworn testimony.

Tony Bobulinski was in business with Hunter Biden, and has claimed that Joe Biden was also involved in a May 2017 deal with China ‘If Hunter Biden and the Biden family are so determined to ensure that the full truth is put before the American people, Hunter, Jim, Joe and I should all appear together before Congress, publicly and under oath,’ said Bobulinski, in a statement sent to Fox News. ‘They can name the date, time and place, and I would certainly be willing to do that for the American people.’ Bobulinski said that Lowell’s letter, sent to Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, was untrue. ‘All of the allegations contained in Mr. Lowell’s 10-page letter to U.S. Attorney Graves are patently false, and I look forward to exposing these lies and laying out the facts in a public forum in short order,’ said Bobulinski. ‘The sad thing for our country is that Hunter, Jim and Joe Biden along with Abbe Lowell know they are all false and are trying to weaponize the DOJ against me.’

Lowell, in his letter, claimed Bobulinski ‘lied about the business discussions among the partners involved’ in the joint venture. He said Bobulinski was guilty of ‘making things up’, and urged Graves to investigate him. Lowell accused Bobulinski, who insists he is not political, of being intent on attacking the Bidens. ‘The materials reveal the extraordinary lengths Mr Bobulinski and other individuals were willing to go to implicate Mr Biden or members of his family in some false and meritless allegations of wrongdoing,’ Lowell wrote. ‘Even in an era in which people peddle knowing lies with the goal of their falsehoods being repeated and disseminated for their political advantage, these statements by Mr Bobulinski cannot and must not go unchecked.’ Hunter Biden’s business deals are being investigated by several committees in Congress: the House Oversight Committee; House Judiciary; and House Ways & Means Committees.

The Oversight Committee on X accused Lowell of attempting to intimidate Bobulinski, who might be called to testify. ‘Hunter Biden and his legal team are once again attacking anyone who speaks out against the Bidens,’ the Oversight Committee wrote. ‘This time, their target is Tony Bobulinski, a potential witness in our investigation. ‘We will not tolerate witness intimidation. The truth will come out soon enough despite the Biden team’s threatening tactics. ‘We will give Hunter the opportunity to clear the air and speak with us soon.’

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Turley makes the exact same point I did a few days ago. Can you indict Trump for having bad lawyers? Sidney Powell and Lin Wood went way overboard after the election. But how was he supposed to know at the time? They were his lawyers… They presented it to him, and to the media, as an open and shut case.

• Can Jack Smith Convict Trump For Being Lured By Bad Lawyers’ Advice? (Turley)

In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Odysseus faces one of his most fearsome threats — the three Sirens, beautiful sea creatures who lure sailors to their ruin with their seductive songs. Special Counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis have offered a modern version of the Sirens in the lure of bad lawyering. Three lawyers have recently pleaded guilty in Georgia, and they may join other former counsel in testifying against their former client. What is novel is the criminal “Siren’s call” theory of these cases. Former President Donald Trump is being prosecuted for following the advice of his counsel, who are now effectively saying that he should not have believed what they were telling him. Indeed, some sound like they were lured by the Siren call of Trump, led astray from their better legal judgment.

Kenneth Chesebro’s attorney, Scott Grubman, says that “Mr. Chesebro never believed in ‘the Big Lie’” and believes that Biden won the election. Likewise, Sidney Powell has argued that “no reasonable person would conclude that my statements were truly statements of fact” as opposed to opinions. Jenna Ellis recently stated “Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.” Yet these lawyers were not just confident but enthusiastic after the election in pursuing the claims they now repudiate. Moreover, their plea agreements had a number of notable omissions. First, none pleaded guilty to a conspiracy with Trump or to racketeering. Second, none will face jail time, and the prosecution has agreed that they did not commit crimes of moral turpitude. All three could keep their licenses.

It is also not clear that these attorneys would implicate Trump if called. They could prove more damaging to other defendants such as Rudy Giuliani, or they could still prove harmful to the prosecution’s overall theory. They secured no jail deals, but only agreed to testify truthfully. Some, like Ellis, may now have animus but lack evidence against Trump in establishing a conspiracy or racketeering claim. Both the federal and state prosecutions are premised on the claim that Trump never believed what he was saying about a stolen election. If Trump actually did believe he had viable claims in the courts or Congress, the prosecutions would collapse. Even Smith admits that Trump’s early election claims were protected political speech, but at some point became a criminal conspiracy when Trump had to know that his claims were baseless.

he most dangerous aspect to the federal indictment is that Smith leaves the line entirely undefined for future cases. If Trump crossed the Rubicon into criminal conduct in his election claims, Smith should be able to point to the river on the map. Instead, Smith offers no limiting principle on when election claims move from the sensational to the criminal. That is particularly concerning, since many election claims in the courts or Congress have been unfounded. For example, Marc Elias, who served as general counsel to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and played a key role in its secret funding of the infamous Steele dossier, challenged past elections on such grounds. After the 2020 election, he challenged a New York election by claiming that voting machines had flipped the results in favor of the Republicans through mistabulations.

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Wonder what format he will give it. No cameras..

• Tucker Carlson Visits Assange In Prison (RT)

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson visited Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at London’s Belmarsh Prison on Thursday, Carlson revealed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) later that day. The American journalist included a photo of himself walking with Assange’s wife, Stella Moris. The post garnered positive reactions from activists who have collaborated with Wikileaks in the past, including Mega founder Kim Dotcom and former British MP George Galloway. While Carlson did not elaborate on the nature of his visit, media commentary suggested it was an interview for Carlson’s popular self-titled show on X. He previously interviewed Assange’s father and brother for a Fox News segment in 2021, and again earlier this year.

 Carlson has condemned Assange’s continued incarceration as a violation of the Wikileaks founder’s First Amendment rights, and said it sets a disastrous precedent for other journalists and publishers who work with classified material. Assange has appealed his pending extradition to the US, where he faces up to 175 years in prison on charges of violating the Espionage Act. The charges stem from Wikileaks’ publication of a trove of secret documents leaked by US Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning in 2010, which dealt with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Wikileaks publisher has been imprisoned in Belmarsh since 2019, when he was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had lived for seven years. Assange was granted political asylum and later Ecuadorian citizenship, both of which were revoked ahead of his arrest.

While Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Australia, hinted in August that Washington might consider a plea deal allowing Assange to return to his home country if he pleaded guilty to lesser charges, legal experts have pointed out that any such deal would almost certainly require him to travel to the US for a formal admission of guilt – a condition he is unlikely to accept. Additionally, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has shown no signs of relenting in pursuit of the publisher, recently rejecting overtures from Canberra with the explanation that Assange’s actions had “risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named human sources at grave risk of physical harm, grave risk of detention.” Members of Congress hailing from both parties have petitioned the presidential administration of Joe Biden to drop the extradition request and abandon the prosecution of Assange.

Read more …

 

 

 

 


Siegfried Sassoon

 

 

Ackman

 

 


On Waihee Beach Park, Maui, Hawaii, this tree grew by the sea and coastal eroison exposed its roots, making it look like it’s running.

 

 

Shavo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1720796546810138711

 

 


Photographer Wu Yung-sen on a blackwater dive—unable to see the bottom and surrounded by impenetrable space—chanced upon a rare larval Wunderpus octopus, totally transparent.

 

 

Butterfly puppy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1720795302167216287

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle June 18 2023

Jun 182023
 
 June 18, 2023  Posted by at 8:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  62 Responses »


John Singer Sargent Open Doorway, Morocco 1879-80

 

• Ukrainian Counteroffensive’s Second Week Ends in Failure (Scott Ritter)
• Ukraine Demilitarization Mainly Completed – Peskov (Sp.)
• Biden Lays Down NATO warning For Ukraine (RT)
• Partners in Doomsday (Seymour Hersh)
• Putin: Kiev Threw Russia-Ukraine Settlement Deal Into Dustbin of History (Sp.)
• South African President’s Security Detail Prevented From Going To Russia (RT)
• African Nations Call For Indivisibility Of Global Security (TASS)
• UAE President Meets With Putin In Russia (Cradle)
• Ukraine Ready To Pay West In People’s Organs For Military Aid – Moscow (TASS)
• West Pressured Countries To Skip SPIEF – Moscow (RT)
• Rosneft’s Sechin: ‘Inflated US Debt Looms Over Asia-Pacific’ (Sp.)
• De-Dollarization: Asian Central Banks To Adopt Iran’s SWIFT Alternative (ZH)
• ECB Warns EU Against Skimming Profits From Stolen Russian Money (RT)
• There Was No Pandemic (Schachtel)
• Call the Exorcists! (Jim Kunstler)

 

 

 

 

“Trump Saved The USA”

 

 

 

 

Watters Gates
https://twitter.com/i/status/1669874281948348425

 

 

 

 

Day 1

 

 

 

 

Agenda 21

 

 

Pfizer Japan

 

 

REPORTER: “Donald Trump was indicted on 38 charges. He is facing up to 400 years. What does Moscow think about this?”

