Gustav Klimt Lady with a fan 1917-18 (sold for $108.4m June 27 2023)
Milley
https://twitter.com/i/status/1673729065243623432
Biden: Putin “is clearly losing the war in Iraq.”
NOW – Biden: Putin "is clearly losing the war in Iraq."pic.twitter.com/fF8fdxfKVH
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) June 28, 2023
Habba
Trump attorney Alina Habba BLASTS Biden DOJ after leaked Tape of Trump accidentally backfires against them, debunks it in 3 minutes: "They are trying to taint the jury pool." pic.twitter.com/UFxI9SXvb2
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 28, 2023
Putin
#Putin on the malignant role of #Washington and its nuclear weapons in #Europe. What is it doing there? pic.twitter.com/ZhK2kCgViK
— tim anderson (@timand2037) June 28, 2023
Wallace
Irish MEP Mick Wallace says Zelensky has been silently selling off Ukrainian land to Western companies – the land that Ukrainians fight for!!!!! pic.twitter.com/b8wtnBA6eD
— neil by mouth (@nbreavington) June 28, 2023
“Ukr sources report that the entry of PMC Wagner into Belarus is directed against the plans of Ukraine/Poland/Lithuania to deploy a corps on the borders of Western Ukraine. British intelligence warned Zelensky’s Office that a new military unit of 30-40 thousand people will be formed in Belarus, the main task of which will be a new campaign against Kyiv at the time of difficulties of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the southern front. The equipment for these units has long been in Belarus, it was filled up during 2022-2023.”
“When it comes to our former Western partners, though, we cannot rely on any agreements with them, including those of a legally binding nature..”
• Standoff Between Russia And West Is ‘War Of Worlds’ – Lavrov (RT)
Washington and its allies will never allow any nation to pursue a sovereign policy based on national interests if it conflicts with their own plans, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. The ongoing standoff between Russia and the Western nations is a “war of worlds” involving incompatible approaches to international politics, he added. “Should any other nation try and defend its national interests just as staunchly and decisively, the West would turn against it as well,” the minister told the Great Game show aired on Russia’s Channel 1. The US and its allies still treat the “threat” posed by Russia to their plans as a “tactical” one but believe that Moscow’s victory would make this threat “unacceptable.” Western nations claim to defend a supposed “rules-based order,” the Russian minister said, adding that such an order is nothing but a dictate by Washington and its allies.
“It is when they [the West] decide on which globalization system applies to the world, what are its mechanisms… how trade disputes are resolved,” Lavrov said. The top Russian diplomat also said Washington and its allies had easily exploited principles they had previously declared to be inviolable. “The West has trampled on all its principles in an instant… free trade, fair competition, presumption of innocence… were all turned into weapons when they [the West] needed to punish the Russian Federation,” he said. “When it comes to our former Western partners, though, we cannot rely on any agreements with them, including those of a legally binding nature,” Lavrov maintained. The US and its allies have repeatedly bent the rules of the “order” they were supposedly defending and neglected their commitments under agreements struck with Moscow, the minister stated.
Washington and many Western nations recognized Kosovo’s independence without any referendums on the basis of a unilateral declaration by Pristina, Lavrov said, adding that the same countries dismissed the results of the referendum in Crimea, arguing that the principle of the territorial integrity of Ukraine supposedly takes precedence in this particular case. In February 2014, when the Ukrainian opposition broke their obligations under a deal struck with then-president Viktor Yanukovich, none of the Western guarantors of the agreement “lifted a finger,” Lavrov said, adding that the list of guarantors included France, Germany and Poland at that time. Now, the West is trying to pin all the blame on Russia, accusing it of “unprovoked aggression,” the minister said, describing this as nothing but an attempt to shift the responsibility from Washington and its allies.
“The rebellion” turned out to be a Western P.R. stunt, a series of (ultimately faded) pictures for global consumption.”
• What Happens In Russia After The Longest Day? (Pepe Escobar)
The first draft of the extraordinary events that took place in Russia on The Longest Day – Saturday, June 24 – leads us to a whole new can of worms. The Global Majority badly wants to know what happens next. Let’s examine the key pieces in the chessboard. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is cutting to the chase: he has reminded everyone that the Hegemon’s modus operandi is to back coup attempts whenever it can benefit. This dovetails with the fact that the FSB is actively investigating whether and how Western intel was involved in The Longest Day. President Putin could not have been more unequivocal: “They [the West and Ukraine] wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other, so that soldiers and civilians would die, so that in the end Russia would lose, and our society would break apart and choke on bloody civil strife (…) They rubbed their hands, dreaming of getting revenge for their failures at the front and during the so-called counter-offensive, but they miscalculated.”
Cue to the collective West – from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on down – frantically trying to distance itself even as the CIA leaked, via its trademark mouthpiece, the Washington Post, that they knew about “the rebellion.” The agenda was painfully obvious: Kiev losing on all fronts would be ritually buried by wall-to-wall coverage of the fake Russian “civil war.” There’s no smoking gun – yet. But the FSB is following several leads to demonstrate how the “the rebellion” was set up by CIA/NATO. The spectacular failure makes the upcoming NATO July 11 summit in Vilnius even more incandescent. The Chinese, much like Lavrov, also cut to the chase: the Global Times asserted that the idea of “Wagner’s revolt weakening Putin’s authority is wishful thinking of the West,” with the Kremlin’s “strong capacity of deterrence” further increasing its authority. That’s exactly the reading of the Russian street.
The Chinese reached their conclusion after a crucial visit by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Rudenko, who promptly flew to Beijing on Sunday, June 25. This is how the iron-clad strategic partnership works in practice. Arguably the best explanation so far of the nuts and bolts of The Longest Day has been offered by Rostislav Ischenko. The Global Majority will rejoice that Prighozin’s theatrics, in the end, left the collective West dazed, confused, and shattered: wasn’t the whole thing supposed to unleash total chaos inside Russian society and the army? Even as the fake, lightning-quick “mutiny” was in progress, Russia continued to pound Kiev’s forces – which, by the way, were spinning that the main phase of the “counter-offensive” was being launched exactly on June 24 at night. That was, predictably, yet another bluff.
Back to the Russian street. “The rebellion” – inbuilt in a very convoluted plot – in the end was widely interpreted as just another military demonstration (by master of ceremonies Prighozin, not by the overwhelming majority of Wagner soldiers). “The rebellion” turned out to be a Western P.R. stunt, a series of (ultimately faded) pictures for global consumption.
“..it will be difficult for the Biden administration to justify increased military aid packages to Ukraine without some success story to tell the American people..”
• US Hawks Lose Momentum Amid Faltering Ukrainian Counteroffensive (Sp.)
Ukraine has failed to demonstrate much progress in its counteroffensive so far, putting the brakes on those US lawmakers who agree that new funding should depend on such. “I agree with most observers that it will be difficult for the Biden administration to justify increased military aid packages to Ukraine without some success story to tell the American people,” retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik. “At this point, the Ukraine project is easily portrayed as a waste of time and money, and is something that NATO countries may not be able to support without continued massive US domination in the provision of aid and cash,” she said.
Currently, US military assistance comes to Ukraine via two main routes: first, direct supplies from the Pentagon stockpiles under the Presidential Drawdown Authority; second, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) – a Pentagon-led funding program to increase Kiev’s military prowess. However, “there’s no additional money in the base budget,” as per defense officials as quoted by the US media. As per the Pentagon, the US has invested $41.2 billion in security assistance to Kiev since January 2021 which includes more than $40.5 billion since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine. For its part, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy estimates that since the start of the Ukraine conflict, the Biden administration has directed over $76 billion in humanitarian, financial and military assistance to Ukraine.
Around $47 billion of that has been allocated to Kiev’s military needs, including $18.5 billion (through USAID); $23.5 billion (through the presidential drawdown authority); and $4.7 billion (through the Foreign Military Financing program). The generous military packages for Ukraine included: numerous infantry arms and equipment; artillery (hundreds of howitzers, 38 HIMARS systems, in particular); tanks and armored carriers (109 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 31 Abrams tanks, 45 T-72B tanks, 90 Stryker carries, etc.); ground support vehicles; air defenses (one Patriot air defense battery, 12 Avenger air defense systems, 8 NASAMs, and 1,600 Stingers, in particular); air-to-ground missiles; manned aircraft (20 Mi-17 helicopters); explosive and surveillance drones; coastal defenses (including two Harpoon defense systems and 62 coastal and riverine patrol boats); radars and communications; as well as satellite services, as per Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) chart.