ZAKHAROVA: “There is nothing surprising about this. This is democracy in a liberal dictatorship style… As for 400 years, apparently they are afraid of him because they consider him immortal. The only thing I can tell you is that we will see more and more wonders and mystifications for one simple reason – liberalism has sunk into one of its deepest crises…”

 

 

 

 

“Ukrainian casualties were extremely heavy, with Russia achieving a 10:1 kill ratio in terms of manpower..”

• Ukrainian Counteroffensive’s Second Week Ends in Failure (Scott Ritter)

Operation enters the second week of Ukraine’s long-awaited and highly touted counteroffensive, some basic conclusions can be drawn even though the fighting continues, and will continue to rage, for some time to come. First and foremost, the counteroffensive gambit has failed. While there is still considerable combat strength left in the Ukrainian military, including more than 75% of the NATO-trained and -equipped 60,000-strong cohort Ukraine had assembled in the past eight months, fundamentally flawed assumptions about the quality of the force on which Ukraine and its NATO allies had placed their collective hopes for victory over Russia have been exposed. In short, Ukraine lacks the military capacity to overcome Russian defenses.

Ukraine’s most elite assault brigades, equipped with the latest Western military technology, failed to advance out of what Russian defensive doctrine calls the “cover” line of defense—the buffer that is designed to channel and disrupt an attacking force prior to reaching the “main” line of defense. Ukrainian casualties were extremely heavy, with Russia achieving a 10:1 kill ratio in terms of manpower, which is unsustainable from the Ukrainian perspective. The reasons for the Ukrainian failure are fundamental in nature, meaning that they cannot be overcome as things currently stand and, as such, the Ukrainian military has zero chance of success, no matter how hard they press subsequent attacks.

First and foremost is the quality of the Russian defenses, especially in terms of the barrier network (minefields, obstacles, and trenches) which, when combined with the tenacity of the Russian defender and the overwhelming superiority Russia enjoys in terms of fire support (both artillery and air-delivered), is the reason the Ukrainians are unable to advance beyond the “cover” layer of the Russian defenses. Ukrainian equipment and tactics are insufficient to the task of breaching the Russian obstacle barriers in any meaningful manner, dooming the attacking forces to be destroyed piecemeal by Russian artillery and air strikes, as well as local counterattacks mounted by Russian special forces.

Besides the poor tactics and equipment deficiencies (yes, the Leopard tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles were not the miracle weapons Ukraine and its Western supporters had hyped them up to be), the Ukrainians are paying the price for Russia’s impressive suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) campaign that has been ongoing for many weeks now. Russia has not only neutralized Ukraine’s ability to defend strategic targets far beyond the front lines, but also to project any meaningful air defense capability into the actual zone of conflict. This, combined with the lack of any viable air force, leaves the attacking Ukrainian ground forces exposed to the full weight of Russian air power.

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No weapons of their own left.

• Ukraine Demilitarization Mainly Completed – Peskov (Sp.)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Ukraine’s demilitarization had been mainly completed as Kiev was using its own weapons much less and deploying more weapons supplied by the West. “Ukraine was very militarized at the start of the special military operation. And, as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said yesterday, one of the tasks was the demilitarization of Ukraine. In fact, this task has been mainly completed because Ukraine is using much less of its own arms, while it is deploying more weapons systems supplied by the West,” Peskov told Russian broadcaster RT Arabic.


On the subject of peace negotiations, Peskov said on Saturday that there are provisions of different Ukraine peace initiatives that do not correlate with the Russian stance and are unacceptable, but Moscow is ready for a dialogue with Kiev. “Those provisions of different peace initiatives, which do not correlate with our stance, are certainly unacceptable for us, but we are open to dialogue unlike the Ukrainian side,” Peskov told Russian newspaper Izvestia. On Friday during a visit from several African leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that his country would not discuss an end to the conflict until Russian troops withdrawal from what he claims are Ukraine’s borders.

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“They’ve got to meet the same standards. So we’re not going to make it easy..”

• Biden Lays Down NATO warning For Ukraine (RT)

Ukraine will not have an “easy” entry into the US-led NATO alliance and will be required to meet the “same standards” as any other member of the bloc, US President Joe Biden has declared. His remarks come amid reports of a simplified procedural plan for Kiev, tabled by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “They’ve got to meet the same standards. So we’re not going to make it easy,” Biden told reporters near Washington on Saturday. His statement comes in the aftermath of a meeting he had with Stoltenberg, who was hosted at the White House this Tuesday. At the meeting, the NATO chief reportedly floated a plan to simplify the accession process for Ukraine, arguing that Kiev had already made significant progress toward membership.

Under his scheme, the country would not have been required to complete a so-called “membership action plan” (MAP), usually imposed by the US-led bloc on applicants. While other Eastern European members of the bloc went through this procedure before being admitted, the most recent addition, Finland, was spared the process. Multiple US media reports had suggested Biden appeared to be “open” to the plan and had even provisionally supported it. At the same time, other reporting on the subject suggested Biden had another scheme for Ukraine in mind.

For instance, the New York Times reported the US administration was reluctant to ever grant Ukraine full NATO membership, pushing instead for the ‘Israel model,’ which would mean a time-limited commitment to maintain the flow of Western weapons to a designated country. Joining NATO has been a top talking point for pro-Western Ukrainian politicians for decades already, yet little to no progress has actually been made on that path. The pace has seemingly picked up amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev – triggered, among other things, by Ukraine’s NATO aspirations – with top Ukrainian officials repeatedly urging the US-led alliance to let the country in.

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“..At that time, even “in a fit of desperate rage,” “the ruling circles of a group of countries” would never have “unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower.”

• Partners in Doomsday (Seymour Hersh)

Meanwhile, there has been an escalation in rhetoric about the war and its possible consequences from within Russia. It can be observed in an essay published in Russian and English on June 13 by Sergei A. Karaganov, an academic in Moscow who is chairman of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. Karaganov is known to be close to Putin; he is taken seriously by some journalists in the West, most notably by Serge Schmemann, a longtime Moscow correspondent for the New York Times and now a member of the Times editorial board. Like me, he spent his early years as a journalist for the Associated Press. One of Karaganov’s main points is that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine will not end even if Russia were to achieve a crushing victory.

There will remain, he writes, “an even more embittered ultranationalist population pumped up with weapons—a bleeding wound threatening inevitable complications and a new war.” The essay is suffused with despair. A Russian victory in Ukraine means a continued war with the West. “The worst situation,” he writes, “may occur if, at the cost of enormous losses, we liberate the whole of Ukraine and it remains in ruins with a population that mostly hates us. . . . The feud with the West will continue as it will support a low-grade guerrilla war.” A more attractive option would be to liberate the pro-Russian areas of Ukraine followed by demilitarization of Ukraine’s armed forces. But that would be possible, Karaganov writes, “only if and when we are able to break the West’s will to incite and support the Kiev junta, and to force it to retreat strategically.

“And this brings us to the most important but almost undiscussed issue. The underlying and even fundamental cause of the conflict in Ukraine and many other tensions in the world . . . is the accelerating failure of the modern ruling Western elites” to recognize and deal with the “globalization course of recent decades.” These changes, which Karaganov calls “unprecedented in history,” are key elements in the global balance of power that now favor “China and partly India acting as economic drivers, and Russia chosen by history to be its military strategic pillar.” The countries of the West, under leaders such as Biden and his aides, he writes, “are losing their five-century-long ability to siphon wealth around the world, imposing, primarily by brute force, political and economic orders and cultural dominance. So there will be no quick end to the unfolding Western defensive and aggressive confrontation.”