“..a stable and successful Russia is important for China because without Russia on its side, the Western powers would be able to totally isolate China.”
• West’s Foolish Regime Change Policy Only Drives Russia and China Closer (Sp.)
In the wake of the aborted mutiny by Wagner PMC chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, China has voiced its support for the Russian Federation and Moscow’s efforts to stabilize the situation. “As Russia’s friendly neighbor and comprehensive strategic partner of coordination for the new era, China supports Russia in maintaining national stability and achieving development and prosperity,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a Sunday statement. Thomas W. Pauken II, a Beijing-based geopolitical consultant with expertise in crisis management, told Sputnik that China has “an understanding that for their very own survival, they need Russia to succeed.”
“China supports a strong and stable Russia for many important reasons, obviously, because Russia is north of China and Russia and China are both facing pressure from the Western powers in regards to sanctions, while the US and other European countries are increasing their pressure on China,” he explained. “So because of this pressure, basically, China needs to rely more on its real partners, including Russia, because they can work together to strengthen both sides. If Russia and China split apart, that will not only create hardships for Russia, but will also create hardships for China.” Pauken explained that a stable and successful Russia is important for China because without Russia on its side, the Western powers would be able to totally isolate China.
“Political stability in Russia is important to China for a key reason: China has become a major manufacturer in the world. It is a major exporter to the world. But currently, there are many Western powers who are trying to contain China and contain China’s rise. Therefore, the Western powers are pushing and pressuring China to move against Russia. But China does not support this because they realize that if the Western powers are successful at knocking out Russia, then they will simply move on to China and attack China. So China does itself no favors by turning against Russia or by supporting instability in Russia. Obviously, they would want to see Russia succeed and for Putin to succeed, and for the mutiny that was led by Prigozhin to fail. It’s very logical for them. And it makes common sense,” he said.
On Sunday, after the situation had been defused, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko flew to Beijing to meet with Chinese leaders and reaffirm their close partnership and political trust. Pauken said it was “very significant” and sent a message to the Western powers that the Prigozhin affair had not created any “friction or tensions” between the two states. The official underscored that the recent meet between Chinese and Russian figures proved a “very important event because it shows their close relationships, and that they are not going to be driven or come apart over recent events, and the West is going to be unable to drive them apart.” “Instead, what’s really going on is that China and Russia are drawing closer together and we will see their relations get even stronger in the months to come,” he added.
“..the destruction of all things Russian in Ukraine continues to be their stated goal.”
• Russia Can’t Give Up Goals Of Special Military Operation – Lavrov (TASS)
Russia can’t give up the goals of its special military operation in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The minister said Russian President Vladimir Putin “in the past few days has spoken at length to give an assessment of the current situation, especially stressing that, as we overcame the attempted mutiny, we haven’t made the slightest concessions with respect to the goals of the special military operation and haven’t lost any positions on the battlefield. <…> It’s impossible to give them up – the goals that have been set,” Lavrov said on Channel One. The minister said that Russia cannot change its approaches to the conduct of the special operation as long as the West is purposefully creating threats to Russia’s security, funneling lethal weapons into Ukraine, and as long as “the destruction of all things Russian in Ukraine continues to be their stated goal.”
..a “document that combines all the nonsense their propaganda has promoted in one place.”
• Russia Asks States To Boycott Zelensky’s ‘Peace Forum’ (RT)
Countries of the Global South should not dignify with their presence the so-called peace summit the West wants to hold without Russia, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. During the regular briefing at the ministry, Zakharova pointed out the “wild logic” of holding a peace summit without Moscow, calling it an attempt to “ritually discuss” the Western agenda and get moral and propaganda support from the rest of the world. “We call on responsible states, those that truly strive for peace and express the desire and readiness to play a constructive role in finding a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict, not to participate in this provocative scheme,” Zakharova told reporters.
“The West needs you at the ‘summit’ only to create the impression its policy has widespread support. This very thing will make the prospects for peace that much more distant.” The Russian diplomat pointed out that the West is trying to push the so-called peace formula of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky as the only path to resolving the conflict. However, Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that the ‘formula’ has nothing to do with peace, but is a propagandistic set of demands based on absolutely false pretenses. Zakharova reminded reporters that Zelensky’s formula envisions Russia withdrawing from its own territory – including Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye and Crimea – paying reparations to Ukraine and submitting to ‘war crimes tribunals,’ among other things. She described it as a “document that combines all the nonsense their propaganda has promoted in one place.”