This shakeup of the world order, he writes, “has been brewing since the mid-1960s. . . . The defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the beginning of the Western economic model crisis in 2008 were major milestones.” All of this points toward large-scale disaster: “Truce is possible, but peace is not. . . . This vector of the West’s movement unambiguously indicates a slide toward World War III. It is already beginning and may erupt into a full-blown firestorm by chance or due to the incompetence and irresponsibility of modern ruling circles in the West.”

In Karaganov’s view—I am in no way condoning or agreeing with it—the American-led war against Russia in Ukraine, with the support of NATO, has become more feasible, even ineluctable, because the fear of nuclear war is gone. What is happening today in Ukraine, he argues, would be “unthinkable” in the early years of the nuclear era. At that time, even “in a fit of desperate rage,” “the ruling circles of a group of countries” would never have “unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower.”

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“There was an agreement made in 2022. Which is why Russia removed their troops from the Kiev area. Ukraine, pressured by the US/UK – reneged on the agreement. Think of how many Ukrainians died because of that decision.”

• Putin: Kiev Threw Russia-Ukraine Settlement Deal Into Dustbin of History (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the African delegation with the draft of the Istanbul agreement on the Ukraine settlement, which, as the Russian president said, specifies everything from the number of armed forces to units of military equipment and personnel. “Here it is! It exists!” Putin said, showing the document signed by a Ukrainian representative. “And it is called accordingly – the treaty on permanent neutrality and security guarantees for Ukraine. Exactly about guarantees. Eighteen articles,” the Russian leader noted. “Moreover, there is also an annex to it. They [clauses] also concern the armed forces, other things. Everything is specified – down to the units of combat equipment and personnel of the armed forces. The document is here!” Putin said, adding that the document had been initialed and signed by the Ukrainian delegation.

“But after we withdrew the troops from Kiev, as we promised, the Kiev authorities, as their masters usually do, threw it all into the dustbin of history. Let’s put it clearly. I’ll try to put it intelligently. They gave it up,” he added. The president also addressed the root of the crisis, reminding his audience that the violence engulfed Ukraine after the bloody 2014 coup, which was backed by the US and the EU. “All the problems in Ukraine began after the state, unconstitutional, armed and bloody coup in 2014. And this coup was supported by Western sponsors. They, as a matter of fact, do not hesitate to talk about it,” he stressed. Earlier on Saturday, Putin personally received and greeted the African delegates at the Konstantinovsky Palace to discuss the joint African peace initiative on Ukraine.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed a ten-point plan for peaceful settlement. One of the points relates to the fact that all sides in the conflict are entitled to security guarantees. The fourth point refers to the fact that the authors of the plan recognize the sovereignty of all sides of the conflict. The sixth point refers to the “free movement of grain across the Black Sea” so that there would be no obstacles to it. “The third point is that we would like to see de-escalation of the conflict. De-escalation on both sides. Because escalation is not conducive to peace negotiations. So we would be interested in de-escalation of the conflict so that we can find a way to peace.”

Putin also underlined the issue of the grain deal, noting that about 31.7 million tonnes of agricultural products were exported from Ukrainian ports – while only 3% of this volume was sent to needy African countries, so the United States has “deceived the international community,” “Once again, these neo-colonial European, and in fact American, authorities have deceived the international community and needy African countries: 31.7 million tonnes were exported, and only three percent went to needy African countries. Isn’t that a lie? Accustomed to lying to the world for centuries and continue to do so today,” Putin said at a meeting with the African delegation at the Konstantinovsky Palace near St. Petersburg.

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The opposite of diplomacy. Hard to believe.

• South African President’s Security Detail Prevented From Going To Russia (RT)

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has had to travel to Russia without dozens of his bodyguards, after Polish authorities effectively blocked a planeload of security personnel and members of the press pool at Warsaw airport, with Hungary then refusing to let the plane enter its airspace. One of the journalists told RT on Saturday that Budapest’s decision would not affect President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to St. Petersburg. The head of state is already in Russia, having arrived separately with a smaller contingent. South African reporter Queenin Masuabi confirmed the situation in a Twitter post, saying: “our government have been unable to secure access [to] the Hungarian airspace.” She added that “members of the Presidential Protection Unit, along with journalists, will not be traveling to Russia.”

On Thursday, the Polish Border Security Service allegedly prohibited members of Ramaphosa’s security team, consisting of more than 100 personnel, along with 20 reporters, from leaving their plane at Chopin Airport in Warsaw. According to one of the journalists stranded on board, who spoke to RT, Polish officials had demanded that members of the South African Presidential Protection Services (PPS) surrender their weapons, claiming that they did not have the correct permits to bring them into the country. One member of the team was even reportedly strip-searched by Polish police despite holding a diplomatic passport. “That’s never happened before in all the years of travel by the PPS. This is now a diplomatic row,” the reporter told RT, describing the “hostile welcome” as completely unexpected.

Another journalist on the plane said Polish authorities allowed the delegation to leave the aircraft on Friday after a more than 24-hour wait. Ramaphosa’s head of security, Major General Wally Rhoode, accused Warsaw of attempting to sabotage Pretoria’s efforts to secure a truce between Ukraine and Russia. Polish authorities, in turn, insisted that Ramaphosa’s delegation chose not to disembark from the plane of their own accord. The Polish Foreign Ministry clarified that the flight had been delayed after discovering “dangerous materials” and “undeclared individuals” on board.

As a result, Ramaphosa had to travel to Kiev without members of his security detail on Friday. The South African head of state, along with senior officials from Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, South Africa, and the Comoros, met with President Vladimir Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital. They put forward a roadmap aimed at a cessation of hostilities between Kiev and Moscow, which the Ukrainian leadership treated without much enthusiasm. On Saturday, the African Peace Mission arrived in St. Petersburg for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

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“..African countries have shown an understanding of the root causes of the Ukraine crisis, “which was created by the West’s efforts..”

• African Nations Call For Indivisibility Of Global Security (TASS)

African countries stand for the indivisibility of global security, and Russia backs this principled position, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with an African peace mission. “First of all, they (African countries – TASS) highlighted China’s well-known twelve points, which were presented a couple of months ago, and they highlighted those parts of that Chinese initiative that are close to them and that stipulate that there no double standards in the world, that all the principles of the UN Charter in their integrity and correlation are respected and implemented, that there are no unilateral sanctions, that there are no attempts to ensure someone’s security at the expense of others, that security is indivisible on a global scale. They are the principled attitudes that we share,” he said.


Lavrov also pointed out that African countries have shown an understanding of the root causes of the Ukraine crisis, “which was created by the West’s efforts”. “They have shown an understanding that this situation has to be resolved by grappling with those root causes, by working out specific real actions to eliminate the causes that are undermining and have been undermining fair security in Europe throughout many years,” the Russian foreign minister said. The African peace mission has brought together South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Comoros Azali Assoumani, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, as well as Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Florent Ntsiba and Ruhakana Rugunda, special envoys of the presidents of the Republic of the Congo and Uganda respectively. On June 16, the mission visited Kiev, where they held talks with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. On June 17, the African delegation held a meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg, where they outlined their initiative.

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“..the UAE imported 75.7 tonnes of Russian gold worth $4.3 billion in the past year after imports reached just 1.3 tonnes in 2021..”

• UAE President Meets With Putin In Russia (Cradle)

The UAE’s President, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MbZ), affirmed to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on 16 June that Abu Dhabi seeks to strengthen relations with Moscow. MbZ told Putin on the sidelines of a meeting in St. Petersberg: “I am pleased to be here today with you, your Excellency, and we wish to build on this relationship, and we put our trust in you to do so.” He added that the UAE will continue to support efforts toward facilitating a political solution via diplomacy in order to resolve the political dispute between Moscow and Kiev, and ensure political stability. Following the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the UAE did not take a stance against Moscow as desired by Washington, and has since attempted to mediate between the Russian and Ukrainian sides.