She compared the ‘peace summit’ with the countless round tables the US has organized over the years regarding the conflict in Syria, none of which produced any results whatsoever. To make peace, one must end the bloodshed and stop the supply of weapons, the diplomat noted, but the US and its allies continue to fuel both.“Attempts to determine the outcome of the Ukraine conflict without Russian participation are doomed to failure. Otherwise this would have been done long ago,”Zakharova pointed out. She also pointed out that Kiev has a history of reneging on its international obligations, mentioning specifically the Minsk Agreements concerning Donbass, which were even endorsed by the UN Security Council. “One can’t believe a word they say,”Zakharova said.
“Ukraine still remains nothing short of being a “testing grounds” for the US military-industrial complex and justifies huge future investments in the militarization of Europe..”
• Will US Use New Pretext to Prolong Proxy War in Ukraine? (Sp.)
The Biden administration needs a new pretext to enhance support to Kiev. Even though there is some bipartisan consensus in the US Congress on the “necessity” to back Kiev, there is opposition from the right-wing Freedom Caucus to further spending. US national polls also show that the US public is steadily losing appetite for prolonging the conflict. Two Republican presidential front-runners – Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis – as well as Democratic candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr., who commands the support of at least 15-20% of Democratic voters, openly express their opposition to Biden’s adventurism in Ukraine. Previously, Washington substantially stepped up military spending on Ukraine in the wake of the Bucha events groundlessly pinned on Moscow, as well as the derailment of the Russo-Ukrainian preliminary peace agreement of March 2022.
The Russian forces’ partial retreat in autumn 2022 also provided Team Biden with an opportunity to renew calls for further arming of Kiev under the pretext of Ukraine’s “imminent” victory. As Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive largely stalled in summer 2023, it appears that the Democrats are trying to capitalize on the Wagner mutiny of June 23-24 even though its quick settlement has seemingly caught Team Biden off guard, according to Paul E. Vallely, retired US Army major general and chairman of Stand Up America US Foundation. The US mainstream press expressed hopes that Kiev would be able to benefit from Russia’s “unrest”. However, despite Wagner’s mutiny, the Russian army has managed to keep the situation on the frontlines stable, repelling several Ukrainian attacks over the weekend.
“I don’t think Ukraine was going to be successful in the counter offensive anyhow,” Vallely said. “So I think the Wagner group, what they tried to do, probably surprised Ukraine as well. But I don’t think Ukraine was in a position to do anything to take advantage of it.” For her part, Karen Kwiatkowski noted that Washington was apparently hoping that “the Ukrainian forces would achieve at least one breakthrough along the lines of control, something to justify the massive Biden investment in Ukraine’s political leadership.” “Hope, as they say, is not a strategy, and I do believe that the Biden Security Council is and has been preparing plans for the post-combat phase, with talk of an Israel-like ‘outpost’, of a ‘green’ rebuild of western Ukraine, and a NATO practice arena over the long term.
Plans for hundreds of billions of US taxpayer money administered by Blackrock in the rump state of Ukraine have been in place for over six months at this point,” she continued. Nonetheless, despite the much-advertised counteroffensive having failed so far, what’s left of Ukraine serves NATO’s mission needs for the foreseeable future, Kwiatkowski noted. Ukraine still remains nothing short of being a “testing grounds” for the US military-industrial complex and justifies huge future investments in the militarization of Europe, according to the ex-Pentagon analyst. “I think we’re going to see a crescendo or some kind of, I don’t know whether they’re going to cease operations, but we think at the end of July, August, there’s going to be a new phase in this conflict,” Vallely said.
“Ukraine is no longer a sovereign country. They don’t have any money. They have no weapons. They can only fight because we in the West support them.”
• Europe Must Break Out Of Its War Psychosis – Hungary (RT)
Europe is moving closer to “catastrophe in every sense,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto declared on Monday, before extending Budapest’s veto on EU arms transfers to Ukraine. “Europe is moving closer to a catastrophe – in every sense, unfortunately,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook before meeting with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. “Now even bigger trouble could be prevented and many thousands of lives could be saved,” he continued, “but to do this one would have to break out of the war psychosis.” “I have no illusions that this will happen at the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg today,” he concluded. Szijjarto’s prediction played out on Monday. After an address by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, the bloc’s top diplomats voted to increase their joint weapons fund for Ukraine by an additional €3.5 billion ($3.85 billion).
Known as the ‘European Peace Facility’ (EPF), the fund is a €5.6 billion ($6.08 billion) purse that the bloc uses to finance foreign militaries and reimburse its own members who send arms to foreign conflicts. Before the conflict in Ukraine, the ‘Peace Facility’ had only been used to supply non-lethal equipment to Georgia, Mali, Moldova, Mozambique, and Ukraine, for a total of less than $125 million. While the EPF’s ceiling will be increased, Szijjarto confirmed on Monday that Hungary will maintain its veto on the latest €500 million ($546 million) tranche of arms from the fund for another month. Budapest is currently blocking the transfer of EU weapons to Ukraine due to Kiev’s blacklisting of Hungarian companies doing business in Russia.
Szijjarto and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have both repeatedly called for a ceasefire and peace deal in Ukraine, while insisting that anti-Russia sanctions hurt Europe more than they hurt Russia. In an interview with German tabloid Bild on Tuesday, Orban stated that the idea of a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield is “impossible” and that without an immediate ceasefire, Ukraine will “lose a huge amount of wealth and many lives, and unimaginable destruction will occur.” “What really matters is what the Americans want to do,” Orban said, explaining that “Ukraine is no longer a sovereign country. They don’t have any money. They have no weapons. They can only fight because we in the West support them.”
Can’t find this in the Russian press, other than this in Moscow Times.
“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday dismissed the report as “speculation” and “gossip..”
• Russian General Arrested Following Wagner Mutiny (MT)
Russian General Sergei Surovikin has been arrested, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported Wednesday, citing two sources close to the Defense Ministry who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Defense Ministry has yet to comment on the alleged arrest of Surovikin, who has not been seen in public since Saturday, when Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched an armed rebellion against Russia’s military leadership. “The situation with him was not ‘OK.’ For the authorities. I can’t say anything more,” one of the sources said. According to the second source, the arrest was carried out “in the context of Prigozhin.” “Apparently, he [Surovikin] chose Prigozhin’s side during the uprising, and they’ve gotten him by the balls,” the source said.
When asked about the general’s current whereabouts, the source replied: “We are not even commenting on this information through our internal channels.” Earlier Wednesday, pro-war military blogger Vladimir Romanov said Surovikin was detained Sunday, the day after Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny. Romanov claimed that Surovikin is now being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo detention center. Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the shuttered Ekho Moskvy radio station, wrote on Telegram that Surovikin has not been in contact with his family for three days and that his guards are not responsive. The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials, that Surovikin had prior knowledge of Prigozhin’s plan to instigate a rebellion against Russia’s military leadership.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday dismissed the report as “speculation” and “gossip,” suggesting that Putin had not given in to Prigozhin’s demands for an imminent reshuffle of the Russian military’s top brass. Wagner’s uprising set off Russia’s most serious security crisis in decades before Prigozhin agreed to stand down Saturday night in exchange for immunity in exile, as part of a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Surovikin commanded Russia’s forces in Ukraine for three months between October 2022 and January 2023 until he was replaced by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
“..we should reward the cheapest, most efficient energy sources,” which he “generally” feels to be renewables..”
• RFK Jr: Bill Gates, WEF Use Climate Narrative For Totalitarian Controls (JTN)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024, didn’t mince words when discussing certain “elites” like Bill Gates and leaders of the World Economic Forum (WEF), whom he accused of using the “climate narrative” to gain “top-down totalitarian controls” of societies. Kennedy made his remarks in a Tuesday “Virtual Health Policy Roundtable” on Zoom, which featured several doctors and others Kennedy described as “critics of prevailing health policy.” During the round table, Kennedy was asked how he would ease the minds of the next generation surrounding climate change, to which he responded by criticizing those he views as responsible for the climate hysteria.