Abu Dhabi has previously facilitated prisoner exchanges between the two. According to a Reuters report, Putin thanked MbZ for his role in the prisoner exchanges, calling the UAE a “very good partner” to Moscow. Reuters reported on 25 May that the UAE has also become an integral facilitator for Russian gold sales since western sanctions over the war in Ukraine blocked Russia’s more traditional export routes. Russian customs records viewed by Reuters show the UAE imported 75.7 tonnes of Russian gold worth $4.3 billion in the past year after imports reached just 1.3 tonnes in 2021. Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, western financial institutions stopped brokering Russian gold sales; however, Russian gold producers found new markets in countries willing to fill the void.

A month prior, AP reported that Russian and UAE intelligence officers disclosed that the two nations are collaborating to combat US and UK intelligence agencies in response to an alleged US intelligence breach. Additionally, Russian nationals have become the largest buying group of real estate in Dubai since the war in Ukraine began, driving sales to a new record high.

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350,000 young dead bodies.

“After relevant surgical procedures, the bodies are burned and the relatives are told that the serviceman is just missing..”

• Ukraine Ready To Pay West In People’s Organs For Military Aid – Moscow (TASS)

Ukraine is ready to trade the organs of its people for Western military assistance, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday. The diplomat said the Kiev regime is rapidly turning the country into a global hub of human organ trafficking. “The Kiev regime is ready to pay anything for the military assistance it gets. It’s now even come to the human organs of its citizens. A time will probably come when Ukraine will understand the true reason why its pretend US and European friends cared about it. But that won’t be soon enough. Still, better later than never,” she said.

“They literally took a knife to the country, but it will be too late to complain. The patient has already signed consent for surgery. The relevant international organizations, with an art worthy of a better cause, are ignoring these obvious and criminal phenomena,” Zakharova said. The diplomat said Western countries are the main beneficiaries of illicit transplantation practices in Ukraine. “The scenario has been rehearsed in Yugoslavia. All organs that were removed from the people, who were killed then, went to cater to the needs of Westerners,” she said. According to Zakharova, the business of illicit transplantation surgeries is thriving thanks to the high losses that Ukrainian forces suffer at the frontline.

“After relevant surgical procedures, the bodies are burned and the relatives are told that the serviceman is just missing. These dreadful machinations wouldn’t be possible without permission granted by the Kiev regime at the highest level. That’s because they are backed by legislation. The country has essentially become a honeypot for criminals. The money that illicit transplant operators are making in Ukraine is simply insane, and they aren’t going to stop,” the diplomat continued. Ukraine has done a lot to streamline transplantation surgeries.

“For example, on December 16, 2021, the Verkhovnaya Rada adopted Law 5831 On Regulating the Transplantation of Human Anatomical Materials. Under the law, a transplantation now doesn’t require a notarized consent from the living donor or his relatives. The procedure for organ removal from the deceased has also been significantly simplified, even if they didn’t give their consent for donating their organs post-mortem. That means it has been made legal by law, not just a fact on the ground,” she said. “Not only government clinics, but also private clinics have been given the right to perform transplantations. Can you imagine a private clinic in Ukraine these days? On April 4, 2022 the Verkhovnaya Rada adopted Law 5610 On Amending the Tax Code. It exempted organ transplantation surgeries from the VAT. It’s not just about budget revenue, it’s about additional control,” Zakharova said.

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“..literally every country” was approached..”

And still 130 showed up.

• West Pressured Countries To Skip SPIEF – Moscow (RT)

The US and its allies threatened countries with consequences if they decided to send delegations to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Speaking to TASS news agency on the sidelines of the forum in Russia’s second-largest city on Saturday, Zakharova was asked whether the West had tried to pressure nations that intended to participate in the event. “There was immense pressure,” she replied, adding that “literally every country” was approached. “They wrote letters. Threats were made during the meetings,” she claimed. Washington was the “leader” of these efforts, and was helped by other “NATO-centric countries,” the spokeswoman said.

The US and its allies told nations that were planning to attend SPIEF that they “would face consequences, that the next… package of sanctions is just around the corner and that everyone should think twice before participating in events on the territory of Russia,” Zakharova said. The West has been acting in a similar manner ahead of talks between Moscow and other capitals, or the signing of major business deals between Russian firms and foreign partners, she claimed. “Every time, curators from the US, UK, the EU either head out in advance to relevant countries… to pressure local officials and business representatives, intimidate, paint scary pictures. Or they come afterwards in order to try to destroy the agreements that had been reached,” Zakharova said.

She claimed that such efforts routinely take place ahead of visits by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the African continent. According to Zakharova, the US and its allies target Russia’s international ties in all areas, including “culture, economy, business, politics, media cooperation.” SPIEF, which has been held annually since 1997, welcomed some 17,000 guests from 130 countries this year, the organizers said. With Western nations dropping out of the event due to the conflict in Ukraine, most of the participants came from Asia, including China and India, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. The United Arab Emirates is the guest of honor of this year’s forum, which closes on Saturday.

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“..the Asian-Pacific countries are the main holders of the US debt and thus are facing the biggest risks..”

• Rosneft’s Sechin: ‘Inflated US Debt Looms Over Asia-Pacific’ (Sp.)

Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s energy company Rosneft stated that US debt is inflated and looms over the Asia-Pacific region as its main holder. “The US debt has jumped 10-fold from $3 trillion to over $31 trillion over the past 30 years. This is two times ahead of the economic growth rate and the cost of servicing it can reach $1 trillion a year, which is a fifth of the budget, and this figure is growing,” Sechin said. He stressed that the Asian-Pacific countries are the main holders of the US debt and thus are facing the biggest risks. Sechin also touched upon the matter of Europe’s dependence on US energy resources. According to him, as a result of the refusal to buy Russian gas and in the absence of other sources of LNG, Europe has found itself completely dependent on energy supplies from the US. “In fact, the European policy of diversification of gas supplies has completely failed,” Sechin concluded.

Read more …

Step by step.

• De-Dollarization: Asian Central Banks To Adopt Iran’s SWIFT Alternative (ZH)

In the latest shot fired in the growing rebellion against US dollar dominance, the nine-nation Asian Clearing Union (ACU) has agreed to use Iran’s financial messaging system as an alternative to the dollar-denominated SWIFT system that has long served as the globe’s financial nervous system. “The secretary general of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) says Iran’s financial messaging system SEPAM will replace SWIFT, a dollar-based international system, in trade exchanges between ACU members beginning next month,” Iran’s IRNA News Agency reported. At a Tehran summit in May, ACU members agreed to establish a SWIFT alternative within a month. The adoption of Iran’s SEPAM will be an interim measure, as the ACU will develop its own messaging system over the next several months.

Established in 1974, the ACU now comprises the central banks of India, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Belarus and Mauritius applied for ACU membership at the May summit meeting. Along with Russia and Belarus, Iran has been excluded from SWIFT as part of the US economic sanctions regime. Russia and Iran have established their own alternative connection, linking Iran’s SEPAM with the Financial Messaging System of the Bank Of Russia. In May, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told press that “approximately 80% of our mutual settlements are in national currencies: rials and rubles.” The broad de-dollarization trend is the inevitable result of the US government’s knee-jerk use of economic warfare to punish countries that resist its agenda. The quantity of US sanctions exploded by 933% between 2000 and 2021.

You needn’t be a current target of US sanctions to be attracted to non-dollar trade alternatives. “In the face of the American empire’s relentless and compulsive use of sanctions to punish noncompliance with its edicts, any rational government would be wary of the possibility of being targeted over some future controversy with Washington,” wrote Brian McGlinchey at Stark Realities. The ACU’s move follows a growing assortment of other de-dollarization initiatives around the globe. As catalogued by The Cradle’s Pepe Escobar, a sampling includes:
• China and France’s Total trading liquid national gas in yuan
• Russia and China using the ruble or yuan for more than 70% of their trade
• India and Russia trading oil in rupees
• Brazil’s Banco BBM becoming the first Latin American bank to join China’s SWIFT alternative — the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS)
• 19 countries applying to join BRICS, the a geopolitical rival to the the G7 that originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa
As Escobar summed up the world-changing transition, “The Hegemon – clinging to a toxic cocktail of neoliberalism, sanction dementia, and widespread threats – is bleeding from within. De-dollarization is an inevitable response to system collapse. In a Sun Tzu 2.0 environment, it is no wonder the Russia-China strategic partnership exhibits no intention of interrupting the enemy when he is so busy defeating himself.”

Read more …

Give it all to Ukraine so they can skim it.

• ECB Warns EU Against Skimming Profits From Stolen Russian Money (RT)

The European Central Bank (ECB) on Friday privately warned the European Commission against tapping interest from frozen Russian assets, the Financial Times reported, citing a draft internal note from the ECB’s governing council. EU lawmakers have been mulling ways of deploying some of the proceeds for the restoration of Ukraine, which faces a huge reconstruction bill once the conflict with Russia ends. According to the report, the ECB fears that such actions could encourage other central banks that hold large forex reserves to “turn their back” on the euro, especially if the EU decides to act alone and not in a joint move with G7 countries.

“There is no disagreement that this is morally the right thing to do, but the ‘how’ is very difficult. You can’t skirt the rule of law. And if you find something that is legally tenable what are the implications for the euro’s standing as a global currency?” an unnamed EU diplomat told the newspaper. He added that the commission is finalizing proposals on the potential tapping of frozen Russian assets, which are expected to be unveiled later this month. EU securities depositories have seized some €196.6 billion ($215 billion) in Russian assets since the start of the conflict, the news outlet noted, adding that Belgium-based Euroclear alone generated €734 million ($805 million) of interest on cash balances from Russia-sanctioned assets in the first quarter of 2023.

In total, Western governments have frozen about $300 billion in Russian central bank assets since the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, and seized more than $80 billion worth of assets belonging to Russian citizens and businesses. While addressing the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin described these actions as “medieval.” “Many businessmen were stunned to see that their accounts in the West were frozen. It never crossed anyone’s mind. This is robbery. They closed them, took them away and won’t even explain why. It’s shocking. It’s like the Middle Ages,” the Russian president said.

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“..just a run-of-the-mill respiratory season, weaponized and fueled by a continuous global hysteria.”

• There Was No Pandemic (Schachtel)

Now that the hysteria is finally winding down, “experts” and commentators on both the pro lockdown and anti lockdown side are discussing the “lessons learned” from the pandemic, as if there was something uniquely outside of the norm about the nature of illness we’ve witnessed. They’ve boxed themselves into a false paradigm, similar to the lab leak versus natural origin debate. These forces, whether they are aware of it or not, are operating within a purposely limited framework. They’ve been captured by the Government Health/Big Pharma narrative that there was in fact an emergency that demanded a response, and most won’t dare step out of line to question the authenticity of the premise itself.

But as we explained Thursday in our piece, “it really was just the flu, bro,” there was no significant distinction between the covid years and your average flu season. There are no “lessons to be learned from the pandemic” because there was no pandemic. Covid-19 simply doesn’t fit the bill, according to the widely understood interpretation of what a pandemic entails. We must let go of the limitations of this false “pandemic” construct that is labeled covid-19. We need not take the bait that there was a pandemic that had to be dealt with. There was certainly a global hysteria, but it was a psychological hysteria. There was no global viral emergency, because the vast majority of the global population was not significantly threatened by this supposedly devastating disease.

Had the world been caught up with say, some other “emergency” on our minds, “the pandemic” would have just been written off as another human respiratory illness season. If anything, the lesson to be learned is not to put your trust in the hands of the government, which, either through malice or reckless indifference, encouraged widespread iatrogenic injury as the solution to a nonexistent pandemic. It wasn’t “the pandemic” that devastated the global economy and wrecked civilization, it was the top-down dictates from above that caused millions of excess deaths worldwide, all to supposedly combat a disease that was not out of the ordinary whatsoever. Covid-19 was just the flu. There was no pandemic, but just a run-of-the-mill respiratory season, weaponized and fueled by a continuous global hysteria.

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“..American Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, sent panicky emails to the folks back home about Onyshschenko’s allegations of Biden bribery..”

• Call the Exorcists! (Jim Kunstler)

The dybbuk Weissmann is best known, of course, for directing the Special Counsel’s “Russian Collusion” campaign (2017 – 2019) in the mental absence of its nominal chief, Robert Mueller, an endeavor that, in the end, could not find any instance of then-President Trump colluding with said Russians — but did, via a firehose of media leaks, succeed in casting a Trump derangement spell over half the US population. Dybbuk Weissmann lately haunts the MSNBC cable news channel as a “legal analyst.” And yet, this shape-shifting fiend turns up again now in the Biden family global bribery matter, of all things. See if you can follow the convoluted tale coming out of Dybbuk Central a.k.a. Ukraine and the FBI.

You may already know that in May, 2014, R. Hunter Biden, son of then-vice president Joe Biden, was appointed to the board of the Ukrainian natgas company Burisma, where he was paid $80,000-a-month for his expertise (he had none) in the global gas industry. As it happened, at exactly the same time Veep Joe Biden was appointed as then-President Barack Obama’s “point man” in Ukraine after the 2014 Maidan Coup, engineered by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the CIA, that ousted elected President Viktor Yanukovych. By and by, Ukraine elected a new American-friendly president, Petro Poroshenko. Burisma was owned by an oligarch name of Mykola Zlochevsky. Apparently, the $80-K-a-month for Hunter Biden was not enough. The friendly American veep, Joe Biden, pressed Burisma’s Zlochevsky to provide $5-million payment each to Hunter and himself for additional Biden family services in Ukraine.

President Petro Poroshenko had a political confidant and fixer (problem solver) named Oleksandr Onyshchenko, then a member of Ukraine’s parliament. In the 2015-16 time-frame, Onyshchenko conveyed a message to Zlochevsky that paying large sums of money to the Bidens might not be a good idea. Somehow, Onyshchenko’s complaints about the Bidens’ grift operation made it into the leading Kiev newspaper. As we all know, in November, 2016, Donald Trump was elected US President. Catastrophe! Freak-out in the US embassy in Kiev! December, 2016, American Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, sent panicky emails to the folks back home about Onyshschenko’s allegations of Biden bribery. One of the recipients was a CIA agent implanted in the National Security Council name of Eric Ciaramella, later known as the Ukraine Phone Call Whistleblower.

Now, you may recall that in the summer of 2019, the owner of a Delaware computer repair shop, one John Paul Mac Isaac, came into possession of a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden — under law, being left 90-days after repairs were made — and seeing its startling contents, tried to give it to the FBI, but was rebuffed. By then, CIA agent Eric Ciaramella had blown his whistle over a phone call Mr. Trump made to new Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky inquiring about the Bidens’ doings there. Later that fall, with impeachment proceedings started against President Trump, FBI agents came back at Mr. Mac Isaac and took the computer into the agency’s possession. Consider that FBI Director Christopher Wray must have known about the laptop coming into his HQ and what it contained — and known that throughout the impeachment and Senate trial proceedings of Mr. Trump, And, of course, Mr. Wray did not volunteer any of this evidence about the Bidens to Mr. Trump’s defense attorneys. Nor did then-Attorney General William Barr, Mr. Wray’s superior. Odd, a little bit?

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Tiny turtle

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 types

 

 

 

 

Eagle

 

 

Eagle??
https://twitter.com/i/status/1669813828295573506

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle September 1 2022

Sep 012022
 
 September 1, 2022  Posted by at 7:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  100 Responses »


Frank Walton Crows on a beach 1884

 

• Era of Fake Money is Gone – Egon von Greyerz (USAW)
• Europeans Face Mass Poverty – Expert (RT)
• European Gas Prices Surge As Russia Reduces Supplies (RT)
• Russia Has Enough Gas For At Least 100 Years – Gazprom (RT)
• Hungary Signs Deal With Gazprom For Extra 5.8bn Cubic Metres Natural Gas (EN)
• German Companies Shutting Down In Response To Record Energy Prices (ZH)
• Most Germans Want Talks With Russia – Poll (RT)
• Northern EU Sees The Light (K.)
• Ukraine: Somewhere between Afghanization and Syrianization (Escobar)
• Western Propaganda and its Aftermath (AT)
• Ukrainian Officials Accused Of Stealing Trainloads Of Aid (RT)
• Russian Foreign Ministry Explains Who Is Dividing The West (RT)
• US Life Expectancy Plummeting (RT)
• Western Allies Sabotaged Tentative Ukraine-Russia Peace Deal… In April (ZH)
• DOJ Alleges That “Obstructive Conduct Occurred” at Mar-a-Lago (Turley)

 

 

The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again. And we will never be tormented by the boredom of eternity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Half the country.
Karine Jean-Pierre says that people who voted for Donald Trump are “a threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights.”