“I think that the climate narrative has been hijacked by the World Economic Forum and by Bill Gates,” Kennedy said. “Crises are used by elites within societies to consolidate their power, to diminish democracy, to constrict civil rights and human rights, and to impose top-down totalitarian controls.” “I think the climate crisis is being used in that way by those people,” he added. Kennedy proceeded to offer his solution to climate issues. “My approach to climate has always been a free market approach… we should use marketplace rules rather than top-down controls, we should reward the cheapest, most efficient energy sources,” which he “generally” feels to be renewables. He then said he doesn’t try “scaring people” with CO2 emissions but has focused on “getting off of coal.”
RFK
RFK Jr: "I'm proud that President Trump likes me … I want to bring people together." pic.twitter.com/ui8XLXKnZx
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 29, 2023
Not sure why this happened the way it did.
• Pfizer Vaccine Batches in the EU Were Placebos, Say Scientists (DS)
Scientists have uncovered startling evidence that a substantial portion of the batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine deployed in the European Union may in fact have consisted of placebos – and that the German regulator knew this and did not subject them to quality-control testing. The scientists, Dr. Gerald Dyker, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Ruhr University Bochum, and Dr. Jörg Matysik, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Leipzig, are part of a group of five German-speaking scientists who have been publicly raising questions about the quality and safety of the BioNTech vaccine (as it is known in Germany) for the last year and a half. They recently appeared on the Punkt.Preradovic online programme of the German journalist Milena Preradovic to discuss batch variability. Their starting point was the recent Danish study showing enormous variation in the adverse events associated with different batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, or BNT162b2 per its scientific codename. The below figure from the Danish study illustrates this variation.
It shows that the batches used in Denmark, which are represented by the points in the graph, essentially break down into three groups. The ‘green batches’ clustered around the green line have a moderate or moderately-high level of adverse events associated with them. In the discussion with Preradovic, Gerald Dyker takes the example of the green point furthest to the right. As he explains, it represents the batch that was the used the most in Denmark, with somewhat over 800,000 doses having been administered. These 800,000 doses are associated with around 2,000 suspected adverse events, which gives a reporting rate of one suspected adverse event per approximately 400 doses. As Dyker puts it, “That’s not a small amount if we compare to what we know otherwise from influenza vaccines.” According to Dyker’s calculation, the green batches account for more than 60% of the Danish sample.
There are then the ‘blue batches’ clustered around the blue line, which are obviously associated with an extraordinarily high level of adverse events. As Dyker notes, no more than 80,000 doses of any of the blue batches were administered in Denmark – suggesting that these especially bad batches may perhaps have been quietly pulled from the market by public health authorities. Nonetheless, these batches had as many as 8,000 suspected adverse events associated with them. Eight thousand out of 80,000 doses would give a reporting rate of one suspected adverse event for every 10 doses – and Dyker notes that some of the blue batches are indeed associated with a reporting rate of as high as one suspected adverse event for every six doses! On Dyker’s calculation, the blue batches represent less than 5% of the total number of doses included in the Danish study.
Nonetheless, they are associated with nearly 50% of the 579 deaths recorded in the sample. Finally, we have the ‘yellow batches’ clustered around the yellow line, which, as can be seen above, barely gets off the x-axis. On Dyker’s calculation, the yellow batches represent around 30% of the total. Dyker notes that they include batches comprising some 200,000 administered doses which are associated with literally zero suspected adverse events. As Dyker puts it, “malicious” observers might note that “this is how placebos would look”. And malicious observers might be right. For Dyker and Matysik compared the batch numbers contained in the Danish study with publicly available information on the batches approved for release, and they made the startling discovery that almost none of the harmless batches, unlike the very-bad and not-so-bad batches, appear to have been subject to any quality-control testing at all.
“This was organized crime. There’s no other way to define it,”
• Comer: Overseas Payments To Biden Family Could Exceed $40M (NYP)
Members of President Biden’s family may have accepted in excess of $40 million from foreign nationals in exchange for favorable policy decisions, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer suggested Wednesday. The Kentucky Republican said that his panel has identified “six specific policy decisions” where Biden, 80, took actions that indicate he may have been “compromised,” during an appearance on John Catsimatidis’ “Cats & Cosby Show” on WABC 770 Wednesday. Comer noted that of the six policy decisions, four of them “were made while Joe Biden was president early on — [where] we cannot come to any other conclusion as to why these decisions were made, other than the fact that this president is compromised.” “This was organized crime. There’s no other way to define it,” Comer alleged.