 

 

 

 

Ashley

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You have to remember when the debt collapses, all the assets that were supported by this debt will collapse. You will have an implosion of values, I expect 90% plus.”

• Era of Fake Money is Gone – Egon von Greyerz (USAW)

“I did forecast that . . . the stock market is going to fall at this particular point. The 1,000-point drop on the DOW last Friday came right on cue. Fundamentally, the markets should have crashed a long time ago. . . . It appears clear to me we are going to see a 30% or so fall in the markets in the next one to two months. That’s the first fall, but that’s just the beginning. . . . Markets will fall, in real terms, by 90% to 95% in the coming years. That’s not going to happen overnight, but if it does happen overnight, then all bets are off and there will be a total disaster. The world is going to shut down. . . . Then there will be some extra money printing and people will be optimistic for a while. There is no money anymore because the money that is printed will make zero difference.

There will be nothing that will drive the world forward. All the decisions on top of the with energy, climate change, sanctions, etcetera, will mean it all will crash a lot faster. . . . The world is going to see a collapse that it has never seen before in history, and there is absolutely no remedy for that. They are not going to be able to do anything. Everybody who is not in power is going to promise something that they can’t deliver. When they get into power, they will be thrown out because they couldn’t deliver. So, the era of Shangri-la and money printing and saving the world by fake money—that era is totally gone.”

EvG goes on to say, “I am not a prophet of doom and gloom, but it may sound like it. I am just someone who just looks at risk. This is why I got into gold 20 years ago. Gold was the best solution to a risk situation in the financial world. . . . We almost had a collapse in 2008, and it was patched up temporarily. This time they won’t succeed . . . . We have a situation nobody can solve. . . . Initially, there will be money printing, but adding new debt to pay old debt is not a great solution to the problem. I don’t think there will be any orderly reset at all . . . . At some point, there will be an implosion of the system. There has to be. . . . You have to remember when the debt collapses, all the assets that were supported by this debt will collapse. You will have an implosion of values, I expect 90% plus. Stocks crashed in 1929 to 1932 by 90%. The risk back then and the magnitude of the problems then were nothing compared to what we have today. Remember, today it’s global, and it’s every single country in the world. . . . It’s everywhere, and no one can escape what’s coming.”

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“..in Belgium, households on average will be paying $10,000 a year for power and heating.”

• Europeans Face Mass Poverty – Expert (RT)

Rising energy prices could lead to mass impoverishment in the EU, Professor at the University of Liege in Belgium Damien Ernst told French news site Atlantico on Monday. He warned there is no indication that the situation will improve after this winter. According to him, “the perfect storm” that has formed in energy markets is expected to have a major economic impact on households and businesses. Ernst suggested that in Belgium, households on average will be paying €10,000 ($10,000) a year for power and heating. The energy crisis will be far worse than the 2008 financial crisis and the oil shocks of the 1970s, he said, adding: “This will have economic consequences, especially for purchasing power, and lead to financial constraints.” With such a jump in energy prices, “it will be impossible to control inflation,” Ernst warned. Power prices in Europe have continued to reach record highs, intensifying the region’s energy crisis and stoking fears about access to electricity and heating as the weather begins to cool.

Kyle Bass
https://twitter.com/i/status/1564962742259400705

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I think prices have come down a bit. Not that it matters much anymore.

• European Gas Prices Surge As Russia Reduces Supplies (RT)

European spot prices for natural gas rose in early trading on Wednesday after Russian energy major Gazprom shut down supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. According to the Intercontinental Exchange data, the price of October gas futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands rose 5.5% to €280 ($280) per megawatt-hour, or $2,906 per thousand cubic meters, at around 07:00 GMT, after falling below $2,600 the day before.= Earlier on Wednesday, Gazprom confirmed the temporary halt of natural gas deliveries to Europe via Nord Stream 1 due to scheduled maintenance.


Unless there are technical setbacks, the gas flow will be resumed on September 3, with supply volumes restored to 33 million cubic meters per day, or roughly 20% of the pipeline’s full capacity. Following Gazprom’s announcement on August 19 regarding the temporary suspension, gas prices reacted sharply. Last week, the price of September futures exceeded $3,500 per thousand cubic meters. However, after German Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced that the country’s underground gas storages were 85% filled ahead of schedule, the gas price rally somewhat subsided.

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And the west wants it.

• Russia Has Enough Gas For At Least 100 Years – Gazprom (RT)

Russia has huge natural gas reserves that could last for more than a century, the head of state-owned Gazprom, Alexey Miller, said on Wednesday at the International Business Congress. “Our consumers, Russian citizens, will have access to [this] cheap, reliable energy resource. It is especially important to note that they could be optimistic about the country’s gas future. Why? Because we are provided with reserves for 100 years ahead,” Miller said, noting that some of Gazprom’s fields will still be providing gas even in 2120. The energy giant’s chief executive attributed such an optimistic forecast to the development of the vast resources in Russia’s northern Yamal Peninsula, adding that Gazprom is currently preparing to launch the Kharasavey gas field and has also started developing the deep deposits of the Bovanenkovo field. Russia holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves, estimated at 48 trillion cubic meters, or roughly a quarter of the global total.

Read more …

Move to Budapest while you can. It’s a pretty city.

• Hungary Signs Deal With Gazprom For Extra 5.8bn Cubic Metres Natural Gas (EN)

Hungary says it has signed a deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom for 5.8 billion cubic metres of extra natural gas. Zoltan Kovacs, international spokesman for Hungary’s government, said it would be on top of the country’s current supplies. “Hungary’s energy supply is safe,” he added. Hungary’s foreign affairs minister also announced the deal with Gazprom on Facebook during a break from his meeting with other EU ministers. Péter Szijjártó specified that in September and October, Gazprom will deliver a maximum of 5.8 million cubic meters more natural gas per day to Hungary via Serbia than what was specified in its long-term contract. EU foreign affairs ministers were meeting to debate a possible visa ban on Russian tourists in response to the war in Ukraine.


Szijjártó added that during the foreign affairs meeting, he spoke out against a possible visa ban on Russians. The announcement comes as Europe scrambles to cut energy consumption and cope with a reduction in supply of Russian gas. The Russian state-owned energy company had increased supplies to Hungary earlier this month even as it stopped flows to other European countries. Gazprom stopped gas supplies to Europe’s Nord Stream 1 pipeline earlier on Wednesday for maintenance. The company also said it had suspended gas flows to French gas company Engie “due to failure to pay for July supplies in full.”

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“..the entire German economy is about to get its plug pulled..”

• German Companies Shutting Down In Response To Record Energy Prices (ZH)

It’s not just European smelters shutting down due to soaring energy prices: the entire German economy is about to get its plug pulled. While a handful of macro tourists rejoice that record European year-ahead electricity prices plunged by 50% to levels not seen since… last week… Europe is facing economic devastation and depression at a scale that will make 2008 seems like a walk in the park. As the FT reports, German manufacturers are halting production in response to the surge in energy prices, a trend the government has described as “alarming”. German economy minister Robert Habeck said industry had worked hard to reduce its gas consumption in recent months, partly by switching to alternative fuels like oil, making its processes more efficient and reducing output.

But he amusingly clarified, some companies had also “stopped production altogether” — a development he said was “alarming”. “It’s not good news,” he said, “because it can mean that the industries in question aren’t just being restructured but are experiencing a rupture — a structural rupture, one that is happening under enormous pressure.” Habeck said rising gas prices were affecting everyone from big industrial companies to small trading firms and the medium-sized enterprises that make up the “Mittelstand”. “Wherever energy is an important part of the business model, companies are experiencing sheer angst,” he said. And since energy is a crucial part of every business model, one can only imagine the chaos, fear and loathing hammering the largest European economy right now.