The Oversight Committee chairman explained that as recently as “in the last five days” his panel has obtained banking statements and suspicious activity reports that show “more bank accounts, more shell companies and more Bidens” being involved in the family’s overseas influence peddling scheme. “We’re going to try to determine how much money the Bidens took, and what role Joe Biden played in all of this … It’s a huge puzzle,” Comer said of the GOP-led committee’s investigation. “Around 30 to 40 different banks, and about that many different shell companies. This is an organized attempt by the Biden family to hide the source of money going into these shell companies, and to distract from the IRS so they wouldn’t have to pay taxes on it. And that’s exactly what the IRS whistleblowers alleged in the transcribed interview with the Ways and Means Committee — that the Biden family never paid money on any of these wires that came into these shell companies,” he added.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapely told Fox News host Bret Baier on Wednesday that in 2017 and 2018 alone, first son Hunter Biden ducked a $1.2 million tax bill, and that there is likely hundreds of thousands of dollars more in income from previous years that he failed to report. “I mean to this day, there’s still around $400,000 of unreported income from Burisma [Holdings] in 2014,” Shapley said. “Hunter Biden was told by his partner, Eric Schwerin, that he needed to amend his returns, and he never did.” Comer told Catsimatidis that he’s “confident” his investigation will prove the Biden family raked in “at least $17 million” from overseas, but that the “transactions could exceed $40 million-plus.”
Shapley
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley: "It was around $8.3 million [Hunter] received"
Bret Baier: "From who?"
Shapley: "They came from China – from CEFC – came from Ukraine, and from Romania" pic.twitter.com/8dse59fE1x
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 28, 2023
Garland should testify before the House. Simple.
• New Source in Hunter Biden Probe Points Finger at AG Garland (Sp.)
The New York Times has revealed that it had a new source confirming an IRS whistleblower’s claim about the Justice Department’s meddling in the Hunter Biden probe. While the US mainstream press has a record of ignoring reports concerning alleged misdeeds by the president and the first son, the NYT has claimed it has a source backing some of accusations voiced by IRS supervisory agent-turned whistleblower Gary Shapley. One of Shapley’s bombshell claims is that US Attorney David Weiss – assigned to conduct an investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes – was reportedly told by the DoJ that he could not bring charges against Hunter in California and Washington DC. Shapley’s former subordinate, who came forward as a second IRS whistleblower, made the same claim.
This story runs contrary to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s earlier assertions to the US Congress that Weiss has his hands untied when it comes to the Hunter probe in various state jurisdictions. Back in April, the IRS whistleblower placed emphasis on a false testimony to Congress made by a “senior political appointee.” Later, the New York Post reported that Garland was the appointee whose sworn testimony to congress is being challenged. Garland repeatedly denied having thrown any sand in Weiss’s gears. The attorney general even offered to ask Weiss himself to comment on the matter. “As I said at the outset, Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by President Trump as the US attorney in Delaware and assigned this matter during the previous administration, would be permitted to continue his investigation and to make a decision to prosecute any way in which he wanted to and in any district in which he wanted to,” Garland told reporters last week.
“Mr. Weiss has since sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee confirming that he had that authority. He was given complete authority to make all decisions on his own behalf.” However, the US mainstream newspaper has recently confirmed that Weiss indeed complained about being rebuffed by justice department officials. “In mid-2022, Mr. Weiss reached out to the top federal prosecutor in Washington, Matthew Graves, to ask his office to pursue charges and was rebuffed, according to Mr. Shapley’s testimony,” the newspaper wrote on Tuesday. “A similar request to prosecutors in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, was also rejected, Mr. Shapley testified.
A second former IRS official, who has not been identified, told House Republicans the same story. That episode was confirmed independently to The New York Times by a person with knowledge of the situation.” US conservative outlets have drawn attention to the fact that the newspaper hid this very important piece of information concerning not just Hunter Biden but also AG Merrick Garland in the 21st paragraph of its lengthy report.
Shapley’s colleague, IRS whistleblower 2, the lead case agent, itemized the money precisely in his testimony
“..and demands on an honest investigation and an honest prosecution as well.”