Confirming that Trump was right all along, the German minister said the business model of large parts of German manufacturing was based on the abundance of gas from Russia that was cheaper than gas from other regions. That competitive advantage “won’t come back any time soon, if it ever comes back at all”, Habeck said. Whether he was aware of it or not, Habeck effectively echoed what Zoltan Pozsar said over the weekend, that Europe is facing a Minsky moment triggered by excessive financial leverage “and in the context of supply chains, leverage means excessive operating leverage: in Germany, $2 trillion of value added depends on $20 billion of gas from Russia… …that’s 100-times leverage – much more than Lehman’s.”

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Their gov’t has explicitly said they don’t care what the voters want.

• Most Germans Want Talks With Russia – Poll (RT)

The majority of Germans want the West to take concrete steps to initiate talks with Russia to end the Ukraine conflict, a recent survey has indicated. Published on Wednesday, the poll commissioned by Germany’s RTL/ntv-Trendbarometer was conducted from August 26 through August 29, with 1,011 people taking part. According to the survey, some 77% of Germans believe that the West should make concrete efforts to try to launch negotiations with Russia, which could help bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine. Only 17% would oppose such talks. When asked whether it is the right thing for Western leaders to keep phoning Russian President Vladimir Putin, 87% of the respondents replied in the affirmative, with 11% against.


Regarding the extent of German aid to Ukraine, 43% said they are content with the current state of assistance, while 26% want Berlin to do more and a quarter believe the country is already doing too much in this respect. The latter sentiment is particularly prevalent in eastern Germany and among supporters of the Alternative for Germany party, the researchers noted. Although some politicians from the ruling ‘traffic-light’ coalition are calling for continued deliveries of heavy weaponry to Ukraine, even at the expense of Germany’s own military, 62% of the respondents expressed skepticism about whether this would be a prudent move, while only 32% would welcome such deliveries.

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The way the EU’s been going, they can only make it worse.

• Northern EU Sees The Light (K.)

The EU is rushing to intervene in the electricity and energy markets to prevent a further price escalation, now that the crisis is threatening to destabilize the biggest European economies, especially the highly dependent on Russian gas Germany. Those who loudly and with more than a hint of contempt pushed back on proposals by Greece and other southern European countries for a price ceiling on natural gas and the decoupling of gas prices from electricity rates, are now at the forefront of efforts for immediate intervention on exactly these issues, seven months late. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made public Monday the EU’s intent for an “emergency intervention and a restructuring of the electricity market” and, on Tuesday, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner sent a message to his EU colleagues that Berlin was open to considering a price ceiling on natural gas in the emergency meeting of EU Energy Ministers on September 9.


Across Europe and at EU headquarters, in Brussels, officials are weighing the pros and cons of the price ceiling and the decoupling, proposals that Greece had first made, through Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in October 2021. The task is to find the most effective mix of policies that will restore a certain equilibrium in the natural gas market and will lead to a price de-escalation. Moreover, these measures must be agreed upon by all 27 EU members. In this complicated effort, Europe is certain that, whatever decision it takes, it will lead to a Russian reaction. Also, and independently of what it decides about natural gas, Russia will keep reducing flow, under a variety of pretexts, continuing a policy that begun with demands that it be paid in rubles and whose latest manifestation was Tuesday’s reducing of supply to France’s Engie.

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“..Monsanto, Cargill and Dupont have already bagged 17 million hectares of prime, fertile arable land – over half of what Ukraine still possesses..”

• Ukraine: Somewhere between Afghanization and Syrianization (Escobar)

The Russian military never made a conscious decision to interrupt the multi-channel flow of western weapons to Kiev. Methodically destroying those weapons once they’re in Ukrainian territory – with plenty of success – is another matter. The same applies to smashing mercenary networks. Moscow is well aware that any negotiation with those pulling the strings in Washington – and dictating all terms to puppets in Brussels and Kiev – is futile. The fight in Donbass and beyond is a do or die affair. So the battle will go on, destroying what’s left of Ukraine, just as it destroyed much of Syria. The difference is that economically, much more than in Syria, what’s left of Ukraine will plunge into a black void. Only territory under Russian control will be rebuilt, and that includes, significantly, the bulk of Ukraine’s industrial infrastructure.


What’s left – rump Ukraine – has already been plundered anyway, as Monsanto, Cargill and Dupont have already bagged 17 million hectares of prime, fertile arable land – over half of what Ukraine still possesses. That translates de facto as BlackRock, Blackstone and Vanguard, top agro-business shareholders, owning whatever lands that really matter in non-sovereign Ukraine. Going forward, by next year the Russians will be applying themselves to cutting off Kiev from NATO weapons supplies. As that unfolds, the Anglo-Americans will eventually move whatever puppet regime remains to Lviv. And Kiev terrorism – conducted by Bandera worshippers – will continue to be the new normal in the capital.

Read more …

“Russians Targeting Kids’ Beds, Rooms With Explosives: Ukrainian Bomb Team”

• Western Propaganda and its Aftermath (AT)

The western propaganda we’re currently experiencing is nothing new. Today’s President Putin joins yesterday’s Middle East “monsters” as current Ukrainian Nazi militias become “freedom fighters” and the Russians become “Nazis.” Likewise, the previous Middle Eastern terrorist groups became “moderate Islamist’s” but only if they were fighting for a US led NATO in Iraq and Syria. Yet such is the power of belief on an already stupefied majority western population that it’s become factual. In our upside down world, reality has long vanished to 15% of our western leaders who regard themselves as the “international community.” On August 24th, only 54 countries out of 193 supported a UN resolution which condemned Russia for not stopping its intervention in the Ukraine, which begs the question of why, if the majority population loathe today’s western politicians, do they passionately and often even fanatically believe their every word?

Supplying weapons and financial aid to the Ukraine which enables Russia to get bogged down in an endless war with mounting casualties, coupled with sanctions to bring down Russian middle-class living standards is just another attempt at regime change. Moreover, having failed to control the Middle East oil producers, it has not gone unnoticed that Russia is itself a major gas and oil producer. Bathsheba Crocker, US Ambassador to the UN warned in the New York Times on February 21st before the incursion occurred that Russia had a ‘hit list’ of people destined for arrest, detention and torture including “vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons.” How she knew that is not explained, but the inclusion of homosexuals as a vulnerable group now appears mandatory in any media story.

From allegations presented as facts by Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova and picked up by The British Daily Mail and the US New York Times in May, of multiple repeated child rapes and murders near Kiev. Meanwhile, Newsweek also in May ran the headline “Russians Targeting Kids’ Beds, Rooms With Explosives: Ukrainian Bomb Team”; what kind of sick minds dream this up?! Although written in a news format, both headlines carried disclaimers that the content remained unverified. In which case, why report it as news? One assumes that in time these stories will join Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and the Ghost of Kyiv hoaxes.

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Fraud. The only infrastructure still in place in Ukraine.

• Ukrainian Officials Accused Of Stealing Trainloads Of Aid (RT)

Ukrainian officials in the eastern Zaporozhye Region are being investigated for allegedly stealing massive amounts of humanitarian aid sent to them. They are accused of looting hundreds of freight cars’ worth of goods. Raids at offices and addresses associated with the suspected embezzlers were reported on Tuesday. Agents of the SBU, Ukraine’s successor to the KGB, and the anti-corruption agency NABU conducted the operations, according to a statement by the agencies. The region is mostly controlled by Russian forces, but its capital Zaporozhye and some of the surrounding areas are under Kiev’s control. The raids targeted the Kiev-appointed administration and members of the city council, according to the SBU and NABU. The agencies also reported confiscating what they believe to be narcotics and illegal firearms while searching the premises.

While the official statement offered few details, a more comprehensive account of the ongoing probe came from Ukrainian public figure Evgeny Shevchenko, who is widely described by the local media as an unpaid agent for the NABU. The agency had previously confirmed working with him. According to his post on Facebook, the suspected grifters made off with “almost all humanitarian aid” sent to the region, selling the goods through local retail chains. The total volume of what was stolen amounts to 22 sea transport containers, 389 freight train cars and 220 trucks, Shevchenko claimed. The activist named several senior officials in Zaporozhye Region as suspects and shamed them for posing as Ukrainian patriots while profiting at the expense of the country.

Shevchenko is a controversial figure in Ukraine. He emerged from the radical wing of the so-called Maidan protests of 2013-2014 and made a name for himself as an associate of militia commander and former MP Konstantin Grishin, who prefers to be called by his nom de guerre Semyon Semenchenko. Last year, Shevchenko and Semenchenko were arrested on allegations of involvement with an illegal militia. The arrests came after Shevchenko had accused the office of President Vladimir Zelensky of derailing an intelligence operation aimed at luring a group of Russian security contractors to Ukraine and detaining them. Shevchenko believes that his arrest and that of Semenchenko were an act of revenge by Zelensky’s chief-of-staff, Andrey Ermak. In his post about the raids in Zaporozhye Region, he linked the suspects with the president and the head of his office, pointing out that the officials targeted had been appointed by Kiev.

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“Zakharova compared the EU to the group of blind men in the painting ‘The Blind Leading the Blind’ by Dutch Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder.”

“..“strange suicidal initiatives that are attributed to the EU, but are actually imposed or planted” by an outside force..”

• Russian Foreign Ministry Explains Who Is Dividing The West (RT)

Russia does not pursue a foreign policy aimed at dividing the West, or the EU in particular, despite claims to the contrary, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said. However, the bloc could benefit from being more tolerant of dissenting voices, considering how much it has hurt itself with its ‘united’ approach to Russia, she said in a radio interview on Wednesday. Zakharova compared the EU to the group of blind men in the painting ‘The Blind Leading the Blind’ by Dutch Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. “They are united. No one in this group, who are being led towards a ditch, voices any doubt, objects, asks questions or protests,” she said.

Brussels’ approach towards Russia is similar, the spokeswoman suggested, noting the “strange suicidal initiatives that are attributed to the EU, but are actually imposed or planted” by an outside force. She added that when it comes to Russia, the bloc does not tolerate dissenting voices – which is surprising, given that the EU claims to cherish democracy, a system in which opinions that differ from the dominant line of thinking are supposed to be appreciated. While many Western politicians claim that Russia wants to divide the bloc with its policies, this is not the case, Zakharova said. “If anything, our goal is to return common sense into international relations.”

Her remarks came during a discussion in the radio interview on the EU’s proposed ban on visas for Russians. The plan is promoted by Ukraine and some Eastern European member states, but Western European nations such as Germany and France believe less radical restrictions should be adopted. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki suggested this week that an implosion within the EU could occur unless all member states follow the hardline Russia policy that Warsaw has adopted.

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Yeah, yeah, Covid…

• US Life Expectancy Plummeting (RT)

The average American’s life expectancy notably dropped between 2019 and 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed in a report published on Wednesday. It is the first two-year drop recorded since 1961-1963. Over the last two years, the US life expectancy decreased by 2.7 years, leaving the average lifespan at 76.1 years – the same as it was in 1996. According to the CDC, the primary factor in driving down life expectancy was the Covid-19 pandemic, which has contributed to the deaths of over one million Americans. “Unintentional injuries” – a category that includes overdoses and other drug-related misadventures – as well as heart disease were also major factors contributing to the decline.

Before the pandemic, heart disease had long been the top-recorded cause of death in the US, while the opioid epidemic has led to record numbers of overdoses for several years running. Breaking the CDC’s numbers down by race yields even more alarming trends. Native Americans suffered a 6.6 year drop in life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, compared to about four years for black and Hispanic people and 2.4 years for white people. The statistical burden disproportionately fell on males, whose life expectancy has declined to just 73.2 years, while females can still expect to live a comparatively long 79.1 years.

The report found most of the decline in life expectancy took place during the first year of the pandemic for nonwhite populations, while white Americans suffered the worst losses during the second year. Similar studies have found that Covid-19 worsened an already-yawning gap between the US, which has the most expensive healthcare in the world, and other developed nations in terms of life expectancy. Americans can now expect to live five fewer years than their European counterparts. Researchers studying the decline in life expectancy have blamed high rates of preexisting conditions like obesity and heart disease for the US’ outsized losses during the pandemic compared to 19 of its economic peers.

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“..the collective West, which back in February had suggested Zelenskyy should surrender and flee..”

• Western Allies Sabotaged Tentative Ukraine-Russia Peace Deal… In April (ZH)

There’s mounting evidence that the war in Ukraine could have been over by this point, but key Western backers of Kiev sought to sabotage the potential for peaceful settlement through negotiations. That’s precisely what regional Ukrainian media reports concluded as early as May, soon after the UK’s Boris Johnson showed up in the capital on a “surprise” visit to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time the month prior This is what a bombshell story in Ukrainska Pravda said at the time, but which was almost completely ignored in Western mainstream media: According Ukrainska Pravda sources close to Zelenskyy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who appeared in the capital almost without warning, brought two simple messages. The first is that Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with.

And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they [the UK and US] are not. Johnson’s position was that the collective West, which back in February had suggested Zelenskyy should surrender and flee, now felt that Putin was not really as powerful as they had previously imagined, and that here was a chance to “press him.” The Ukrainian media English-language report went on to emphasize that Three days after Johnson left for Britain, Putin went public and said talks with Ukraine “had turned into a dead end”. At the time the Istanbul peace talks, which saw top officials from each warring side gather in the Turkish capital, was hailed in some corners as “the quickest way to end the war in Ukraine” – according to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s words, who was seeking to mediate between Moscow and Kiev.

But as the invasion ordered by Putin pressed on, Britain especially was the earliest out front in making large weapons and munitions deliveries to Ukraine via military transport planes a high priority. UK press reports also took note of the ‘convenient’ timing of London going all-in hawkish on Ukraine given Prime Minister Johnson’s enduring ‘Partygate Scandal’ at home. Again, recall the tone of Ukrainian media following the arrival of the British prime minister in Kiev (and it should be noted Johnson was the first leader of a G7 country to visit, coming two weeks after Russian forces withdrew from suburbs around Kiev) on April 9: “Following the arrival of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Kyiv, a possible meeting between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin has become less likely.”s

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A President’s impunity is almost limitless.

• DOJ Alleges That “Obstructive Conduct Occurred” at Mar-a-Lago (Turley)

Last night, Department of Justice Tuesday filed in opposition to the appointment of a Special Master in Florida. It used the filing to add new facts and allegations to the public record, including the statement that “obstructive conduct occurred” at Mar-a-Lago by concealing or moving documents. The Department makes many of the same claims that it used to opposed the release of a redacted affidavit, claims shown to have been misleading and exaggerated after the magistrate ordered the release. Notably, this filing contained details that were likely redacted in the affidavit but just released on the public record. In the most direct challenge to the former President’s public claims, the Justice Department claimed that he and his staff had failed to turn over classified material and that the Department had no choice but to search areas outside of the storage room. Indeed, it says that it found three classified documents in Trump’s desk without indicating the level of classification or subject matter.

It also said that the Trump staff barred the FBI from looking at documents in the storage room after turning over classified information to them. “As the former President’s filing indicates, the FBI agents and DOJ attorney were permitted to visit the storage room. See D.E. 1 at 5-6. Critically, however, the former President’s counsel explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained.” The filing also adds new disclosures on past claims of declassification by Trump. It states that “[w]hen producing the Fifteen Boxes, the former President never asserted executive privilege over any of the documents nor claimed that any of the documents in the boxes containing classification markings had been declassified.”


That was in January 2022. It then alleges that, in the June 3, 2022 meeting, “neither counsel nor the custodian asserted that the former President had declassified the documents or asserted any claim of executive privilege.” It is not clear if or when the Trump team made the declassification claim. The filing also includes this notable allegation: “The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.” The Justice Department told the court that it was vindicated in its suspicions and that “the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.”

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Not a fan of the man, but he’s right here.

David Icke

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Undefeated
https://twitter.com/i/status/1565077573863985159

 

 


The long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) is found throughout Europe and the Palearctic. Photo Hajime Nakatsuka

 

 

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