• Pressure Grows On Judge To Reject Hunter Biden Plea Deal (JTN)
Pressure is growing in congressional, legal and media circles for the federal judge in the Hunter Biden case to reject a plea deal that would spare the first son from serving prison time after evidence has emerged from two IRS whistleblowers that a more serious criminal tax case was sabotaged by the Justice Department. “I don’t understand how any judge could bless this plea agreement now that all of this evidence of obstruction and DOJ and FBI wrongdoing has surfaced,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Just the News. “So I hope this judge does reject this, and then insists and demands on an honest investigation and an honest prosecution as well.”
Johnson, who with Sen. Charles Grassley led a two year probe into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, was reacting to testimony and evidence from IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley and another whistleblower that federal prosecutors blocked search warrants, interviews and more serious criminal charges. Shapley first made the allegations to the Justice Department inspector general and the House Ways and Means Committee. And in an interview to be aired Thursday on the John Solomon Reports podcast he detailed how career agents, career prosecutors, the DOJ tax division and lead U.S. Attorney David Weiss supported charging Hunter Biden with felonies alleging tax evasion and avoidance all the way back to 2014 totaling $2.2 million, including failing to pay taxes on $400,000 in income he got from the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings.
Shapley said President Joe Biden’s son was spared the more serious charges when the U.S. Attorneys in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles – both appointed by Biden – declined Weiss’ request for an indictment and then the statute of limitations on the older alleged offenses were allowed to expire. Hunter Biden has now struck a deal with Weiss to plead guilty to two misdemeanors tax evasion charges from 2017-18 and to enter a probation program that would result in a federal felony gun charge to be dismissed. Hunter Biden, 53, is slated to appear July 26 in federal court in Delaware before U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
Famed Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, an unabashed supporter of Joe Biden, agreed there is good reason for Noreika to set aside the plea deal and seek to investigate the whistleblower allegations. He said it was concerning that the whistleblowers’ testimony directly conflicts with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s testimony there was no interference in the probe. “If I were the judge on the Hunter Biden case, I would refuse to accept the plea bargain unless and until Garland and Weiss testify,” Dershowitz told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday. “What they’ve said is utterly incompatible.”
Better be quick about replacing her.
• Kamala Harris Worst VP in Polling History – NBC (Sp.)
Nearly half of Americans have a negative view of Kamala Harris and only 32% of them have a positive opinion of the US vice president, a new poll by the US’ NBC News broadcaster has revealed. The survey showed that 49% of respondents are critical of Harris, of which 39% have a “very negative view” with respect to the 58-year-old politician. Only 11% said they have a “very positive” opinion of Harris. She received a net negative rating of -17, which NBC News said is “the lowest for any vice president in the poll’s history.” The poll was carried out from June 16 to June 20 with a total of 1,000 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error was 3.1 percentage points. For comparison, Harris predecessor Mike Pence’s ratings sat at 34% positive vs. 38% negative (-4%) in October 2019.
Views of Joe Biden were at 34% positive to 33% negative (+1%) when he was Barack Obama’s vice president in December 2010, while then-US Vice President Dick Cheney checked in at 47% positive and 24% negative (+23%) in May 2003. Earlier this year, media reports quoted an unnamed White House official as saying that US President Joe Biden is reportedly growing increasingly annoyed that his second-in-command, who allegedly refuses to take on more responsibility over a fear of potentially “messing up.” “A point of tension in their relationship is that I don’t think that the president sees her as somebody who takes anything off of his plate” due to a “fear of messing up,” the official said. The US vice president, who adheres to a hawkish stance on the Ukraine conflict and calls for more hefty military packages, has in particular repeatedly been criticized for sitting on her hands when it comes to tackling the US migration crisis.
Carvey Spade
https://twitter.com/i/status/1674210937086046209
Wrasse
Native to the western Pacific Ocean, the Asian sheepshead wrasse is one of the largest species of wrasse. All Sheepshead are born female and as they grow older, eventually will change sex
[read more: https://t.co/j7kROFKs9o]pic.twitter.com/GEEjelG2uX
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 28, 2023
Baby rhino
https://twitter.com/i/status/1673803056968867842
Stop it
https://twitter.com/i/status/1674143751525081089
P&K
https://twitter.com/i/status/1674026415635808256
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